I found myself getting really mad yesterday over the comments on a post over at Japan Today about the differences between #Jpop and #Kpop. So much misogyny in those comments. Cluebat: the Japanese popular #music industry is much more than just idol singers, and there's a lot of #idoru who are really damned good performers, too. Not to mention the songwriters, choreographers, costumers, lighting and sound professionals, and the musicians, too.
I suppose it's true that to some extent, K-pop idols tend to favor more sexualized (note that I did not say "mature") presentations, whereas the J-pop idols tend to favor more chaste presentations.
But, I was writing a thing yesterday that got spaced out the code airlock about how Japanese idols virtually always sing in unison, and how they are frequently criticised for doing so, as if singing in unison is somehow inherently inferior to singing in harmony.
The preference for singing in unison in Japan reflects the Japanese cultural emphasis on social cohesion and produces a sound that is fundamentally different to singing in harmony. It is not necessarily less difficult or less skillful to sing in precise unison than it is to sing in harmony.