The analysis of the scandal of Samuragochi Mamoru, the "digital-age Beethoven," from the perspectives of social systems theory

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  • 「現代のベートーヴェン」と呼ばれた佐村河内守のゴーストライター騒動を巡る社会システム論的分析
  • ゲンダイ ノ ベートーヴェン ト ヨバレタ サムラゴウチ マモル ノ ゴーストライター ソウドウ オ メグル シャカイ システムロンテキ ブンセキ
  • 「 ゲンダイ ノ ベートーヴェン 」 ト ヨバレタ サムラ カワチシュ ノ ゴーストライター ソウドウ オ メグル シャカイ システムロンテキ ブンセキ
  • 現代のベートーヴェンと呼ばれた佐村河内守のゴーストライター騒動を巡る社会システム論的分析

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Abstract

This study aims to apply a theoretical framework for analyzing contemporary media culture based on a social systems theory to the scandalous case of SAMURAGOCHI Mamoru, in which a weekly magazine revealed that he had publicly misrepresented his career. SAMURAGOCHI, known as the "digital-age Beethoven," composed pieces of classical music while claiming to suffer from a physical handicap including total deafness and mental sickness. However, he had a "ghost writer" compose the pieces published under his name for 18 years. Further, his hearing difficulty and other handicaps were not as serious as he had stated. Some argued that the scandalous incident was engendered by the commercialism of the music industry. His ability and the operation of the business system to promote the musical pieces through numerous touching stories were put forward, recounting that he created the music, including a symphony, in a world devoid of sounds and as a son of an Atomic Bomb victim in Hiroshima to repose the souls of Atomic Bombs victims. Contemporary media culture can be conceptualized as a complex combination of three social systems : the "creation," "business," and "consumption" systems, each operating according to its own code. Japanese classical music experts follow the trends of western classical music and evaluate such music as created through modern composition methods based on post-tonal music theory, in which the vast majority of the public has no interest. The pieces published under the name of SAMURAGOCHI consisted in tonal music with emotional harmony, eliciting emotions from the audience. The CD of his first symphony recorded unusually high sales among classical music CDs. The creation system of composing classical music based on tonality needed the operations of the business system, which publicized the music with touching stories to sell the CD to the consumption system, which operates according to the code "emotional/or not." Critics decried the pieces of SAMURAGOCHI because of the lack of innovative elements as modern music. However, the consumption system does not need music to be innovative, but to play on the emotions of consumers. Music which matches the needs of the consumption system was provided by the operations of the business system. It is the business system operating according to the code of "profitable/or not" that created the modern tonal music which appealed to the public in Japan.

Journal

  • 評論・社会科学

    評論・社会科学 (139), 23-42, 2021-12-31

    The Association of Social Studies, Doshisha University

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