Japanthem: Counter-Cultural Experiences, Cross-Cultural Remixes

Both personally revealing and informed by years of Fulbright- and MTV-sponsored research, JAPANTHEM's honest vignettes delve beyond the aspects of Japanese culture that have captivated the western world to portray a society's deep relationship with music, and what it means to listen and understand as a cultural outsider.

Following a decade of back-and-forth across the Pacific while researching her doctoral thesis in ethnomusicology, JAPANTHEM author Jillian Marshall reveals contemporary Japan through a prism of magic, serendipity, frustration, unique underground culture, learning life lessons the hard way, and an insatiable curiosity for the human spirit. The book's twenty vignettes -- including what it's like to be subtly bullied by your Buddhist dance teacher, go to a secret rave in woods near Mt. Fuji, meet a pop star at a basement club while tipsy, and experience a nuclear disaster unfold by the minute -- are based off first-hand experience, and illustrate music's fascinating relationship to (Japanese) society with honesty, intelligence, and humor. JAPANTHEM offers a uniquely nuanced portrayal of life in the Land of the Rising Sun -- while encouraging us to listen more deeply in (and to) Japan in the process.

Author: Jillian Marshall
Publisher: Three Rooms Press
Published: 04/12/2022
Pages: 230
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 5.40h x 8.00w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9781953103154

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 02/14/2022