, a
portmanteau
In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together. of "Japanese" and "noise", is the
noise music
Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical sound. Noise music include ...
scene of Japan.
Nick Cain of ''
The Wire
''The Wire'' is an American Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created and primarily written by the American author and former police reporter David Simon for the cable network HBO. The series premiered o ...
'' identifies the "primacy of Japanese Noise artists like
Merzbow,
Hijokaidan and
Incapacitants as one of the major developments in noise music since 1990.
Certain Japanese noise artists themselves feel uncomfortable being categorized under the umbrella of "Japanese noise", arguing that use of the term is a way of ignoring the differences between musicians who don't necessarily follow the same approach or even know each other at all.
History
On May 8, 1960, six young Japanese musicians, including
Takehisa Kosugi and
Yasunao Tone, formed the
Group Ongaku with two tape recordings of noise music: Automatism and Object. These recordings made use of a mixture of traditional musical instruments along with a vacuum cleaner, a radio, an oil drum, a doll, and a set of dishes. Moreover, the speed of the tape recording was manipulated, further distorting the sounds being recorded. In the late 1970s and early 1980s,
Merzbow took Lou Reed's album ''
Metal Machine Music'' as a point of departure and further abstracted the noise aesthetic by freeing the sound from guitar based feedback alone, a development that is thought to have heralded noise music as a genre.
According to
Paul Hegarty (2007), "In many ways it only makes sense to talk of noise music since the advent of various types of noise produced in Japanese music, and in terms of quantity this is really to do with the 1990s onwards
.. With the vast growth of Japanese noise, finally, noise music becomes a genre". Other key Japanese noise artists that contributed to this upsurge of activity include
Hijokaidan,
Boredoms,
C.C.C.C.,
Incapacitants,
KK Null
, known by his stage name KK Null, is a Japanese experimental multi-instrumentalist active since the early 1980s. He began as a guitarist but learned how to compose, sing, play drums, and create electronic music. He also studied Butoh dance at M ...
,
Yamazaki Maso,
Solmania, K2,
The Gerogerigegege, ,
Ruins and
Hanatarash. During the 1990s, the scene also began to gain recognition overseas, as artists such as
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1981. Founding members Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar), Thurston Moore (lead guitar, vocals) and Lee Ranaldo (rhythm guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of ...
and
John Zorn introduced many Japanoise performers to American audiences.
See also
*
Noise rock
Noise rock (sometimes called noise punk) is a noise music, noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimal music, minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, a ...
*
Onkyokei
*
List of Japanoise artists
References
External links
Japanoise.net
{{Music of Japan
Japanese styles of music
Music scenes
Noise music
Japanese subcultures