10A Island Music
Channel: timtak1
Date: 11/10/2013

I believe that the best Japanese music is island music from the southern islands of Japan. The southern islands are the islands of Okinawa and Kagoshima prefectures. One of my favorite musicians is Chitose Hajime. She is from Amami Ōshima, an island between mainland Japan and Okinawa. Other great singers and bands from Okinawa include, Rimi Natsukawa , Rinken Band, and Orange Range. My favorite songs are Flower, with its beautiful chorus "cry! laugh!" and Tears for You, which tells the true story of a woman remembering her dead brother. 
The biggest advantage of this kind of music is that it is original. So much of Japanese pop music is influenced by American and British music.  Most are sung in a Western musical style and a lot of Japanese songs even use English titles and lyrics. I don't hate Japanese pop music, but when I listen to Western style music, I listen to the real thing. 
Island music on the other hand is based in a living tradition from Japan. The musicians use traditional instruments, such as the three stringed guitars made from snakeskin. Island music uses traditional rhythms and melodies and it is sung in Japanese, or the Okinawa dialect. This means that island music matches the climate, culture and spirit of the Japanese people, far more than Western music.


Resources to support Timothy Takemoto's "English for Spies" textbook which will one day be available with an "unbound licence" (photocopiable resource, net redistribution fine with link ) at tekisuto.com