Popular Music in Japan

Transformation Inspired by the West

Professor or Dr. Toru Mitsui (Professor Emeritus, Kanazawa University, Japan)

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English

Bloomsbury Academic USA
24 February 2022

Easy listening, MOR music

Popular music in Japan has been under the overwhelming influence of American, Latin American and European popular music remarkably since 1945, when Japan was defeated in World War II. Beginning with gunka and enka at the turn of the century, tracing the birth of hit songs in the record industry in the years preceding the War, and ranging to the adoption of Western genres after the War--the rise of Japanese folk and rock, domestic exoticism as a new trend and J-Pop--Popular Music in Japan is a comprehensive discussion of the evolution of popular music in Japan. In eight revised and updated essays written in English by renowned Japanese scholar Toru Mitsui, this book tells the story of popular music in Japan since the late 19th century when Japan began positively embracing the West.

By: Professor or Dr. Toru Mitsui (Professor Emeritus Kanazawa University Japan)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic USA
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 308g
ISBN: 9781501391774
ISBN 10: 1501391771
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 24 February 2022
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Figures Preface Notes on names, spelling and translation A note on the cover image Transformation inspired by the West (1) 1. The French Revolution and the emergence of enka Transformation inspired by the West (2) 2. Songs in triple time sung in duple time Transformation inspired by the West (3) 3. “Sing Me a Song of Araby” and “My Blue Heaven”: When the production of hit songs began in the late 1920s Transformation inspired by the West (4) 4. Far Western in the Far East: Japanese Country & Western Transformation inspired by the West (5) 5. Music and protest in the late 1960s: the rise of underground folk Transformation inspired by the West (6) 6. Japan in Japan: looking for inexpensive, potential stars from abroad Transformation inspired by the West (7) 7. Nurturing the Japanese version of an American tradition: music from the South Transformation inspired by the West (8) 8. Domestic exoticism: a trend in the age of ‘world music’ Transformation inspired by the West (9) References Index

Toru Mitsui is Professor Emeritus of English and Music at Kanazawa University, Japan, where he taught the first postgraduate course in popular music studies in the country. He has been a corresponding editor for Popular Music since 1983, is on the Editorial Board of Popular Music History, and is an International Advisory Editor for Bloomsbury’s Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. His publications in English include Karaoke Around the World: Global Technology, Local Singing (co-edited with S. Hosokawa, 1998) and Made in Japan: Studies in Popular Music (edited, 2014).

Reviews for Popular Music in Japan: Transformation Inspired by the West

In this magisterial march through the history of Japanese popular music, Toru Mitsui shares with us the fine, fun, and surprising details of the happy marriage between Japanese makers of music and the music they loved, mastered, and elaborated. He tells the story of one of the 20th century's great and joyous achievements of profligate cultural synthesis. This is a Japanese story, an American story, and a global story. * Alan Tansmen, Professor of Japanese, University of California Berkeley, USA * Here is the first in-depth account of Japan’s popular songs and music spanning the whole century and a half of its modern and postmodern eras. Woven together with mini lectures providing historical contexts, Toru Mitsui’s thoroughly researched chapters reveal untold and often hilarious facts about how West met East in a nation’s singing. * Yoshiaki Sato, Professor Emeritus of American Studies and Pop Culture, University of Tokyo, Japan, and author of The Evolution of J-POP (1999) * An exhilarating map of the development of an entire nation’s songs, singers and fans, providing ample signposts of further ideas for your listening pleasure. * All the Anime *