What it is, what to hear first, and what sits next to it.
Enka (演歌) is a Japanese music genre considered to resemble traditional Japanese music stylistically. Modern enka, however, a relatively recent musical form as developed in the postwar era, is a form of sentimental ballad music. The term enka was first used to refer to political texts set to music which were sung and distributed by opposition activists belonging to the Freedom and People's Rights Movement during the Meiji period (1868–1912) as a means of bypassing government curbs on speeches of political dissent. .