A New Map of American Music
Writer Profile
Toshiyuki Ohwada
Faculty of Law ProfessorToshiyuki Ohwada
Faculty of Law Professor
2022/02/18
The basis for this book was a request for a three-part column series following Donald Trump's election in late 2016.
The primary reason I felt this theme warranted a book on contemporary American music culture was the shift in the media environment surrounding music.
The 2010s can be seen as the final stage of the music industry's adaptation to the internet, which emerged at the end of the last century. During this time, music shifted from something to be "purchased" to something to be "accessed" via file sharing, paid downloads, and streaming.
I drew parallels between this transition and the American music industry during the World War II era. In the 1940s, when the new medium of radio became widespread, intense conflicts such as boycotts and strikes occurred between composers, performers, and radio industry interest groups. However, this turmoil changed music distribution channels and ultimately led to the birth of a new genre: rock and roll. Will the emergence of streaming media lead to the rise of new music in a similar way?
Since the 1990s, the growth of minority populations, such as Hispanics and Asians, has also had a major impact on the entertainment industry. Latin American rhythms like reggaeton and Latin trap became prominent in the U.S. music scene, and the "visibility" of Asian actors in film and television was obvious to everyone. While the rise of the Trump administration can be seen as a resistance to these trends, political backlash and cultural transformation also emerged as key themes shaping this book.
I originally intended to complete the book in a year or two, but circumstances prevented it, and I finished the final two chapters in the United States during my first sabbatical in ten years. Although Harvard University, where I was a visiting scholar, remained under lockdown, the progress in digitizing literature allowed me to access many materials without visiting the library—the keyword for the final chapter discussing the pandemic is "disembodiment." Witnessing the COVID-19 pandemic, the BLM movement, Trump's defeat, and the birth of the Biden administration firsthand proved to be the decisive factor in bringing the writing of this book to a close.
*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.