The music of Japan!!  For many outsiders, Japanese music is associated entirely with cheap, disposable bubblegum pop, of which there is plenty.  However, many distinct styles and innovative artists play folk and classical music, much of it very intense, and others play distinct forms of rock, electronic music, hip hop, punk rock and country music.

Gagaku is a type of classical music that has been performed at the Imperial court for several centuries.  Related to gagaku is court theatre, which developed in parallel.  Noh was developed in the 14th century, and soon evolved into bunraku and, eventually, the lively and popular kabuki; kabuki, in turn, helped invent the popular nagauta style of playing the shamisen (3-stringed lute).

Taiko music is played by large drum ensembles called kumi-daiko, whose origins can be sketched out as far back as the 6th and 7th centuries.  Modern ensemble taiko is said to have been invented in 1951, when a jazz drummer incorporated his musical background into large ensembles, which he had also designed.

There are four main kinds of Japanese folk songs: work songs, religious songs, songs used for gatherings such as weddings, funerals, and festivals, and children's songs.

In the late 19th century, leaders hired singers to sell copies of songs that aired their messages, since the leaders themselves were usually prohibited from speaking in public.  This developed into a form of ballad called enka, which became quite popular in the 20th century, though its popularity has waned since the 1970s and enjoys little favour with contemporary youth.

Westernised pop music is called kayokyoku, which is said to have begun with the song "Kachusha no uta" in 1914.  In the 1950s, tango and other kinds of Latin music, especially Cuban music, became very popular in Japan.  A distinctively Japanese form of tango called dodompa also developed.  Kayokyoku became associated entirely with traditional Japanese structures, while more Western-style music was called Japanese pops.  In the 1960s, Japanese bands imitated The Beatles, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, along with other Appalachian folk music, psychedelic rock, mod and similar genres.  Since then, bubblegum pop and J-Pop have become some of the best-selling forms of music, and are often used in films and television, especially in Japanese animation.  The rise of disposable pop has been linked with the popularity of karaoke.

As technology advanced, the quality of sound and music produced on electronic game machines increased dramatically.  Though many games have had beautiful music to accompany their gameplay, the most important game in the history of video game music is Dragon Quest III.  Today, game soundtracks are sold on CD, with famous singers sometimes performing on them.