Quit Your Band! Musical Notes from the Japanese Underground

by Ian F. Martin

From the sugar rush of Tokyo’s idol subculture to the discordant polyrhythms of its experimental punk and indie scenes, this book by Japan Times music columnist Ian F. Martin offers a witty and tender look at the wide spectrum of issues that shape Japanese music today. With unique theories about the evolution of J-pop as well as its history, infrastructure and (sub)cultures, Martin deconstructs an industry that operates very differently from counterparts overseas. Based partly on interviews with influential artists, label owners and event organisers, Martin’s book combines personal anecdotes with cultural criticism and music history. An accessible and humorous account emerges of why some creative acts manage to overcome institutional pressures, without quitting their bands. Ian Martin’s writing about Japanese music has appeared in The Japan Times, CNN Travel and The Guardian among other places. Martin is based in Tokyo, where he also runs Call And Response Records.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Japan, Japanese Literature

250 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 25, 2016

Reviews

[Rudy · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my life there have been several bands from Japan that have played an important role in my aesthetic emancipation. Bands like BOaT, Boredoms, Shugo Tokumaru, Tenniscoats, Natsumen, Happy End- whatever! Up until I read the book, I only had vague ideas of the contexts in which they were brewed in, and though I feel like I am still mostly in the dark about the stories between those individual bands, Quit Your Band offers a pertinent narrative about the narrative of Japanese popular and underground music ranging from 1950's Enka and Ryukoka all to today's subculture and idol-dominated musical landscape. I wish the historical section of the book were longer, it seems like a dense and fascinating musical history that the book introduces rather than explores. There are some omissions that I found a bit disappointing, such as the near total lack of mention of contemporary folk music and city-pop (currently blowing up on my friends' Youtube recommendation circuit), but whatever - I'm not complaining. Despite not exploring every-single-scene, the history given offers a framework in which you can easily place those scenes in using your own intuition.
The author is a British expat in Japan and frequently draws on his lived experiences with the music scene in Britain as a way to elucidate how those scenes are manifesting in Japan, so the whole book feels like it's coming from a personal viewpoint, a fact that he makes explicitly clear early on in the book (I think he did, anyway).
The latter part of the book acts as a very, very interesting conversation about a whole lot of topics, notably on the gender dynamics in independent and idol music and on the way how indie bands in Japan get access to playing shows and build audiences.
The whole business model around the indie scene seems pretty fucked to me right now, though Martin does end the book with an interesting suggestion about how this model is changing. Hopefully this will manifest in more transformative music being produced.
Yeah, I learned a ton from this book. Really liked it.

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

An overall good book on contemporary Japanese music - both it's history as well as a very subjective view by its author Ian F. Martin, who lives in Tokyo, and has a label there. The Japanese music scene is pretty amazing - in its scope, size, and intensity. For me, it's like Superman's Bizarro world, where it looks very much like the Western format, but it's clearly not the case.

The main focus is what the author knows about the music, and that is the books' strength. In no fashion is it like the Julian Cope book, which is a very subject view (some made-up?) of Japanese rock history. Martin has a love for Japan, and an admiration for the music scene there - even though he is critical here and there. But I do like he goes through Enka to Happy End to YMO to Idol stars to current bands that still exist now. It's not really a guide book, but more of one-man's thoughts on what he feels is important, and how the system works. He is also very honest that he places himself not as an expert, but a person who does know what's happening in Tokyo for example, but he knows that there is a lot more happening in the rest of Japan as well. The writing is good and very straight forward. It will be a book that needs a sequel or an update.

[Ana PF · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, this book is a must for whoever interested in the topic it covers, or dare I even say just interested in Japanese culture. Honesty, fun, tons of information - Martin is right when he says it is, after all, a love story. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to write the brilliant book that he's written. Highly tempted to add Julian Cope's Japrocksampler to my reading list...too bad I have to keep structuring my reading time wisely to cover other topics!!

[Nicky Neko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe 3.5? Very interesting (and well written) in parts, but I didn't appreciate the repetitive name dropping of the same bands over and over again. Maybe just mention a band once, and when mentioning, maybe dwell a bit on them, instead of just name dropping? But I did really enjoy certain parts of this book, and it was very informative at times, moreso when it explained the history and systems in place relating to the Japanese music industry.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

An indie-leaning social history of Japanese rock music, late 1940s to mid-2010s. You’ll take away some of Martin's implicit awe for the agony and ecstasy and more agony of being your own band in Japan.

A balanced, considered survey with a strong point of view informed by the world it describes. Starting from 10,000 feet, by the 1990s we have descended to treetop height on our way to the basements.

No star-struck, shiny scene tourism — Martin is fixed on the oily machinery of the music industry because for better or worse he is *in* it.

Seasoned with British sarcasm. Lightly spans a few different golden eras, but some things have, um, happened since publication in 2016. A second volume would be something to see.

[Yoiti · Rating 5 out of 5]

"In the end, though, this is a story about love"
A great book to anyone interested not only on the underground scene but on the whole of Japan's music industry history. The book is a personal view from the author's perspective as a journalist and label owner in Tokyo, so there are some great bands that he haven't cited, like my Trattoria's favorites Citrus, and he doesn't bother to be neutral about the bands, he praises or roasts them.
I really wish for another book from the author, this time focusing more on the current scene, as the whole history of the industry was told in this book, there are a lot of new bands that are worth mentioning for his next work.
Great read.

[ren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recommends a lot of great bands (including a lot that I already love), and provides a basic insight into the workings of Japanese music and how it interacts with that society, but doesn't really go into enough depth for me, and at times almost reads like a student essay.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book, but after on/off reading it for a couple months, my initial feelings about it never really changed, which is kind of a bummer.

I didn't dislike this book by any means, and thought it was interesting throughout, but ultimately it felt like a very subjective and disjointed narrative. Its subtitle, "Musical Notes..." really does encapsulate the vibe of the writing - commentary and quick ideas packed together. It was inherently ambitious in its scope; summarizing a whole country's history of alternative and underground music in less than 300 pages is an impossible feat to accomplish, and the fact Martin even attempted to do it is impressive in and of itself. I didn't feel like the ideas of each chapter were completely developed, or even really connected - the most jointed musings were those regarding idols, which, while I recognize their place within the live house scene and overall subculture, felt like it wasn't really what the book needed to focus on (that being said, as a fan of Ensemble Stars, I did in fact enjoy the information about the role of their real life counterparts, since idol culture in Japan seems to be vastly different from idol culture in Korea, which is my only other point of reference as far as idols are concerned). Much of the writing felt like an excuse for the author to namedrop and then move on, without discussing further the impact or relevancy of particular artists other than they were involved in a scene, and that scene was important at some point in time.

All this being said, I can't say I could have written anything better than what was presented, seeing as I knew next to nothing about this subject. Therefore, I found myself taking tons of notes and being engaged with the text - maybe that's why I found myself so frustrated with its brevity? I think a longer, newer version of this is maybe closer to something that I actually wanted, and its no fault of this particular book for not being that for me.

Idk, 3 stars. Read it if you're interested in this subject. (I might edit this later with the spreadsheet of notes I took since I would need to organize it for public consumption.)

[ThrowBackGmac · Rating 4 out of 5]

The biggest quality that may be a deterrent to some readers is the unapologetic subjectivity Martin has with the handling of his chosen topics. However, that is not to suggest that this book isn't credible or not worth your time. Martin's personal logs, experiences with running record label, and interviews with musicians create what I think is the best descriptor for this book: a personal canon. The Western world's understanding of Japanese musical culture is still infantile. When compared to other essays, articles, and books I've read that discuss Japanese music - texts that often exoticize the people, misconstrue facts, or just outright lie - this is one of the best works out there at the moment.

As many expats will tell you, it's next to impossible for a foreigner to assimilate into Japanese society. Despite how engaged Martin is when discussing his topics and recounts, much of this book is both read and written with a perspective of an outsider looking in. Therefore, it may be a long while (and take extraordinary circumstances) before a comprehensive and encyclopedic text is published that answers most, if not all, of the questions us English speakers may have about Japan's musical scenes, their history, and the extreme lengths its musicians take to express themselves. However, that book won't have any of the personality that comes with suggesting that some scenes can be just as boring as our own. The loss of translation is a mystifier, but creativity being a labor of love is a profound message most music fans will appreciate.

It's fascinating. I have a pile of notes as a result. Props to Martin for his exhaustive love and passion for Japan. It's amazing how much he was able to accomplish.

[Silas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting look at the music scene in Tokyo by someone with rather different tastes in music than me. The writer is a British man living in Japan, whose musical tastes run towards Britpop and alternative music that particularly features the creation of feedback and noise. I appreciated the quick run through the history of Japanese rock and pop, which was quite informative, and had at least a few touchstone bands I was familiar with. Once it got into the current scene and the author's involvement in it, it was somewhat less engaging, because it was a wall of advice on how to change the scene to make it more successful given to anyone who will listen, along with extensive name dropping of bands I've never heard of and have no context for. The best part of it, I think, is likely exclusive to the audiobook, was a selection of Japanese music from Tokyo indie bands the author liked. Since we don't share the same taste, there were some songs that didn't really excite me, but there were some gems in there, as well. I only wish the author had told us who the bands were in the audiobook, so I could look them up more easily. I'm sure there are notes available, but I rarely check those, so I just heard some interesting music, and that is all. It was an interesting look at something unfamiliar, with a little bit of technical talk that doesn't really apply to me.

[Rodrovich · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came across this when I found Martin’s Clear and Refreshing blog through recommendations on WordPress reader (or something). Just by the content on his blog and the fact that he runs a Tokyo-based record label, it’s pretty apparent the guy has a pulse on the Japanese underground scene (or at least the rich cultural hub for underground music that is Koenji). Reading this was fun and informative, Martin’s opinions and rhetoric felt reasonably balanced for the most part, and some of my opinions were validated by his criticisms of mainstream J-pop and idol culture. His short history primer for the introduction of rock and other Western-centric genres in Japan was particularly informative. I got some chuckles out of some of his sparse jabs at newer bands. The narrative-like opening paragraphs that start each chapter were nice touches for the most part. Martin writes about cultural aspects surrounding the music industry in Japan on a broad scope, but never strays too far.

So what I didn’t like as much? There were small and scattered portions of repetition of points when he called back to bands he had mentioned before, and the last part where he went over various scenes in Japan gauntlet style felt super-rushed and surface-level with most of it reading like just a list of bands with three adjectives attached to each.

7/10

[Quattro · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was educative. Even learned things about Japanese history which its modern media rarely acknowledges like terrorism committed in the 70s and one bass player even stealing a Boeing jet and flying it to North Korea (although Wikipedia tells me right now it was South Korea, I wonder which is the error).

At some point (somewhere between page 17X-19X) I found myself thinking that Ian might find the book 'The World Beyond Your Head' interesting and tangential to the music trends and sensibilities he paints of Japan.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was using as an introduction to Japanese underground music, and it is a bit more complex than that. I struggled, as I did not recognize almost all of the bands. When the author explained the music business, it became more fascinating for me. If I ever gain a better understanding, I will come back and read this again.

[KaldonAngorm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesante libro sobre las distintas subculturas musicales en Japón, repasando la historia desde los 60-70s hasta la mitad de los 201X.

Está muy muy bien escrito, y si que es verdad que hay mucho "name dropping" como dicen algunas otras reviews.

[Felipe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative (maybe) and highly readable (definitely), but I just found myself constantly wondering what the hell he was basing all of these arguments on, especially when things got historical.

[Immy · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting!