Japanese lyrics of popular song in colonial Korea appeared in 1920`s by adaptation of Japanese poplar song, but the works written by Korean lyricist appeared from 1930`s. Japanese lyrics had three types, the first was a word level, the second a line l...
Japanese lyrics of popular song in colonial Korea appeared in 1920`s by adaptation of Japanese poplar song, but the works written by Korean lyricist appeared from 1930`s. Japanese lyrics had three types, the first was a word level, the second a line level, the third a stanza level. The third is regarded as a complete lyric. The third type of Japanese lyrics found out until now is nineteen, and all of them appeared from 1940. 1940 was the time that Imperial Japan began to construct so-called ``the New Structure`` and strengthen militarism. The most important lyricist adapted to the change at 1940 was Jo Myeong-am. He wrote so many Japanese and militarism lyrics. Japanese is a matter of linguistic form and militarism is that of content of lyrics, so they don`t rule each other necessarily. But some Japanese lyrics was concerned with militarism and intention of Imperial Japan. Japanese lyrics of popular song in colonial Korea was a result of political intention of Imperial Japan that was strengthening of imperial system by spreading national language, Japanese, but many Korean people didn`t understand Japanese sufficiently. Because popular song is influenced by people`s requirement, effective maximum of the political intention was Japanese lyrics in stanza level.