Modern Genres of Japanese Music
For my entry on music of my choice, I decided to look into different genres of modern Japanese music. There are a lot of options to pick from, but I will focus on some of the main ones, such as J-Pop, Japanese rock, and Japanese metal, along with the newer genre deemed “kawaii metal.” Many of these are popular internationally, but the first two especially have a long history of how they evolved into the genres we know now. There is some overlap with histories, but they are each unique and have each found popularity in many ways in the Western world.
The beginning of the track leading to modern J-Pop goes back to the 1920s with a genre known as ryukoka. Ryukoka was a genre from the 20s to the 50s that was heavily influenced by American jazz and blues music. However, while it utilized Western aspects such as violins and guitars, it also used a pentatonic scale for the melodic lines, which is a Japanese characteristic of the music. Noriko Awaya became very popular for this genre of music and was known as the “Queen of Blues” in Japan, famous for the song “Wakare No Blues.” Later, in the 50s and 60s, American rock and roll began to influence this genre, exemplified by Kazuya Kosaka’s cover of Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel.” Soon after, in the 70s, the Beatles began to increase in popularity, and that spread to Japan as well. They heavily influenced Japanese music and evolved into what became known as Japanese rock music. During this time period, female idols became popular in the Japanese music scene. Some examples being Mari Amachi in the 70s, and in the 80s, Akina Nakamori. It was in the 90s that we began to see J-Pop as we know it today, but there is much variety in groups. One example is Vocaloids, such as Hatsune Miku and Gumi. An example of a pretty popular group that some anime fans may know is Goose House, which is the group that sings the theme song for the anime Your Lie In April.
Vocaloid music is funny to me because I have seen it gain popularity over the years when that is what got you made fun of in middle school. Older songs by Vocaloids consist of picks such as “Matryoshka” and “Failure Girl.” However, as Vocaloids, Hatsune Miku specifically, have started gaining popularity, the songs have been pretty different, some examples being “Anamanaguchi,” which was popular on TikTok for a while, and “Daisy 2.0,” which featured Hatsune Miku but is mainly by popular queer artist Ashnikko.
Japanese rock was briefly mentioned previously in the J-Pop section, but there is a lot more to Japanese rock. While sometimes people use J-Pop as an umbrella term to cover Japanese rock, there is a more detailed history in how Japanese rock came to be what it is today. During the 60s, Japanese rock, also shortened to J-Rock, was heavily influenced by British rock bands, some of the main examples being the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Some other genres that came into play were psychedelic rock and Appalachian folk music, creating a unique mix of sounds to make up this genre of music. This was known as Group Sounds, which was made popular by many musicians, some examples being the Tempters, the Ox, and the Spiders. Later on, American rock artists, such as Bob Dylan, began to influence these groups more. During the 70s, “New Rock” became more popularized by groups such as Murasaki, Condition Green, and Yuya Uchida & the Flowers, the latter being heavily inspired by Jimi Hendrix specifically. During the 70s and 80s, J-Rock began to diversify, leading to punk rock in the 80s and 90s, some examples being the Star Club and the Bomb Factory. Going forward, J-Rock developed into the genre we know now, which began to include female artists, such as Band-Maid and Lovebites.
Japanese metal is one of the genres that came to exist due to the diversification of J-Rock in the 70s and 80s. Yuya Uchida & the Flowers is credited with being one of the predecessors of this genre, however it was bands such as Bow Wow and Earthshaker. There were several popular heavy metal bands in the 80s, one that I found interesting was Seikama-II, which is a heavy metal band that had a look inspired by kabuki, a more traditional form of Japanese theatrical dance performance. There were some bands with female members as well, such as Show-Ya. Another element of metal that evolved during the 80s was extreme metal. This included thrash metal, black metal, and death metal. These genres included bands and singers such as Outrage, Doom, and Atsuko Koizumi. Nu metal bands began to form in the 90s and early 2000s, including groups such as Rize and Head Phones President. In the 2010s and 2020s, there has been a big rise in popularity of all girl metal groups, starting with groups such as Aldious and Cyntia.
One group that I like is called BABYMETAL. This is an all girl group that became famous in 2014 for their song “Gimme Chocolate!!” Their music is really interesting to me because it incorporates that level of aggressiveness that metal has, while also having a more “cutesy” style of singing, and singing about really mundane things. They are known for creating the subgenre of metal called “kawaii metal” due to the “cute” elements that they add into their music, from tone, to outfits, to subject material of songs. Another song of theirs that I like is called “Onedari Daisakusen,” which roughly translates to “Operation Beg Dad.”
Yet another metal group that I have heard music from is Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas. One of their first songs to become popular was “Evolution” because the wrestler PAC used it as his theme when wrestling in Dragon Gate in 2010. The song I like by them, which anime enjoyers might know, is “Let Me Hear,” which was used as the theme song for the anime Parasyte.
“Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Nov. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_and_Loathing_in_Las_Vegas.
“J-Pop.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Nov. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J-pop.
“Japanese Metal.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Nov. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_metal.
“Japanese Rock.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Nov. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_rock.
“Kabuki.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Nov. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuki.
“Music of Japan.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Dec. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Japan#.
“Music of Japan.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Dec. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Japan#Theme_music.
You mention Vocaloid music, which is a genre I did not know existed, is super interesting. Is it really just music that is created by software? I looked it up and it doesn't really make sense.
ReplyDeletethis was interesting to read about, since i didn't know many of the artists listed nor the history of Japanese pop, but i think i learned a lot.
ReplyDeleteI found it really interesting how Japanese pop took inspiration from American and western pop music, and took these styles and made something distinct and unique.