As a western citizen, any excursion into exotic cultures is a complex undertaking. Concretely spoken I'm examining the so-called "Group Sounds". A Japanese answer to the western musical and cultural movements of the sixties. As an copyist country, also Japan's Group Sounds merely consist of an immitation of US music, although one or another uniqueness might have been created. One major benefit for the free expression in art was the alliance with the USA. Artists from Japans neighbour countries - involved in the "Warsaw Pact" - had not many chances to find their way into a free creational process as censorship hung upon everything like a paranoid, control obsessed demon, fearing anything could cause a political collapse. Beginning in the '50s, Japan joined a worldwide process of change. As an effect of a cultural opening, this was a to date unique event occurring for the first time in Japan's history. Read more