How to Read “Songs follow the times, and times follow songs”
Uta wa yo ni tsure yo wa uta ni tsure
Meaning of “Songs follow the times, and times follow songs”
This proverb expresses the mutual relationship between art and society. Songs and music reflect the mood of their times, while simultaneously influencing the era and society that created them.
When times are bright, cheerful songs become popular. During uncertain times, songs emerge that speak for people’s emotions. These songs then work on people’s values and feelings, creating the atmosphere of the era itself.
People use this proverb when discussing how popular songs reveal characteristics of an era. It’s also used when talking about the relationship between culture and society.
For example, listening to popular songs from a certain period reveals what people felt back then. As those songs spread, they shaped the mood of the times. This cycle continues even today whenever we discuss the interaction between music, entertainment, and society.
Origin and Etymology
This proverb likely comes from the works of Chikamatsu Monzaemon, an Edo period playwright. He wrote about the relationship between songs and society in his work “Keisei Hangonko.”
The Edo period saw common people’s culture flourish greatly. Joruri puppet theater, kabuki, haiku, and various performing arts became deeply rooted in daily life.
People of that time expressed social conditions through popular songs and entertainment. They also experienced firsthand how popular songs influenced people’s thinking and lifestyles.
The proverb’s structure uses parallel phrases. “Songs follow the times” shows how songs are influenced by their era. “Times follow songs” shows how eras are influenced by songs.
This parallel structure brilliantly expresses mutual influence, not just one-way impact. It shows a cyclical relationship, which demonstrates deep insight.
Chikamatsu was active during the Genroku era, when townspeople’s culture exploded. He wrote scripts for puppet theater while experiencing the close relationship between performing arts and society firsthand. This likely enabled him to express such universal truth in words.
Interesting Facts
This proverb uses the word “songs,” but in the Edo period, this term had broader meaning than today. It included waka poetry, haiku, joruri dialogue, kabuki lines, and folk songs.
In other words, this proverb discusses not just music, but the relationship between all culture and art with their times.
During Chikamatsu’s era, Osaka’s Takemoto Theater drew full audiences daily for joruri performances. People found their own lives and emotions in these works. They also learned new values from them.
This living exchange between culture and society created the foundation for this proverb.
Usage Examples
- Listening to recent hit songs, you can see that songs follow the times, and times follow songs—they really reflect young people’s values today
- Looking back at popular songs from the Showa era, songs follow the times, and times follow songs is so true—you can really feel the atmosphere of those times
Universal Wisdom
This proverb reveals the inseparable relationship between humans and culture. We humans breathe the air of our times. We cannot avoid being influenced by it.
Joy and sadness, hope and anxiety—all are shaped within the great flow of our era. The desire to express these emotions creates songs and art.
At the same time, created works don’t just record their times. Songs that resonate with people change how listeners feel and think.
When many people share one song, it becomes the very atmosphere of the times. This isn’t one-way traffic—it’s truly circular. Times create songs, and songs create times.
This interaction is the essence of human society’s cultural activities.
This proverb has been passed down through generations because it captures not just the relationship between art and society. It identifies a fundamental quality of human existence.
We are beings influenced by our environment. We are also beings who create our environment. We are both passive and active.
This duality is the source of human creativity. Through the familiar example of songs, our ancestors understood the deep relationship between humans and the world. This wisdom about human nature remains unchanged across time.
When AI Hears This
The relationship between songs and society is a perfect example of “emergence” in complexity science. Emergence is when properties that don’t exist in individual elements suddenly appear in the whole system through interaction.
For example, a single water molecule doesn’t have the property of “wetness.” But when countless water molecules gather, the property of “wetness” emerges for the first time. The same thing happens in culture.
One singer senses the anxious atmosphere of the times and creates a song. People who hear it empathize and start expressing their anxiety in words.
Then society as a whole becomes recognized as “anxious times,” and the next generation of singers creates songs reflecting that atmosphere.
What’s important here is that the first singer didn’t intend to change all of society. Individual small expressions move society in unpredictable ways. That changed society then creates new songs.
This two-way feedback loop creates cultural flows that nobody planned.
The same structure appears in climate systems. Small changes in ocean temperature alter atmospheric flows. Those atmospheric changes then affect ocean temperature again.
This proverb suggests that human society, climate, and economy all operate by the same complexity laws. Understanding the parts doesn’t let you predict the whole. This insight proves what modern science demonstrated with equations—ancient people grasped it through intuition.
Lessons for Today
This proverb teaches us to view our relationship with society more actively. We tend to feel like we’re just swept along by the flow of the times.
But in reality, what you feel and express definitely influences those around you.
Sharing posts you empathize with on social media, recommending music you love to friends, putting your thoughts into words—all of these are small but definite parts of creating the great flow called “the times.”
You are both a mirror reflecting the times and a creator making the times.
That’s why you should value what moves your heart and what you want to express. It’s not just a personal hobby. It’s a way of dialoguing with your era.
Your sensitivity reads the times, and your expression creates the times. You definitely exist within this cycle.
Comments