Music From Japanese Anime in the US

¶ … Japanese Music from Anime and Video Games on American Culture

Music found in Japanese anime and video games has found its' way into American culture, as the popularity of these mediums has provides a route through which Japanese artists and creative works may extend beyond the Asian region (Shahriari 179). The cross cultural nature of music can be seen in the development of today's Japanese popular music; known as J-Pop, has roots which can be traced to the pre-World War II western jazz clubs (Shahriari 178). The Japanese music scene developed its' own culture, as seen with Japanese crooners emulating the style of Elvis Presley, such as Paul Anka and J-Pop songs of the time such as Sukiyaki (Shahriari 179). The style mainly stayed within Japan, with little music becoming well know externally (Shahriari 179). However, the use of the music in anime, as well as video games has increased the audience, and just as the west influenced Japan, Japan is now inducing the west, particularly the U.S. (Kelts 19).

The trend started in the 1980's with music from video games such as Donkey Kong and Mario Brothers (Shahriari 197). These early influences where simplistic computerised melodies, which became quickly recognisable. The games may be argued as created the foundation for international animated pop culture exchanges. The move towards anime can be seen with games such as Pokemon, which spawned a lot of merchandise, as well as spin of animations that became popular in the U.S. (Sexton 33). This opened the door to anime including the well-known Final Fantasy franchise and Dragon Balls, as well as Kingdom Hearts, which was an Enix-Disney collaboration (Shahriari 179). The anime culture is Japan is a multimillion dollar business, with high investments, including the use of popular bands and J-Pop; Kingdom Hearts used the established Japanese artist Hikaru Utada (Shahriari 179). The wide distribution created a large audience receiving the new forms of music. The increased popularity has also seen the development of specific anime pop videos as well as the creation of tribute videos both in Japan and the U.S., with a practice which may be classified as remix (Knobel and Lanlshear 24). Software to facilitate this was even developed and made available at Animemusicvideos.org (Knobel and Lanlshear 24). These are all elements which do not have geographic boundaries, and the influence can be seen internationally.

From these exposures the influences have spread into American music and associated outputs. Today the video games globally, including the YS had soundtracks which may be seen as emulating the Japanese style, for both the electronic simple tunes associated with Mario Brothers, as well as the tracks found in games such as Gran Turissmo, which despite originating as Japanese video games, are seen as mass market entertainment, with modern sound tracks. The artists in anime now tour the U.S., as seen with TM Revolution. The Yellow Magic Orchestra, and Susumu Hirasawa. The single Devil Inside, realised by the Japanese-American singer Hikaru Utada reached number one in the U.S. Dance charts. This in turn cannot fail to influence many American singers and song writers.

Importantly, the music does not only influence pop culture, it has extended into the classics. The sound track from the Final Fantasy films have been adapted, for example, Final Fantasy IV was arranged for a string orchestra and performed and released as Final Fantasy IV: Celtic Moon. The music from Final Fantasy has been played by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, increasing variety and creating a more international approach in younger generations.