Dec 2

Jameri-pop?

Blogs, Japan Trends, Music, Uncategorized Comments Off on Jameri-pop?

I was listening to NY-based band HappyFunSmile on my iShuffle on my subway commute home last night, and it hit me that bands like HappyFunSmile, Gaijin-a-Go-Go, Soh Daiko (of which Ariel Shearman (Ichikawa-ken, 1994-97) is a member) and perhaps others seem to be part of a trend that could be called “Jameri-pop,” i.e., a hybrid of US and Japanese culture, though perhaps with an ironic sense more typical in U.S. culture than Japanese.  Sort of a twist on Roland Kelts‘ Japanamerica concept.

I’m guessing someone somewhere has already discussed and described this trend, though I Googled the word “jameripop” and nothing came up. Maybe it’s just a New York thing at this point in time, given the high concentration of young Japanese people in a city already known for setting trends. I don’t travel around to other parts of the U.S. enough to know.

Do you have other examples of “Jameri-pop?”  Send an e-mail to jetwit /atto/ jetwit /dotto/ com.

Here’s a sample of HappyFunSmile from a performance at the Knitting Factory in NYC: