Genba

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Genba (現場) is a "place where something actually happens, appears, or is made" ^[1]The term, in Japanese, is written with characters for "to appear"(現, gen) and "place"(場, ba). Genba sometimes could be referred to a place such as traffic accidents or crime scene. It also could be used for places such as production occurs. In hip hop scene of Japan, genba is used to "refer to nightclubs where hip hop is performed draws attention to "the making of the scene"". (Condry, Hip Hop Japan) Genba focuses on musicians' energies and offers them a measurement of skills of the artists. "hip-hop culture is refracted through diverse genba of performance, whereby new voices and new forms of creativity keep the culture thriving, at times with politically pointed messages." Genba as a location serves as a niche for the hip hop scene in Japan where all functioning members of the hip hop scene congregate. The new artists come to a genba to be recognized by the media and the recruiters of the record companies as well as the media and the fans to slowly gain recognition and possible a contract with a record label. The fans go to the genbas to give support and also stay in tune with the hip hop scene, while the media contacts come to genbas to learn more about the prospective artists, and finally the members of the recording companies come to search for prospective artists that will develop into people who will become valuable assets to the record label itself. The genba is truly the niche of the Japanese hip hop scene as it brings all members of the hip hop movement together to exemplify the authentic nature of Japanese culture. The parallel to the niche of underground rap, the genba serves as a bridge between underground and mainstream rap, without as much conflict than any other globally recognized country with a hip hop scene.^[2] (Condry, http://asia.kyushuu.ac.jp/home/ajiarikai/kiroku/18/1/gaiyou1.pdf)

Genba helps to explain the importance of focusing on locations and performativity. "By beginning with the genba, the actual site of cultural pruction, we can see how the global and the local intersect" (Hip Hop Japan, 94). These interactions also can be understood with the ongoing struggles. This, as Ian Condry calls it, a process of genba globalization. ^[3]"this process called genba globalization because it highlights the wyas in the global, here meaning everything one can draw on (not just "foreign" ideas), is refracted through performative locations and thereby put back into the world" (Hip Hop Japan, 94) "Rather, hip-hop culture is refracted through diverse genba of performance, whereby new voices and new forms of creativity keep the culture thriving, at times with politically pointed messages." ^[4]

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