Enka
From ArticleWorld
Enka is a style of mellow dramatic music that is from Japan. It is comprised of two subgenres that are effectively known as the same. One is of the Meiji Period and the other from the Taisho Period.
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Meiji period
This style is the building block for the other it is less mellow dramatic as the second period but is well versed in its rendition of a story. This period began in 1868 and ended in 1912.
Taisho Period
This is the second period of Enka. It took place between 1912 and 1926. The music is still performed and to an extent, still composed. This is a style of expressing popular songs in a mellow dramatic form that has been compared to American Country music. It has been losing fame as of late and there have been steps to integrate Western harmonies into it to keep it from dying out entirely.
Western influence
With the meshing of the Japanese pentatonic scale with Western harmonies in place much of the music is reflective to a form of Japanese hip hop and has recently started to gain popularity among the younger crowd of Japan.
The main factors that have helped this have been the music of Kiyoshi Hikawa and Yuko Nakazawa, both are female singers and have helped infuse a new taste in this older style that has made it appealing to the youth of Japan.
It is still too early to deem if this will bring this style back with a new genre of music that is evolving from the two prior, but the response to date has been ideal and promising.
Location
Enka has been traditionally heard in drinking establishments, but with the new infuse of style to this music, it has begun to be heard outside the drinking halls as well.