Japan on Song

Participants at the first J-pop karaoke night; (right) Tanya Shringarpore aka Syrinx hosts the event. Pics/Antic Ninja

Last year, we had written in these pages about how K-pop, or Korean popular music, had garnered a sizeable fan following in India. BTS, the defining face of the genre, had sent a chunk of the youth into a state of rapture with the release of a new album, a listening session for which had left a city venue choc-a-bloc. But there is another similar genre that has also been gaining in strength in the country over the years. And that's J-pop, or Japanese pop, which can be considered an older cousin of the Korean version.

But J-pop fans haven't enjoyed the sort of moment under the sun that K-pop fans have had since 2017. Consequently, the avenues for them to celebrate their fandom collectively have been close to non-existent. That situation changed for the better a couple of months ago, when a Japanese restaurant in the city curated its programming to include a J-pop karaoke night. And following the encouraging response the first two editions received, the event will now be held for a third time this weekend, with plans for it being made into a monthly affair.

A person dressed as Super Mario with another participant at the first J-pop karaoke event

Tanya Shringarpore, the host, is a professional cosplayer who is also a J-pop aficionado. She says that the genre followed the same sort of trajectory in India as K-pop did - fans first got hooked to Japanese anime and drama, and then discovered the music as a result. "But the thing is that people like me have been exposed to J-pop much earlier since it's an older genre. So the crowd that is exposed to it is also older - in their early to mid-30s - than K-pop fans, who are under 25 at best," Shringarpore, whose cosplay name is Syrinx, tells us.

She adds that a fan club she's part of has crossed 5,000 members in the city and 40,000 people across the nation. Those might not seem like earth-shattering figures yet, but will presumably increase given the way geographical boundaries are blurring in terms of culture, thanks to the Internet. Our presumption also has a lot to do with the very nature of J-pop - the music can be both infectiously catchy and deeply melancholic, with the musicians appropriating western sensibilities and setting them to Japanese words.

But in the meantime, a karaoke night like this one gives existing fans a platform to celebrate the genre together. The venue contacted Shringarpore after hitting upon the idea for it, and while she curates most of the playlist, people are free to send in requests on the event's Facebook page, which are then added to the mix. Nightlife in Mumbai is filled with karaoke nights these days. But almost all of these follow the Bollywood and western rock/pop route. The theme of J-pop is almost unheard of. Yes, it is still completely a sub-genre, and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. But we, for one, will keep an eye out for how it catches on, and for whether the numbers increase significantly in the years to come.

Who started karaoke?

Karaoke, of course, is a wholly Japanese invention that became wildly popular across the world. Daisuke Inoue is the person who came up with the first one, in 1969. But he didn't patent it, meaning he lost out on a fortune, and went on to invent, among other things, a cockroach killing machine.

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