The real way to get to the meat of Japanese social behavior is to ask Japanese people and also watch their real life behavior.
Completely agree with that.
There is a reason why the mass markets have now completely rejected the kind of cutting-edge art, music, and fashion of the 1990s — it's too divisive and risky.
I think the 90s, in the West as well as Japan, saw a final sophistication tug at and tinge mass culture markets thanks to globalisation. I say "final" because those mass markets were shortly thereafter dealt a death blow by the internet. Everything became fragmented, and the sophisticated consumers disappeared back into their niches, leaving the mass market untroubled by their elite influence.
I did an entry a while ago in which I scanned the Western media -- reviews of cultural products -- looking for talk of originality (http://imomus.livejournal.com/446315.html). I actually found surprisingly little. I had a similar experience yesterday looking through reviews of The Mountain Goats' new album The Life of the World To Come (http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/mountaingoats/lifeoftheworldtocome?q=mountain%20goats). I find that neither the album nor the reviews of it trouble themselves much with the requirement to be original. There just isn't a climate now in the West that demands much originality. Other things are considered more important.
But all the paradoxes about conformist individuality apply to originality (which is basically just individuality in action) too. Do I only rate originality because I'm the product of a decade (the 1960s) in which "the done thing" was to freewheel, and rebellion was basically a game for conformists? And in 90s Japan, wasn't it just "the done thing" to buy records by Pizzicato 5, or, more realistically, if we're talking about the mass market, Tetsuya Komuro productions.
Following my own advice, I ask a Japanese person. Hisae says "It's just the style has changed."
no subject
Completely agree with that.
There is a reason why the mass markets have now completely rejected the kind of cutting-edge art, music, and fashion of the 1990s — it's too divisive and risky.
I think the 90s, in the West as well as Japan, saw a final sophistication tug at and tinge mass culture markets thanks to globalisation. I say "final" because those mass markets were shortly thereafter dealt a death blow by the internet. Everything became fragmented, and the sophisticated consumers disappeared back into their niches, leaving the mass market untroubled by their elite influence.
I did an entry a while ago in which I scanned the Western media -- reviews of cultural products -- looking for talk of originality (http://imomus.livejournal.com/446315.html). I actually found surprisingly little. I had a similar experience yesterday looking through reviews of The Mountain Goats' new album The Life of the World To Come (http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/mountaingoats/lifeoftheworldtocome?q=mountain%20goats). I find that neither the album nor the reviews of it trouble themselves much with the requirement to be original. There just isn't a climate now in the West that demands much originality. Other things are considered more important.
But all the paradoxes about conformist individuality apply to originality (which is basically just individuality in action) too. Do I only rate originality because I'm the product of a decade (the 1960s) in which "the done thing" was to freewheel, and rebellion was basically a game for conformists? And in 90s Japan, wasn't it just "the done thing" to buy records by Pizzicato 5, or, more realistically, if we're talking about the mass market, Tetsuya Komuro productions.
Following my own advice, I ask a Japanese person. Hisae says "It's just the style has changed."