Research Project

For my research project I am going to focus on Music and the Music Industry.

One thing I want to look into what types of music are popular by following the Oricon charts as well as asking Japanese people what types of music they listen to. I love to listen Japanese music but my perception of what is popular might be completely wrong or different.

The music industry is also very different. Here in the U.S artists are often discovered in clubs performing at local bars. Auditions aren't usually common. It's more about putting yourself out there and hoping to be discovered. However in Japan, people train from an early age to enter the music industry. They go on lots of auditions or try to enter music based television shows. So the process of making it as an artist is completely different.

Another thing I want to look into are idol groups and the age of artists in Japan. Age hardly seems to be a problem in Japan as kids as young as like 15 or even younger are singing in groups or as solo singers. These young groups are also really popular in Japan. However, in the U.S younger artists are viewed as inexperienced and often ridiculed like artists Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus. So I would like to look into why there is such a interest in these younger groups and why age isn't as important to Japanese society.

Japanese music has a different style as well the instruments being used to composed song. I want to research how modern Japanese music came about and what influences it drew from.

There are probably other things I would like to look into dealing with Japanese music and the music industry, but at the moment these couple of things are good enough to get started.