Blake Foster
December 20, 2010
Japanese Language, Culture and Society- Fall quarter
Music Studies in Japan, Part 1: The Folk Song Club and Music Club Culture
Club activities are an integral part of Japanese college life. Since I wanted to study music culture in Japan, entering the Folk Song Club has been a rewarding experience in both giving me a clear idea of musical tastes for Japanese college students and for the importance of the club to its members. Throughout the last ten weeks I have become more involved with the club and its members, after a period of disillusionment with the club culture in general. Through a shared interest in music and through the bonding that takes place while performing music together, however, my views on the club started to change. Several events and interactions within the Folk Song Club have given me a stronger sense of what the club means, both in its sociological aspects as well as its relation to music.
At the time of the school festival back in November, my participation in club activities still seemed frivolous; I viewed the club in the same way that I participated in it. The importance that the club activities held for its members was still something I could not put into a well-defined form. Even the trip I took with the Folk Song Club during the summer felt somewhat superficial in how the club behaved together, but I was I was aware of the importance that it held to its members. The school festival was a big event for the club for several reasons: the club would be performing music for the whole school, along with performing side by side with the other music club, “Keiongaku”. In addition, the club marked the end of the management term for third year club members, bringing in the new leadership of second year members who will carry on management of club activities into their third year. In this aspect, the club has a system of politics in its leadership, and some take it more seriously than others. The newly chosen leader of the club showed a great deal of reluctance and nervousness over the responsibility of the position. In this sense, members of the club might have an overblown perception of its importance to the point where they cannot enjoy it in the manner that many of the more senior members treat it. For college students who are fresh out of high school, however, their membership in the club can make up a huge part of their identity. Thus the responsibilities that come with being in the club can overshadow the aspect of it being an outlet for forging friendships through music; this is something that became apparent to me during the school festival.
Of particular importance was an event where graduated members of the club gathered together with the current Folk Song members (largely second year and above) to celebrate and toast to the progression of the club membership and for former members to meet the newly chosen club leader. What made the event particularly interesting was the initial formality before the usual unabashed drunken behavior; all current members had to stand up until all the senior members (there were probably over fifty that showed up) took their seats in the hall of the restaurant. The Folk Song Club is by no means as rigidly formal as some other club activities in Japanese colleges, but the formalities of such an occasion were still properly observed. After the formalities, however, everyone acted friendly and open, while still respectful. The newly chosen leader of the club appeared nervous throughout points of the evening, however, even expressing jealousy toward me due to me being a foreigner and largely indifferent to the hierarchy of club membership. Certainly, the devotion that many of these graduates had for their club was significant; some former members were into their thirties with careers and marriages. This signified a distinctly Japanese trait in the Folk Song Club; no matter how much time passed as members graduated from the University of Hyogo, some still felt a connection, even an obligation, to their club. This cultural trait extends into all reaches of Japanese culture; groups are often very important parts of individual identities. What added to the understanding of the Folk Song Club was what I learned about the musical interests of some former members. Many showed little enthusiasm for the musical element of the Folk Song Club; they explained what they played and did throughout their time in the club, but the actual club culture seemed to hold a higher place of importance. Even with current members of the club a distinction can be made between those who are seriously interested, and often gifted in music, and members who are simply in it for the social interaction.
The differences between members who are more interested in musical development and those who are content with the typical flow of the club can sometimes lead to conflicts of interest. A close friend of mine who is a former member of the club left for that reason; he felt his time could be better spent pursuing music by himself and with others outside of the Folk Song Club. I myself felt an initial disappointment with the attitudes of some of the club members when it came to performing music; many members do not welcome a challenge, and rather stick to playing with people they have always played with and covering bands that are at their level of playing skill. Japanese indie/pop bands such as “AKB48”, “Asian Kung-Fu Generation”, “Go!Go!7188”, “Maximum the Hormone”, etc., are covered over and over again, usually by the same members. For anyone looking to advance themselves musically, this tends to be the most frustrating aspect of the club. As there are several extremely talented first year club members amongst several others who are more into just going through the motions, it can be a trial as to whether to continue on with club activities.
This past week I took two first year members to see the aforementioned former member play one of his shows in Kobe. The type of music this member plays is very experimental and avant-garde, utilizing odd time structures and various effect pedals for his guitar. Him and another electric guitarist perform as a pair, neither one adding vocals, only dueling guitars with jazzy melodies. One song in the latter half of the set featured explosive delay effects, creating something reminiscent of The Beatles' “A Day In The Life”, which left a lasting impression on the two first year members who came along to see the show. After the show ended they expressed how inspired they were by it and how different it was from what they were used to in the Folk Song Club.
Their reaction to the difference of the music played was understandable. The Folk Song Club can often create an unintentional sense of oppression when it comes to playing music, in the sense that members feel pressured to deliver a similar energy and feeling in the kind of music that they play. They often feel discouraged from playing slower, less energetic songs in favor of heavily distorted riff-driven punk that prompts audience members to jump around in quasi-mosh-pits. When slower numbers are played, members will even apologize to the audience for playing a sad song. This atmosphere is likely due to many of the younger members wanting to mirror the more senior members in the type of music they played. In this sense, a sort of stagnation has developed in the club, and since the amount of members who are more into the social aspect of the club has increased, the variation in what members perform has largely dwindled down to three or four piece guitar cover bands. During the time of the school festival I learned from one older member that there used to even be Folk Song members who did hip-hop covers with sampler pads and other DJ equipment, among other variations in the kind of music played.
The member who played the avant-garde guitar work, however, once offered a sound opinion about the Folk Song Club. Although he dislikes the elements of conformity in terms of music and atmosphere, and felt that he could become a better musician by other means than playing in cover bands, he emphasized the importance of the relationships that the club creates. While some current members are not close with him as a result of him leaving the club, several members know and respect him because of his musical talent and his intelligence. Through this example, musical prowess can be achieved even in spite of the redundancy of musical performances. Often, it is the cover bands that do more off-beat or unconventional numbers that are most well-remembered within the club. Not only do these add variety to the typical club activities, but they often introduce new music to members who never would have heard of the bands on their own. In this way, even members who are less interested in music itself are able to witness various forms of music from other members, effectively enriching musical appreciation for members of the club.
While the time of the school festival was a major changing point in my understanding of the Folk Song Club, another pair of events that came around a month afterward also brought a deeper understanding of not only Folk Song but the “Keiongaku” Club as well. Virtually the same in its operations, the “Keiongaku” Club has a slightly different atmosphere. Members usually focus on technical proficiency in playing instruments, and even have aims of becoming artists signed to major record labels (in a sense similar to how professional sports players are often scouted at the college level). The term “Keiongaku” literally means “light music”, although the genres are just as varied as what is played in the Folk Song Club. Several schools have “Keiongaku” clubs, just as other schools have clubs entitled “Folk Song”. In spite of their subtle differences, musical clubs from different schools in the same areas will collaborate on concerts called “Joint Lives”. One or more bands from each school will play the same day in order to create a better awareness of other college music activities and in this case, to create a tighter bond between members of the Folk Song and “Keiongaku” clubs at the University of Hyogo. Through performing music, deeper friendships are formed between the two clubs, extending the importance of these musical club activities beyond either of the two clubs alone.
Two “Joint Lives” were held throughout this last month. The first featured clubs from Universities in the are around the University of Hyogo campus in Kobe. There were about four or five schools who had bands perform, me being a member of one of the three bands from the Folk Song Club. Members from the different schools also convene for a night of celebration and drinking after the shows end. The second “Joint Live” was held this last weekend at an impressively large venue in Osaka. Eight different colleges participated, and the variety of music played offered a refreshing change of pace from the more typical faire of club events. There was even a group that played original songs, as well as group with an extremely skilled female pianist and vocalist. “Joint Lives” therefore not only create closer ties between different clubs and create social networks, but give the opportunity for club members to see how other musicians perform.
Taking part in performing more shows with club members has also been crucial to understanding how club members bond with each other. The reason many club members may choose to play with the same people is because of the shared sense of responsibility in putting on a decent show. By working together members feel obligated to not only the people they play for but to members within the band. Because of this strong sense of teamwork, first year members who just picked an instrument are often able to play (passably) in shows after a matter of months. Another result of members choosing to play shows with the same people each time is that within the club, cliques are created, and they do not always interact with other club members with the same closeness they feel with members they have played with time and again. I myself have alternated playing with two different groups of members in the club. While the lineup has not been exactly the same each time, I have, for instance, played with the same drummer for three separate shows. The decisions of who plays with who are sometimes made several months in advance of the actual shows. Understanding the dynamic of how members play together has been a major part of understanding relationships within the Folk Song Club.
In terms of both music and club culture, this last academic quarter has been eye-opening. Having undersold the complexity of the Folk Song Club during the last quarter, becoming more active within the club has revealed just how much I had and still have to learn. More than just music, participating in the Folk Song Club has shown how seriously many Japanese feel about their commitments to club activities. The Folk Song Club has its own culture, hierarchy and politics, and while I and some other members may not always feel comfortable with these club dynamics, making the effort to understand them rather than merely reject them has brought me further into understanding Japanese culture than I had before. While there may be issues with the club becoming too redundant in its activities, many of its members nonetheless forge life-long relationships because of their participation in it. Since music is such a universal part of human nature, being in a music-related club has been the perfect place to observe this important part of the Japanese college experience and gain a better understanding of the dynamics of Japanese society. Because of a shared interest in music, the cultural differences between myself and several of the Folk Song members has also been bridged, showing that the world of the Folk Song Club and other college music club activities can create a rich and positive experience for young Japanese, and though I have made several leaps forward in trying understand this world, there is undoubtedly far more to be learned.
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