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Phonograph Demo
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In 1879, James Ewing demonstrated a phonograph in Tokyo, playing a pre-recorded song and recording a folk singer.
Newspaper head Fukuchi Genichiro jokingly shouted into the device, “If this invention works, newsmen are screwed.”
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Both songs were played back successfully, much to the delight of the audience. Supposedly, Fukuchi Genichiro, head of the major daily Tokyo Nichinichi Shinbun, then ran onto the stage and shouted into the recording apparatus, If this invention works, newsp Men are screwed. Much of the delight to the assembled audience composed mostly of reporters. Fukuchi’s own paper covered the demonstration with some breathless rhetoric, saying this device could, quote, store away people’s-
Naniwabushi and Star Power
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Naniwabushi’s improvisational nature, similar to jazz, allowed performers to develop unique styles and popular songs.
This created star power, laying the groundwork for the history of Japanese popular music.
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Beyond this, the performances themselves offered one of the same selling points those early kabuki demonstrations did, star power. The jazz-like quality of Naniwabushi, where a good chunk of what happens is improvised along the pattern of an existing song, lent itself well to star power, so to speak. Particular performer might have a specific approach to improvisation that was famous, or a certain song that was especially well-known, and record companies could market around That. In that sense, because of its ability to create what were in essence popular music icons, Naniwabushi laid the groundwork for the entire history of Japanese popular music over the Course of the 20th century. The content of Naniwabushi tends towards the melancholy. These were often not particularly happy songs, and instead focused on drama and personal hardship and the-
High Electricity Costs
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Shibusawa Hideyo removed electric appliances from a model home due to high electricity costs.
He feared potential consumers would be deterred by the bills rather than intrigued by modern living.
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However, when he was then informed of how much it would cost for an interested consumer to plug in and run these devices, he decided to pull all three from his model home. Otherwise, he said potential consumers would not be intrigued by the promise of modern living, but furious at their potential bills. It’s hard to guess how much the potential cost impacted adoption of the phonograph, but we do have a few solid guesses. The American academic Andrew Gordon estimates that by 1930, 5% of Japanese families owned a radio, which required electricity, and that phonographs were even less widely adopted. It was not until the 1950s, when the mass electrification of the Japanese countryside, combined with cheaper power thanks to preferential deals with the U.S. For coal and oil, made owning a household phonograph more common. By the mid-50s, about 20% of Japanese households owned one. But then how were people listening to phonographs enough to make musicians into stars if they couldn’t afford their own? The answer were phonograph clubs, essentially bars and cafes where customers could also make use of a player in the same way today you might grab a drip coffee so that you can make use Of the complimentary Wi-Fi. These cafes could be tastemakers, in a sense, for the music scene in Japan. Since the owners could afford more records than an average person might be able to, and so were willing to take a flyer on more experimental imports in particular, this was how many unusual Genres got introduced to Japan.-
Japan’s Jazz Scene
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Post-war cafes introduced many unusual genres to Japan, including jazz.
Young people sought new music, and cafes playing previously banned American records became popular.
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For example, if you ever wondered why Japan has such a big jazz scene, that’s actually from the post-war era cafes. Young people were looking for something new, and knowing that wartime governments had banned American music, went looking to places that played American records. Jazz in particular caught on big at the cafes that were playing it. That’s why Japan today has one of the largest jazz scenes on the planet outside the US.
