Title: Sayonara Amerika, sayonara Nippon : a geopolitical prehistory of J-pop /
Authors: Bourdaghs, Michael K.
Publisher: Columbia University Press,
Year: 2012
Subjects: Popular music Japan History and criticism
Abstract: Each chapter in Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon examines a single genre through a particular theoretical lens: the relation of music to liberation; the influence of cultural mapping on musical appreciation; the role of translation in transmitting musical genres around the globe; the place of noise in music and its relation to historical change; the tenuous connection between ideologies of authenticity and imitation; the link between commercial success and artistic integrity; and the function of melodrama. Bourdaghs concludes with a look at recent Japanese pop music culture.
Contents: The music will set you free : Kurosawa Akira, Kasagi Shizuko, and the road to freedom in Occupied Japan -- Mapping Misora Hibari : where have all the Asians gone? -- Mystery plane : Sakamoto Kyu and the translations of rockabilly -- Working within the system : group sounds and the commercial and revolutionary potential of noise -- New music and the negation of the negation : Happy End, Arai Yumi, and Yellow Magic Orchestra -- The Japan that can "say yes" : bubblegum music in a postbubble economy.