eri chiemi / eartha kitt

[Jonathan M. Hall]

I was happy to see Brigit's response to my post, written off the cuff, as
it encouraged me to think more carefully on the issue.  

>I don't really understand the way in which you apply the notion of
>"imperialism" here - without getting overly technical, imperialism to my
>understanding refers to the primarily politico-economic enterprise of a
>country's extending its reign beyond given limits, accompanied with the
>imposition of at least certains of that country's cultural forms and practices
>on the newly gained territories.

As the use of the non-technical term /cultural imperialism/ implies,
imperialism as an idea can be applied to many kinds of relations.  But more
than this vague license to use the term in a cultural sense, I want to
stress how vital it is to consider both colonialism and imperialism not
simply as effects on non-metropolitan places (Nevis, India, Puerto Rico,
Korea, all at various times) but as part and parcel of the "home front." 
As recent, finely tuned studies have shown, the image of the colonies and
of the non-metropole are vital elements in self-definitions of the
colonizers.  (As this is a film list, one might cite the role of Africa, in
for example, that most British of film, Brief Encounter, and its position
as other.  This is a small point Richard Dyer makes in his 1993 BFI booklet
on the film.)  I think it is useful to extend this idea of course to the
notion of American cultural imperialism.  Especially in the High Period of
postwar American imperialism, the international is expressed explicitly as
something the bourgeois American consumer can purchase in his suburban
comfort.  Indeed, in a very smart read of a Frank O'Hara poem within a
larger article on jazz, Andrew Ross makes this precise point.   A look at
American film musicals from the late 50s and early 60s would easily provide
may filmic examples.  But like you, I also want to distinguish between
modes of appropriation; hence I suggest looking at similarities between
American international imperialism on the one hand and a domesticating
internationalism in the Japanese case.  These were terms off the top of my
head.  But, I think they do recognize one difference you point to in terms
of the leins of power that surround the appropriation.  

One thing I did want to suggest (at the same time as agreeing with a
difference in power relations) was that the Eri Chiemi's relation with
Portuguese or Turkish should at least be looked at in terms of how US
internationalism was operating at the time.  By doing this work, I believe,
one could then mark out what forms of appropriation (for lack of a better
term) repeat American modes of appropriation and what modes are
structurally different.  Of course, while there are many other important
axes that must be considered, I wanted to suggest that this relation not be
ignored--given the very large role that US music played in postwar Japan. 
Not wanting it to dominate your approach, I still think it could
potentially strengthen the very interesting project you hinted at.  And
perhaps too, I am always wary that the figure of the US looms frequently
behind (as source, as negation, and as target) of cultural relations even
where it is not explicitly figured. (Even more basically, can we
automatically assume that the use of Latin or Turkish elements is not
itself informed by American internationalism of the period?)

Perhaps my memory of the song has katakana-ized very fine English
pronunciaiton.  If this is the case, then I should apologize for my
uncritical imposition of a stereotype.  Of course, it is always possible
that she sung the song differently for different audiences or at different
points in her career.  But here, I will leave the interpretation to you, as
it has been a few years since I saw a very wonderful NHK documentary on her
life. In fact, on further reflection, although I suspect you are right
about her decent pronunciation I have the very distinct memory of her
playing with that last word, candy.  If this is some projection of my
imagination, then I shall have to beg the pardon of the readers of this
thread.  

Like you, I also do not want to "equate the linguistic and musical features
of Eri's tunes with e.g. Matsuda Seiko."  Like you, I do not see a common
attitude in the two singers-with their different eras, different audiences,
and different repertoires.  Tracing a trajectory of English usage in
Japanese songs could rather involve locating the different deployments of
this single feature or technique--whether you admit its linguistic
playfulness or not.  Right now, I am thinking about the divergent uses in
New Wave films of American-based folk music.  But I recognize that folk
itself is modulated into "College Folk", "New Folk", "HanBe Folk" directed
against the Vietnam war, and the non-poli "Folk Boom"  each with different
(and close to opposing) ideologies--and this only in the space of six or
seven years.  (Oshima hints at this in Nihon shunka ko.)  I suspect there
is a world of difference between what Eri is doing and what the Southern
All Stars, to name them again, were doing with English.  

Jonathan