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

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorHaag, Andre
dc.contributor.authorGazarov, Valeriy
dc.contributor.departmentEast Asian Language & Literature
dc.date.accessioned2025-09-30T22:32:34Z
dc.date.available2025-09-30T22:32:34Z
dc.date.issued2025
dc.description.degreeM.A.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/111315
dc.subjectAsian studies
dc.subjectMusic history
dc.subjectMusic
dc.subjectethnomusicology
dc.subjectJ-pop
dc.subjectmedia studies
dc.subjectnostalgia
dc.subjecttraditionalism
dc.title“Bewail the current – embellish the past": The role of nostalgia, traditionalism, and the past in contemporary J-pop
dc.typeThesis
dcterms.abstractThis 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.
dcterms.extent68 pages
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.publisherUniversity of Hawai'i at Manoa
dcterms.rightsAll UHM dissertations and theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission from the copyright owner.
dcterms.typeText
local.identifier.alturihttps://www.proquest.com/LegacyDocView/DISSNUM/32173777

Files

Original bundle

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Gazarov_hawii_0085O_12727.pdf
Size:
1021.31 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

M.A. - East Asian Languages and Literatures (Japanese)