Japanese Rock Music is Not Going to Die

What kind of music do you like to listen to?

When I was a student, I listened to many genres of music.

Folk, rock, pop, jazz, classical, new age, enka, et cetera.

What is it? Are you unaware of the last "enka" genre of music?

It is the national music genre of Japan.

For example, it is the American equivalent of country music or R&B.

For example, it is like the Brazilian samba.

For example, it is the equivalent of the French chanson.

To give an example, it might be the Jamaican equivalent of ska.

To give an example, it can even be compared to the Celtic music of Scotland.

For example, it could be compared to Argentine tango.

By way of example, it could be the Russian music Chastoshka.

For example, it could be the Kecak of Indonesia.

For example, it could be Bongo Flava from Tanzania....

This is not the end of the story.

Enka is, in essence, a uniquely Japanese developed genre of music that the Japanese prefer.

It is generally preferred by the post-middle age generation. Of course, even few younger people like it. Some children inherit enka from their grandparents or from their parents from an early age.

Do you want to know what kind of music enka is? It's hard to explain music in words.

To briefly summarize, enka is a musical genre in which people sing emotionally or sentimentally. It uses violins, acoustic guitars, organs, pianos, accordion, saxophone, etc. are used as accompaniment instruments. 

One feature is the lack of percussion instruments. Also, often the chorus singers liven up their songs. The content of the songs, not all of them, is predominantly sad love songs. So the chords in enka music are mostly minor chords.

For female singers, they mostly sing in kimonos. Beautiful kimonos are important and singers are very particular about their costumes.

Sorry.

The title of today's blog was "Japanese Rock", wasn't it?

Now, let me explain.

　

The Japanese rock genre is a relatively small one, in this world.

If I said that, someone would argue that's not true.

In fact, if you analyze Japanese rock music, it could be subdivided into smaller categories.

But that would be a minor classification.

There are those who say that the classification of genres is nonsense to begin with. I don't disagree with that either.

It's just a matter of convenience to label them.

What I'm referring to is superficial musical styles.

At this point, the opinions of the critics are unnecessary.

To be clear, Japanese rock was built as an extension of pop music.

In Japan's small (but powerful) music industry, rock can only survive under the dominance of commercialism.

They also have the option of being indie. But most of them don't even have the opportunity to make an album. And even if they do, there's no place to release them. That's a sad thing.

I think there are some Japanese artists who really want to rock, but the environment doesn't allow them to do so. To put it simply, they can't eat.

That's the problem with the nature of the Japanese music industry. At the same time, Japanese artists don't have the energy to break out of that environment.

Rock music is an aberration. It's always seemed that way in Japan.

Rock music began in Japan in the early 1950s. It was the era of Elvis Presley in the United States. He became very popular in Japan as well. At the time, they sang the lyrics of American hits translated into Japanese. That must have been quite a stretch; the Japanese rockers of the 50's were like mere impersonators. But a rabid fan base lifted them to stardom.

The Beatles took the world by storm in the 1960s. Japan was no exception. When they came to Japan, the craze was even stronger, and soon many sub-genre artists emerged.

This was called "Group Sounds" in Japan. The Spiders, The Tigers and Tempters were the most popular of all.

I have an interesting point to make about Japanese rock music. In Japan, rock music was already popularized in the 60's and was absorbed by the huge pop industry. This phenomenon would occur 20 years later in the U.S. and the U.K. In the '60s, Western artists were inclined to be anti-establishment. That was during the Vietnam War and the Cold War. It was Rock's mission to stand up to the state and power. It was embraced and nurtured by many young people.

In Japan, those anti-capitalism movements were the domain of folk artists and students. Rock musicians were less interested in politics. During this period, Japanese rockers fell into the underground.

The 70s saw an interesting development in the Japanese pop scene. Anti-establishment folk descended, pop folk renamed itself called “New Music”, and started appearing on TV. 

They didn't talk about politics, but sang the Love Song, which was very popular. There was a huge response. It was like having 100 SImon & Garfunkels in the house.

Again, it was the rise of industrialist music.

The US and the UK had a similar thing happen in the 80s. Music videos went viral, visuals became important, and Michael surpassed the Jacksons. In rock, fashion was more important than musicality. Western rock, too, was brought under the control of capitalism.

The number of idol-like rock artists in the US and UK  increased dramatically. It was a huge success as an industry.

In the meantime, Japanese rock was like a subway. They kept running through the dark tunnels.

I'm sorry. The story of Japanese rock music is still going on.

to be continued.