Mood kayō

Mood kayō is a style of Japanese popular song that flourished from the late 1950s through the 1960s, defined by atmosphere rather than form: jazz- and Latin-inflected arrangements, close-harmony choruses and crooning singers evoking the nightlife of Ginza bars and cabarets. Pioneered by baritone *Frank Nagai* and by *Hiroshi Wada and the Mahina Stars*, it supplied the adult counterweight to youthful kayōkyoku, with duets and group choruses singing of urban romance, parting and drink in a deliberately sophisticated, cosmopolitan idiom.