The president of Enka

[imomus]

Amidst all the buzz about a black American's chance to become the next US President, let's consider an even more remarkable achievement: a black American is currently poised to revitalise Enka, the genre of trad balladry post-war Japan liked to get drunk and sentimental listening to. The man in question is 26 year-old Jerome White Junior, raised in Pittsburgh. In Japan they just call him Jero.



Jero's grandfather was a black American soldier stationed in Japan who married a Japanese woman. A few years later, back in Pittsburgh, her Enka record collection began to fascinate her six year-old grandson. He signed up for a Japanese language course at school and, after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, headed to Japan, where Victor Records took a risk and signed him.

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The risk paid off: Jero is now huge, with a fanbase demographic that takes in octogenarian nostalgarians and young girls alike. His energetic synchronised dance routines and brash hip hop outfits may make a bizarre corollary for the warbling ballads he sings, but -- as they aren't saying about Obama and Hillary -- maybe it's the best of both worlds, a marriage made, if not in heaven, then at least in spring, when the blossom falls, bro, yo.

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Having messed somewhat with hybrid Enka on my last album, I must say I love the soaring sentimentality of this musical form. It's not far from the swooping croon Bowie achieved in his cover of "Wild is the Wind". Who says this gorgeous rush of regret and vibrato can only be for Japanese people? Thanks to its new black president, Enka is destined for all humanity.

Comments

[33mhz.livejournal.com]

omfg, amazing. Usher - "soul" + mono no aware. And of course a Murakami for Vuitton handbag flies out of his mouth when he speaks in those interviews.

I can't say I've heard much contemporary enka, but it's certainly miles from Misora Hibari. In its own way it's just as camp as this:


It's just less Judy Garland and more N*Sync.

[cerulicante.livejournal.com]

I grew up around old Japanese ladies and music like this. Even now, I sometimes like to hit an old man's enka bar after a long day at the office and sip Sapporo while the enka makes the tears roll down everyone's face. No one talks. It's just a safety valve that lets enough pressure off so we can continue being sarariman.*

I have a soft spot for this kind of music, even if it IS formulaic and overly melodramatic. This is Showajidai Japan and my Japan, at that.

I love this song.





*Yes, I am a sarariman for a Japanese corporation.

[dzima.livejournal.com]

Momus, as you were a bit late in reporting the fixed gear trend, you are also a tad late with the Jero craze. It's time to get better informants otherwise the years will take its toll on your hip factor!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Down with "chronological correctness"!

I work for the New York Times now, things only matter when we notice them!

fan base?

[(Anonymous)]

I think you're mistaking fan base for "target market".

I have a particular sore spot with this feller because of his first Japanese TV appearance in December where he was lauded as "the man that will bring back enka."... "soon he will be all over TV and advertisements." That proclamation from the people who were intending to put him there was sort of a painful confirmation of things I try to ignore/deny.

As marxy-ist as it is, he doesn't represent any change in attitudes or culture so much as push-marketing.

Re: fan base?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

The Marxyesque logic goes: things don't matter if they don't have push marketing, and also don't matter if they do.

Re: fan base?

[(Anonymous)]

You have a problem with Jero because of how sponsors want to use him? He's been into the music since he was a little kid because of his obaachan.

What's he gonna do, refuse to bring it to a wider audience (after about two decades of enjoying it privately) and stick to his local karaoke box so he can "keep it real"?

Jero Hearn

[qscrisp.livejournal.com]

I like this. I personally feel that Japan needs to be able to allow foreigners to take part in Japanese culture more often, and to acknowledge such contributions to the culture. Jero is a kind of Lafcadio Hearn, renewing interest in aspects of the culture that the Japanese themselves take for granted. As he says, enka has had the image of something only for old people - karaoke songs for drunken ossan - but he proves there's no reason it should be that way. I don't find his treatment at all gimmicky or fickle. I'm sure similar contributions can be made to other areas of Japanese culture to bring them out of the museum and rehydrate them.

mdma

[(Anonymous)]

Hehey! Them jap birds are lappin' it up. I've got a fairly deep voice, i can learn Japanese, pppppsh. Thats next year sorted.

For some reason i'm liking footage of this Jero fella. Probably because of the unusual cultural pollination which is something i always warm to.

But can anyone tell me who the singer is who is heard (and presumably mentioned) at about 2:55 to 3:15 in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTd2TG3ajLY&eurl=http://imomus.livejournal.com/

(JERO meets Moriyama Aiko)

It sounds like the same singer who is heard on the 'Mysterious Podcast' released a few months back just here.

Is it? Who is she, or who are they? I must know, please help me someone!

Re: mdma

[imomus.livejournal.com]

It's the great Misora Hibari (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misora_Hibari). And yes, she also featured in the Mysterious Podcast (http://imomus.livejournal.com/356336.html).

Re: mdma

[33mhz.livejournal.com]

My favorite clips of hers have all been from when she was fairly young and doing movie musicals.

Here she plays a lonely scarecrow with a heno heno mo heji face (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dhYRDENbow), here's swing madness in a bee costume (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhmKFGpWhRc) with her dopey tanuki friend. And then this number on a rollercoaster in Janken Musume (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrbegS0LHrI).

Re: mdma

[imomus.livejournal.com]

More on Hibari's tanuki films here (http://imomus.livejournal.com/337490.html), including an account of how she made her last tanukigoten appearance almost twenty years after her death, thanks to digital technology.

Re: mdma

[count-vronsky.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to ask, what is the piece at 21 min. that sounds like Anouar Brahem, or the opening credits from hbo's Rome (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzd1szJLFoI&feature=related)?

I made my dad a copy of the MP when you first posted it and he loved it, plays it in his car all the time, and he especially likes the Ivor Cutler "Lemon Flower" song. He is getting a bit dotty in his old age so he has asked me several times who sings it.

Barack is on patches

[niddrie-edge.livejournal.com]

I am reminded of Bourgie Bourgie. Pretty much a style of the time with some acts.



Someone spoke to me last week about alcohol induced Celtic sentimentalism. The wailing and keening is apparent in the Romany culture too. Watching some of the wedding scenes in Latcho Drom I was taken back to 70s house parties. Old Uncle Willie toasting a young bride by channeling the souls of the ancestors through a Jim Reeves song.

Do people still challenge each other to a song these days or has karaoke cleaned up?

Re: Barack is on patches

[imomus.livejournal.com]

While I was never really friends with Paul Haig, Edwyn Collins or Roddy Frame, I did hang out a bit with Paul Quinn circa 1990. Lovely man, wonder what he's up to now?

Re: Barack is on patches

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Hmm, some googling reveals that he's very ill with multiple sclerosis and is being looked after by Alan Horne. We knew he was ill, even back then, but this sounds pretty awful.

Re: Barack is on patches

[niddrie-edge.livejournal.com]

Yes I knew he was ill as having a fondness for his work I sort of kept up to date.
Sorry to bring the news to you in this way.

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

I see it's time to install that word-changing script, to change "Obama" to Bowie, "Hilary Clinton" to Bolan, and "American election" to "Glam nazi death battle".

pale green eyes

[(Anonymous)]

sorry to report pauls not too well
hes very frail and walks around
the west end with a stick i think its polio or something
i know he has to buy bad quality hashish to
sooth the pain ...
fucking shame
bad education
and even worse medication

tears run ringu

[petit-paradis.livejournal.com]

is umiyaki is only hit sofar?

his crooning sounds marc almondish rather than bowie.

wonder why marc almond took this genre, it follows his latest song-structures and vocals.

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough, My name's Jerome and I've had discussions with Japanese friends about possible Japanese nicknames. I remember Jero being mentioned but then disregarded as stupid because it means jello in Japan.

I can't help but feel that a lot of this guys success ultimately boils down to him being an unchallenging black typecast (The cookie-cutter hip-hop artist... because black people dont make any other kind of music, right?) with the added, marketable appeal of authentic "Japaneseness" which will pique the curiosity of the Japanese masses simply because as a nation they're obsessed with the idea of us-and-them when dealing with "foreigners".


I'm also confused by your advocacy of Obama which I consider as over-enthusiastic considering he doesn't even share your politics. He's not a far-left card-carrying Communist; he's very much a centrist, barely leaning to the left. I can't help but feel some people, you included, are having a hard time separating his race from his policies. Sure, he's a better candidate than McCain, but for someone as far-left as you he's hardly representing what you believe.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

It's arguable that only stereotypes can create truly startling originality, if you can only splice the right ones together. Take cookie-cutter hip-hop signifiers and splice them with cookie-cutter enka signifiers and you get cookie dough no-one's ever tasted before.

As for Obama, sure, I did that "Find your ideal candidate" test and it told me to root for Dennis Kucinich (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Kucinich). But where is he now? At least Obama has a real chance of being elected president. And he'll be the most left-leaning president, if he gets the job, since Jimmy Carter.

NewFromUSA

[cheapsurrealist.livejournal.com]

"Find your ideal candidate"
It's an evolutionary process

[thomascott.livejournal.com]

It's default advocacy, putting one's weight behind the most viable, perceived lesser evil.
This is one reason why most democracies are now based around a two party system of essentially similar, post-ideological centrist parties, no one wants to 'waste' a vote on an outsider.

All that said it still seems the only logic to apply to this election, at least with Obama there would seem to be the hope for something different.

Interesting post btw.

[wondrousworld.livejournal.com]

As far as enka standards go, he's just not good. He has a powerful voice, but kurushisa to kurasa ga kanjirenai. He's also not musically innovative. He hasn't done anything particularly special to raise the bar to a higher level or to a different standard. He's just a guy with a pop voice (that's moderately powerful) singing sad songs in a pop kinda way.

And I sort of agree with dzim'as comment, because we can actually see that Jero is being treated like a fad, and a dying one at that.

[(Anonymous)]

A bit cynical. He's apparently worn hip hop fashion for a long time (long before the talent contest video above) and has just kept doing so. He respects the genre but has said he won't wear a kimono on stage as it's "too much".

[cerulicante.livejournal.com]

How dare you talk smack about Count Blackula and his wife, the Black Bride of Frankenstein?

Ali Baba Obama will win the election and his 40 Thieves (the Congressional Black Caucus) will have a field day with reparations and other things that will amount to a whole lot of nothing to talk about for the 2012 elections.

[(Anonymous)]

He aint no Timi baby

When you going to start biggin up Daniel O'donnel then?

[eclectiktronik.livejournal.com]

Having seen the clips, it's hard to find a more MOR corporate sounding act. mix 'safe ' cokie cutter hip hop aesthetic Kuma mentions with MOR balladry,and you get a safe marketable product which doesn't exactly take music in a new direction nor threaten anything. I'm sure it has its appeal, but it's hardly revolutionary!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Or perhaps it's not MOR enough? I really love the Thai ballads I hear in my local Thai supermarket, so very slushy and generic and yet fresh because they have -- to me -- odd chord structures and melody toplines.

[desant012.livejournal.com]

I love those really sad ballads you hear blasting on fuzzy, tin-can transistor radio in "convenienece marts" (I'm not sure what the international name for that is) run by people from Central and South Asia. I've spent my entire life tracking down that stuff and I just can't find it ... maybe I'll ask about it one day.

incessant searching

[(Anonymous)]

tell me about it... i was in a black cab going to laguardia some years ago when the driver (of either central or south american nationality) popped in a cassette tape as we slowed down in traffic. from the speakers poured the most amazing song i'd ever heard: the polka-like rhythm of latino country music mixed with a knocking bassline and some sharp guitar riffs. over all of this a female singer did a sort of call and response in spanish but with dulcet tones instead of the usual hip-hop and reggaeton gravel. still kicking myself for not asking the guy who that group was, and try as i might i just can't find it anywhere.

Re: incessant searching

[count-vronsky.livejournal.com]

Could it have been some Cumbia (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuH9JRetATA)? The stuff from the 1950's and 60's is amazing.

[fishwithissues.livejournal.com]

someone please forward this to kanye.

[fishwithissues.livejournal.com]

ps i love that they didn't duck the audio so the japanese and english voice over are copresent in the mix.

[revengeofshades.livejournal.com]

Not to rock the boat, but it kind of strikes me as a tad Hasselhoffian, something you slow dance to when you visit your grandmother in an assisted living ward.

But can Jero top this?

[peripherus-max.livejournal.com]

These clashing Orientalisms, world blurrings, sexy, sinewy and transgressive...

Check out my little sister. Alabama backyard, 1988:
http://www.myspace.com/memedacookie

:)

Re: But can Jero top this?

[internought.livejournal.com]

That is truly wierd/cool.

[(Anonymous)]

Chadha singing in 1975:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y91ti-MoXE8

hybrid torch

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Chavela Vargas, openly lesbian Costa Rican singer of ranchero songs, traditionally sung only by men. This woman does more with her ovaries than most men can with a full sack:

Re: hybrid torch

[cerulicante.livejournal.com]

Two Latin dudes on guitar always equals awesome. She's just the awesome frosting on the awesome cake.

That song is whopping some serious ass.

[cerulicante.livejournal.com]

Damn, a black guy took some old thing and mixed it with HIP HOP? That shit has NEVER been done before, ever!

That's completely new and fresh! WOW! I bet he will say that it is "off the chain." Isn't black peoples awesome? Let's all look at him like a monkey in the zoo because we are Japanese and we like non-Japanese that entertain us like the monkeys.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I think you'll find you're the only person comparing Jero to a monkey, Cerulicante. But relax, it doesn't make you a bad person. Okay, actually it does.