Current mood:	hungry
Current music:	Pulp - I'm a Man

HAPPY EASTER!

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!! I hope everyone got tonnes of yummy Easter Eggs!  Because we all Love Eggs!

I just had an interesting discussion with Richard.  He's making a welcome video on behalf of the Anglo Japanese Society for the new Teikyo students, and I noticed that all the music he'd used in it was Japanese.  I suggested that maybe he should put a bit of British music in it (it is the Anglo-Japanese Society, after all!)

He said, "OK, how about Green Day?"

I said, they're not British.  He said, "I know, but the Teikyo students won't know the difference!"

I pointed out that this was like calling a cheongsam a "geisha" outfit (they regularly are), or using Chinese actors to portray Japanese people because it's assumed most Westerners won't know the difference.   He saw what I meant, and said, "Alright, show me some good British music."

Arata and I introduced him to Blur, Oasis, Pulp, the Manics and several other typically British bands, but none of them appealed.  He said, "I want something like Green Day or Sum 41 that makes you think of partying on beaches in the sun."

And that's when it hit me.  That's the difference between American and British music (or more specifically, Britpop and American pop-punk).  British music is just not like that.  It's not about sunshine or parties or the inconvenience of how school sucks, it's about being poor, and political injustice, and how life is bitterly unfair, and it does it all with a wry smile.  American music tends to be about how America wants to be, British music is about how Britain is.

You can see the same pattern in other aspects of American and UK media, such as TV.  America has Friends, we have EastEnders for example.

I'm being extremely general here and obviously there are a lot of exceptions (like British bands imitating American bands, eg. Busted, and the whole American Grunge scene which was even bleaker than any Britpop).  But if you're looking for stereotypes, I'd say that would sum it up.  

So perhaps British music wouldn't be the best for painting a positive image of Britain to an outsider.  But it would paint an accurate one.

Japanese of the Day: 就馬の党 - shuuba no tou - Equine division