>>460600739They didn't market it because the American market kept saying that Americans would never embrace Japanese products
In a documentary on X-Japan (the Band), Gene Simmons says if they weren't Japanese, they would be popular in America.
In the 90s anything that was coming from Japan had to be heavily Americanized despite these products being very popular everywhere else around the world. Like Sailor Moon and Saint Seiya. I guess America is just different.
Even when Pokemon was coming to America. Execs thought Pokemon would never sell and suggested they should make Pikachu a sexy woman instead of a fun creature that appeals to both boys and girls (this confused the shit out of boomers for some reason). They tried like hell to Americanize Pokemon but it was undisputedly Japanese. Then execs realized kids aren't anti-Japanese, that Japan is a gold mine of products and the rest is history.
As far as music goes, Jpop probably didn't take off because of its association with anime. Anime was still niche so the only people who'd listen to it would be people into anime.
Kpop didn't have the same associations and started getting promoted in a time when companies realized Americans like Asian things, so it was able to market to larger audiences. It is also to note that America stopped making boy bands after the 2000s so 2010s teenage girls had this huge void that needed to be filled with pretty men.
tl;dr Listen jpop walked to kpop could run
