J-pop: Japanese Pop Music

music · Japan · pop culture · 1990s

Born in the 1990s. J-pop entered Japan's music mainstream in the 1990s and became the main style of popular music that Japanese people listened to and loved.

Global influences mixed in. J-pop started with roots in Japan's traditional music but also borrowed sounds from the worldwide pop and rock music of the 1960s, creating something totally new.

Replaced an older style. Before J-pop came kayōkyoku, which was the popular Japanese music from the 1920s all the way to the 1980s, but J-pop took its place as what people wanted to hear.