A few days ago, a Twitter user wrote “Discovering Japanese jazz literally changes your life,” and the tweet went mildly viral, eliciting responses from both supporters and detractors. All together, it has been quoted by over 500 users, some of whom tweeted replies along the lines of “it’s just jazz,” while others alleged that the original poster was engaging in a kind of Asian fetishism. Many chastised her for expressing enthusiasm for Japanese artists rather than the black American musicians who essentially invented the music.
It was discouraging to see such a negative reaction to someone discovering something new, and I think a lot of the dismissive responses were the result of people extrapolating things from the tweet that weren’t really there. They were making assumptions about this person and her tastes and sensibilities without actually knowing anything about her, and in classic Twitter fashion, making up something to get mad at. The whole fiasco hit close to home for me, as discovering Japanese jazz literally did change my life.
About five years ago, a YouTube algorithm led me down a rabbit hole that began with Miki Matsubara’s 1979 disco hit “Stay With Me.” Soon after, my recommended videos began to include more complex music, like the jazz-infused pop sounds of Taeko Ohnuki’s Sunshower and the jazz-rock fusion of Casiopea’s Mint Jams. My passion for this music was sparked as suddenly and intensely as it was for the connoisseur whose controversial tweet sparked the idea for this essay. The ferocity of my obsession is betrayed by a 2018 tweet in which I posted a link to a Taeko Ohnuki song and wrote “Good news guys, I found the pinnacle of music!” It was a grievous exaggeration that I would never make now, but I maintain that the studio outtake of “Summer Connection” is damn good.
Still, as strongly as I believed at the time in the exceptionalism of Japanese jazz and City Pop (a genre of urban dance music from Tokyo in the 70’s and 80’s), I’ve since come to realize that the value of my discovery wasn’t merely in the music of a specific place and time, but in the knowledge that brilliant music is being made all over the world. An insatiable desire to discover and hear the popular music of the world has become an integral part of my identity. My discovery of Japanese jazz led me beyond the American jazz greats, not necessarily to something better, but certainly to something else.
Nobody would debate that most of the great innovators in jazz are black Americans who developed the genre over the last century, pushing its musical boundaries every step of the way. People like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra are giants upon whose shoulders all contemporary jazz musicians stand. They’re rightfully included in the history books as some of the most influential artists of all time. But what does that matter if we don’t listen to the people they influenced? We can hear the echoes of Coltrane and Sun Ra’s innovations reverberating in every corner of the world as people add their own distinctive flair to the music that inspired them. This is happening not just in jazz, but pop, rock, folk and classical — a musical and cultural dialogue that will never cease.
The point I’m trying to make is that, in my view, the key aspect of this person’s tweet is not just the merit of the music itself, but the act of discovering it. Finding out about Japanese jazz, like finding out about Saharan Desert Blues or Psychedelic Cumbia from Peru, has the potential to open up a new world to the people who hear it, and yes, maybe even change their lives.
I normally stay far away from Twitter pile-ons, but this one was too personal to ignore. There is no good reason for this person’s statement to have received the vitriol that it did. So I hope the masses of Twitter lay off this musical explorer and allow her to continue along on her life-changing path of discovery, and I hope that her journey is as rewarding for her as mine has been, and continues to be, for me.
