Music
Japan produces sugary sweet bubblegum pop par excellence. But
the thriving roots scene is more nourishing - fuelled by the
dynamic music of the islands of Okinawa. It is these sounds of
Japan's "deep south" which have recently been making waves at home
and abroad. Otherwise, Japan's bewildering variety of popular and
traditional music is little known in the West.
With a value of well over six billion dollars, Japan has the
second-largest music market in the world, after the USA. The advent
of satellite TV, with its many music channels, has fuelled music
mania among young Asians, and karaoke in particular is wildly
popular.
Unfortunately, the overriding image of Japanese contemporary
music is one of instantly forgettable pop. Teenagers are trained,
manufactured and recorded as idoru kashu , or idol singers.
Boy bands like Smap or Hikaru Genji and cutsie female singers like
duo Wink offer watered-down Western pop with Japanese lyrics, their
hooklines often sung in meaningless English.
Such surface noise aside, nowhere in Asia can you find such a
wide range of music : from ancient Buddhist chanting and
court music to folk and old urban styles, from localized popular
forms such as kayokyoku and enka to Western classical
and jazz - plus every kind of pop you'd find in the West.
John Clewley
Copyright Rough Guides Ltd as trustee for its authors. Published by Rough Guides. All rights reserved.
The Rough Guides name is a trademark of Rough Guides Ltd.