MUSC - Lecture 7

Historical Overview of Post-1900s Japanese Music

• Following earlier Gagaku and Shakuhachi folk traditions, Japanese music underwent significant transformations from the early 1900s onward, evolving into modern popular music genres.

• A stylistic comparison between iconic artists separated by roughly a decade—such as Hibari Misora and Hikaru Utada—demonstrates drastic musical evolution influenced by global developments.

• Hikaru Utada's late-1990s track Automatic represents an R&B-infused J-pop genre characterized by total adaptation of Western elements, Western instrumentation, and Western genres like R&B.

• The spread and integration of foreign musical influences into Japanese music represents globalization and westernization.

• Socio-historical drivers of Westernization in Japanese popular music:

  • Post-World War II and post-atomic bomb historical context in which Japan lost World War II.

  • Societal emotions post-WWII were predominantly angry, melancholic, and downtrodden both economically and socially.

  • These societal feelings directly impacted the emotional landscape and trajectory of popular music genres.

• Contrast between major genres:

  • Enka: A sad, melancholic, ballad-like genre that developed over several decades, capturing the sentimental soul of wartime and post-war Japan.

  • J-Pop and City Pop (1980s–1990s): Represent a deliberate sonic break from traditional Japanese music (such as Shakuhachi and Gagaku) and Enka. Serves as a sonic representation of modern, urban, fast-paced progress.

• Persistence of Enka as a ghostly undercurrent:

  • Enka never completely disappeared; its melodic sadness and restrained vocal expressiveness persist beneath modern genres.

  • This undercurrent appears in anime soundtracks, Vocaloid soundtracks, karaoke culture, and dramatic J-pop idol group ballads.

Enka: History, Vocal Styles, and Theoretical Elements

• Enka evolved as a sorrowful, nostalgic, and sentimental music genre focused on forlorn love, homesickness, and personal tragedy.

• Historical evolution of Enka:

  • Yomiuri (Yomi yori): Centuries-old street balladeers, wandering minstrels, and troubadours who acted as singing newscasters, wandering around to sing about current events and poke fun at local authorities.

  • Meiji Period (up to 1912): In the 1880s, political speech and direct public gatherings against the shogunate and government were banned. Activists used Yomiuri songs to communicate political dissent and criticize the government while remaining free from legal prosecution.

  • Etymology: The term Enka was formed in the Meiji period from two words: enzetsu (speech) and ka (song), meaning "speech song."

  • 20th Century & Post-WWII (post-1945): Shifted from political speech-songs to popular entertainment and sentimental storytelling, becoming the soundtrack for rebuilding Japan while holding onto traditional values amid American occupation (which introduced jazz).

  • Media Dissemination: Radio and recording technologies created a unified national market for Enka.

• Vocal and stylistic characteristics:

  • Emotional, sorrowful delivery where performers frequently cried during performances.

  • Kobushi: An ornamented, wavering pitch and shaky vibrato technique that mimics sobbing or crying, influenced by traditional instruments like the Shakuhachi.

  • Melisma / Melismatic Singing:

  • Syllabic singing maintains a $1:1$ ratio of one note per syllable (e.g., "Joy to the World").

  • Melismatic singing features multiple notes sung over a single syllable (expressed as an $X:1$ notes-to-syllable ratio, seen in modern R&B).

  • Enka uses dramatic, melismatic slides between notes to create a nasal, plaintive tone that sounds on the verge of tears.

• Harmony and Scales:

  • Utilizes traditional five-note pentatonic scales associated with Koto and Shakuhachi:

  • Yo Scale: A major-sounding five-tone pentatonic scale.

  • In Scale: A pentatonic scale featuring $E\flat$ and $B\flat$, giving it a minor sound.

  • Structured around dramatic melodic climaxes expressing deep emotional distress.

• Instrumentation:

  • Combines traditional Japanese instruments such as the Shamisen (a three-stringed lute) and the Shakuhachi with Western orchestral instruments to produce a cinematic, mournful sound.

Iconic Enka Figures and Works

• Hibari Misora:

  • Regarded as a national cultural treasure in Japan (comparable to Elvis Presley or Dolly Parton in the United States).

  • Recorded over 1,200 songs and appeared in over 60 motion pictures.

  • Performed Enka, jazz, and foundational modern J-pop; a museum was dedicated in her honor in 1994.

  • Established Enka as the mainstream genre of Japanese popular music through the 1980s.

• Kanashii Sake ("Sad Sake"):

  • Tells the story of drinking sake alone at a bar to drown loneliness and grief over a lost, unrequited love, where discarded memories resurface in the glass.

  • Uses a minor pentatonic scale consisting of $G$, $A$, $B\flat$, $D$, and $E\flat$.

  • Employs kobushi vibrato and breath-based rhythm rather than a rigid tempo.

  • Incorporates traditional aesthetics such as Ma (dramatic space/pauses) and extreme breath control reminiscent of Shakuhachi technique, blended with Western orchestral backing.

• Kawa no Nagare no Ni:

  • Hibari Misora's final single before her death in 1989, considered a secular hymn in Japan.

  • Themes include life, aging, memory, hardship, hope, love, and acceptance.

  • Uses the central metaphor of human life as a river moving continuously forward through obstacles without returning to the past.

  • Features simple repeating patterns ideal for karaoke (a technology developed by Japanese sound engineers).

• Transnational Influence:

  • Enka became a transnational music tradition, heavily influencing early Chinese popular music, which adopted its ballad-like aesthetic.

Transition to J-Pop, New Music, and the City Pop Movement

• Post-1950s musical shifts:

  • Re-introduction of jazz alongside mambo, blues, country, rock, and R&B.

  • Example: Uemuito Aruko (Sukiyaki), a global pre-rock crooner/doo-wop hit featuring Western instrumentation (flutes, trumpets, band).

• Karaoke culture and generational divergence:

  • Karaoke served as a ritual of emotional release and masculinity for middle-aged businessmen singing Enka or English ballads.

  • A generational split formed between older generations listening to Enka and youth moving toward J-pop.

• New Music Movement:

  • A youth rebellion against Enka's old-fashioned sentimentality led by artists like Tatsuro Yamashita and Yumi Matsutoya.

  • Stripped away kobushi vibrato in favor of a crisp, Americanized, straight, and rhythmic vocal delivery.

  • Shifted lyrics from melancholy and nature toward upbeat, urban, romantic themes with code-switching (mixing English and Japanese).

• City Pop (Late 1970s–1980s):

  • Sound: Bright, clean, polished production blending electronic and analog instruments. Metro, light, breezy, driving music lacking acoustic strings or traditional nature references.

  • Musical Influences: African American musical styles including R&B, soul, jazz fusion, disco, and funk.

  • Cultural Context: Complete absence of traditional Japanese markers (no pentatonic scales, no Enka vocal effects). Associated with the Japanese "Bubble Era"—an age of economic optimism and affluent youth embracing post-war consumer culture.

  • Technology: Invention of the Sony Walkman enabled mobile listening, reinforcing coastal driving and vacation themes over stationary city references.

City Pop Aesthetics, Revival, and Theoretical Frameworks

• Visual Culture and Illustrators:

  • Visual media (album covers, CD booklets, radio magazines) dominated the identity of City Pop. Illustrators often enjoyed longer careers than the musical artists.

  • Album art featured motifs of leisure, swimming pools, California-like settings, and Japanese skylines (such as Tokyo) presented as transnational Americanized cities.

• Theoretical Definitions:

  • Semiosphere (Yuri Lotman, 2001): A popular music genre operates as a semiosphere in a music ecological system that engages in semiotic translation across collective identities.

  • The term "city music" or "city pop" originated as a "feeling word" in 1977 (referencing the band Happy End) and in a 1981 article regarding Matsushita Makoto's album First Light.

• Happy End:

  • Recognized as a foundational city pop band despite their work having explicit political themes—mourning the loss of "Lost Tokyo" due to post-WWII and post-1964 Olympic urban redevelopment.

  • Lead singer published essays detailing the linguistic adaptation of Japanese lyrics into 16-beat American rock frameworks.

• Historical Resurgence of City Pop:

  • Late 1980s: Faded as J-pop and the Band Boom emerged.

  • 2002: Resurfaced through Japanese disc guides and club DJs in Tokyo sampling old City Pop tracks.

  • 2010s Global Resurgence: Spread via the internet microtrend of vaporwave, an aesthetic critique of consumerist nostalgia under late capitalism.

  • Visual elements included 1980s anime artwork and computer-generated Latin alphabet text.

  • Brechtian Alienation Device: City Pop's familiarity paired with foreign elements disrupted standard retro-pop nostalgic effects, evoking nostalgia for an unexperienced time and place.

Questions & Discussion

• Question: Why do Western listeners feel nostalgic for a time and place they never actually experienced?

  • Response: The music offers a freeing, chill atmosphere that communicates a universally relatable mood and emotion, allowing listeners to feel nostalgia regardless of prior acquaintance with the music.

• Question: Did the apolitical origins of City Pop contribute to its genre dilution during its modern resurgence?

  • Discussion Focus: Modern resurgence context, aesthetic shifts, and the 1981 City Pop classic Fly Day Chinatown by Yasuha.