Japanese Music

For a large number of outsiders, Japanese music seems to hold strong associations with cheap, disposable bubblegum pop. There is no denying that there is plenty of that variety of music.



However, there are many other distinct styles existing in the Japanese Music. A great number of innovative artists play folk and classical music. Much of this folk and classical music tends to be very intense. A large number of other artists play distinct forms of rock, electronica, hip hop, punk rock and country music.



There are two important styles of classical music in Japan. They are the :

- Shomyo, or Buddhist chanting, and

- Gagaku, or Orchestral court music.

Gagaku is a style of the classical Japanese music that has been performed at the Imperial court for many centuries now.

This style of music consists of three primary bodies:

- Native Shintoist religious music
- Folk songs,
- Saibara, which has a Korean form called komagaku, and also a Chinese form called togaku.

By the dawn of the 7th century, the shakuhachi, which is actually an end-blown flute, the koto which is a zither and the biwa - a short-necked lute had also been introduced into the Japanese music from China. These were the first and earliest three instruments that were used to play gagaku.

The Korean and the Chinese forms of music called omagaku and togaku arrived in Japan during the Nara period, which lasted, between 710 and 794.

There are four main kinds of Japanese folk songs:

- (min'yo): work songs,
- Religious songs (such as sato kagura, a form of Shintoist music),
- Songs used for gatherings such as weddings and funerals,
- Children's songs (warabe uta).

Most of these songs require that they include an extra stress on certain syllables.