Japanese Pop Music

J-pop can be traced to jazz music which became popular during the early Shōwa period (i.e. the reign of emperor Hirohito). Jazz introduced many musical instruments, previously used only to perform classical music and military marches, to bars and clubs.
It also added an element of "fun" to the Japanese music scene.
As a result "Ongaku Kissa" (音楽喫茶 – lit. "music cafe") became a very popular venue for live jazz music.
Under pressure from the Imperial Army during World War II, the performance of jazz music was temporarily halted. After the war ended the United States soldiers—who were occupying Japan at the time—and the Far East Network introduced a number of new musical styles to the country.
Boogie-woogie, Mambo, Blues, and Country music were performed by Japanese musicians for the American troops. Songs like Shizuko Kasagi's "Tokyo Boogie-Woogie" (1948), Eri Chiemi's "Tennessee Waltz" (1951), Misora Hibari's "Omatsuri Mambo", and Izumi Yukimura's "Omoide no Waltz" became popular.
Foreign musicians and groups including JATP and Louis Armstrong visited Japan to perform.
1952 was declared the "Year of the Jazz Boom" but the genre itself demanded a high level of technical proficiency and was difficult to play.
As a result many amateur Japanese musicians turned to country music, which was far easier to learn and perform.
This in turn led to a proliferation of country-based music.
In 1956 the rock-and-roll craze began thanks to a country music group known as Kosaka Kazuya and the Wagon Masters and their rendition of Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel.
The rock-and-roll movement would reach its peak in 1959 with the release of a movie featuring performances by a number of Japanese rock-and-roll bands.
Some performers attempted to merge traditional Japanese pop music with rock-and-roll. One of few musicians to be successful in this effort was Sakamoto Kyū with the song "Ue wo Muite Arukō" (lit. "Let's Look Up and Walk"), known in other parts of the world as "Sukiyaki".
The song was the first Japanese song to reach #1 in the United States (four weeks in Cashbox Magazine and three weeks in Billboard magazine) in its native language in America and also to receive a "Gold Record" for selling one million copies.
Other performers learned to play the music and translate the lyrics of popular American songs, resulting in the birth of "cover pop."
However, the popularity of these acts faded as radio and television gave every household the opportunity to watch the original musicians perform. The concept of karaoke and its subsequent popularity can arguably be attributed to the cover pop phenomenon.
From the early 1970s to the mid-1980s the emphasis shifted from simple songs with a single guitar accompaniment ("folk") to more complex musical arrangements known as New Music.
Instead of social messages, the songs focused on more personal messages, such as love. Takuro Yoshida and Yosui Inoue are two notable New Music artists.