ABSTRACT
The 1990s witnessed an acceleration in the border-crossing nature of Japanese popular culture. At the beginning of the decade, a new kind of avant-garde music called “Japan Noise” appeared on the disc racks of alternative record shops throughout Europe and the US. Soon after, the genre, which is also labelled “Japanoise,” or as most Japanese artists prefer it, simply “Noise” (noizu), began to spread through the catalogues of independent record mail service companies and enriched the product lines of some major consumer media retail stores. While no narrative account can ever substitute for the experience of listening to a Japan Noise release or a live performance, this definition by American Noise expert Mason Jones is helpful in illustrating the sonic side of what has become a major keyword in the international avant-garde music scene.
