Pop star comes home

‘ ‘ ‘ Jerome White has been a newcomer in two foreign worlds: as a new student at Pitt and as… ‘ ‘ ‘ Jerome White has been a newcomer in two foreign worlds: as a new student at Pitt and as an immigrant to the country of Japan. In one of them, he became a superstar celebrity. Can you guess which one? Well, as there aren’t currently any White auditoriums or Jerome lounges in the Union, you can safely bet that this Pittsburgh born and bred boy is huge in Japan. ‘ ‘ ‘ Upon graduating in 2003 with a degree in information science, and having studied abroad in Japan, White saw an opportunity to jump ship on America and go where he felt he belonged. Only months later he was teaching English in Japan, all the while sharpening his own Japanese ‘mdash; now, he says, he even thinks in Japanese. But White wanted a bit more, and he found it doing the same thing so many Pitt students love after four or five drinks. Yup, it was karaoke. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘It was 2005 that I was in a karaoke contest in Osaka. Most of the other contestants were singing Japanese pop songs, and I was one of two singing enka (a traditional Japanese genre of story-songs). I got second place, and one of the judges was a record executive. She talked to the higher-ups in Tokyo, and they decided to give me two years vocal training and put out my debut.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Fast-forward to this past February when the record dropped, and White, with the help of countless TV appearances, a hit single and a star-making debut, had gone from a Pitt grad to Japanese superstar in five years flat. ‘ ‘ ‘ White sits in one of the fancier rooms in the Cathedral, one that you likely won’t have class in. It’s Monday, and he’s got two days before he’ll perform his first stateside concert. In fact, it’s the first time he’s even been back home since he graduated and moved to Japan in 2003. He wears matching checker-patterned shorts and shirt, with a wee bit of bling hanging from his neck. And if it weren’t for the veritable army of Japanese photographers, newscasters and documentary-filmmakers surrounding him, you’d think he’d come to bust out his latest hip-hop bangers. And herein lies maybe the most appealing aspect of 26-year-old Jero: To the Japanese, a culture already near-obsessed with creating its own versions of American trends, Jero is the perfect synthesis of a Japanese-American style. ‘ ‘ ‘ After all, his enka tunes aren’t note for note the same as they were when performed decades ago ‘mdash; his debut album of covers adds hip-hop beats to traditional enka melodies, and his videos feature him in fully urban-American gear busting moves you might see in a Kanye clip. But his music is unmistakably Japanese, his lyrics sung with precise syllables and accent, as well as authentic phrasing. ‘ ‘ ‘ The full crew of Japanese media, led by pony-tailed videographer Ryuzo Hirata, is creating a documentary on Jero’s homecoming, to be released widely across Japan. ‘ ‘ ‘ I ask Hirata just how big Jero really is. ‘ ‘ ‘ In broken English and with a huge, toothy grin, he replies, ‘He’s been out half a year ‘hellip; and he is the biggest star in Japan.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ White’s journey from Pitt freshman to Japanese star, while fairly easy, wasn’t quick. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘I lived on campus at first. I was pretty terrified. But I found most of my friends in The Black Dance Workshop. From there I started my own dance group, which performed for Black Action Society and Pitt Program Council events,’ White said. ‘Dancing kept me sane. Sometimes dance went over studies.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ But while White’s passion for dance was obvious, his love of enka surely wasn’t. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘I never told [my friends] I was singing Japanese music. It just wasn’t necessary ‘mdash; I’d always kept it as part of my family.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ More specifically, just like fresh-baked cookies or bad sweaters, it all came from grandma. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Since I was 5 or 6, my grandmother listened and sang Japanese music around the house. Whenever I’d visit, we’d sing karaoke ‘mdash; that’s how I learned to speak the language initially,’ White said in an interview with The Pitt News. ‘I didn’t ask my grandmother what the lyrics meant, but I’d listen over and over and just sing along.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ But White, and certainly his grandmother (who grew up in Yokohama, Japan), could never have guessed at the time he would eventually become the most popular singer in Japan. Especially since he sings enka, the generations-old form of traditional Japanese folk music. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Enka is a form of ‘hellip; I call it Japanese blues. The lyrics are very melodramatic and sad, they talk about feeling the blues, most of the songs have low tempos, usually about women. Some are about lost loves,’ said White. ‘ ‘ ‘ If that seems a little abstract, well, it is. Japanese music has long been a far cry from the American pop, hip-hop and rock ‘n’ roll that most of us are used to. And what’s more, aside from the obvious difference of being sung in Japanese, the country’s music has just as many genres and strains as what you’d hear on this side of the pond. Japanese pop, dubbed ‘J-Pop’ by the country’s media, ranges from Mariah Carey-like balladry to dance music that might as well be an aural strobe light. Think Lil’ Jon with a chalice full of sake. ‘ ‘ ‘ Similarly, J-Rock (see a trend?) bands are all over the mainstream map. ‘ ‘ ‘ So where, then, does enka, a genre with origins as far back as the 1860s, fall on today’s Japanese music spectrum? Certainly not near the center, that’s for sure. So when Jero’s debut single, ‘Umiyuki,’ hit the Japanese charts at No. 4 (the highest charting for an enka tune in more than 25 years, and the first ever from an American) earlier this year, it was no little feat. On the contrary, it was the equivalent of a Japanese disco singer topping the charts in America. ‘ ‘ ‘ In other words, Pitt’s own Jero has turned a lot of heads overseas. Nearly overnight, Jero gained the fame and attention of the nation, and before you could say ‘big in Japan,’ he was touring nonstop through the many cities in the tiny country. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘I knew I’d be in Japan after I graduated, but I never, never thought I’d be singing, doing something like this,’ he said. ‘ ‘ ‘ Whether he’s enjoying relative obscurity back in Pittsburgh or superstardom in Japan (he flies back tomorrow), White remains a true duality. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘I keep both my cultures close to me. I can’t be fully Japanese, but I can’t be fully American either,’ he said. ‘But no matter. I want to do enka until I can’t do it anymore, until I sing my last note.’