Paper short abstract:

This paper examines nationalistic tendencies in the popular music genre nyū myūjikku. By focussing on the artistic output of singer-songwriter Sada Masashi (b. 1952) I will uncover strategies that were used to incorporate cultural policies into mainstream pop music from the 1970s to this day.

Paper long abstract:

The now historic genre of nyū myūjikku (New Music) is often associated with urban aesthetics and a light, polished, international flair that is emanated by the classy easy-listening sound of singer-songwriter Matsutōya Yumi (b.1954) or the timeless and borderless rock music of the band Happī Endo. There is, however, another side to the genre that includes aspects such as the negotiation of Japanese-ness, an embrace of the imaginary of the nostalgic furusato (rustic hometown) and even straight-forward nationalism.

My paper examines this unexplored field within a music that in recent years has soared to new popularity amongst global netizens under the cosmopolitan label "City Pop". Hence, I will focus on the artistic output of singer-songwriter Sada Masashi (b.1952), whose works not only epitomise these other, frequently overlooked, aspects of nyū myūjikku, but make the lines of its evolution clearly visible.

Based on a qualitative content analysis of Sada's songs, I intend to point out the aesthetics of a branded nationalism that proved to be highly compatible with popular culture. In addition, I'm going to lay bare the social and political contexts - from the furusato-zukuri policy of the 1980s to the new cultural nationalism of the Abe era - under which they were formed, introduced to and institutionalised within the Japanese mainstream popular music.

Thus, I aim to paint a fuller picture of nyū myūjikku as a genre that reached beyond its quality as the soundtrack of the urbanised bubble-years for which it has been known to and valued by critics, scholars and audiences alike.