a post-blog
I tend to make the "no criticism in Japan" a moral issue. Deep down I do believe that the lack of public criticism and accountability hinders democracy and free discourse, but on a more practical level, there is more and more stuff in the world and I need someone to sift through it for me.
Turn to the back pages of any Japanese music magazine and you'll find 50 reviews of new music. Look at the label names and you'll realize that there are something like 50 different labels featured this month - 45 of which you've never heard of. There is way too much cultural output for anyone to keep up with it all. Barry Schwartz's monumental book The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less presents a clear argument that the overabundance of product choice leads to dissatisfaction and depression. Not only can we not keep up with the output, it's killing our souls.
The wicked tongue of Pitchfork Media may irk the casual music fan, but a short glance at the site or any other trustworthy source as a daily routine will introduce you to myriad works of solid quality and great importance. And if they're wrong on the value judgment, so be it. Maybe the review sounds interesting, and so I'll check it out regardless of their slander.
In Japan, I am drowning in a sea of mediocrity.
When you are 14 and live in a shitty little town with no music scene, the guys "at the top" are the lame musicians with the best licks and most expensive gear. There is something beautiful in the fact that they never go anywhere - sloppy, off-kilt bands like Pavement and the Pixies win the critical glow and slay the dragons of heartless virtuosity.
Meanwhile in Japan, the Japanese music business is Salieri Inc. Pick yourself up a copy of Sound and Recording magazine and peer into the five million yen studios of completely unknown hacks. The message is clear: if you don't have a Urei 1176 compressor and a pair of Neve preamps and a Neumann U87, don't even think about recording anything! If you can't play perfectly, don't play at all! In this environment, that guy who works at the guitar shop in your small town is the King of the World.
With these legions of mediocrity pumping out unprecedented amounts of their bland gruel, I need a magazine to say: ignore these lifeless imitators and guitar wanking sessionmen! Listen to Plus-tech Squeeze Box, Shugo Tokumaru, Macdonald Duck Eclair, and Citrus. And if you haven't checked out the Salon Music back catalog, do so now! the Cymbals are boring and Capsule should reduce their rate of record releases. (I like my Japanese to have alliteration when translated.) Instead I get a full-color magazine of "editorial" articles made possible by direct contributions from the record companies. And two pages full of compressed press releases about 50 bands I've never heard of. The only way to preserve my psyche is to assume they all suck and move on.
In this environment that fears the bad sportsmanship of ratings systems, I rely on the mythical "word of mouth" to spread its Gospel of new music on to my doorstep. The Agricultural Revolution proceeded only when the combination harvester and thresher hit the scene, and I dream of the day when Japanese critics can come in my life and begin to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Posted by marxy at November 10, 2004 11:27 PMIT's really amazing to read Sound & Recording, it's a scary thing. I went to the studio where my (now lost!) album Kitchen was mastered, room full of equipment, compressors, blah blah. "you should record something here next time !" said my host, before playing us the new track he was working on, a serious, no-joke, boring Fischerspooner clone.
This is precisely the moment I realize I will never need any equipement to record what I have in mind.
Fischerspooner clone! That sums up so much.
Oh man, I hope Kitchen is not lost!!!
Posted by: marxy at November 11, 2004 12:56 AMMarxy, I'm giving up trying to refute your arguments, because you're doing such a good job yourself!
You tell us how partial the editors of Marquee are to Capsule ('capsule have had a feature in EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE LAST SEVEN OR EIGHT ISSUES. Subtlety is not the magazine's strong point') and then you tell us that Japanese magazines are incapable of putting forward an opinion. You complain about the lack of subtlety of Marquee's editors, but then, faced with subtlety in the form of 50 reviews of bands you've never heard of, you say 'the only way to preserve my psyche is to assume they all suck and move on.'
You tell us that one of the reasons you moved to Japan is because it has the best-stocked record stores in the world, then you tell us that you now prefer Amazon because it's even better stocked. But then you decide that 'choice is killing our souls' and use Schwartz's book on 'why more is less' to attack Japan... but not Amazon.
Your style of argument is to note some Japanese trend and say it's bad, while somehow forgetting that you recently noted the opposite trend in Japan and said that was bad too.
I think what I'll do, instead of arguing, is just give you examples of things and watch the ingenuity with which you tell me they portend the downfall of Japan. Okay, here's test case number 1. You may have seen Art-It, the excellent new Japanese art magazine. Its current cover story is about the Korean art scene. Its slogan is 'Genuinely rude art journalism'. Now, in 50 words or less (because more is less), tell me how Art-It portends the downfall of Japan, please!
Momus:
Curating is not the same as criticizing. And in Japan, the curatorial process is so rife with bribery that I find it impossible to trust media selections. Companies pay to have their bands placed on the front cover. Being unable to explicitly criticize leads to very fuzzy positive reviews for mediocre things. There is a difference between judging things on a binary scale 0 (not in the magazine) and 1 (in the magazine) and judging things on a scale that goes into high negatives and positives.
Amazon is just a storehouse for goods. When you find something you like - through the media - you use Amazon to buy it. If anything, Amazon is revolutionary because they allow bad reviews of their products to be placed in the description. Has any store before ever let you see user reviews that could possibly dissuade you from buying it? The Japanese Amazon.com allows user reviews only because it's built upon the same framework. Most of the reviews on the Japanese side are - guess what - positive. No one knows how to criticize even when they have the chance. This is why there needs to be a media model.
I can't stop how much stuff Amazon has, but I can use the media to limit my consideration set of product choices. This is why the role of media filtering is critical. Why are you confusing stores and media?
I am not contradicting myself. You just seem to confuse me liking access to buying selected product options with a longing for someone to filter those options for me. Apparently, I'm not contradicting myself as much as confusing you.
All the stuff that you ignore in my essays - is that all correct?
I will check out Art-It. Sounds promising.
the curatorial process is so rife with bribery that I find it impossible to trust media selections.
Well, you're right about that. But although it's more extreme in Japan, this happens in the west too. I'm sure you know that American radio airplay is almost entirely based on payola. Only last month did NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer tell the record labels and radio stations that he intends to investigate this. Also, coverage in UK music press titles like the NME is totally related to advertising and promotions. They won't review my new record, no matter how good it is, unless they have a relationship with my label based on advertising purchased. One interesting thing about the Japanese situation, though, is nuance. Compelled to write good reviews, writers sometimes use nuance to condemn records. Rockin' On gave my 'Little Red Songbook' album a good review because it came out on Nippon Columbia, a powerful label which buys advertising with them. But the reviewer, a woman, said of the song 'Coming In A Girl's Mouth' 'I feel humble that Momus considers us women worthy of such attention'. Sarcasm? Well, yes and no.
Being unable to explicitly criticize leads to very fuzzy positive reviews for mediocre things.
Exactly, and I think Japanese consumers have probably learned to read the nuance in positive reviews.
The management system in Japan is a major difference. Management companies, like Cornelius/Kahimi's 3D, really are lifetime protectors. I don't like this part of the Japanese industry much, but I think two things about it are great. 1, it eradicates the influence of entertainment lawyers. 2, it actually does give artists some kind of stability. Kahimi, in the west, would probably have been dropped long ago. She certainly wouldn't be making such experimental records for major labels unless she had the profile and sales of someone like Bjork.
Amazon is revolutionary because they allow bad reviews of their products to be placed in the description.
Amazon is revolutionary because they allow customer reviews, not because they allow bad reviews. And Japanese customer reviews might be positive because people just like being positive. It's all part of the really refreshing social harmony in Japan. Sure, it's conformist, but the paradox is that our western contentiousness is too; rather than being a sign of individual thinking, western individualism is a cookie-cutter affair rooted in protestant individualism. I explain this better in my 2001 song 'Robocowboys'. Personally, given the choice between conformist contention and conformist harmony, between individualist and collectivist cultures, I do see a lot of virtue in collectivism, especially when, as in Japan, I see that collectivism allied with an aesthetic / political sense I find preferable in many ways to American aesthetics / politics.
It's worth remembering Kojin Karatani's description of Japan as 'capitalist communism'. The payola thing may be supercapitalist, but there are other instances where Japanese media is much more 'communist' than the west's would ever dare to be.
Look at the grassroots, democratic Japanese fashion magazines based on snaps of real people on the streets. In the west fashion magazines are stylist and designer led, top-down affairs in which editorial photo shoots are tied in with advertising and financial ties with big brands and fashion houses.
As for media filtering, I'm really surprised you place so much faith in the taste of critics. Why would Pitchfork rejecting a record allow me to reject it too? I think we have to read between the lines in Pitchfork just as much as we do with the Japanese press.
All the stuff that you ignore in my essays - is that all correct?
Your interpretations of Japanese phenomena are weighted to the negative, you exaggerate, and your criteria are ethnocentric. You make these extreme statements like that 'Japanese cellphones have singlehandedly killed off music and fashion consumption, plus blocked the rise of the computer-based Internet.' Does anyone believe that? I don't agree with you that overhead lines are 'a terrible eyesore' either. But I can't argue every point otherwise I'd be here all day! Most disturbing of all, I think, is your (and Kerr's) aggressive arguments about how Japan should have its markets 'liberalised'. You accept that marketing is cultural, yet you don't seem to see that Japanese marketing reflects, and has every right to reflect, Japanese social customs and attitudes, and that forcing Japan to adopt American marketing and finanacing structures would be a massive act of cultural vandalism. One which the US has attempted twice in Japan's history, both times at the point of a gun.
Posted by: Momus at November 11, 2004 4:26 PMMomus:
1) At least we have a concept of payola in the West. There is no expectation of separating advertising and editorial in Japan, although I will stick up for Beikoku Ongaku and Tokion for almost never caving into advertiser pressure. If I were to take a non-ethnocentric approach, I would have to believe that payola is a proper part of the Japanese cultural system and above criticism.
2) On the subtlety of Japanese rock criticism - very good point. I read a review in Studio Voice of the U.S. Utada release that slammed the record in very neutral language - something like "I would think that Americans want a different kind of sound when listening to Japanese music."
3) Fascinating examples of the NME and Japanese press' greater interest in bands from advertising labels. I worry having a very pallid critical system reinforces this system by having no other way to reward credibility other than record sales. I've seen NME's "Single of the Week" go to rather obscure people though. I've never seen a Japanese rock magazine to go out of their way to endorse someone on a small, unknown label.
4) Management companies (the dreaded jimusho) are essentially bullies and viciously protect their artists at all costs. In some ways, they do protect interesting people who would clearly fail if floated on the free market. They also protect and promote the 95% of talentless artists who are clogging up the media. If you don't have a jimusho, forget about ever being popular in Japan. If you do have a jimusho, forget about having artistically integrity - unless, of course, you're the three lucky people to still be in 3-D. Five-D is also a good jimusho, because the head of it is convinced that the music industry is crashing down and if you can't make money, might as well support interesting people.
5) I see Individualism vs. Collectivism as a battle between choice and no-choice. As we have seen in America, choice leads to anxiety and social-breakdown. Choice has its downsides. However, I find it authoritarian for Japanese society to demand certain behaviors in an attempt to "stabilize" the country. The problem is, no matter what the Japanese government does, globalization is increasing lifestyle choices here in Japan. Collectivism enforced from the top will not last.
6) The "man on the street" shots of Japanese magazines are democratic, but perversely conformist. You must dress this way! See! Everyone is doing it!. They aren't random collections of people on the street. The editors curate to make the "style leaders" of Harajuku appear to be wearing the same products endorsed in the main features.
I need to show you some of the "Sex" issues of Hot Dog Press where the "stories from regular people" were clearly written by the editors or freelance writers.
7) Pitchfork's most valuable contribution is championing virtually unknown products. The review system is just one part of the structure that gives weight to the judgments. I find it hard to get a sense of weight or importance with bland Japanese reviews.
8) I have seen Japanese cellphones blamed for the decline of most youth consumption in multiple industry reports and articles. A decade ago, Japanese kids didn't have to pay 10000 to 20000 yen a month on their phone bills and had that money to buy music and clothing. They are also way less computer and Internet literate. Have you ever seen the average Japanese person type?
9) I try not to be skewed to the negative but I find a lot of things comparatively worse than a couple of years ago. I ask around to make sure it's not just me, and I find few people that disagree. Kawasaki-san from Hot Dog Press once told me: "Every other foreigner has come to Japan when Japan was on the rise, but you're privileged to get to see Japan falling apart."
10) I am honestly troubled by my arguments' own ethnocentricity and will make attempts in the future to curb this tendency. However, I do believe that Japan's own socioeconomic systems - which are falsely believed to be part of traditional Japanese "culture" - no longer are doing anything positive for the populace. My hopes are one-half proposals and one-half warnings. Japan can sit back and not play the Western game, but here comes India and China, who are willing to accept the rules of engagement. The Western Capitalist juggernaut is a vicious disease that has grown to infect every corner of the world. My main interest is Japan's response to this problem. I promise in the future to be less normative and more positivistic in my analysis.
Posted by: marxy at November 11, 2004 8:40 PMI'm going to not join the general debate here in favor of offering a couple of informative but not argumentative points.
1 - On Pitchfork: Their selection process as yet is mediated by one man, founder Ryan Schreiber. He receives unbelievable crates of CDs unsolicited, and assigns some reviews to be written, while accepting other reviews based on pitches from writers. But in some cases, Ryan and his writers actually create the importance. Read, for instance, the review of Broken Social Scene's "You Forgot It In People". It really does serve as an alternative to the mainstream U.S. music media. Ryan told me a few months ago:
" It could be argued pretty well that it’s not really underground anymore, being that 80,000 people read it every day. And that’s not accounting for people who don’t check it every day. I mean we have like 500,000 people over the course of a month. It’s insane. It’s not underground anymore.
You know, we cover that music, and one thing I worry about is that I know a lot of people have this opinion of underground music that it should stay underground, and as few people should know about it as possible. And I’m not of that mindset. I think that as many people should know about it as possible, because I guess I just want people to like music, you know what I mean?
I’m such a big music fan, to me it’s not, like, giving a shit whether fucking somebody knows about my favorite band and I can’t be cool anymore ‘cause it’s just exclusively me who knows about them. It’s like, I love this music and everybody should love this music." [full interview here]
This really is just one music-obsessed guy with phenomenal success. The question for me is, were such a guy to exist, writing for years and years serious reviews in Japanese for a Japanese audience, would the demand be there for such a huge audience?
2 - On fashion mags being democratic. I feel the need to point out a magazine I've found really fun here. It's called Tokyo Graffiti, and it's flag is a big lowercase g. They released their second issue just now, and it's literally a bunch of real-person photos. One element is fashion, obviously, but they also have extended features where they ask a hundred or so people the same question and have them write their answer on a white board and hold it up to be photographed. They of course lead the book with a bunch of pictures of beautiful girls on the street (though I think they're still real people, just really pretty ones), but they also have features where the shoot a bunch of people in neighborhoods etc. Enough rant there. I think this mag wouldn't fly in the U.S., except possibly as a New York phenomenon, doing the same thing with neighborhoods. But it's the only magazine I've noticed that doesn't tell my who designed these people's clothes.
Posted by: Graham at November 11, 2004 11:40 PM Pitchfork is a good example of a phenomena that Japan needs but has no precident for.
Marxy, looks like you're being hit by a spambot.
Anyway to filter these direct tv and other posts out?
Have you considered running your blog on Livejournal instead? It doesn't seem to have this problem.
Posted by: sparkligbeatnic at December 3, 2004 2:59 PM