About this ebook
Based both on extensive textual and aural analysis, and on anthropological fieldwork, it provides a wealth of detail, finding differences as well as similarities between the Japanese and Western pop music scenes. Carolyn Stevens shows how Japanese popular music has responded over time to Japan's relationship to the West in the post-war era, gradually growing in independence from the political and cultural hegemonic presence of America. Similarly, the volume explores the ways in which the Japanese artist has grown in independence vis-à-vis his/her role in the production process, and examines in detail the increasingly important role of the jimusho, or the entertainment management agency, where many individual artists and music industry professionals make decisions about how the product is delivered to the public. It also discusses the connections to Japanese television, film, print and internet, thereby providing through pop music a key to understanding much of Japanese popular culture more widely.
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About the author
Carolyn S. Stevens is Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies at the University of Melbourne and Deputy Director of the Asia Institute. She worked for several years in the 1990s as a consultant to a Japanese entertainment management agency, and this experience in the industry led to publications on Japanese rock fans, rock video analysis, and concert souvenir consumption. She is also editor of Contemporary Culture for the journal Japanese Studies.
