First Draft

This week I turned in the first draft of my essay. I wrote about my connection to music and how music is my “home.” I also talked about my interest in Japanese music in particular that developed while I was living in Japan, and how Japanese musicians have adopted and elaborated on American styles of music such as rock, metal, punk, jazz, hip-hop, etc. In this paper, I decided to look at the concept of “Asian-American” in a somewhat non-standard way. Instead of thinking of Asian-American music as simply music performed by Asian-American musicians, I am looking at music made by Asian (specifically Japanese because of my experience with and interest in Japan) musicians performing music influenced either directly or sometimes indirectly by American music. This exchange of cultures creates music that, to me, is Asian-American in itself, regardless of the ethnicity or the performer or the country of origin. The music itself is culturally Asian-American in this sense. For example, the visual-kei band X-Japan was directly influenced by American glam rock/metal. The next generation of visual-kei bands like Dir en grey were inspired by X-Japan, and thus indirectly yet significantly influenced by American music. Another example is J-Pop, a Japanese style of pop music that evolved from a combination of traditional Japanese enka music and modern American pop music, with performers like Kyary Pamyu Pamyu leaning heavily on the Japanese kawaii (cute) aesthetic. I also talked about the history of American influence on Japanese music. During the Meiji Restoration that began in Japan in 1868 with the intention of restoring power to the Emperor from the Tokugawa shogunate, the Meiji leaders also looked to Western powers such as the United States to modernize their culture and economy. This was the beginning of American influence on Japanese music, as Japan had been closed off to foreign countries for much of its history. During the WWII era American music was condemned as it was seen as the music of the enemy, but since the post-war era it has been embraced in mainstream society.