Memes and Asian pop music
When Americans hear pop music from other countries, the tendency is to immediately assume that they are some kind of bad rip-off of the American originals. Now, barring the fact that often enough the originals are uninteresting pieces of fluff themselves, the argument does have at least some merit. In Asia, it seems like every major country has gone through a temporary period directly imitating Western culture before settling on a distinct identity of its own.
Part of that identity-building comes at the interface of ancient cultures and customs versus what is cool and modern. For many in the older generations, this is less of an interface and more of an insurmountable impasse, but for many of those growing up and making music today, there is a strong desire to retain cultural identity while keeping one’s hipness. The examples that will soon follow I think demonstrate that this goal is indeed achievable.