Enka Music

Enka refers to two styles of Japanese music. The first is speeches set to music which were sung and spread by political activists during the Meiji period (1868�1912) and the Taisho period (1912�1926) as a means to avoid crackdowns by the government on speeches of political dissent. The second is a genre of Japanese popular songs developed in the postwar Showa period (1926-1989) , which has been likened to American country music and Portuguese Fado in terms of themes and audience. The term now usually refers to the latter type of traditional and melodramatic popular songs.
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