Whenever I watch video of a girl group from Avex or any girl group from any agency, I would always see a comment comparing that certain group to K-pop. As much I want to reply to those comments, I don't want to start a huge fight so I am going to write about it on this blog. First of all, K-pop and J-pop groups are different! You can just tell just by looking at them(Unless you're someone who don't know anything about J-pop and K-pop). From what I notice from a lot of K-pop groups, they tend to focus on a more mature and futuristic image while J-pop on the other hand, focuses on a more cute and innocent image. An another difference based on image is a lot of J-pop groups are kind of like those next door neighbor girls while K-pop are like people you wouldn't normally see walking down the street.
The difference that I wanted to talk about the most is how much training J-pop groups and K-pop groups get and how the agencies work. For those who don't know, in the K-pop industry, they want their talent to be talented as much as possible so they will train for years before they debut. Although I've seen some K-pop groups and that doesn't seem to be the case. I think there are groups that didn't get as much training but a lot of the groups do. In J-pop, there are groups that are trained to debut but a lot of the times, they are chosen from auditions and debut as soon as they are chosen. And everyone's level is completely different. There are girls who struggle because they have no dance experience and others have taken dance/voice lessons. But they learn everything along the way and within a few years, they can learn dance moves within a few hours. But there are trainee options like in Hello Project, they have Hello Pro Kenshuusei.
How the agencies work in the Japanese entertainment industry and the Korean industry is pretty different. The K-pop industry reminds me of the J-pop industry back in the 1970s. From what I heard, they get very low wages so the agency is the one who gets the majority of it. Also they have horrific schedules so the only time they get to rest is before the shows start. In Japan, they do seem to have day offs but I guess that depends on how popular the group is. But the similarity is that because they have to work a lot, it's hard to watch their health. So either way, if your in show biz, you will suffer from health problems.
My conclusion for this is that K-pop and J-pop is different and I'm guessing the reason why people thinks J-pop is copying K-pop is because groups like Dream, E-girls, Dancing Dolls which are considered to be vocal/dance groups have a similar image. But they are different and I tried to make this post detailed as much as possible.
