Last night I went down to Tower Records by Fisherman's Wharf to watch a knock-out performance by Dreams Come True. Apparentely they're making the rounds, going to big city music stores to promote their recent release: Sing Or Die.

What's that? You haven't heard of Dream Come True? The good-looking, great-sounding trio that has sold nearly 30 million albums since 1989? The band with the astonishingly talented lead singer whose face made the cover of Time Magazine a couple years back? Oh yeah ... . I almost forgot ... .. Dreams Come True is from Japan.

While a few Japanese bands, such as Cibbo Matto, Shonen Knife and Pizzicato Five have established themselves as permanent fixtures on America's cult alter of underground sound, Japanese pop-music (called "J-Pops" in Japan) has yet to make an impression on the mainstream American music scene. Will it eventually? Probably not, and it's no mystery why.

Too many Americans still believe in the hilarious myth that the Japanese are good at copying and refining but lousy at inventing. An entire country with big brains but no creativity. Actually, a number of Japanese buy this bogus line as well. It's almost a shame that it isn't true because it makes it so much easier for us to pretend our free-market capitalism really gives us all the choices it's supposed to. Obviously the reason why there hasn't been a Japanese pop song to hit Number One of the U.S. Billboard charts since 1963 (Kyu Sakamoto's "Ue o muite aruko" - known as "The Sukiyaki Song" here) is because the rest of J-Pops hasn't been good enough, right ? Wrong.

The fact of the matter is that the Japanese music industry is the second largest in the world (next to you-know-who) and far more domestic albums are sold in Japan than imports from American and other countries combined. With the exception of Korea, J-Pops is widely distributed throughout East and Southeast Asia, meaning the biggest Japanese hits are enjoyed by hundreds of millions of people. So why don't we get to hear them?

English, English, English. It's all we are taught, all we need, and all we're interested in. For a country of immigrants, we're intolerant of anything but fluent American English. Cultural myopia is the price for inheriting today's lingua franca, and in the case of popular music, I think it's an outrageously high price to pay. It's tragically ironic that we're probably the only country in the world whose mainstream popular culture is so linguistically one-dimensional.

In light of this, there have been a handful of attempts made by J-Pops acts to break into the American market by recording a whole album in English. Dreams Come True's Sing or Die represents the latest attempt. So far, these experiments have all flopped, and I imagine Sing or Die won't make any dreams come true for the band or the anxious suits in Tokyo. This is completely the fault of inept record executives who think wrongly that the way to appeal to a large American audience is to be as safe and generic as possible.

Safe and generic, of course, are qualities relative to style, and style is by no means universal. If America's pop media aims at people from 16-20, Japan's aims at 12-16 year olds. This is why Hanson made a huge impact on Japan's music scene while Pearl Jam barely made a dent. The flagship acts of J-Pop are usually shallow and silly, with perhaps a little adolescent angst thrown in for flavor. What record executives need to understand is that this style of music has no future in America because we have more than enough of our own. There is some popular music in Japan, however, that is truly unique and could grab the ears of people around the world. It's a shame that these aren't the acts that Japanese record executives try to sell in America.

It is my opinion that no one can fully appreciate the state of popular music without experiencing the soulful genius of UA, the fiery fusion of The Boom, or the raging wit of Imawano Kiyoshiro. When I first heard Dreams Come True in Tokyo two years ago, I thought, "If any J-Pops had the potential to change popular music in America, this is it." When I learned of their all-English release, I felt like a prophet whose moment had come. My enthusiasm evaporated, however, soon after I listened to the album.

Lead singer Miwa Yoshida's performance is as stunning and impassioned as ever, but the music and English lyrics are not. Gone are the originality, the sexiness, and the subtelty. In their place we get hyper-produced, synthetic cheese that belongs in a Japanese beer commercial, not in my CD player.

The world we be a better place if two things happened: 1) If Americans engaged their media more actively, looking for good pop instead of just picking and choosing from the distilled domestic mainstream, and 2) If Japanese record executives could take note of the huge success of Bjork and the underground success of Pizzicato Five and learn that the only international acts who make it in America are the ones whose unique styles surprise and enchant us.

I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for either.Last night I went down to Tower Records by Fisherman's Wharf to watch a knock-out performance by Dreams Come True. Apparentely they're making the rounds, going to big city music stores to promote their recent release: Sing Or Die.

What's that? You haven't heard of Dream Come True? The good-looking, great-sounding trio that has sold nearly 30 million albums since 1989? The band with the astonishingly talented lead singer whose face made the cover of Time Magazine a couple years back? Oh yeah ... . I almost forgot ... .. Dreams Come True is from Japan.

While a few Japanese bands, such as Cibbo Matto, Shonen Knife and Pizzicato Five have established themselves as permanent fixtures on America's cult alter of underground sound, Japanese pop-music (called "J-Pops" in Japan) has yet to make an impression on the mainstream American music scene. Will it eventually? Probably not, and it's no mystery why.

Too many Americans still believe in the hilarious myth that the Japanese are good at copying and refining but lousy at inventing. An entire country with big brains but no creativity. Actually, a number of Japanese buy this bogus line as well. It's almost a shame that it isn't true because it makes it so much easier for us to pretend our free-market capitalism really gives us all the choices it's supposed to. Obviously the reason why there hasn't been a Japanese pop song to hit Number One of the U.S. Billboard charts since 1963 (Kyu Sakamoto's "Ue o muite aruko" - known as "The Sukiyaki Song" here) is because the rest of J-Pops hasn't been good enough, right ? Wrong.

The fact of the matter is that the Japanese music industry is the second largest in the world (next to you-know-who) and far more domestic albums are sold in Japan than imports from American and other countries combined. With the exception of Korea, J-Pops is widely distributed throughout East and Southeast Asia, meaning the biggest Japanese hits are enjoyed by hundreds of millions of people. So why don't we get to hear them?

English, English, English. It's all we are taught, all we need, and all we're interested in. For a country of immigrants, we're intolerant of anything but fluent American English. Cultural myopia is the price for inheriting today's lingua franca, and in the case of popular music, I think it's an outrageously high price to pay. It's tragically ironic that we're probably the only country in the world whose mainstream popular culture is so linguistically one-dimensional.

In light of this, there have been a handful of attempts made by J-Pops acts to break into the American market by recording a whole album in English. Dreams Come True's Sing or Die represents the latest attempt. So far, these experiments have all flopped, and I imagine Sing or Die won't make any dreams come true for the band or the anxious suits in Tokyo. This is completely the fault of inept record executives who think wrongly that the way to appeal to a large American audience is to be as safe and generic as possible.

Safe and generic, of course, are qualities relative to style, and style is by no means universal. If America's pop media aims at people from 16-20, Japan's aims at 12-16 year olds. This is why Hanson made a huge impact on Japan's music scene while Pearl Jam barely made a dent. The flagship acts of J-Pop are usually shallow and silly, with perhaps a little adolescent angst thrown in for flavor. What record executives need to understand is that this style of music has no future in America because we have more than enough of our own. There is some popular music in Japan, however, that is truly unique and could grab the ears of people around the world. It's a shame that these aren't the acts that Japanese record executives try to sell in America.

It is my opinion that no one can fully appreciate the state of popular music without experiencing the soulful genius of UA, the fiery fusion of The Boom, or the raging wit of Imawano Kiyoshiro. When I first heard Dreams Come True in Tokyo two years ago, I thought, "If any J-Pops had the potential to change popular music in America, this is it." When I learned of their all-English release, I felt like a prophet whose moment had come. My enthusiasm evaporated, however, soon after I listened to the album.

Lead singer Miwa Yoshida's performance is as stunning and impassioned as ever, but the music and English lyrics are not. Gone are the originality, the sexiness, and the subtelty. In their place we get hyper-produced, synthetic cheese that belongs in a Japanese beer commercial, not in my CD player.

The world we be a better place if two things happened: 1) If Americans engaged their media more actively, looking for good pop instead of just picking and choosing from the distilled domestic mainstream, and 2) If Japanese record executives could take note of the huge success of Bjork and the underground success of Pizzicato Five and learn that the only international acts who make it in America are the ones whose unique styles surprise and enchant us.

I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for either. Last night I went down to Tower Records by Fisherman's Wharf to watch a knock-out performance by Dreams Come True. Apparentely they're making the rounds, going to big city music stores to promote their recent release: Sing Or Die.

What's that? You haven't heard of Dream Come True? The good-looking, great-sounding trio that has sold nearly 30 million albums since 1989? The band with the astonishingly talented lead singer whose face made the cover of Time Magazine a couple years back? Oh yeah ... . I almost forgot ... .. Dreams Come True is from Japan.

While a few Japanese bands, such as Cibbo Matto, Shonen Knife and Pizzicato Five have established themselves as permanent fixtures on America's cult alter of underground sound, Japanese pop-music (called "J-Pops" in Japan) has yet to make an impression on the mainstream American music scene. Will it eventually? Probably not, and it's no mystery why.

Too many Americans still believe in the hilarious myth that the Japanese are good at copying and refining but lousy at inventing. An entire country with big brains but no creativity. Actually, a number of Japanese buy this bogus line as well. It's almost a shame that it isn't true because it makes it so much easier for us to pretend our free-market capitalism really gives us all the choices it's supposed to. Obviously the reason why there hasn't been a Japanese pop song to hit Number One of the U.S. Billboard charts since 1963 (Kyu Sakamoto's "Ue o muite aruko" - known as "The Sukiyaki Song" here) is because the rest of J-Pops hasn't been good enough, right ? Wrong.

The fact of the matter is that the Japanese music industry is the second largest in the world (next to you-know-who) and far more domestic albums are sold in Japan than imports from American and other countries combined. With the exception of Korea, J-Pops is widely distributed throughout East and Southeast Asia, meaning the biggest Japanese hits are enjoyed by hundreds of millions of people. So why don't we get to hear them?

English, English, English. It's all we are taught, all we need, and all we're interested in. For a country of immigrants, we're intolerant of anything but fluent American English. Cultural myopia is the price for inheriting today's lingua franca, and in the case of popular music, I think it's an outrageously high price to pay. It's tragically ironic that we're probably the only country in the world whose mainstream popular culture is so linguistically one-dimensional.

In light of this, there have been a handful of attempts made by J-Pops acts to break into the American market by recording a whole album in English. Dreams Come True's Sing or Die represents the latest attempt. So far, these experiments have all flopped, and I imagine Sing or Die won't make any dreams come true for the band or the anxious suits in Tokyo. This is completely the fault of inept record executives who think wrongly that the way to appeal to a large American audience is to be as safe and generic as possible.

Safe and generic, of course, are qualities relative to style, and style is by no means universal. If America's pop media aims at people from 16-20, Japan's aims at 12-16 year olds. This is why Hanson made a huge impact on Japan's music scene while Pearl Jam barely made a dent. The flagship acts of J-Pop are usually shallow and silly, with perhaps a little adolescent angst thrown in for flavor. What record executives need to understand is that this style of music has no future in America because we have more than enough of our own. There is some popular music in Japan, however, that is truly unique and could grab the ears of people around the world. It's a shame that these aren't the acts that Japanese record executives try to sell in America.

It is my opinion that no one can fully appreciate the state of popular music without experiencing the soulful genius of UA, the fiery fusion of The Boom, or the raging wit of Imawano Kiyoshiro. When I first heard Dreams Come True in Tokyo two years ago, I thought, "If any J-Pops had the potential to change popular music in America, this is it." When I learned of their all-English release, I felt like a prophet whose moment had come. My enthusiasm evaporated, however, soon after I listened to the album.

Lead singer Miwa Yoshida's performance is as stunning and impassioned as ever, but the music and English lyrics are not. Gone are the originality, the sexiness, and the subtelty. In their place we get hyper-produced, synthetic cheese that belongs in a Japanese beer commercial, not in my CD player.

The world we be a better place if two things happened: 1) If Americans engaged their media more actively, looking for good pop instead of just picking and choosing from the distilled domestic mainstream, and 2) If Japanese record executives could take note of the huge success of Bjork and the underground success of Pizzicato Five and learn that the only international acts who make it in America are the ones whose unique styles surprise and enchant us.

I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for either.

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