The Japanese are tuning out more and more musical acts from the U.S. and Europe, and Taylor Swift's alleged worldwide appeal is being put to a test.
As an alternative to Western music, South Korean K-pop songs, which have a vibe akin to those from the West, are becoming increasingly well-liked among people who want something different from Japanese J-pop.
Moreover, J-pop is also gaining popularity due to catchy melody lines that go viral on social media, which puts Western musicians under even more pressure.
New Jeans Over Taylor Swift Any Day
Regarding sales, not even Taylor Swift's songs- whose performances in Tokyo garnered media attention in February - ranked well in Japan.
Instead, most young people, which is the core demographic of Swift's fans around the world, in Japan are more likely to listen to NewJeans and IVE.
"I've stopped listening to Western music," a 23-year-old graduate student told Nikkei. "It just happened naturally as I was keeping up with the trends." He now listens to K-pop songs while commuting or at home.
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His Spotify playlist is filled with songs by K-pop groups like NewJeans and IVE.
Taylor Swift Eras Tour in Japan Purely Economic Reason
It's not something personal against Taylor Swift, though.
Not a Western song appeared on Apple Music's yearly list of the top 100 songs streamed in Japan in 2023.
According to a Nikkei summary of the weekly charts, Western music that appeared in Billboard Japan's weekly Hot 100 chart accounted for a meager 0.3% in 2023, compared with 29.8% in 2008.
This is even with internet streaming and CD sales included.
Swift's 2022 release, "Anti-Hero," peaked at number one on Billboard's U.S. weekly charts in 2022 and 2023, although it never surpassed No. 34 in Japan.
On the other hand, as K-pop gained popularity, its share of the Japanese yearly top 100 songs climbed to 14.2% in 2018.
This was the first time that the proportion of K-pop songs exceeded that of Western music, which was 8.8%.
Furthermore, according to Ko Matsushima, Japanese songs are also becoming huge hits after becoming viral on TikTok.
Ko Matsushima is president of the Japan-based music marketing company Arne.
Songs by musicians like Yoasobi and Ado are often in the top ten lists, while very few if no Western artists can make it.
The fact that Swift held one of her Eras Tours in Japan and excluded many Asian countries, therefore, seems ironic.
It also highlighted that the real reason Japan entered into a deal with her to have her concert there can be purely economic.
It can be remembere how experts predicted that Swift's Eras tour would have a significant impact on Japan's economy.
According to Mitsumasa Etou, Taylor Swift's Eras Tour could be Japan's most important musical event regarding expected economic impact.
It was even expected to bring in more money than one of Japan's biggest music festivals, Fuji Rock, which brought in roughly 20 billion yen, or $134.6 million, the previous year.
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