Extreme Exoticism: Japan in the American Musical Imagination

For the past century, Americans have seen Japan as an exotic land, yet its influence has affected all American artforms. In Extreme Exoticism: Japan in the American Musical Imagination (Oxford University Press), the first work to study this phenomenon music, W. Anthony Sheppard *96 studies how music informs American cultural perceptions of Japan, as well as how Japanese musical traditions have influenced American composers.