Kayōkyoku (歌謡曲, literally "Pop Tune") is a Japanese pop music genre, which became a base of modern J-pop. The Japan Times describes kayōkyoku as "standard Japanese pop" or "Showa era pop".
Kayōkyoku is Western-style-inspired music of Japan. Music in this genre is extremely varied as a result. Kayōkyoku in the narrower and more practical sense, however, excludes J-pop and enka.
Unlike "J-pop" singers such as Southern All Stars' Keisuke Kuwata, the singers of the kayōkyoku genre do not use stylized pronunciations based on the English language, but prefer traditional Japanese. There are exceptions, such as in singer [artistMomoe Yamaguchi's song "Rock 'n' Roll Widow".
Unlike enka, kayōkyoku is also not based on emotional displays of effort while singing.
Famous kayōkyoku artists include Kyu Sakamoto, The Peanuts, The Tigers, Candies, Pink Lady, Seiko Matsuda, Junko Sakurada, The Checkers and Onyanko Club. .
