“Bewail the current – embellish the past": The role of nostalgia, traditionalism, and the past in contemporary J-pop

Abstract

This thesis puts together approaches from musicology, area studies, and media studies to analyze how contemporary J-pop deploys nostalgia, traditionalism, and the past in ways that extend and transform postwar Japanese musical trends. While studies on nostalgia and traditionalism have been well explored in Japanese music in the postwar era, their role in contemporary J-pop remains underexplored. Through the analyses of three primary case studies, REOL’s “YoiYoi Kokon,” Wagakki Band’s “Tengaku,” and BAND-MAIKO’s “Gion-chō,” this study identifies deeply ambivalent uses of furusato, imagined nostalgia, idealization of the past, and estrangement. The feeling of estrangement manifests as two versions of “homelessness,” one that either looks for the comfort of the past, such as the furusato, or one that looks forward to the future, a feeling of “homesickness,” with both indicating a feeling of dissatisfaction and dislocation in the present. Ultimately, this research suggests that contemporary J-pop builds upon inherited musical and cultural elements to novelly explore nostalgia through the universal language of music.