Editing J-pop (section)

===1920s–1960s: Ryūkōka===
{{See also|Ryūkōka|Kayōkyoku|Japanese jazz}}
[[Image:藤山一郎.jpg|thumb|right|150px|[[Ichiro Fujiyama]], influential ''ryūkōka'' singer]]
Japanese popular music, called ''[[ryūkōka]]'' before being split into ''[[enka]]'' and ''poppusu'',<ref>{{Cite book
  | title = Men and Masculinities in Contemporary Japan: dislocating the salaryman doxa
  | url = https://archive.org/details/menmasculinities00robe
  | url-access = limited
  | last1 = Roberson
  | first1 = James E.
  | last2 = Suzuki
  | first2 = Nobue
  | publisher = RoutledgeCurzon
  | location = London
  | series = Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese studies
  | year = 2003
  | page = [https://archive.org/details/menmasculinities00robe/page/n96 78]
  | isbn =  978-0-415-24446-6 }}</ref>
has origins in the [[Meiji period]], but most Japanese scholars consider the [[Taishō period]] to be the actual starting point of ''ryūkōka'', as it is the era in which the genre first gained nationwide popularity.<ref name="Yano33">{{Cite book|title=Tears of Longing: Nostalgia and the Nation in Japanese Popular Song|first=Christine Reiko|last=Yano|publisher=[[Harvard University|Harvard University Asia Center]]|year=2003|isbn=978-0-674-01276-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/tearsoflonging00chri/page/33 33]|url=https://archive.org/details/tearsoflonging00chri/page/33}}</ref><ref name="Mini248">{{Cite book|title=Japan's Competing Modernities: Issues in Culture and Democracy, 1900-1930|first=Sharon|last=Minichiello|publisher=[[University of Hawaii Press]]|year=1998|isbn=978-0-8248-2080-0|page=248}}</ref> By the Taishō period, Western musical techniques and instruments, which had been [[Foreign relations of Meiji Japan|introduced to Japan in the Meiji period]], were widely used.<ref name="Mini248" /> Influenced by Western genres such as [[Jazz music|jazz]] and [[blues]], ''ryūkōka'' incorporated Western instruments such as the [[violin]], [[harmonica]], and [[guitar]]. However, the melodies were often written according to the traditional Japanese [[pentatonic scale]].<ref name="Yano33" /> In the 1930s, [[Ichiro Fujiyama]] released popular songs with his [[tenor]] voice.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.news.janjan.jp/column/0609/0609131112/1.php|script-title=ja:藤山一郎（ポピュラー）・増永丈夫（クラク）二刀流の復活|author=Kiyomaro Kikuchi|newspaper=[[JANJAN]]|date=2006-09-14|language=ja|access-date=2009-02-01|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090615211214/http://www.news.janjan.jp/column/0609/0609131112/1.php|archive-date=2009-06-15}}</ref> Fujiyama sang songs with a lower volume than [[opera]] through the [[microphone]] (the technique is sometimes called ''[[Crooner|crooning]]'').<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.news.janjan.jp/column/0604/0604182584/1.php |script-title=ja:酒は涙か溜息か—藤山一郎音楽学校停学事件 |author=Kiyomaro Kikuchi |newspaper=[[JANJAN]] |date=2006-04-20 |language=ja |access-date=2009-02-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090206173933/http://www.news.janjan.jp/column/0604/0604182584/1.php |archive-date=2009-02-06 }}</ref>{{Dubious|date=September 2010}}

Jazz musician [[Ryoichi Hattori]] attempted to produce Japanese native music which had a "flavor" of [[blues]].<ref>{{Cite book
  | title = Blue Nippon: Authenticating Jazz in Japan
  | last = Atkins
  | first = E. Taylor
  | year = 2001
  | publisher = Duke University Press
  | location = Durham, North Carolina
  | isbn = 0-8223-2721-X
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=xCFPL5svwhQC&pg=PA132 }}</ref>
He composed [[Noriko Awaya]]'s hit song "Wakare no Blues" (lit. "Farewell Blues").<ref name="ryoichihattori">{{Cite web|url=http://wwwz.fujitv.co.jp/events/art-net/clsc_01concert/330.html|script-title=ja:服部良一生誕100周年ンサート|publisher=Fuji Television|year=2006|access-date=2009-01-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071103215238/http://wwwz.fujitv.co.jp/events/art-net/clsc_01concert/330.html|archive-date=2007-11-03|language=ja}}</ref> Awaya became a famous popular singer and was called "Queen of Blues" in Japan.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.city.aomori.aomori.jp/koho/shisei/shisei2005/english/04meiyo/meiyo01.html |title=Honorary Citizens |publisher=[[Aomori, Aomori|Aomori City]] |year=2005 |access-date=2009-01-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090207182958/http://www.city.aomori.aomori.jp/koho/shisei/shisei2005/english/04meiyo/meiyo01.html |archive-date=February 7, 2009 }}</ref> Due to pressure from the [[Imperial Japanese Army|Imperial Army]] during the war, the performance of jazz music was temporarily halted in Japan. Hattori, who stayed in [[Shanghai]] at the end of the war, produced hit songs such as [[Shizuko Kasagi]]'s "Tokyo Boogie-Woogie" and [[Ichiro Fujiyama]]'s "Aoi Sanmyaku" (lit. "Blue Mountain Range").<ref name="ryoichihattori" /> Hattori later became known as the "Father of Japanese ''poppusu''".<ref name="ryoichihattori" /><ref name=jazzkissa>{{Cite web|url=http://www.chikumashobo.co.jp/new_chikuma/molasky/04_3.html |title=ジャズ喫茶という異空間——'60-'70年代の若者文化を歩く 第四回 page.3 |author=Molasky, Michael S. |publisher=Web Chikuma |year=2008 |language=ja |access-date=2008-11-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207203939/http://www.chikumashobo.co.jp/new_chikuma/molasky/04_3.html |archive-date=December 7, 2008 }}</ref> [[Boogie-woogie]], [[Mambo (music)|Mambo]], [[Blues]], and [[Country music]] were performed by Japanese musicians for the American troops. [[Chiemi Eri]]'s cover song "[[Tennessee Waltz]]" (1952), [[Hibari Misora]]'s "Omatsuri Mambo" (1952), and [[Izumi Yukimura]]'s cover song "[[Till I Waltz Again with You]]" (1953) also became popular. Foreign musicians and groups, including [[JATP]] and [[Louis Armstrong]], visited Japan to perform. In the mid-1950s, {{Nihongo|[[Jazz kissa]]|ジャズ喫茶|Jazu Kissa, literally "Jazz cafe"}} became a popular venue for live jazz music.<ref name=jazzkissa /> Jazz had a large impact on Japanese ''poppusu'', though "authentic" jazz did not become the mainstream genre of music in Japan.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nikkei.co.jp/weekend/news/sp20030308.html|script-title=ja:日本のジャズ、高鳴る響き—ップス界にも新風|newspaper=[[Nihon Keizai Shimbun]]|year=2003|language=ja|access-date=2008-11-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207104003/http://www.nikkei.co.jp/weekend/news/sp20030308.html|archive-date=2008-12-07|url-status=dead}}</ref> In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Japanese pop was polarized between urban ''[[kayōkyoku|kayō]]'' and modern ''enka''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://elekitel.jp/elekitel/special/2006/13/sp_02_d.htm |script-title=ja:演歌、歌西洋音楽 |trans-title=Enka, kayōkyoku and Western music |author=Kikuchi, Kiyomaro |publisher=[[Toshiba]] |date=November 2006 |language=ja |access-date=2009-08-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080619165647/http://elekitel.jp/elekitel/special/2006/13/sp_02_d.htm |archive-date=2008-06-19}}</ref>

Modern J-pop is also sometimes believed to have had its roots with [[Shidaiqu|Chinese immigrant jazz musicians]] who had fled [[Shanghai]] during the [[Chinese Civil War|communist takeover]], and were collaborating with American soldiers to help introduce a variety of new genres to the Japanese public. In 1949, when the [[Communist Party of China|communists]] took over and established the [[China|People's Republic of China]] on the [[Mainland China|mainland]], one of the first actions taken by the [[Politics of China|government]] was to denounce popular music (specifically both Chinese pop music, known as [[Mandopop]], and Western pop music) as [[Yellow Music|decadent music]], and for decades afterwards the Communist Party would promote [[Political music in China#Birth of Revolutionary songs (1949-1970s)|Chinese revolutionary songs]] while suppressing Chinese folk songs, Chinese pop songs and Western pop songs.<ref>{{cite book |author=Broughton, Simon. Ellingham, Mark. Trillo, Richard |year=2000 |title=World Music: The Rough Guide |publisher=Rough Guides Publishing Company |isbn=1-85828-636-0 |page=49 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QzX8THIgRjUC&pg=PA49 }}</ref> Dissatisfied with [[Chairman of the Communist Party of China|Chairman]] [[Mao Zedong]]'s new music policies, a number of Shanghainese jazz musicians fled to the [[United Kingdom|British]] colony of [[British Hong Kong|Hong Kong]] and established [[Cantopop]], which is pop music sung in [[Cantonese]].<ref name="Wordie">{{cite book |title= Streets: Exploring Hong Kong Island|last= Wordie|first= Jason|year= 2002|publisher= [[Hong Kong University Press]]|location= Hong Kong|isbn= 962-209-563-1}}</ref> However, a few musicians instead settled in Japan, where they became members of the [[Far East Network]] and collaborated with the [[United States Army|American soldiers]] to help expose the Japanese public to a wide variety of western genres. This eventually lead to the establishment of modern Japanese pop music, known as ''[[kayōkyoku]]''.