Racism against Japanese Music

[Pike]

Originally Posted by WarumonoKyo

My family and friends have been making fun of me for listening to Dir en Grey. They keep saying stuff like "how can you listen to that stupid jap music? you cant even understand it." then then mock it by trying to imitate a japanese person singing, but they aren't even speaking a real language.

My dad was the worst. But he didn't just get on about the music he was going full on about Pearl harbor and stuff like that.

Finally, yesterday i forced him to listen to my Dir en grey CD on my way home.
And guess what?

He fucking liked it o_o
People need to stop being racist about Japanese music.
And stop underestimating Jrock.
It is good, you just have to give it a chance.

But, he said they sounded like Tool. Who is Tool? D8

Most older people can not get over the fact that Japan attacked us during the war. They forget that we pretty much screwed them when we bombed them back and they became somewhat allies to us. I let that stay in the past because things change. Even though they bomb Pearl Harbor I hold no grudges toward any of the Japanese.

[packetpirate]

My dad gives me shit about it all the time. When people ask what I listen to, he'll chime in and say "jap crap". I listen to Ajikan, Number Girl, High and Mighty Color, Erefanto Kashimashi, Younha, L'Arc~en~ciel, SunSet Swish, Yui and a whole bunch of others. I've tried having him listen to a couple of songs but he doesn't even give them the light of day. Admittedly, I've only played rock songs, and he's into country (*gag*). He's a musician, too... also, even though I can speak a good deal of Japanese, and read and write it, he still denies it whenever I tell someone I can speak Japanese.

I also had shit about it from school before I graduated. My last couple of years I was in an alternative school because my school system was too lazy to deal with my ADD (I'm not using it as a crutch, but I couldn't focus in classes with a lot of people because I needed to ask a lot of questions.) Everyone there gave me the usual crap about "you don't understand it" and "it's japanese... you're weird." I even gave one of the overly puerto rican kids there a listen of Natsusemi by Ajikan once and he said it wasn't bad. So I have to say that everyone is just going by stereotypes they heard growing up. One day in class a kid was doing his daily "ching chong" act to me and I exploded at him. I'm 6'9" so people there generally try not to piss me off unless they're trying to act tough in front of their friends. A couple of teachers from nearby rooms came running to the door asking what happened. Needless to say, he stopped the ching chong stuff.

[Ergenekon]

Well, I started to listen Japanese music with Bleach soundtracks and now iam listening a wide variety of Japanese music. I like how it's sound. Normally i used to listen European or USA based metal music, but at recent years it started to become "loud" instead of "music" (Forexample: Dream Theatre).

My friends are also mocking with me when i listen Japanese. And generally their reaction is like "It's Japanese! How you can listen?" Stupid prejudice. Language is language; as how you listen English music it's same to listen Japanese too. Just they dont know what they are missing

[Trinitykitty1]

i hate it when my family has to antagonize me over my j rock/j pop music they like to make comments like

"ew wtf is that turn it off before i got deaf." or

"can you even understand that garbage?"

once my brother even made me sing some of the song to make sure i knew what they were saying i did of course ^_^ but my mom doesnt mind it "much" she can tolerate it as long as she blasts her country music *shudders* or theres a lady from ascross the street playing opera music. ^V.V^

my dad doesnt like it either hes the same as my brother i tried to make them listen to it and he broke my cd >< i bought a new one though XD

[daelite]

Everyone has their own tastes in music and there will be parents and friends who may complain about your taste in music even if it's something mainstream or extremely popular in your home country. At the end of the day you should not take it to heart and listen to the music you want- but if you know friends or family don't like it then it's only polite to not blast it around them or force them to listen to it. If you didn't like their music and they made you listen to it you wouldn't like it either right

Many people judge "all American country music" as something they hate whether they've listened to a lot or not, or "all techno" etc. I don't think it's necessarily racist (well, Pearl Harbor comments are) so just take it in stride

[Richard164]

Jrock Rulz!!!!!!

[DaisukeKigurou]

I've been getting bugged by people who dislike Japanese rock. They keep giving me a hard time about the fact that I like it and keep saying stuff like " The bands sound the same" or " They care more about image and less about their music". My question is, is this true? Please tell me what you think!!!

[hinata2]

i can tell you they do not sound the same

[DaisukeKigurou]

Thanks, but I need more information than that. I really don't know what to believe anymore.

[Hatredcopter]

In Japan, a band's image is often promoted more heavily than their actual music. Doesn't mean all Japanese bands are bad, though.

As a person who likes a very wide variety of music, and as a person who lives in Japan and hears Japanese music all over the place, I'd have to agree that many Japanese rock bands tend to sound a little overly similar. Once again, that doesn't mean there aren't exceptions.