SCHOOL LIFE/SPECIAL STUDIES: Seminar Presentation

Blake Foster

OVERVIEW:

For this presentation I wanted to explain the development of Japanese popular music in regards to Western influence. The reason I want to study is that music plays an important role in human lives and studying its growth and influence can reveal a lot about society during certain periods.

PERIOD FROM 1956-59:

After the end of World War II, the bans on foreign music that had existed since the rise of militarism in the 1930s was lifted, and the music that was popular with American soldiers who were occupying post-war Japan created a large influence on Japanese music and society. Jazz became popular in the postwar climate, but the real root of Japanese rock lies in Country and Western music, particularly Rockabilly, one of the earliest forms of rock and roll music.

"Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets and "Heartbreak Hotel" by Elvis Presley were some of the first major American pop hits in Japan.

Around this time Japanese artists began to cover many foreign songs with Japanese lyrics. It would be from here that elements of Western pop entered Japanese song writing.

PERIOD FROM 1960-63:

The development of Japanese pop music increased during this period, particularly when Sakamoto Kyu, an Elvis fan, wrote the song "Ue Wo Muite Arukou" which became a hit in the United States under the song name "Sukiyaki". This song was the first Japanese song to appear on American record charts. It is important to note this period because a Japanese pop song was able to breakthrough into English-speaking countries as a hit record, making it obvious that Japanese music had a Western influence at the time.

PERIOD FROM 1964-1965:

This period was known as the Electric Boom in Japan, caused by a visit from American band The Ventures (http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fm20080807r2.html), which gave popularity to the electric guitar.

During this period The Beatles also grew in popularity.

PERIOD FROM 1966-1968:

Following The Beatles' performance at Budokan in Tokyo in 1966, the influence of rock and roll created a large impact on Japanese music. This period was characterized by a wave of bands, dubbed as "Group Sounds" in Japan, along with influences from Folk Rock and other popular American and British musical genres.

PERIOD FROM 1968-1972, 1973-1978:

The progression of Japanese pop music into more complicated song structures came with the "New Music" movement. Japanese rock music, which remained an underground genre compared to enka, became a more popular genre during this period, such as with the emergence of Japanese rock band Southern All Stars. Electronic music also gained popularity during this period; along with Southern All Stars, Ryuichi Sakamoto's group Yellow Magic Orchestra made their debut in 1978. It was during this period that modern Japanese pop music began to take shape.

PERIOD FROM 1979-1982, 1983-1987, 1988-1990, 1991-?:

During the 80s Japanese rock music became a lot more popular, and more traditional genres of Japanese popular music such as Enka were either absorbed into the emerging popular Japanese music or died out. Idol singers, both male and female, gave way to marketing pop music as a massive business in Japan. In the 1990s the term "J-Pop" came into popular use. Genres of J-pop began to branch out as well into sub-genres like "J-Rock", "J-Hip-Hop", etc.

WESTERN INFLUENCE ON JAPANESE MUSIC:

The influence of Western music styles, particularly from the United States and from England with The Beatles, came to affect Japanese music in a profound way. I find it interesting how at first, Japanese music remained in more traditional music structures and then eventually led to more standard pop-structures from American and British popular music. However, I still believe that popular Japanese music is uniquely Japanese.

CONCLUSION:

While the influence of Western music is very strong, I believe that the influence of this music most strongly affects the “face value” of Japanese culture. Through the effects of Westernization the music style has changed, but I believe that the core culture of Japan remains the same seen through popular music. While genres such as Punk-rock and hip-hop may have created huge subcultures in the United States, England and other countries, the subcultures that form in Japan are in my opinion more based on the popular image of subcultures. The music style may change, but Japanese people who listen to it do not always change from their cultural traditions and thinking. Still, Japanese music has been changed by Western musical genres, especially from the United States, and the Westernization of Japanese culture which saw the changing or loss of older Japanese pop-music forms which led to the creation of “J-pop” shows that Western music had a large impact on Japan. This led to many talented Japanese musicians expressing their art in new ways, but the emergence of J-pop also made music into a large business in Japan, just like in America and England. Because of this, only some artists with some images can be successful in music in Japan, and popular music loses originality. Because the same formula for J-pop is used by the Japanese music business, newer Japanese musicians may only try to do the same kind of music and not try to create something different. The music business for J-pop even now is clearly influenced by American pop music. This shows that the Westernization effect on Japanese music still persists today.

LANGUAGE LEARNING SUMMARY: Language learning during Spring quarter (Apr. through Jun.)

 This post is to explain, belatedly, what I am taking at Hyogo University in terms of language classes, for the purpose of describing my efforts for the language-learning aspect of my independent contract for Spring quarter at the Evergreen State College. I am taking about 9 hours of classes in full Japanese per week, and about 7.5 hours of those classes constitute direct Japanese language learning. Every class is 90 minutes long.

 MONDAY- I have a class entitled "Studies of multi-cultural co-existence" during the first period. This class consists of lectures in Japanese describing how different cultures live together in different countries of the world, and students write responses to lectures every week, which I have been consistent with. There are also occasional larger essays, and I have competed one essay so far. These essays are in Japanese, of course, and therefore reinforce essay-writing in Japanese.The other class I have Monday during third period is "Technical/Specialized Japanese," and is a class designated for exchange students (the entirety of the class is Chinese, except for me). The instructor for this class gives me supplemental studies that more match my Japanese level, and I have completed all the assignments in this class. This class teaches Japanese for economics, business and historical specialties among teaching everyday grammar and so forth.

 TUESDAY- I have a class during second period called "Intercultural Communication". While this class does not directly teach Japanese, it is a regular college class that other Japanese students take, and I am able to understand the subject material when it's all in Japanese. The class teaches about how different cultures communicate with each other. There are no real official assignments but sometimes there are writing exercises which I regularly complete.

 THURSDAY- I have a Japanese class during first period, which again is for exchange students. This class focuses on essay-writing and learning how to write prose in Japanese. This is the class I have performed the least well in, as I have not completed some of the essays that were assigned. There was however an exam which required writing an essay in response to a question and some corresponding data in which you had to use in-text citations. I haven't received the results to this exam yet but I did complete it and managed to express my thoughts.Second period on Thursday I have Chinese language class, which teaches it all in Japanese. It teaches the Chinese language on an intermediate level, and it also manages to teach me some Japanese as well. Since this class doesn't directly teach Japanese, it would be the class I would potentially exclude from the 9 hours of classes I have in Japanese every week (bringing the count to 7.5 hours). Fourth period on Thursday is my seminar class, which requires the creation of presentations on certain subjects related to globalization, culture, society, nationalism etc. The subject I have chosen is how American music changed Japanese music and culture after the end of World War II. I am to present next Thursday. I don't suggest that you wait until I give my presentation to include it for work done in Spring quarter, but I will post something on the blog in regards to how I did the presentation. The class doesn't really have any assignments other than that, but it has provided valuable learning in terms of listening to other students present their work in Japanese.

 Throughout the language learning process of this quarter, I have made improvements in both my writing skills and listening skills on a weekly basis. While I have not performed well in some of the classes I have noticed growth in my language skills as a result of these classes. Even more so than formal education, as well, speaking Japanese on a regular basis with people at Hyogo University, particularly in the Folk Song Club, as well as outside the university, has improved my language fluency to the highest its ever been. Learning Japanese kanji independently as well gives me a better grasp on written Japanese. I have learned 250 kanji thus far and will continue to learn new ones. Because of the time I have spent thus far in Japan my Japanese ability has increased dramatically, and with further diligence in formal studies in the future, I am sure I can reach full fluency in spoken language and near-full fluency in written language by the end of my exchange in Hyogo. Overall I rate my language-learning success as personally rewarding, albeit largely informal in terms of academics. Certainly, this progress would not have been possible without living in Hyogo on this academic exchange.

Japanese Rightists

A car bearing some imperial insignia just drove by down on the street below blasting from loud-speakers an old war anthem, driving slowly in the middle of the two-lane street while cars behind it inched along anxiously, and the old policemen flooded out of the adjacent station to watch before deciding not to even bother with it.

CULTURE: Daytime in Sannomiya, Motomachi Pt. 1

 Kobe is a fashionable town, a jazzy town, a socially diverse town, among many other adjectives that could be attributed to it. Just as during the night, during the day it bustles. At first I didn't like it; I was trying desperately to find a guitar shop and searched the area for three to four hours to no avail. I was pissed at Sannomiya and Kobe, just as I am at a lot of places until I get to know them better. Now that I have managed to navigate the many streets and areas of metropolitan Kobe (and found a guitar shop) I can safely say it's a town I love.

 The regular ingredients for a large Japanese city center are there: several train stations, three or four major department stores, innumerable karaoke buildings, bowling alleys, foreign cuisine restaurants (even a whole China Town district, which I might get into later), small boutiques, cafes, tourist attractions, whatever. In spite of having so much, though, you still never get the idea that you're in a place like Tokyo or Osaka, giving it a less busy, homier feeling. Toward Motmachi station, the train tracks are built over a long (over a mile or so) tunnel-like path that's lined with shops, restaurants, bars, cafes, etc. Across from this street, on the other side away from Motomachi, is another equally long, wider, covered shopping street that's only for bicycles and pedestrians. The wider street features designer/brand names stores while the narrower one that runs under the train tracks of the JR (Japan Railways) train line through Motomachi has smaller, mostly clothing stores. Outside from this straight shot from Sannomiya Station through Motomachi to Kobe Station (situated in a rather dull location for bearing the city's namesake) is a whole world of places I have yet to explore, which is why I'll explain what's in these shopping streets in this entry.

 The smaller, narrower shopping street definitely offers a unique experience in Kobe. This is because this path is situated beneath the train tracks of the JR railway line from Sannomiya through Kobe station. While walking in this narrow path you can often hear the rumbling of passing trains overhead. The beginning part is almost entirely made of clothing stores. As you go further, however, it becomes more and more like a flea market, with elderly people selling old electronic and home appliances, used records, video games, books, magazines, and loads and loads of pornography, a lot of it on retro VHS. The amount of customers that come toward this end of the spectrum on the narrow shopping street become less and less and less and less young, spare a few adventurous young couples that make their way through. It might be embarrassing for people to go there considering what's sold there (you can even buy used slot machines and Pachinko machines).

 The larger and wider street, which I explained previously, features more official vendors for merchandise. It's a place with a large amount of pedestrian traffic and a defining feature of the Kobe area. Along with offering shops it offers shelter from stormy weather while traveling to various parts of the Sannomiya/Motomachi area. This street, too, runs to the JR Kobe station in the same way that the smaller path street does. Connecting alongside these streets are several large department stores such as "Center Plaza". These department stores have clothing stores and other places suited for typical tastes but also feature floors of shops for the hobby-enthusiast "otaku"s (a word that literally means "home" but refers "maniacs" in Japanese society obsessed with Japanese animation, video games, etc).

 With the differences in stores along these shopping streets and in the department stores there are many different crowds of people who frequent them. This gives Kobe an eclectic range of tastes in what it offers for the interests of its people. Whether they are fashionable, hip, introverted and obsessed, adventurous or whatever, there's something in Kobe for everyone and it often wears this fact on its sleeve. The areas I described however are only a small part what Kobe has to offer, likely a lot more than I'll have time to see during my time here.

CULTURE/SPECIAL INTEREST: Nightlife in Sannomiya Pt. 2: Street Music

 Every night that you go to Sannomiya in Kobe, no matter what night of the week it is, you are guaranteed to see someone performing music. The local buskers don't usually have permits or any kind of permission to perform where they do, and usually get a visit from local police who stop the shows. Sometimes it's just an acoustic guitar and a microphone; at its most impressive it's a full four-piece band with amps and drums and everything; at its most pitiful and embarrassing it's a guy with a microphone and an iPod, struggling to make some kind of impression from his vocals over the muffled instrumental pumping from the speakers (see man with mic in picture below).

 In Kobe, the most frequently occupied area to perform music is in the above picture, a park outside the Sannomiya subway station dubbed by my peers as "Paiyama" (I can only assume, as it's written パイ山, literally meaning 'breast mountain', that the literal meaning holds the same). This area is a popular meeting place for Japanese people and various foreigners, and always has somebody around for the musicians to play for. The usual performers are acoustic guitar-players, usually doing covers or playing original songs that might as well be covers of Japanese pop-folk acts like Yuzu ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuzu_(band) ). They generally fail to leave a significant impression, but I always make sure to cheer, clap, and show them support when I'm in their vicinity, even if they suck, it makes it all that more important to spare their unconfident public performing (and most of the time the buskers reek of being unconfident).

 Often times they will have recordings of their music for sale; now, I sell my debut album in Japan at about 600 yen per CD. This is with professional printing, 13 songs, over an hour of music and everything. Many street artists in Japan sell their 2-8 track demos for a thousand yen, about ten dollars, on burnt CD-R discs with shabbily (or sometimes creatively cute) CD cover slips. If I am generous or take a liking to the music I will pay the steep fees that they charge. The quality of their sound recording and mastering, too, leaves a lot to be desired for the price you pay. It can't really be helped, because they are amateurs and recording is expensive in Japan, but I can't help but feel these street artists would leave a bigger impact if they took a loss on their recordings and sold their records cheaply or, as the smarter and usually more prominent street artists do, give demos for free. In underground music it's a certain taboo to try to sell your record right off the bat. Trying to turn a profit when still playing sometimes shoddy sets on the street is a sure-fire ticket to nowhere, especially in a music industry as rigid and steep as Japan's.

 And so I also wonder what they possibly hope to accomplish by putting their hearts and souls into street busking. Not many of them stand out, and the ones who do stand out are still following a formula and may not have that special edge to break into the industry. From some of the musicians that I have spoken to, mostly young college-aged kids, they do it for fun. Others who put loads of effort into their self-advertising seem to really be interested in making a career of music. The sad fact is that a lot of them won't go anywhere. Playing the Westernized style of music that they do, and following a Westernized romantic notion of following one's dream, the ones who lack talent and originality, and for the Japanese record industry, most importantly, good looks and a flashy image, they will probably not succeed in performing music. Knowing how Japanese society functions, it's a somber truth that many of these performers are probably aware of. And yet, in the night, you can always find them, ceaselessly performing until some party-crasher calls the police to quiet down the desperation of their noise.

CULTURE/SPECIAL INTEREST: Ambient music live show in Shioya

 This is a long overdue post, but here it does offer a lot in the themes I've been presenting about music, Japanese society, and all of that. My musically-knowledgeable former Folk Song-member of a friend told me about a live show at a venue in the small coastal area of Shioya, very close to the closest station to my residence, Tarumi. The venue caters to experimental, rare kinds of music, and he said it certainly is an experience that not many Japanese know about. And so it was natural to go and see it.

 I was surprised at the quaintness and seaside beauty of the area when I got off the train. Apparently there's a lot to be found in Shioya, as there was a tourist map in the station detailing different paths up through the neighborhoods. When my friend arrived to the station he started telling me about how interesting the area was. According to a friend of his who lives there, it's very popular with gay men, featuring a gay beach where the fishermen will tell you they're 'fishing for men'. The "quaintness" of the area certainly could translate to "cuteness" which would be an obvious draw to gays (sorry if I'm stereotyping). After the initial "If gays like this place what does that say about my tastes?" self-questioning that any slightly homophobic American would question, I settled into the surrounding scenery which featured a lot of foreign architecture amongst traditional Japanese-style buildings. Focusing my eyes on a European-styled house that sat across the train tracks, I soon found that was the venue.

 

 Outside on the porch of the house (vantage point in the photo above) we took a smoke break before going inside. The musicians performing were Austrian, and I wasn't completely sure at the time what kind of music they did, but it turned out to be ambient. Ambient is not a genre I know too much about or care to listen to, but the experience of seeing it live and in Japan was rewarding on different levels.

 I won't go into too much detail on the performance of the performers as they weren't Japanese. Mainly, it was interesting to see how people listened to the music. Many of the listeners, including my friend, sat with their heads hanging down, cross-legged on the floor. As ambient attempts to create an effective mood or sense of place, the people listening in this manner probably had a better grasp on how to listen to ambient music than the other listeners who would watch the artists performing (I was among these listeners a lot of the time) the various sounds that added to the atmosphere of the music. There were two Japanese artists that collaborated with the Austrian group during the show, one of them a Japanese woman with a Yoko Ono vibe making bizarre vocalizations, the other a young man who uses old Gameboys to produce sounds. Other listeners would sit there, quietly trying to eat the Udon noodles that were being served at the bar of the venue.

 At the end of the night it was clear that places and events like this are what make up real underground culture in Japan. By real, I mean that it's completely under the radar of the normal Japanese person. It doesn't necessarily denote any more value as being underground, but serves as a distinction between superficial underground and counter-culture in Japan. As I will explain later, superficial counter-culture often flows in the same stream as mainstream society; a live show I went to the other night as King's Cross, the venue used for Folk Song performances, featured thrash metal music, which drew a much tamer crowd than a show of that genre would in the United States. Ambient music, however, is a completely foreign concept to a lot of Japanese, and judging from the few people (about fifteen or so, not a huge crowd for an internationally touring Austrian ambient group, but then again what kind of a crowd is normal for an Austrian ambient group?)  that did show up for the show in Shioya, it doesn't serve as a level of underground or counter-culture that's been popularized enough through media to be palatable to the Japanese mainstream. An interesting night and certainly an addition to my studies of music and culture in Japanese society.

CULTURE/SPECIAL INTEREST: Trip to Akashi

 A week ago I made a short train ride over to the town of Akashi. I had seen the place in the distance before from Tarumi, the area which I live. People told me there's nothing really to be found over there... however, when Japanese people say there's nothing in a place it usually indicates the lack of a Luis Vuitton and a Gucci store in close vicinity of each other (and as it happens there usually is in most Japanese towns anyway). I honestly don't know what constitutes a city as "having something" for Japanese people, unless it's a lack of night clubs or bars, which most people who comment on a city "having nothing" don't even seem to go to. So I was pleased with what I found in Akashi. Although at first I went to West Akashi, which in fact did have nothing, until I found a bus back to the main Akashi station.

 

 Usually I don't make plans before going somewhere. I don't look anything up, I just go and hope for the best. It doesn't always work out so well, but this time I found plenty worthwhile. Akashi Park is an enormous (for Japan) stretch of greenery surrounding a lake, several athletic fields and Akashi castle, offering a nice long walk and a rare feeling of nature in the heavily metropolitanized Japan. 

 Akashi also had a rather large fish market in the main area of the city. Around the area there were many shops for "Akashi-yaki" which is a variant on "takoyaki", octopus balls. The difference is that Akashi-yaki is served with a special soup used for dipping. It's about 500 yen for 15 at most restaurants in the area. The fish market featured a long street with relatively cheap-priced seafood. While I'm no huge fan of seafood, fish markets are something that strike me as uniquely Japanese, more so even than visiting shrines or any of the other stereotypical cultural facets. Because seafood has been so important to the Japanese for so long, and the Japanese would probably not stop short of scraping clean the ocean floor to get it, the kinds of fish and other sea creatures that are sold outrange anything I've seen in the United States.

 Aside from the park and the fish, however, I felt my time in Akashi was running dry. I wanted to at least stay for dinner and get somewhat intoxicated before taking the train home. Outside the Akashi train station, however, I spotted a couple of buskers playing on African tribal drums. I threw some coins into the up-turned hat that sat passively in front of them. When they took a break we struck conversation and they let me play along on one of the drums. Eventually settling into the most simplistic of rhythms I could muster, we got to know each other under the puzzled and amused looks of the passing pedestrians. One was a man in his thirties, but certainly not someone who had settled into the expected young to middle-age Japanese lifestyle. The other was a girl my age who would look right at home at Evergreen, with her pseudo-dread-locked hair and vocal emulations and dances of indigenous peoples. Along with them was a guy who spoke little until he had a lot more to drink, after which it was hard to quiet him down. We bought each other beers and eventually went to eat Akashi-yaki, followed by karaoke. 

 The thirty-something man certainly left an interesting impression. He had traveled all over Asia and lived in the United States for a good deal of time. His similarity to my friend from school who also comes off very underground and "bohemian" was also striking, as it went hand-in-hand with his eclectic tastes in music. While younger Japanese are commonly quite Westernized, ones who truly come off as individuals fit into a certain mold: tastes in music and other cultural mediums that their peers have no clue or interest about, an interest in associating with foreigners (not really in the superficial, sexualized sense but in the desire for conversation that can't usually be had with other Japanese), and a general dismay or abandon for the common conventions of Japanese society. In a culturally homogenous society like Japan, it must feel isolating to have diverse and off-putting tastes in a largely like-minded culture. While Westernization, Americanization and all that blankets the superficial level of Japanese society, but doesn't nearly touch the thousands-of-years old culture built from Confucian roots and strongly bound through years of national reformations. In a sense, if Japanese society is healthy, prosperous and strong, the Japanese as a whole will feel the same, while no matter the weather forecast, there are individuals who put themselves out in the cold. It's not at all different from individuals in Western society... the superficial level of "individuality" often functions to empower ordinary people into believing they're something extraordinary, even if they aren't. So being an individual or being like everyone else are still superficial aspects of any culture. Some people, because of who they are, cannot fit into any superficial category. While I don't if this is true for the tribal drummer I met in Akashi, it was the first time I'd seen tribal drum-busking in Japan.

 In the end the same aspect of Japanese culture that causes them to say a certain town or place "has nothing," I was able to find some things that a lot of people wouldn't register on their radar as "something". It was certainly worth as much as visiting any larger town in Japan.