Music is everywhere. It is international. It is an expression of the creativity of the human mind. But, at times, this creativity is given flak because they are evaluated in a rather biased manner. Here, we bring to the limelight four genres that have been prejudiced against in this way- Metal, Jazz, K-pop, and J-pop. Each of these genres is unique in its style, but due to difference in popularity, the audiences these genres attract are very little, despite all the effort they put into it. Here we are addressing some of the most popular musical misinterpretations about these wonderfully unique genres.
MUSICAL MISINTERPRETATIONS ABOUT J-POP
1. The otaku culture is sufficiently big, but again the music community in this culture is small, and since J-pop is popularized by the otaku culture, who are heavily ostracized due to their love for anime, J-pop doesn’t find a wide audience.
2. J-Pop is of Asian origin, due to which it’s discriminated against, and not appropriately publicized. Cultural barricades like nationality and language further add to this.
3. Characteristics like androgyny, symbols, and sometimes anime references and connections to Japanese traditions make it difficult to appease a wide audience.
4. The Japanese industry isn’t very open to the idea of global marketing, hence the world misses out on many opportunities of exploring the Japanese entertainment industry.
5. In most Asian pop cultures, the artists in a band have similar faces, giving it a more industrious “homogenous” look and the idols go through a thorough training process before they are marketed. The same isn’t practised in J pop.
6. Most J-Pop artists are of a shorter frame due to which J-pop has the misconception of always being “kawaii” which translates to cute rather than the other attributes their counterparts are given.
MUSICAL MISINTERPRETATIONS ABOUT METAL
1. Metal music is very often stereotyped as “satanic-devil related material” since the lyrics are pretty controversial and have a deeper meaning due to which it is never actually given a chance.
2. It usually deals with independence, pride, and free will, therefore it is assumed that metal music has a strong dislike towards the conservative and anti-liberal.
3. Metal music isn’t ideally mass-appealing. If it were, it would have to sacrifice the many attributes that define the aggressive nature of the genre, due to which it is stereotyped to be rebellious.
4. Heavy metal is considered to be music in the red corner of society, loud and angry, whereas, it speaks at large the message of rage, loneliness, and cynicism.
5. Metalheads comprise a varied audience including women, families, disabled, and members of the LGBTQ community much far from the stereotype of metal being the exclusive domain of angry white adolescent boys.
6. Mosh pits that appear chaotic and vitriolic, in reality, people bond and find a release through these experiences. There is a surprisingly complex divide between what metal looks like to those outside of the community from those who are integral to it.
MUSICAL MISINTERPRETATIONS ABOUT JAZZ
1. Jazz listeners are known in society for being very sophisticated and intellectual. The main reason jazz is prejudiced amongst common music listeners is because of its complicated rhythm.
2. Jazz music is harmonized such that it is neither happy nor sad but treads a middle ground hence sometimes leading to a lack of emotional connection amongst listeners.
3. The majority of it is instrumental, which doesn’t give the general population or anyone (like a singer) to directly connect to.
4. The improvisations done to a jazz piece confounds some people due to its unpredictable nature. Anyone who is used to following the melody of a song can have a hard time listening to a jazz solo. It needs prior musical knowledge to be properly appreciated.
5. Jazz is essentially an umbrella under which a plethora of sub-genres exists all sounding very different from each other hence it’s very hard to label a certain song as jazz.
6. Jazz is also very technical and doesn’t have one chord progression that it is characterised by. Jazz listeners tend to find refuge in a familiar chord structure.
MUSICAL MISINTERPRETATIONS ABOUT K-POP
1. K-Pop fans are seen as obsessive, immature teenagers who are sometimes more focused on the visuals of their favourite idol over their talent, however, this isn’t the case.
2. Most K-Pop groups consist of androgynous looking males who wear makeup like eyeshadow while performing, unlike western male artists who are known for their rugged macho image.
3. The K-Pop idols look very similar giving the artists in the group a more ‘homogenous’ and industrialised look making it difficult for international viewers to differentiate between them, due to which they don’t find many buyers.
4. The bubble-gum pop and cutesy concepts in K-Pop girl groups songs and the vivid, colourful music videos are very different from what the western audience is used to seeing and hence is often labelled as immature by international listeners.
5. Cultural barriers like nationality and language add to the unfamiliarity in the international markets which is why K-Pop artists often tend to get stereotyped and discriminated against.
6. Many people around the world got their first taste of K-pop following Psy’s 2012 global hit “Gangnam Style.” In Gangnam Style, westerners were exposed to a cartoonish parody of Kpop that gave off exotic vibes. Western audiences liked it not because they viewed Psy as an artist, but simply because the song and video were entertainingly weird.
The primary aspect of music is to bring pleasure to one’s life. It unites people from all around the world. Music is an essential part of a person’s life and personality, but that doesn’t mean these stereotypes are always true. So, while one can create a good guess on what others might like and enjoy based on their musical preferences, it is not always good to remember that a stereotype, no matter how much research is behind it, is still a stereotype.
Written By: Soham Bagchi, Tanmaya M, Stephen James, Snigdha Deshmukh
Graphics By: Soham Bagchi
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