Introduction Have you ever wondered what prompted the creation of your favorite Japanese music site? Who created it? Through this weekly series of interviews Keikaku hopes to shed some light on the motivation and driving personalities behind some of my personal choices for the best English language based Japanese music sites on the web. At a mere 3 months old, Nippop, one of the newest Japanese music sites on the web, comes with a well-established pedigree. With combined experiences from General Manager/Director of Content & Marketing of the Tokyo office of YesAsia.com, to the CEO of Tower Records Japan, and Billboard's Asia bureau chief, Nippop's contributors are a who's who of industry insiders. Created and maintained by Keith Cahoon, Bill Haw and Steve McClure, Nippop offers readers profiles on such artists as Pizzicato Five, UA, Pink Lady, Shonen Knife, Hi-Standard and Quruli, in addition to Japanese music related articles and interviews. When asked "Please elaborate on what motivated your decision to create your site?" Bill answered, "Well, we are all fans, but we have also worked in the industry in various capacities, so I think doing Nippop is a natural progression. A kind of melding of the two, if you will." back to features		Best Japanese music sites... Nippop Can you remember your first reaction to listening to a Japanese artist? What were your initial thoughts? As you've become more knowledgeable about the Japanese music scene how has that effected your personal choice of artist Bill Haw [Nippop]: Well, I personally heard Japanese music the first time I came to Japan in 1989. For the most part it was what you could catch on TV, so it was pretty idol-focused, and not something I was really interested in. But little by little I got exposed to acts that were out of the mainstream, and it all just grew from there. Really, it's not much different than the scene in the US. What you hear on the radio is just the tip of the iceberg. And as I get older, I'm also better able to appreciate some acts that are on the radio too. I mean, Shiina Ringo is a fantastic artist, and you can still catch her on J-Wave. And even somebody like Ayumi Hamasaki, whose music might not be up some people's alleys, can be appreciated for the enormous cultural impact she has had. Regarding my personal choice in artists, Quruli and Nobukazu Takemura have been in my CD player recently. And I'm also stuck on a couple of more ambient/neo-folk artists like Gutevolk and Piana, who don't sell a lot of records, but make fantastic music. When you first looked for artist information on the web what type of English sites were available? What sites attracted you? What was it about these sites that made you a frequent visitor? What was lacking? Bill: There wasn't much on the web in English, and even now I'd say that it's not easy to find good information on most artists. Most of them were fan sites that were just gushing about artists, which really gets old quickly, so I wasn't a frequent visitor to any of them. Probably the best resource I found in English before 2001 was Steve McClure's Nippon Pop, although this will sound like a shameless plug since he is one of my writing partners at Nippop. To go from fan to reporting on the artists is a big step. Please elaborate on what motivated your decision to create your site? What has been your biggest challenge? Triumph? Bill: Well, we are all fans, but we have also worked in the industry in various capacities, so I think doing Nippop is a natural progression. A kind of melding of the two, if you will. Regarding challenges, we were just noting the other day that there have been very few thus far. Knock on wood. We also get fantastic support from our main programmer, Florin, who is located in Romania. He's our secret weapon! As for triumphs, I guess the biggest is watching the rapid climb in visits to the site. A lot of people are reading it, and that's really rewarding. When deciding content what criteria and or who decides what your site will cover? What sources do you use for information? Bill: We pretty much decide as we go along. We all still have a lot of stuff stockpiled in our heads, and it will probably take a while before that runs out. Also, we get hundreds of artist profile requests through the site from fans and artists alike, and just addressing these alone would be more than enough work for the next couple of months. Regarding sources, we use a variety of them, including verifiable information on the web, direct inquiries to labels, artists, and management companies, magazine articles, posters on the train. Really, there are sources everywhere. The trick is putting it all together. Have you noticed an increase in English pages being offered at many Japanese artist official sites and record companies? Do you have an opinion as to why this may be? Bill: I'm not sure if the English pages on the record company sites are increasing by any significant measure. Even if they are, I still don't see the record companies providing much useful content in English. Usually what you will find is a poorly translated version of whatever they have up there in Japanese, which is often more promotional than informational in nature. That's okay, though. They have their own agenda, and it takes a lot of work just to get things noticed here in Japan, where the real mass market is. Speaking realistically, the overseas market is secondary for most artists. How do you see your site's contribution if any, in bringing recognition outside of Japan to Japanese artists? What does your site offer that other sites don't? Could you describe your dream site? Bill: While we haven't yet reached our goal, Nippop strives to be a truly comprehensive resource on Japanese music. It's a tall order, as the industry is second in size only to that of the United States, but we're doing our best. I think the fact that we are agnostic when it comes to the type of artists we cover is one thing that really sets the site apart. Regarding our dream site, it's a work in progress and it's called Nippop. Finally I'd like to ask; what do you perceive to be the current state and focus of the Japanese music scene outside of Japan? Bill: Well, there are arguments that awareness and acceptance is growing outside of Japan, and probably an equal number saying it's shrinking. The mass overseas acceptance of anime in particular is giving Japanese music a boost in awareness overseas, but I think it's safe to say that that a lot of people are tuning into Japanese pop culture in general even if they aren't anime fans - especially kids in their teens. Interview from 2005.02.20. Keikaku.net staff would like to thank Bill Haw and Nippop for their participation in this interview. - Denise Smith
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