Episode 36 - Dr. Hiromu Nagahara (MIT)

In this episode, Dr. Hiromu Nagahara (MIT) charts the popular music of the Meiji, Taishō, and Shōwa eras, noting the politics of music and sounding the potential of songs to voice popular discontent.  We discuss the formation of national music in the Meiji Period, the spread of protest tunes in the Popular Rights Movement, the lingering popularity of wartime propaganda anthems, and the counterculture sentiments of postwar jazz standards and Enka ballads.