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» American teens watch J-pop music videos for the first time【Video】

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American teens watch J-pop music videos for the first time【Video】

Evie Nyan Jan 16, 2015
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We here at RocketNews24 love all things Japan and Asia so much that sometimes it comes as a slight shock when the rest of the world doesn’t share our passion. Still, with the advent of the internet and the amount of entertainment Japan exports to the west (Dragonball, Pokémon, Final Fantasy, etc), it’s no huge surprise to find kids in far-flung places who are pretty familiar with Japan and can name at least a few J-pop groups. Still, many teens out there don’t really get much exposure to Japanese stuff, so when they do, the results are pretty amusing to watch! In this video, which has piqued the interest of quite a few people online in Japan, regular American teens watch three J-pop music videos (from groups Perfume, EXILE and AKB48) and give their thoughts.

The video is part of the “Teens React” series on YouTube, which, as well as light-hearted videos on popular culture, also touches on more serious topics like “Teens React to Bullying.” Basically, it’s all about getting the reactions of modern-day teens on a range of different topics, including classic ’90s movies, retro video games, and current online fads and trends.

In “Teens React to J-pop,” the youngsters are tasked with watching the following music videos by three popular J-pop artists:

▼ Laser Beam by Perfume

▼ New Horizon by EXILE

▼ and Heavy Rotation by AKB48.

Before watching the video, can you guess which groups are being discussed in each of the following quotes from the teens?

“So Japanese.”

“This is like, getting a little suggestive…”

“I don’t know who the artist is. Everyone’s singing…”

“This reminds me of Kingdom Hearts.”

“That’s way too many people in one band!”

“I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of girls fangirling over them right now!”

“Who choreographed this? That guy needs to get fired.”

“It was kind of Lord of the Rings-y.”

“They all look 12, which makes this very weird to watch…”

“It was cute, and then it got weird…”

Here’s the video!

At the end of the video, the teens are asked their opinion not just on the music and performances they’ve just watched, but on certain industry norms in Japan (mostly focusing on the idol industry). Among the topics discussed are the concepts of “graduating” from a group to make way for new members, having an extremely large roster of performers within the same group, (Why do you need that many? – Jeordy) and the practice of banning group members from going on dates. (Jeez, extreme much? – Ethan)

While this video is undoubtedly funny and adorable, personally we’d be even more interested in seeing the spin-off series “Elders React” do a video on J-pop! Just imagine what your granny would think of AKB48’s skimpily dressed antics!

Source: AOL News
Images: Screenshots via YouTube