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The Japanese music industry sucks. Look at bands like AKB48 or Kyary Pamyu Pamyu (きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ). If you are living in Japan then you must be sick already of seeing them everywhere.

In case you hadn’t heard about them, I’m going to share the pain:

AKB48 is an all-girl band composed by *64* members, whose only talent is being young and cute. They jump around in the stage singing without much grace, but that doesn’t matter much, because their fans (mostly male otakus) only care about their looks.

They started in their own theater in Akihabara, where they performed daily in front of their fans (they still do). The group is actually named after the Akihabara district.

I forgot to mention that one of the girls doesn’t perform live, because she doesn’t even exist. Aimi Eguchi is a computer-generated character put together from parts of six other members.

The group is so extremely popular in Japan that it has spawned sister groups in other cities in Japan: SKE48 , SND48 , NMB48. Also overseas: JKT48 (Jakarta), TPE48 (Taiwan), SNH48 (Shanghai).

Here’s a photo of some of them performing in the New Year’s Eve TV special:

AKB48 and sister groups performing in New Year's Eve TV special

Here’s one of their videos where they use their only talent to appeal to their (predominantly male) fan base . Warning: this is probably NSFW:

Then  there’s Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. She’s a 19-year old girl who can’t sing either, but she compensates by being extravagant. Here’s one of her videos. I must warn you before you watch it: it’s completely stupid and senseless, but you won’t be able to take this song out from your head for days. Also, every time you watch it you lose about 5 IQ points. You have been warned. Here it goes:

Personally, I think that this productification of music is reaching ridiculous extremes. Non-talented people become popular because the corporations behind them market them heavily, while the really talented bands don’t see even a small fraction of what they deserve.

Here’s a video from Walk off the Earth. I first learnt about them after their cover of Gotye’s Somebody I Used To Know. In my opinion, bands like these are the real artists, and not the ones like the two above:

What’s your opinion?