This is going to be a long post about popular music in Japan and figuring out why so many people around me can point out something that sounds “Japanese” or understanding that there is something peculiar behind Japanese popular music without knowing the technical musical background of harmonies, chord structures, scales and so forth. I am going to apply very simple music theory behind some well-known examples of J-Pop and talk briefly about the influences from traditional harmonies.
Looking at Debussy’s influences from Javanese music and sometimes using only whole tones or pentatonic scales, it is generally implied in the West that the pentatonic is something from the “East.” I won’t get too into this but a lot of the Japanese scales are pentatonic aside from a few modes that are specific to instruments like the koto. Scales like the Iwato, Yo and In are all versions of the pentatonic.
I will be using terminology often used to determine scale degrees. Here’s a chart of scale degree terms in the key of C:
Also, scales in traditional Japanese music aren’t so fixed on chords within key signatures. For example, a lot of the times in Western pop and classical music, the (tonic) C chord within the key of C is a big deal and the progression of the (dominant) G chord to a (tonic) C chord is popularly used to end a musical phrase. In Japanese music, because chord representations aren’t so fixed on the key signature, you’ll hear songs ending on the 4th or 6th chord which makes some people who are used to Western music feel like the song just ended abruptly. So even though the major and minor scales, chords and the general progressions are all used in Japanese music along with everywhere else because of colonialism and pervasive Western ideas, keys aren’t used to the extent in Western pop music. So with that in mind, I want to touch on one specific chord progression and the pentatonic scales often heard in popular music.
The Pentatonic scale and Subdominant to Dominant Chord Progression
The pentatonic scale I will be talking about leaves out the 4th and 7th notes of the key it’s in. For the key of C, the notes F and B will be omitted. That doesn’t mean the notes F and B are never heard, it’s just they do not appear as often and rarely ever on the note that is the stressed first beat.
The chord progression I will be talking about is very popular in Japanese music and it starts on the (subdominant) 4th chord which would be F in the key of C followed by the (dominant) 5th chord of G. Between these two, it can be followed by usually the minor equivalent (subtonic) 6th chord of Am or the (mediant) 3rd chord of Em or the (tonic) chord of C. Most of the chord progressions before repeating itself has four chords and so the pattern I hear at least is always the (subdominant) 4th chord followed by the (dominant) 5th chord. After that I hear a lot of variety of different things. Here are some examples using the lettered chords in the key of C followed by number representing scale degree:
F(4)-G(5)-Am(6)-C(1)
F(4)-G(5)-Em(3)-F(4)
F(4)-G(5)-Em(3)-Am(6)
F(4)-G(5)-C(1)-Em(3)Popular Song Examples
- Perfume’s Nee (ねぇ)
Key: F
Chord progression during chorus:
Bb (4), C (5), Dm (6), F (1)
Bb (4), C (5), Am (3), Dm (6)We hear that already the first two chord progressions follow the examples I’ve listed above.
Melody during chorus: D C A F D C A F G G F G C (Bb) A G (1) F G A :||(2) F D F F G D
The song starts off with the chorus and in the key of F, the pentatonic scale is F-G-A-C-D. I’ve listed all the notes which fall in line with the pentatonic scale of F, and in brackets notes that are not in the pentatonic scale. We see that the Bb is not in the pentatonic scale and it is only heard once during the chorus while never hearing E which is in the F major scale.
- X Japan’s Rusty Nail
Key: C
Chord progression during chorus:
F(4)-G(5)-C(1)-Em(3)
F(4)-G(5)-Am(6)-Am(6)First chord progression already mentioned in the examples, second one has the same set-up of F to G, Am is a common follow-up and they just held the same chord.
- Opening Theme song to Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Key: F#
Chord progression during chorus:
B(4)-C#(5)-A#m(3)-D#m(6)
B(4)-C#(5)-D#(6)This song goes through a lot of key changes but still, the chorus has the same sort of progression. The melody as well is also very inline with the pentatonic scale with a few exception notes.
Other examples:
- Ayumi Hamasaki’s Monochrome
- Back Horn’s Tobira
- Chara’s Nande Sonna Koto Wo Saseru No Boku Ni
- Utada Hikaru’s Stay Gold
I’d argue that this type of chord progression and starting on the sub-dominant is less common in Western pop music. Not saying J-Pop doesn’t start on tonic chords because that is definitely the number one most popular chord to start on. But even so, with a song like Umbrella by Rihanna (key of C#, progression during “stand under my umbrella” of F#(4)-G#(5)-Fm(3)-A#m(6)) which has the same style of chord progressions, the melody is far from pentatonic. These influences have a lot of roots from traditional Japanese music ranging from scale degrees, chord progressions, and familiarity/preference of starting chords which I believe influenced modern Japanese pop music.
I am interested this is my reading tomorrow also I will get to my Bartok/Debussy thing (I might message you in private instead of writing a formal post though)
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