The music of Palau

Palau

Palau , officially the Republic of Palau , is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippines and south of Tokyo. In 1978, after three decades as being part of the United Nations trusteeship, Palau chose independence instead of becoming part of the Federated States of Micronesia, a...

finds its heritage in Micronesia, but it has been supplemented with influences from the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Western Europe

Western Europe

Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...

, as well as Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

The government department of the Republic of Palau and Director of the Bureau of Arts and Culture are in charge of developing and implementing cultural policies is the Ministry of Community and Cultural Affairs.
The national anthem

National anthem

A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...

 of Palau is a song written by Ymesei O. Ezekiel, and has been the anthem since 1980.

There are no intellectual property

Intellectual property

Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...

 restrictions in Palau.

The modern Palauan pop music

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 scene began in the mid-1980s http://www.pacificworlds.com/palau/memories/chronol.cfm. The country recorded popular sound includes element of Japanese music

Music of Japan

The music of Japan includes a wide array of performers in distinct styles both traditional and modern. The word for music in Japanese is 音楽 , combining the kanji 音 with the kanji 楽...

, legacy of a period of Japanese domination http://www.okara.com/violeta_hughes-davis/html/palau.html. The American influence can be heard in a distinctly Palauan form of country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

. Popular performers include IN-X-ES, whose "Mousobes" was a major commercial success in 1999.