Kayōkyoku Style Overview
Kayōkyoku Music Description
Kayoukyoku started as "western styled" songs in the 1920s. Kayōkyoku (歌謡曲) simple means "popular songs" and replaced the earlier term Ryūkōka (流行歌) in the 1930s. After the war, kayoukyoku became the dominant form of popular music. The term was still used as the generic term for Japanese based popular music until it was replaced by J-pop in 1990, but became less used as a descriptor after the late 1970s, as other came to be used.
