J-horror as national formatting

[tetsuwan at comcast.net]

>My first response is  that a self-conscious sense of cosmopolitanism and the >exotic attraction of the foreign are more central to the definition and self->identity of fans of J-pop and the J-League than to manga and anime, >although of course those layers are there in manga and anime too if you go back far enough.

I'm assuming you're discussing fans of J-pop who are not Japanese and the fans of J-League who are here?

I tend to agree with you on the former, though not on the latter. There's a wiff of exoticism among many self-identifying J-Pop fans, a lot of them wouldn't be caught dead listening to any US pop. I think in many cases it is less cosmopolitanism than it is one youth cohort finding their own niche in the complex youth culture politics/social hierarchy. Sports doesn't lend itself so easily to the paradigm you put forward. I'd think only dillettantes would fit into the model, and to invest so much energy into a game as a player, you'd really have to love it, automatically disqualifying yourself for the title "dillettante."

A rising "J" will present many interesting questions; that is J-hip hop or J-urban, two terms floating about the ether. Rather than J-hip hop fans separating themselves from Western forms of the music like the J-poppers and rockers, they go to great lengths to point out how much rap music with Japanese origins fits into Western hip hop culture. Part of that are due to the demands of rap. I don't know of any other form of entertaiment where authenticity is as important as it has been in rap music. Perhaps it is just that like punk, there is a set of cultural norms associated with hip hop so that the fans and artists conform across boundaries.

I'll get back to the movies later. I really should be working
--
Mark
http://dorknation.wordpress.com

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From: Mark Anderson <ander025 at umn.edu>



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