Resonating Across Oceanic Currents
A Maritime History of Popular Music in and from Japan, 1920s-1960s
In what ways can we engage with the sea as a method in examining popular music history? How can we approach the global circulations of music through the multilateral modes of understanding a maritime history? What exactly are the ways through which we can decolonise the study of popular music in and beyond the West? The two-day symposia feature scholars working on the historical flows of popular music between Japan and multiple international locations. Deriving from the project ‘Resonating Across Oceanic Currents (RAOC)’, the symposia will explore the international music exchange involving Japan during the ‘transwar’ period. Above all, in conversation with current thinking about decoloniality, the symposia will engage with methodological and ethical means to investigate the maritime history of popular music in and from Japan during some of the most turbulent years of the twentieth century.
