J‐pop: from the ideology of creativity to DiY music culture

Abstract

The paper examines the development of J‐pop under the post‐Fordist condition and its ideological formation over the last two decades. J‐pop, invented as a fashionable sub‐genre by a FM radio station in the late 1980s, expanded its category throughout the 1990s and covers virtually all musical genres for young people in Japan. However, due to the lasting economic recession, the development of digital technology and the transformation of young people’s lifestyle, the record industry faced a serious crisis during the 2000s. The paper explores ideological formations between the success of J‐pop and the emergence of freeters’ (young part‐time workers) culture in Japan, by focusing on their nationalist sentiment and the idea of creativity, and tries to find a new way of reclaiming ‘creativity’ in DiY (Do it Yourself) music culture today.