Commemorating Nagai Kafu’s study at K

When we think of “protest music,” we are often put in mind of specific musical storytellers and their moments: Seeger and Guthrie, Dylan and Baez, working mostly in the United States from the 1940s through the 1960s. But what happens when we pivot away from American “protest folk”—and even from the sixties as its defining moment? What does “protest music” look like elsewhere? This talk will consider Japanese protest folk singers Takada Wataru and Kagawa Ryō, exploring how they sang back against Japan’s political circumstances in the turbulent global sixties, and developed musical projects that challenged limited notions of what “protest” is or can be in the first place. Through their novel, provocative musical storytelling, artists like Takada and Kagawa urge us to think about what we really mean by protest and how we go about it, helping rescue “protest music” from the trap of 1960s nostalgia and making the case that it remains relevant to us here and now.

Dr. Scott Aalgaard is an Associate Professor of East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University.