stam4o wrote:^That's for the people that research, because that's how it actually is. There's plenty of people though that look down on Jpop, because y'now, it's "that Jpop", it's like they associate it with cheap and 'not-original' music, from one side it's due to the success of groups like AKB (what otaku_blue was ptrobably meaning) and the globalization of their music and also the influence of Kpop that has got trough the occident in the late years, which has nothing to do with how Jpop's structure is but it's easily associated as the same.
..."research" the genre? I wouldn't say so. If anything it entirely depends on how you get in touch with it in the first place. A random week of Music Station will show you one Johnnys group, probably AKB, but also at least 3 or maybe even 4 other Jpop artists. The artists I mentioned are really easy to come across, they're big sellers and big names in Japan as well as internationally, you don't need to research to come across them at all.
If anyone is looking down on Jpop "because it's all like AKB" I'd just ask them to think twice or whatever, grow up. Anyone thinking ONE artist represents all music from the whole fucking country needs a reality check.