Japanthem: Countercultural Experiences, Cross-Cultural Remixes

A thrilling depiction of contemporary Japan by Fulbright MTVu-sponsored scholar Jillian Marshall, revealed through a prism of underground music, serendipity, and feminist disparity, based on 10 years of study in the Land of the Rising Sun.Following a decade of back-and-forth across the Pacific, while researching her doctoral thesis in ethnomusicology, Japanthem author Jillian Marshall reveals contemporary Japan through a prism of magic, serendipity, frustration, unique underground culture, learning life lessons the hard way, and an insatiable curiosity for the human spirit. The book’s twenty vignettes — including what it’s like to be subtly bullied by your Buddhist dance teacher, go to a secret rave in woods near Mt. Fuji, meet a pop star at a basement club while tipsy, and experience a nuclear disaster unfold by the minute — are based off first-hand experience, and illustrate music’s fascinating relationship to (Japanese) society with honesty, intelligence, and humor. Japanthem offers a uniquely nuanced portrayal of life in the Land of the Rising Sun — while encouraging us to listen more deeply in (and to) Japan in the process.