Tedious love: Prof decries modern music's lack of passion

[AsahinaKimi]

OSAKA--Most of J-pop, or Japanese popular music since the 1990s, seems to have consisted of love songs. One survey even puts the love song proportion as high as 97 percent. In contrast, songs of love accounted for only 7 percent of popular tunes in the Meiji era (1868-1912).

Are young people of the current Heisei era, which began in 1989, really that much into love?

According to Kazuhide Nabae, a professor of British and U.S. literature and culture at Kobe College who wrote the book Koisuru J-pop (J-pop in love) in 2004, one driving force behind the increase in love-themed songs was "Ai ga Tomaranai" (Turn It Into Love), a big hit by female duo Wink in 1989.

"As the title shows, the song urged young people toward love. Subsequent popular hits in Japan also rushed headlong into love-themed songs," Nabae said.

The love-soaked J-pop lyrics deeply influence the worldview of young people, who adopted it as their own reality--or at least their ideal view of reality. In essence, they have tried to live out the stories prepared for them by songwriters.

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