Constructing Self within the Japanese Experimental Noise Genre Restricted; Files Only
Stephens, Zoe (Spring 2025)
Abstract
Noise is a wide-reaching and expansive musical genre that can encompass anything from ambient and electronic music to avant-garde and harsh noise. Japan in particular has been a major hub of noise activity over the past several decades, with many Japanese noise musicians defining the genre. Noise became a counterculture for Japanese musicians on the fringe of society to create music and personas that challenged the status quo often through grotesque, sexually explicit, offensive, dangerous, and ear-splittingly loud performances. Through noise, Japanese musicians presented a version of self that emphasized individuality and often existed outside the boundaries of what was considered musically and socially acceptable in Japanese society.
This study explores how contemporary Japanese noise musicians understand their music-making as a performance of self, how place affects an artist’s creative process, and how noise musicians cultivate identity within this musical subculture. The thesis explores how current theories on social structure and self-construal impact the way noise musicians navigate the noise scene and come to understand their own identity in relation to this fringe musical subculture. The author speaks with two active Japanese noise musicians, Tatsuya Nakatani and Ryosuke Kiyasu in this thesis. Examining these two narratives as potential case studies, she addresses the subjective and affective experience of noise music from the perspective of the artist and audience. Topics of discussion include style of performance, intricacies of the creative process, and music as self-expression. The paper investigates how these two artists interact with noise in and as space/place and engage with concepts of liveness and deadness in live and recorded performance.
Based on the artist interviews, the author argues for the music-making process as metaphor for self-construal, analyzing how perspectives on composition, performance, and general music-making discussed by the artists parallel processes of independent and interdependent self-construction. By analyzing how construction of self manifests in creative and musical processes, she presents a nuanced and mutually inclusive approach of self-construction wherein independent and interdependent self-construals can co-exist and equally inform and shape the composition and performance experience.
Table of Contents
Introduction (1)
Chapter 1: Background (6)
1.1 Introduction to Noise (6)
1.2 Brief Note on Japanese Society and Self-Construal (12)
Chapter 2: A Deeper Dive into Japanese Noise (19)
2.1 History of Noise in Japan (19)
2.2 Proto-Noise in Japan (20)
2.3 Kansai No Wave (25)
2.4 Noise in Tokyo (27)
Chapter 3: Methodology (28)
Chapter 4: Interview and Analysis (30)
4.1 Place/Space in Noise Music (32)
4.2 Thoughts on Liveness and Deadness (39)
4.3 Music-Making as Metaphor for Self-Construal (48)
Conclusion (63)
Bibliography (65)
Appendix (68)
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File download under embargo until 22 May 2026 | 2025-04-09 11:07:51 -0400 | File download under embargo until 22 May 2026 |
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