Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Foundation of a movement!? A CD shop's look at the K-POP fan trend

Only excerpts pertaining to KARA posted.




The interest in K-POP has been noticed early on, as HMV Japan as actively introduced them. At HMV Shibuya there is one floor dedicated to imported CDs and one booth is for K-POP and is a great feature. To put together our K-POP Promotion Team, we have focused on bringing together those in the different departments of HMV who like K-POP. It started in 2007 when HMV advertised in a free paper (Note: This is a paper with a lot of advertisements), they started a corner in the shop and the K-POP imported CDs were done in a large-scale and were a great appeal.

The member who managed this alone from the start Watanabe Shouhei said, “In 2007~2008, Powerful girl groups like Wonder Girls, SNSD, KARA and others, are rapidly appearing. Their dances and songs could be compared favorably to western music and they’re wonderful. All of them are charming.”

The top 3 who are expected to have a big break in Japan, 2NE1, SNSD, KARA

In the middle of 2010, girl groups are coming one by one to have their major Japan debut. KARA had an interview in May about their debut, 4Minute has had their first Japanese concert, and they’ve been big in the media. Since 2007 the girl groups in Japan have been waning. From now on, groups are continuing to debut in Japan, and who will have their big break this year?

Kadosawa-shi believes about the girls' performances, "In these three years, they've gone through a spirited evolution. with their strategies, and are filling a niche that J-POP and western music can't catch up with.” So, now in the light of the imported CD movement, if you were wondering who we think will have a big break in Japan out of the girl groups, “The top 3 are: 2NE1, SNSD and KARA. 

Also, there’s a topic of if the girls will immediately make it big in Japan or not. On the internet, lots of chatter about KARA and 4Minute having to compete has shown up, but in reality the market is quiet. Watabe’s analysis is, “The possibility that this is a temporary boom cannot be denied, so continuous exposure is very important.” Oikawa Jou of Content department of EC HQ says, “The vital thing to watch out for are the coming debuts of KARA and SNSD. If these two groups are successful, it should cause quite a commotion. Moreover, it will be good if they can appear more on TV to viewers.
 

Source: Oricon

Translated by: Kanki@Soshified.com
Edited by: Peach@Soshified.com

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