Enka as a marker of social difference: Uncovering 'Tradition' as 'Taste'

Abstract

In being labelled `the sound of Japanese tradition? and `the heart and soul of the Japanese?, the popular music genre of enka has been discussed in both popular and academic discourse as a representative of an essential and authentic Japanese traditional identity. However, such an understanding is insufficient in explaining its marginal position within the Japanese music industry and audience. Instead, I argue that musical preference for enka serves as a marker of social difference. Utilising sociological frameworks of musical taste, community and `musicking? rather than culturally essentialist understandings, I show how enka marked off a unique musical space populated by a specific social demographic in its infancy in the later 1960s, via a socio-historical investigation of the genre?s development. I also show how such demarcation continues today via an ethnographic study of three karaoke settings in the Greater Tokyo area.