INDEX
Can Hip-Hop Transform into Pop Culture?
There was an interesting article the other day about hip-hop in Japan. It was an interview with Romain Vivien, Global Music Head and President Europe of Believe, the parent company of TuneCore, which is accelerating its expansion in Japan. He states there that “Hip-hop is growing in Japan. Let me quote from the article as follows
In my opinion, all music has a second phase, a moment when the size of the audience reaches the level of pop music. It is not a question of genre, but of scale.
Punk and soul in the 70s followed that path, and now they are shrinking. The alternative came in the form of hip-hop. Indeed, in various countries, hip-hop stars have gained billion-dollar listenerships and tens of billions of plays: Drake in the US, RAF Camora in Germany, Jul in France, and so on.
Special Report] “There has never been a more interesting time for the music industry,” says Romain Vivien of Believe, the company that brought hip-hop into the mainstream around the world, about the future of the Japanese music industry.
Hip-hop has come to reach the same demographic that used to listen to pop music as jazz and rock. We bet on Japanese hip-hop because we knew the same thing would happen.
If we were to apply the so-called “innovator theory” to hip-hop, we would say that the hip-hop listener base is at a stage where it is moving toward the early majority. However, this seems to be a somewhat optimistic statement in light of the mainstream listening environment/style in Japan, the structure of music-related business models, and musical preferences (such as a preference for rock music).
In my opinion, the number of hip-hop listeners will probably increase only among young teenagers, as more and more children learn to dance or attend dance schools from an early age, and hip-hop dancing is becoming more and more accessible at an explosive rate, partly due to the influence of social networking videos. The demographics of the next few decades suggest that the overall impact of hip-hop dance will be minimal. Of course, hip-hop is a culture/music that is closely related to the social context, and it is possible that the country’s uncertain political and economic situation will lead to a demand for hip-hop – but what do you think?
It is hard to say whether the number of hip-hop listeners will increase or not, since it is only the result, but perhaps it is important to be “always accessible as a culture.
Whether on the Internet or in one’s hometown, hip-hop must be grassroots in the cultural sphere or place where one lives. There are a lot of exciting things happening in hip-hop at festivals/events and in the media. And of course, there are so many great, heartbreaking songs being written every day. And, that there is an environment where people can learn about the roots of hip-hop and black culture whenever they want to.
POP YOURS” certainly plays these important roles. We are looking forward to this year’s festival, which is developing experiments from the unique perspective of “pop culture in the 2020s” toward the future of hip-hop.
POP YOURS 2024
Dates: Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19, 2024
Time: Doors open 10:00 / Concert begins 11:00
Venue: Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Hall 9-11
Performers:
DAY 1: Saturday, May 18
LEX
Bonbero
Chinza DOPENESS
JJJ
JP THE WAVY
JUMADIBA
KEIJU
Kvi Baba
LANA
Lunv Loyal
MFS
OZworld
Peanuts Kun
Red Eye
STUTS
Yvng Patra
Special Act: OZROSAURUS
NEW COMER SHOT LIVE
JAKEN
Kohjiya
L.O.S.T
(AtoZ)
DAY2: Sunday, May 19
Tohji
Campanella
CreativeDrugStore
DADA
Daichi Yamamoto
Elle Teresa
guca owl
IO
Jin Dogg
Kaneee
kZm
7
ralph
SIRUP
tofubeats
Watson
Yo-Sea
YUKI CHIBA -Team Tomodachi Shot Live- New
NEW COMER SHOT LIVE
CFN Malik
lil soft tennis
swetty
taro
(A to Z)
Official site: https://popyours.jp
