Progress Report: Expanding my international listening ears

On my guest stint, at Windows Phone Radio, I mentioned that I was spending a good majority of this year trying to expand my ears, internationally. Many know that the Zune Marketplace isn’t exactly the bastion of K-Pop and J-pop music, although during this time I have discovered that there is *some* K-Pop and J-Pop music to be found in the Marketplace (some available via Zune Pass, mind you).

I’ve touched on this subject before, but I wanted to give everyone a progress report on this little project. I have to say that it’s been interesting to not only listen to international pop, hip-hop, rap, R&B and other styles of music, but to hear similarities in design with American counterparts.

Now that shouldn’t come as a total surprise, as you’ll find that many of what America does with their music influences music around the world. Many of the biographies of international singers show that they have some American influence, either because a parent is American or they were turned on to American music at an early age. A couple of prime examples of this are J-Pop songstresses Namie Amuro and Hikaru Utada.

J-Pop Star Hikaru Utada

The exploration of international music, for me, has been the same type of journey that it was for electronic music. When I was dabbling in electronic it was due to the influence of Jessica Zahn and a 12 hour immersion at the Electric Daisy Carnival. While I was familiar with the music, I simply saw it as trance music. However, performers like Kaskade, Colette, BT, Pendulum, and others have opened my eyes and ears up to styles like House, Drum n Bass and more. Yet if you don’t allow yourself to be exposed to it and give it chance, you may be losing out on some great music to be added to your local collection.

With international music it was the same thing. Prior to taking up a personal expansion challenge, I simply felt this music was nothing more than guys and girls wailing into a microphone and every song was going to sound like the love theme from some anime, video game or television drama. I was already familiar with some artists (such as Hikaru Utada) but I knew I had to take that chance and discover more out there and really see what people were offering.

In this year, another event happened that helped me expand my ears and that was the introduction and launch of MNET. MNET was designed to be a channel for Asian pop culture and one of their big things was presenting shows that showcased great K-Pop artists. Taking an interest in the channel (I even got a chance to interview the C.E.O.) sort of accelerated what I was listening to, exploring and adding. Groups like 2PM, U-Kiss and Supreme Team were quickly becoming part of the regular rotation on my PC and Zune HD. In fact, Supreme Team has rose through the ranks to become one of my favorite hip-hop outfits of all time.

Oh, and did you hear the Korean rapper who can give American rapper Twista a run for his money?

So as it stands, right now, my local collection has a great deal of J-Pop and K-Pop. Not all of it sounds like it should be part of the Last Airbender soundtrack. In fact, a lot of it could compete here in the United States if released on this soil. I have to say that the world is offering some great music to be listened to. I know a lot of us like our own little bubbles (it’s something I saw plenty of during Zune Social’s heyday, when people would try to explain off why certain songs appeared on their profile) but I challenge you (like I do every so often) to step out of that comfort zone. It doesn’t have to be international music, per se. Tell yourself that, today, you’re going to listen to one jazz album. Tell yourself that, this weekend, you’re going to try a playlist of BT’s music. Tell yourself that, this year, you’re going to see if you can add one Country album to your local collection — for some I know that’s a serious stretch.

K-Pop Boy Band 2PM

This year, for me, it was J-Pop and K-Pop. I’ve come out of this experiment both pleasantly surprised and eager to continue expanding and listening without having to prompt myself with challenges and goals — for this one things will naturally happen.

So my other thought was to see where I would want to expand my ears next. I’ve been looking, honestly, at music of artists like Andrea Bocelli, et al. That is actually quite a stretch for me as I’ve listened but never really dived into that pool.

We’ll see what comes of me trying to swim in *those* waters.

As a postscript, I mentioned earlier that there is J-Pop and K-Pop music to be found at Zune Marketplace. Here’s a listing of some of those artists (not all). These links actually take you to Bing Entertainment so you can sample their music, but they are all also available at Zune.

• Hikaru Utada
• Wonder Girls
• 2PM
• 2NE1
• 4Minute