Japanoise: Music at the Edge of Circulation

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Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
1. Scenes of Liveness and Deadness 28
2. Sonic Maps of the Japanese Underground 64
3. Listening to Noise in Kansai 92
4. Genre Noise 117
5. Feedback, Subjectivity, and Performance 139
6. Japanoise and Technoculture 169
7. The Future of Cassette Culture 198
Epilogue: A Strange History 227
Notes 235
References 259
Index 279

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Noise, an underground music made through an amalgam of feedback, distortion, and electronic effects, first emerged as a genre in the 1980s, circulating on cassette tapes traded between fans in Japan, Europe, and North America. With its cultivated obscurity, ear-shattering sound, and over-the-top performances, Noise has captured the imagination of a small but passionate transnational audience.

For its scattered listeners, Noise always seems to be new and to come from somewhere else: in North America, it was called "Japanoise." But does Noise really belong to Japan? Is it even music at all? And why has Noise become such a compelling metaphor for the complexities of globalization and participatory media at the turn of the millennium?

In Japanoise, David Novak draws on more than a decade of research in Japan and the United States to trace the "cultural feedback" that generates and sustains Noise. He provides a rich ethnographic account of live performances, the circulation of recordings, and the lives and creative practices of musicians and listeners. He explores the technologies of Noise and the productive distortions of its networks. Capturing the textures of feedback—its sonic and cultural layers and vibrations—Novak describes musical circulation through sound and listening, recording and performance, international exchange, and the social interpretations of media.

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Ethnomusicology Forum

Japanoise, on one hand, delineates Noise's historical resonance with musique concrete, post-war jazz, experimental rock and Dada happenings, to name just a few orienting styles. On the other, it encourages and provides a template for approaching challenging music with sensitivity to its form as well as its cultural logic. The book thus astutely addresses not only scholars but students at a variety of levels." -- Benjamin Tausig

Ethnomusicology Review

Novak succeeds in highlighting the cultural implications of Noise in ways that productively broaden scholarly inquiries about music and culture. This book is an invaluable, groundbreaking contribution for ethnomusicology that is applicable to scholars across disciplines with interests in transnationalism, technology, and globalization." -- Nana Kaneko

American Ethnologist

This is a thought-provoking book that is well written and researched, and it made me reflect on not just Noise as experimental music that pushes the boundaries of aesthetics and physical listening but also on listening to a variety of sounds in daily life, on our relationship to technology and our ability to shape sound through it, and on the collaborative connections and blurred identities that exist among artists, distributors, and consumers." -- Carolyn S. Stevens

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