NOTE TO USERS Page(s) not included in the original manuscript and are unavailable from the author or university. The manuscript was scanned as received. Pages 25-27, and 66 This reproduction is the best copy available. ® UMI Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Cybercultures from the East: Japanese Rock Music Fans in North America By An Nguyen, B.A. A thesis submitted to The Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF ARTS Department of Sociology and Anthropology Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario April 2007 © An Nguyen 2007 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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Abstract This is a study of Japanese rock music, or J-rock, fans in North America. Fans rely heavily on the Internet to access music files and official merchandise and to interact with other J-rock fans through virtual communities. It is in part because of the Internet fan community that there have been J-rock musicians who come to North America to perform live concerts and hold promotional events at Japanese animation conventions. By studying the J-rock fan community, we can be able to better understand how new subcultures emerge from an interest in media that originated in a different cultural context, the role of the Internet in creating ‘imagined communities’ in which people are connected by common hobbies and interests, how fans create an ‘imagined Japan’ based on interpretation and consumption of J-rock, and the consequences participation in the J-rock fan community has on formations of self- identity and future goals and desires. ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors, Brian Given and John Shepherd, for their advice and guidance during the process of the research project and the writing of the thesis. I also want to thank my family who has given me much needed support and encouragement. And finally, a very special thank you to the many people who have participated in this study by giving me your time, your knowledge, and your honest opinion. It could not have been done without your help. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter One: Theory and Methods 6 Methodology 6 Theoretical Concepts 11 Chapter Two: What is J-rock? 18 Brief History of Japanese Rock Music 18 Visual Rock’s Entrance into Japan’s ‘Living Room’ 20 The Qualities of J-rock 23 Chapter Three: Literature Review 28 Visual Rock Fan Culture in Japan 28 Participating in Fan Culture 38 Chapter Four: Experiencing J-rock 43 Mainstream Western Music vs. J-rock 44 Importance of Lyrics and Sound 50 Emotions and Image 54 Defining The Experience 57 Chapter Five: J-rock Fan Communities 64 The Online Community Environment 65 Spread of J-rock Media in North America 67 From One Community to Many 70 Participation in the Community 77 Fan Hierarchies 81 Chapter Six: Commercialization of J-rock in North America 88 Chapter Seven: The Imagined Japan 98 Japanese ‘Soft Power’ in Asia and North America 98 Perspective of J-rock Fans on Japan 104 Creating an Identity for Themselves 112 Conclusion 117 Appendices Appendix A. Glossary 123 Appendix B. Japanese Musicians and Bands in North America 126 Appendix C. Informed Consent Form 129 Appendix D. Questionnaire Questions 131 Appendix E. Selected Data from Questionnaires 133 Bibliography 140 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Introduction The spread of Japanese rock music, or J-rock, in North America has been heavily tied with the development of computer technology and the Internet. J-rock fans rely heavily on the Internet to access music files and official merchandise and to interact with other J-rock fans through virtual communities. It is arguable that, without the Internet, the J-rock community may not exist as it does today. The widespread availability of the Internet has allowed J-rock to become accessible to people located outside of metropolitan areas, resulting in a fan culture in which its participants are geographically scattered throughout North America and other countries. Until five years ago, the circulation of J-rock media was unconnected to any corporate structure in North America and was primarily being promoted by fans who shared music and information with potential fans through unofficial venues using the Internet. It is in part because of the substantial growth of J-rock fan culture in recent years that there have been J-rock musicians who come to North America to perform live concerts and hold promotional events at Japanese animation conventions. This development in which North American promoters and businesses have become interested in marketing J-rock to a wider audience marks a transition period in which the distribution of J-rock media and bands is becoming formalized and mass-marketed. In this thesis, I look at North-American Japanese rock music, or J-rock, fan culture as an ‘imagined community’ in which people feel a connection with others despite not knowing everyone who is a part of the group. I argue that this is an ‘imagined community’ because there is no one single J-rock virtual community. Easy access to information and media related to J-rock in recent years has led to the splintering of what had been considered a close-knit community into smaller, separate communities that are focused on specific bands or subgenres of J-rock. Yet despite Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the fact that they participate in hundreds of different virtual communities on the Internet, J-rock fans insist that they are part of one large ‘community’ that connects them all in an imaginary bond. Through social interaction with others, J-rock fans are able to construct an identity that is connected to both their consumption of J-rock and their participation in virtual communities. In Chapter One, I detail the theoretical concepts and methodology that have shaped and guided this study. This work utilizes ethnographic methods such as participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Qualitative data was collected in environments both in the physical and online worlds including virtual communities surrounding J-rock and anime (Japanese animation) conventions located in Canada and the United States. An Internet questionnaire was also conducted to collect both qualitative and quantitative data about the demographic of J-rock fans. The key theoretical concepts of ‘imagined community,’ virtual community, and social networks are also explored in relation to this study of J-rock fan communities online. Chapter Two is concerned with how fans define J-rock as a music genre. The term J-rock is widely contested and unstable as different groups try to define J-rock in different ways. Constructions of boundaries and sub-categories within the community are based on how J-rock is defined. I also briefly look at the development of Japanese rock music and introduce visual rock, a genre of Japanese music that became introduced into mainstream Japanese culture in the early 1990s. This development went hand in hand with the growth of a North-American J-rock fan culture where visual rock is one of the most popular genres of Japanese rock music. Chapter Three features a literature review of scholarly material related to the study of fan cultures. J-rock fans are involved in various fan activities that overlap with anime and manga (Japanese comics) subcultures in both Japan and North Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.