[LMB] AKICOTL: goth, emo and jrock

[Rachel Ganz]

 On Sun, 16 Dec 2007, Becca Price wrote:
 
 > I've just been informed (rather scornfully) that my daughter
 > isn't goth, but that her personal style is more accurately
 > called jrock.

malfoy responded....
 
 ARGH.  I cannot tell you how much I hate the term "jrock".  It's
 a horrible Americanism.  Kids who use it betray the fact that
 they know next to nothing about Japanese music.
 
 First of all, the proper term is "visual-kei" or "visual style".
 Japanese rock music (yes this all has to do with music styles and
 the way bands dress) comes in many flavours, most of which are
 not in any way gothic.  I listen to many Japanese rock musicians
 whom the J-rock fangirls have never, ever heard of and would
 never consider listening to.
 
 "J-rock" is supposed to mean "Japanese rock" but it is actually
 an awful Americanism, brought to you by the same people who think
 it's cool to call yourself an "otaku" (a horrible insult in
 Japanese--means the kind of geek/nerd who forgets to wash and
 prefers anime girls to real ones), for the "visual kei" style of
 music.  The style of dress worn by visual-kei musicians is
 referred to in Japan as "visual style", or in some cases "elegant
 gothic aristocrat", often abbreviated to EGA.
 <snip details of emo and got cloting types>

I'm very curious here, as to  your take on when a word-borrowing from another language becomes a "valid" Americanism. There are scads of English words which has a different meaning to the foreign word from which they derive (souvenir being a straightforward one).

Given that J-rock is not a Japanese word and doesn't describe a Japanese phenomenon, what is it that you find so offensive?

Rachel

Rachel Ganz

eleGanz technical writing and information design
rachel dot ganz at eleganz dot co dot uk

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