Kayokyoku

Kayōkyoku
Stylistic origins	Ryūkōka • traditional pop • Europop • Latin pop • blues • jazz • rock and roll
Cultural origins	1950s Japan: Formerly refers to ryūkōka since the late 1920s
Typical instruments	Vocal • guitar • bass • drums • flute • fiddle • saxophone • ukulele • clarinet

Kayōkyoku (^?, literally "Pop Tune") is a Japanese pop music genre, which became a base of modern J-pop. The Japan Times describes kayōkyoku as "standard Japanese pop" or "Showa era pop".

Kayōkyoku is Western-style-inspired music of Japan. Music in this genre is extremely varied as a result. Kayōkyoku in the narrower and more practical sense, however, excludes J-pop and enka.

Unlike "J-pop" singers such as Southern All Stars' Keisuke Kuwata, the singers of the kayōkyoku genre do not use stylized pronunciations based on the English language, but prefer traditional Japanese. There are exceptions, such as in singer Momoe Yamaguchi's song "Rock 'n' Roll Widow".

Unlike enka, kayōkyoku is also not based on emotional displays of effort while singing.

Famous kayōkyoku artists include Kyu Sakamoto, The Peanuts, The Tigers, Candies, Pink Lady, Seiko Matsuda, Junko Sakurada, The Checkers and Onyanko Club.

The term kayōkyoku originally referred to Western classical "lied" in Japan. However, NHK radio began to use the term as another name of ryūkōka around 1927, and this took hold in the late 10's of the Showa Era. (1935 – 1944). However, many songs popular during this era became lost due to the association with painful memories involving World War II.

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Wikipedia