Japanese Rock and The American Music-Sponge

I am not a music snob.  Sure, I can rattle off some trash about The Who and their influences on popular music.  Prince and hip hop.  Even Patsy Cline and a few female singers like Rilo Kiley and Aimee Man.  I know more than a few Sonic Youth recordings, and when it comes right down to it, my favorite band is Voxtrot, and don’t even pretend to know who they are, but that doesn’t make me a music snob.

I am what I affectionately term a music-sponge.  A music-sponge is some one who knows a lot of music snobs, and while the taste and opinions aren’t inherent, the sponge gathers up all the names and albums, and they can hold their own if they find themselves in a debate about Daft Punk and Ladytron, but they would never start the conversation.

The music-sponge is only a few steps higher on the hipster totem pole than a poser.  I hope a few important steps, but only a few nevertheless.  At least with the sponge, it’s not only about the clothes, scene or image.  It’s still about the music.

My education, as a sponge, started like many people with my parents.  I grew up with The Grateful Dead, George Harrison, The Beach Boys, and of course, The Boss.  I love Bruce Springsteen.  Can’t argue with that, eh?

Then, in high school, I was a Loser.  Yes, with a capital ell.  I tried to learn the “cool” music, but alas, I just can’t get on board with 311, Sugar Ray or Britney Spears.  What can I say? It was dry time for pop music from 1995-1999.  Thank god for my sixth grade exposure to Nirvana or the Nineties would have been a complete wash.

In college, I ventured out with kids that were way cooler than me when it came to music.  Pretty soon I was actually buying cds and illegally downloading music.  Yeah, I was a rebel.  Everyone loves the Smiths and Eels.  I was rediscovering music that I had missed in the eighties, like the Cure.  Yeah, I was cool.

By 2004, I started actually forming my own opinions about music, and despite the criticism that I took from my actual music snob friends, I found new bands to love, like Carbon Leaf and Voxtrot. 

It’s 2008.  And now, the world of music snobbery has turned against me.  Japanese Rock, or J-Rock, has taken a foothold in the hipster scene.  I have in my possession three mixed cds from my various cooler-than-me friends, who unknowingly, thought that I’d like the noisy, whiny, costumed music.

It seems like Japanese rock takes all the worst elements of punk, garage, girl rock, and techno and manages to ruin it.  Bands like Hi-Standard, Hawaiian6, Snail Ramp and Huskingbee took Japanese punk, or no wave punk, to huge levels of popularity. A lot of J-pop and J-rock rejects the Japanese ideals of harmony and conformity.  Good for them.  Bad for my ears.

The onslaught of J-Rock in the American urban scene was exacerbated by the popularity of the anime Fullmetal Alchemist.  Everyone watches this poopie McPoopie show, and it’s winning awards for it’s awesome music.  Huh.  I hate you. 

So, we’ve got The SS, Gauze, Lip Cream (what’s that about?), The Blue Hearts, Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, Asian Kung Fu Generation.  They’re playing in my dance clubs, at posh bars where a beer is six bucks, even at the parties that I shouldn’t be going to ‘cuz I’m not 22 anymore.

J-Rock has literally immigrated here.  Now this obnoxious “Japanese” music is being made here, in the US, in California, in LA.  Skin, or S.K.I.N., is a group comprised of a bunch of Japanese rock musician: Yoshiki (drummer and pianist for X Japan), Gackt (of Malice Mizer), Miyavi (of Due le Quartz) and Sugizo (of Luna Sea), and they’re recording here.  In 2007, they were announced at the JRock Revolution festival in LA.  Good for them.  Now they just need a bass. 

So, I guess I need to start listening to a lot of J-Rock, and more than a little J-Pop will infultrate my collection.  Gotta keep up with the Jones’, or something like that.  It’s taking the country by storm, and I need an umbrella.