Asaba, Y. (2020) The reception of tango and the creation of its authenticity in twentieth century Japan: a study from the perspective of “Internalized Modernity”. Popular Music Studies, 24 pp. 3-15. ISSN 1343-9251 (print) 1883-5945 (online)
Abstract
How was tango's authenticity created in Japan? Through the lens of what the author calls the Internalized Modernity, this essay examines the historical construction of tango's authenticity in twentieth century Japan. Tango, as a dance music genre, was fabricated at the intersecting point of "primitivism" and internationality - both concepts of which the products of Western modernity - and as the key part of Argentina's "modernization". Since its arrival in Japan in the 1910s and through to the postwar years, tango was internalized in the distant land together with the genre's associated class and racial politics, and as modernity. In this process, the idea of prioritization of authenticity surrounding tango was cultivated, wherein Japanese performers and aficionados looked to Argentina in search for their artistic and academic pursuits. The creation of tango's authenticity in twentieth century Japan complicates any simplistic understandings of the "West-East" or "Argentina-Japan" frames of cultural transmission, and in turn illuminates a unique mode of modernity construction in Japan. ******* PLEASE NOTE: This article is in Japanese. There is an open access version of it at the 'Official URL' given below. *******
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)