Objectives

This project examines gramophone records distributed in Taiwan and Shanghai by Japanese record companies prior to 1945. Its aim is to elucidate how these records influenced the development of the recording industry and music in these two places. The research will focus on vocal performances and songs recorded in East Asia. Besides numerous examples of storytelling, these early recordings also include speeches, film dialogs, and theatrical performances, as well as music.

Through working with such vocal recordings, the research will focus primarily on two points.

First, by comparing recordings sold in Taiwan, Shanghai, and Japan, we identify the distinctive musical tastes of each region, their similarities, and the aspects in which each region is unique, as well as the connections between them.

Second, we examine how the society, culture and music of each region influenced its respective recording industry.

The musical cultures of Taiwan and Shanghai share many similar features, and consequently the lists of recordings from these regions overlap substantially. There are, however, significant differences in record production between Taiwan, where the record industry was set up and controlled by Japanese companies.  In Shanghai, European and American labels financed the beginnings of the music industry after which Japanese companies arrived and built their business. A comparison of records from Taiwan and Shanghai will, we believe, illuminate the influence of media development, Japanese control, and interregional contact in the modern history of music in East Asia.

Research Results

Since the commencement of this joint research, we have had 12 research reports by joint researchers and 10 research reports by guest lecturers. Each researcher worked to link the study of gramophone records to their own specialty from their own standing. Summarizing the researchers’ presentations at meetings, we reached the following five research results: (1) Changes in traditional music observed in gramophone records: In the 1910s when gramophone records of what we now call traditional music were released, some music genres were still under development. Therefore, reconsidering the musical expressions and texts at that time through gramophone records was effective for understanding the process by which current styles were formed; (2) Movies and record music: The survey of record sales and sales volume as well as newspaper articles allowed us to understand how the phenomenon of hit singers derived from soundtracks, how popular such hit songs were, and how it affected society. We also confirmed the existence of the movie “talker” who told the story of the movie in the silent picture days; (3) Study of popular songs: Popular songs are considered to reflect the social conditions and musicals styles of their times. Through our case studies, a gramophone record released in Shanghai around the 1930s or 1940s was discovered, and detailed studies of the relationship between the record, composer and recorder of the record enabled us to broaden our viewpoints; (4) Radio and records: Out of radio broadcasts, the ratio of record music such as classical music and children’s songs was relatively large. Meanwhile, it became clear that Taiwanese under Japanese colonial rule and Japanese who lived in Taiwan at that time listened not only to music programs including record music but also to Japanese radio dramas and the reading of Japanese literature; and (5) The process of the manufacture and release of records in Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule: Some correspondence was revealed that had been exchanged between a Taiwanese subsidiary of Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd. and the headquarters in Japan through the order sheets sent from Taiwan Columbia to the headquarters in the time of Japanese colonial rule.