#also also apparently irish culture at large (pubs st patricks day and actual traditional (non japanicized) irish music) is very popular
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music in fantasy anime especially tends to have a lot of influences from irish (traditional and celtic rock) music in it (for example in fairy tail, seven deadly sins, and hxh) (in some cases it's just straight up irish song with japanese lyrics instead of irish/english). this is bc irish music has a surprisingly long history in japan going back to the meiji restoration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the japanese govt was creating its national school system, with curriculums influenced by western (esp angloamerican) schooling and the western professors they invited to help structure the new japanese national schooling. they imported hundreds of books of american and angloceltic songs, and frequently gave them japanese lyrics (either translated or just entirely new), and used those as the basis of national music education in japan (these japanese irish/english folk songs becoming the "shÅka" genre in japan). specifically shÅka music was cultivated because of its ability/goal to promote national unity, both through teaching the same songs nationwide but also because the themes (lyrically and musically) of shÅka songs appeal to an idyllic, nostalgic, agrarian past (whether real or imaginary). shÅka then had a strong influence on the development of japan's own "classical" and popular (enka) music tradition (esp modifying western scales to be more pentatonic). shÅka waned from the school curriculums around the 1960s so now even moreso than before it has a "nostalgic" quality to it in japanese music/media culture. hence its widespread application in the fantasy genre of anime, which is distinguished from more futuristic genres like mecha and sci-fi by its grounding in nature, agrarian society, and the mythologized past.
and that's why your average fighter boy protag in a fantasy anime's theme is a celtic rock reel
"what's musicology grad school like" we watched anime clips in class today
#sasha speaks#srb#recapitulation#interestingly in anime scoring irish music has retained its gendered style divisions (reels for men airs and ballads for women)#in a way that moden irish music has largely fallen away especially since the popularity of riverdance#also also apparently irish culture at large (pubs st patricks day and actual traditional (non japanicized) irish music) is very popular#over in japan with a very dedicated community both of fans and of participants (ie language learners and musicians)#but that's less directly linked to anime#it's very interesting wrt the conversation of cultural appropriation in art/music esp as thay conversation exists in the english speaking#west today. like irish influence has been present in japanese music for so long now (and deliberately presented as Authentically Japanese)#that it's not really widespread knowledge that there's so mucchh angloceltic influence#or even just straight up unaltered angloceltic folk songs just given a new set of lyrics in translation#anyway. much to think about. VERY funny sitting in class and the lecturer pulls up a hatsune miku track
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