During the late 1970s, the streets of the inner city of New York witnessed the birth of a dynamically expressive verbal art form known as rap music. Spawned from within the rich African American socio-cultural continuum, this art form became known as the verbal expression of a youth culture. Originally thought to be a passing trend, rap music has remained at the forefront of a contemporary pop culture called hip hop. "'Hip hop' is the total expression; in attitude, dress, dance, graffiti art and music of an ever growing African-American youth subculture which challenges the status quo and moves them into a crucible for change". Through rap music, African American youths have developed a mode of expression that is quintessentially their own.
Rap has become the language of the urban street culture, and youth across the nation have followed its lead. With a "blend of reality and fiction, rap is a contemporary response to the pleasures and problems of black urban life in contemporary America" Rap is referred to as "rhythmic American poetry".
After two plus decades, this hip hop culture is still a very present and most popular expressive art form. Its survival is due in part to the fact that hip hop is a representation of an indigenous socio-cultural form of a rich African American tradition. This strong tradition functions as the background for rap artists to dramatically voice their concerns about issues that speak to the young urban African American population. From its inception, hip hop culture with its socio-cultural influence has made an indelible impact on the African American community and American society as a whole. One of the most significant reasons for hip hop culture's acceptance and appreciation by the general American population is that more and more young Americans find socio-psychological self expressions, thought provoking verbal dexterity, emotionally involving content and outward physical expressions as saliently conveyed within it. The rap music phenomenon or hip hop culture has become so firmly entrenched within the melting pot of American culture that average Americans across the nation have felt its socio-cultural effects. In fact, its influence has grown and even spilled over into the global community. Today, many young people throughout the world idolize rap music or hip hop culture as a mode of self expression to realize their communicative intentions.
Ganguro, commonly known as 'blackface' with some outstanding hip hop physical features, has emerged as a new fashion style among some Japanese teenage girls in some Japanese metropolitan cities like Tokyo. Because of the global influence of hip hop culture, some Japanese teenagers become ganguro girls to make themselves stand out as being different from others of the same generation. Wearing boots with solid platform soles over 10 centimeters high, bright colored tight mini-skirts, having blond or white hair, and wearing shimmering makeup are the particular features of ganguro girls. Some ganguro girls even go to the extreme by having their faces and necks tanned or blackened, often highlighted by white makeup. In so doing, they make themselves look similar to black women. As often observed in today's Japan, ganguro is not an isolated social phenomenon, but an impact exerted by hip hop culture upon the Japanese young generation. Different from other observations in Japan and other parts of the world, such as imitation of popular hip hop music, lyrics, and dancing movements, ganguro is mainly an imitation of hip hop image.
There have been several speculations about motivations for some Japanese girls to become ganguro Some speculate that ganguro girls are using hip hop image to rebel against wearing traditional school uniforms to express their individuality. Others speculate that ganguro girls imitate celebrities like Namie Amuro, a Japanese singer and model, who became substantially popular in Japan in the 1990s, when she performed with a darkened skin. Still others speculate that some Japanese girls, inspired by the perceived coolness, imitate hip-hop acts that they admire and emulate popular performers like Lauryn Hill and TLC.
Although ganguro as a fashion style does not fit well with traditional Japanese social standards and cultural values, it becomes popular among some girls who are just approaching adult life. Many non-ganguro girls and boys readily accept some of the ganguro elements, and fearing exclusion, some may often conform to the style due to peer pressures.
Showing posts with label Japanese Pop Culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japanese Pop Culture. Show all posts
Japanese Pop Culture: Cosplay
Cosplay is the imitation of anime characters via the use of costumes, props, and many other outlets.
Cosplay (コスプレ, kosupure), short for "costume play", is a fan labor type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan. Favorite sources include manga, anime, tokusatsu, comic books, graphic novels, video games, hentai and fantasy movies. Role play includes portrayals of J-pop and J-rock stars, Taiwanese puppet characters, science fiction characters, characters from musical stories, classic novels, and entertainment software. Any entity from the real or virtual world that lend itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject. Inanimate objects are given an anthropomorphic forms and it is not unusual to see genders switched, with women playing male roles and vice versa.
Cosplayers gather at public events such as comic-book and video game trade shows, as well as at dedicated cosplay parties at nightclubs or amusement parks. In Japan, teenagers gather with like-minded friends in places like Tokyo's Harajuku district to engage in cosplay. Since 1998, Tokyo's Akihabara district has contained a large number of cosplay cafés, catering to devoted anime and cosplay fans. The waitresses at such cafés dress as game or anime characters; maid costumes are particularly popular. In areas outside of Japan, cosplay is primarily done at manga and anime conventions.
The single largest event featuring cosplay is the semiannual doujinshi market, Comiket. This event, held in Japan during summer and winter, attracts hundreds of thousands of manga fans. Thousands of cosplayers congregate on the roof of the exhibition center, often in unbearably hot or cold conditions. The largest event for cosplayers outside Asia is the annual San Diego Comic-Con held in the California city in the USA.
Cosplayers in Japan refer to themselves as reiyâ (レイヤー); pronounced "layer". Those who photograph players are called cameko, short for "Camera Kozo" or "Camera Boy". Originally the cameko give prints of their photos to players as gifts. Increased interest in cosplay events both on the part of photographers and cosplayers willing to model for them have led to formalisation of procedures at events such as Comiket. Photography takes place within a designated area removed from the exhibit hall.
Cosplay at fan events likely originated in Japan in 1978. Cosplay nevertheless gets a mixed reception in Japan even today. Events in districts such as Akihabara draw many cosplayers, yet there is no shortage of people in Japan who regard cosplay as a frivolous endeavor.
Cosplay (コスプレ, kosupure), short for "costume play", is a fan labor type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan. Favorite sources include manga, anime, tokusatsu, comic books, graphic novels, video games, hentai and fantasy movies. Role play includes portrayals of J-pop and J-rock stars, Taiwanese puppet characters, science fiction characters, characters from musical stories, classic novels, and entertainment software. Any entity from the real or virtual world that lend itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject. Inanimate objects are given an anthropomorphic forms and it is not unusual to see genders switched, with women playing male roles and vice versa.
Cosplayers gather at public events such as comic-book and video game trade shows, as well as at dedicated cosplay parties at nightclubs or amusement parks. In Japan, teenagers gather with like-minded friends in places like Tokyo's Harajuku district to engage in cosplay. Since 1998, Tokyo's Akihabara district has contained a large number of cosplay cafés, catering to devoted anime and cosplay fans. The waitresses at such cafés dress as game or anime characters; maid costumes are particularly popular. In areas outside of Japan, cosplay is primarily done at manga and anime conventions.
The single largest event featuring cosplay is the semiannual doujinshi market, Comiket. This event, held in Japan during summer and winter, attracts hundreds of thousands of manga fans. Thousands of cosplayers congregate on the roof of the exhibition center, often in unbearably hot or cold conditions. The largest event for cosplayers outside Asia is the annual San Diego Comic-Con held in the California city in the USA.
Cosplayers in Japan refer to themselves as reiyâ (レイヤー); pronounced "layer". Those who photograph players are called cameko, short for "Camera Kozo" or "Camera Boy". Originally the cameko give prints of their photos to players as gifts. Increased interest in cosplay events both on the part of photographers and cosplayers willing to model for them have led to formalisation of procedures at events such as Comiket. Photography takes place within a designated area removed from the exhibit hall.
Cosplay at fan events likely originated in Japan in 1978. Cosplay nevertheless gets a mixed reception in Japan even today. Events in districts such as Akihabara draw many cosplayers, yet there is no shortage of people in Japan who regard cosplay as a frivolous endeavor.
Japanese Pop Culture: Anime
Anime (アニメ, an abbreviated pronunciation in Japanese of "animation". The world outside Japan regards anime as "Japanese animation" Anime originated about 1917.
Anime, like manga (Japanese comics), has a large audience in Japan and high recognition throughout the world. Distributors can release anime via television broadcasts, directly to video, or theatrically, as well as online.
Both hand-drawn and computer-animated anime exist. It is used in television series, films, video, vide games, commercials, and internet-based releases, and represents most, if not all, genres of fiction. Anime gained early popularity in East and Southeast Asia and has garnered more-recent popularity in the Western World.
Anime began at the start of the 20th century, when Japanese filmmakers experimented with the animation techniques also pioneered in France, Germany, the United States, and Russia. The oldest known anime in existence first screened in 1917 – a two-minute clip of a samurai trying to test a new sword on his target, only to suffer defeat. The first talkie anime was Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka, released in 1933.
By the 1930s, animation became an alternative format of storytelling to the underdeveloped live-action industry in Japan. Unlike in the United States, the live-action industry in Japan remained a small market and suffered from budgeting, location, and casting restrictions. The lack of Western-looking actors, for example, made it next to impossible to shoot films set in Europe, America, or fantasy worlds that do not naturally involve Japan. Animation allowed artists to create any characters and settings.
Anime, like manga (Japanese comics), has a large audience in Japan and high recognition throughout the world. Distributors can release anime via television broadcasts, directly to video, or theatrically, as well as online.
Both hand-drawn and computer-animated anime exist. It is used in television series, films, video, vide games, commercials, and internet-based releases, and represents most, if not all, genres of fiction. Anime gained early popularity in East and Southeast Asia and has garnered more-recent popularity in the Western World.
Anime began at the start of the 20th century, when Japanese filmmakers experimented with the animation techniques also pioneered in France, Germany, the United States, and Russia. The oldest known anime in existence first screened in 1917 – a two-minute clip of a samurai trying to test a new sword on his target, only to suffer defeat. The first talkie anime was Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka, released in 1933.
By the 1930s, animation became an alternative format of storytelling to the underdeveloped live-action industry in Japan. Unlike in the United States, the live-action industry in Japan remained a small market and suffered from budgeting, location, and casting restrictions. The lack of Western-looking actors, for example, made it next to impossible to shoot films set in Europe, America, or fantasy worlds that do not naturally involve Japan. Animation allowed artists to create any characters and settings.
introduction to japanese pop culture
The rise of Japanese popular culture has been one of the undeniable global phenomena of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Japanese anime (animation) and manga (comic books) have become youth favorites internationally; Japanese video games and television series claim devoted followings from Cambodia to Copenhagen; Godzilla and Pokémon are international icons; sushi is readily available in the supermarket cases of suburban America from coast to coast; Japanese fashion defines chic in Asia as well as Europe.
Over most of the past century and a half, the impact of Japanese culture on Western life has generally been figured in terms of elite art forms. In the late nineteenth century, ukiyo-e woodblock prints famously inspired the French Impressionists; in the early twentieth century, Japanese aesthetics fascinated architects like Frank Lloyd Wright; after World War II, big-city art houses screened the cerebral works of directors Kurosawa Akira and Ozu Yasujiro. Western scholars, having focused for so long on Japan's sway over European and American high culture, have been caught a little off-guard by the global ascent of Japanese pop in recent years and have yet to explore fully what factors explain the creativity of Japan’s popular culture and its current worldwide appeal, what the journalist Douglas McGray has famously referred to as Japan's "Gross National Cool."
Many scholars have attempted to understand postwar Japanese popular culture from a historical perspective, tracing the origins of forms like manga back to the Japanese graphic traditions of illustrated literary manuscripts and woodblock prints. The influential artist Murakami Takashi has argued for more recent inspiration, locating the origin point of Japan’s remarkable pop culture creativity at the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Murakami’s analysis, the Japanese people have never fully come to terms with defeat in World War II, occupation by the United States, and a pattern of postwar subservience to America that has left Japan perpetually infantilized (hence the ubiquity of “cute” in Japanese youth culture) and somehow deformed (hence the prevalence of monsters in the Japanese imagination). Since frank discussion of the war’s legacies has been almost taboo in Japan, Murakami argues that it has fallen to popular culture to explore the unresolved tensions of the postwar period. Thus, in popular cinema, manga, anime, video games, and avant-garde art, we see a compulsive reiteration of apocalypse, nuclear mutation, grotesque metamorphosis, technological escapism, masculine insecurity, social vulnerability, and other themes and imageries through which postwar Japanese struggle to find some sort of closure for war, surrender, and ongoing dependence on America. Combine this almost existential quest described by Murakami with the market realities of postwar Japan (that is, a large and increasingly wealthy population, with a significant “baby boom” generation of young postwar consumers eager for mass entertainment), and the dynamism, imaginative energy, riotous variety, and international popularity of Japan’s contemporary pop culture forms begins to make sense.
The political scientist Joseph Nye has argued that phenomena like the global embrace of Japanese pop can give nations “soft power” in international affairs, that is, the ability to sway other nations and peoples through the attraction of culture, values, and ideals, as opposed to the coercive “hard power” of military and economic capabilities. How significant the international goodwill created by Japanese popular culture exports is, and how this goodwill might be capitalized upon by the Japanese government in promoting its agenda overseas, remains to be seen today.
Over most of the past century and a half, the impact of Japanese culture on Western life has generally been figured in terms of elite art forms. In the late nineteenth century, ukiyo-e woodblock prints famously inspired the French Impressionists; in the early twentieth century, Japanese aesthetics fascinated architects like Frank Lloyd Wright; after World War II, big-city art houses screened the cerebral works of directors Kurosawa Akira and Ozu Yasujiro. Western scholars, having focused for so long on Japan's sway over European and American high culture, have been caught a little off-guard by the global ascent of Japanese pop in recent years and have yet to explore fully what factors explain the creativity of Japan’s popular culture and its current worldwide appeal, what the journalist Douglas McGray has famously referred to as Japan's "Gross National Cool."
Many scholars have attempted to understand postwar Japanese popular culture from a historical perspective, tracing the origins of forms like manga back to the Japanese graphic traditions of illustrated literary manuscripts and woodblock prints. The influential artist Murakami Takashi has argued for more recent inspiration, locating the origin point of Japan’s remarkable pop culture creativity at the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Murakami’s analysis, the Japanese people have never fully come to terms with defeat in World War II, occupation by the United States, and a pattern of postwar subservience to America that has left Japan perpetually infantilized (hence the ubiquity of “cute” in Japanese youth culture) and somehow deformed (hence the prevalence of monsters in the Japanese imagination). Since frank discussion of the war’s legacies has been almost taboo in Japan, Murakami argues that it has fallen to popular culture to explore the unresolved tensions of the postwar period. Thus, in popular cinema, manga, anime, video games, and avant-garde art, we see a compulsive reiteration of apocalypse, nuclear mutation, grotesque metamorphosis, technological escapism, masculine insecurity, social vulnerability, and other themes and imageries through which postwar Japanese struggle to find some sort of closure for war, surrender, and ongoing dependence on America. Combine this almost existential quest described by Murakami with the market realities of postwar Japan (that is, a large and increasingly wealthy population, with a significant “baby boom” generation of young postwar consumers eager for mass entertainment), and the dynamism, imaginative energy, riotous variety, and international popularity of Japan’s contemporary pop culture forms begins to make sense.
The political scientist Joseph Nye has argued that phenomena like the global embrace of Japanese pop can give nations “soft power” in international affairs, that is, the ability to sway other nations and peoples through the attraction of culture, values, and ideals, as opposed to the coercive “hard power” of military and economic capabilities. How significant the international goodwill created by Japanese popular culture exports is, and how this goodwill might be capitalized upon by the Japanese government in promoting its agenda overseas, remains to be seen today.
Kabuki
Kabuki is the highly stylized classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. The individual kanji characters, from left to right, mean sing (歌), dance (舞), and skill (伎). Kabuki is therefore sometimes translated as "the art of singing and dancing." kabuki is believed to derive from the verb kabuku, meaning "to lean" or "to be out of the ordinary", and can be interpreted as "avant-garde" or "bizarre" theatre.
Kabuki is a traditional Japanese form of theatre with its origins in the Edo period. In contrast to the older Japanese art forms such as Noh, Kabuki was the popular culture of the common townspeople and not of the higher social classes.
Kabuki plays are about historical events, moral conflicts, love relationships and the like. The actors use an old fashioned language which is difficult to understand even for some Japanese people. Actors speak in monotonous voices accompanied by traditional Japanese instruments.
Kabuki takes place on a rotating stage. The stage is further equipped with several gadgets like trapdoors through which the actors can appear and disappear. Another specialty of the kabuki stage is a footbridge that leads through the audience.
In the early years, both men and women acted in Kabuki plays. Later during the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate forbade women from acting, a restriction that survives to the present day. Several male kabuki actors are therefore specialists in playing female roles.
The best place for tourists to see a kabuki play is in the Kabukiza Theater in the Ginza district of Tokyo. Here, it is possible to rent English headphones and see just one act of a play instead of sitting through a whole performance, which often lasts more than three hours.
Note that during kabuki plays, it is common for fans in the audience to shout the name of their favourite actor just in the right moment during short pauses.
Kabuki is a traditional Japanese form of theatre with its origins in the Edo period. In contrast to the older Japanese art forms such as Noh, Kabuki was the popular culture of the common townspeople and not of the higher social classes.
Kabuki plays are about historical events, moral conflicts, love relationships and the like. The actors use an old fashioned language which is difficult to understand even for some Japanese people. Actors speak in monotonous voices accompanied by traditional Japanese instruments.
Kabuki takes place on a rotating stage. The stage is further equipped with several gadgets like trapdoors through which the actors can appear and disappear. Another specialty of the kabuki stage is a footbridge that leads through the audience.
In the early years, both men and women acted in Kabuki plays. Later during the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate forbade women from acting, a restriction that survives to the present day. Several male kabuki actors are therefore specialists in playing female roles.
The best place for tourists to see a kabuki play is in the Kabukiza Theater in the Ginza district of Tokyo. Here, it is possible to rent English headphones and see just one act of a play instead of sitting through a whole performance, which often lasts more than three hours.
Note that during kabuki plays, it is common for fans in the audience to shout the name of their favourite actor just in the right moment during short pauses.
Cuteness in Japanese Culture
Since the 1970s, cuteness, in Japanese- “kawaii”,has become a prominent aspect of Japanese pop culture. It is evidently exemplified in Japan’s entertainment, clothing, food, toys, personal appearance, behavior, and mannerisms. Foreign observers often find this cuteness intriguing, revolting or even childish because the Japanese employ it in a vast array of situations and demographics where, in other cultures, it would be considered incongruously juvenile or frivolous (for example, in government publications, public service warnings, office environments, military advertisements, and commercial airliners, among many others).
How then, did cuteness come about in the Japanese Pop Culture? The rise of cuteness in Japanese culture emerged in the 1970s as part of a new style of writing. Many teenage girls began write in big, round characters and they added little pictures to their writing, such as hearts, stars, smiley faces, and letters of the Latin alphabet. These pictures would be inserted randomly and made the writing very hard to read. As a result, this writing style caused a lot of controversy and was banned in many schools. During the 1980s, however, this cute new writing was adopted by magazines and comics and was put onto packaging and advertising and became a hit among the young Japanese.
Because of this growing trend, companies, such as Sanrio, came out with merchandise like Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty was an immediate success and the obsession with cute continued to progress in other areas as well. Now, cuteness is no longer limited to teenagers as it appears even in common household items, such as airplanes painted with Pikachu on the side, and each of Japan’s 47 prefectures, the Tokyo police, and the government television station all have their own cute mascots. “Cuteness” is also a cash cow for many Japanese companies. Currently, Sanrio’s line of more than 50 characters generates more than $1 billion a year and remains the most successful company to capitalize on the cute trend.
This “Cuteness” also exerts an influence on other cultures. Cute merchandise and products are especially popular in some parts of East Asia, such as China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. An interesting example of the 'cuteness' notion influencing nearby Asian societies is the logo particular to the Republic of Korea's Army. This logo is located at the demilitarized zone lookout, within the ROK territory south of the partition. This Korean Army logo exemplifies a significant disparity between East-Asian societies that actively identify with 'cute' images and communication, as opposed to most other societies who would view these images as frivolous in such a setting.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)