The history of Japan goes back centuries; traditional music was played with traditional instruments. The traditional instruments they used were; plucked, and bowed. These were different shaped lutes. Flutes, Drums, Horns are also used in traditional music. Traditional Japanese music is used in theatre and musicals; there are many styles of traditional music. They are; Kabuki, Noh, Gagaku, Shomyo, Jōruri, Nagauta, Shakuhachi, and Sōkyoku. Two examples of the music styles are; Gagaku this is the oldest in the Japanese traditional music. It is known as the court music. This may include a variety of dance, songs, and other Asian music added as a mixture. Also Shomyo, this is the style of music that does not use musical instruments. The Shomyo is sung by either one or more Buddhists. If you would like to learn more on traditional Japanese music, there is an external link below. This will take you to a site about the different styles of traditional music.    

Modern music in Japan is all the modern genres, Pop, R&B, Rock, Dance, Hip Hop etc. In Japan the genres will have the same name but a ‘J’ will be in front of them for example J-Pop, the reason for this is so people can see it means Japanese music, other example is K-Pop the ‘K’ is for Korean. J-Pop is one of the most popular genres in Japan, if you think of the English Pop genre and the singers England has, just think Japan has their own version of Lady GaGa and Beyonce. For many years modern music is listened to more than traditional music or folk music. This is because they have a more interesting sound to listen to, and a lot of it is upbeat. Traditional music is mostly soft a calm music, where modern music has more interesting styles and tunes. Modern music is growing and more and more technologies are making the music become more modern and fun to listen to. Modern music is developing every day and will always have something new for us to listen to.