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up; I didn’t know what J-pop was supposed to sound like.” Meyer also says her Japanese does not always fit the standard mold, confessing some issues with excessive keigo, the respectful form of the Japanese language. But her distinct background, combined with her unique syntax and strong voice, has proved alluring to her Japanese audience. “I think she feels lucky,” says Michiyo Morioka, Meyer’s mother. “While she was growing up, she went through what could be called identity crises, but now I think she feels it is the best of both worlds. Like she can be a bridge.”
“I didn’t listen to J-pop when I was growing up; I didn’t know what it was supposed to sound like.” — Emi Meyer
Meyer studied ethnomusicology, a major of her own crafting, at the suggestion of her mother, who wanted her daughter to look at ethnic music from an anthropological perspective. “It puts you in the perspective of the music itself, like, ‘why are you making that music?’ ” Meyer says. Informed by her understanding of global music, Meyer married her fascination with multiple cultures to her ethnic background to create a cohesive album, palatable to both Western and Japanese ears and designed with a sense for connections between the two worlds. “The way people listen to the songs is different in Japanese and English,” Meyer says. “In English, it seems to be more
about the rhythm, while in Japanese it is more about the lyrics.” Unlike in most J-pop music, Meyer’s lyrics read as poetry, like haiku, and she spurns simple themes and basic emotions endemic to the genre in favor of writing from her own perspective. The sincerity of Meyer’s message is a refreshing break in the Japanese music scene. These considerations, however, pale alongside Meyer’s live performance, which possesses a charismatic gravity to pull in just about anyone. As Meyer announced and explained each song in Japanese, her ethnic background seemed natural, almost unnoticeable, to the Tokyoites. “Being a child of mixed race is not as rare as it used to be,” Morioka says. Indeed, half-white and half-black Japanese people abound in modern Japanese society. What is rare, perhaps, is seeing an American artist try to break through the starkly monolingual American music scene with bilingual albums. On the other hand, music in this century has likely become colorblind and borderless. Audience members at Meyer’s Tokyo show said that they felt zoku zoku — thrilled, or felt goose bumps — and “like floating on a lake.” Not one person mentioned her mixed-race background. Likewise, Meyer’s Passport co-producer Shingo Annen, more famously known in Japan as independent rap artist Shing02, smiles through serious questions about race and culture. “At the end of the day, we are trying to express something; have a message, but also have some fun,” he says. “Sometimes there is a little humor in the politeness that is Japanese culture.” Emily Leach last wrote for Hyphen about Japanese Cubans.
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