City Pop Genre

Maybe it's the summer, maybe it's because I've been reading my way through a pile of Murakami books I found in my late dad's stash, or maybe it's because bubble economy Japan sounds really good right about now, but I've been listening to a lot of City Pop recently. There should be a thread for it.



From Wikipedia:

City pop (シティーポップ, shitī poppu) is a loosely defined subset of pop music that originated in Japan in the late 1970s. It was originally termed as an offshoot of Japan's Western-influenced "new music", but came to include a wide range of styles associated with the country's nascent economic boom, such as AOR, soft rock, R&B, funk, and boogie. It was also associated with new emerging technologies, such as the Walkman, cars with built-in cassette decks and FM stereos, and various electronic musical instruments.

There is no unified consensus among scholars regarding the definition of city pop. In Japan, the tag simply referred to a broad array of artists that were considered to project an "urban" feel. In other words, "music made by city people, for city people." Most of these artists refused to embrace Japanese influences, and instead, largely drew from American soft rock, boogie, and funk. Some examples may also feature tropical flourishes or elements taken from disco, jazz fusion, Latin, Caribbean, or Polynesian music.

The genre reached the peak of its popularity in the 1980s before losing mainstream appeal.[2] Tatsuro Yamashita, who was among the genre's pioneers and most successful artists, is sometimes called the "king of city pop".[3] Since the 2010s, city pop has gained an international online following as well as becoming a touchstone for the sample-based microgenres known as vaporwave and future funk.

Sadly, a lot of City Pop classics simply aren't on Spotify, but here's a playlist by yours truly something to get you started:

And a good article/guide:

The Guide to Getting Into City Pop, Tokyo’s Lush 80s Nightlife Soundtrack



Don't fight it.

 

Yesssssssssssssssss

 

Am in the process of reading the article you linked and saw that the latter song is included too haha.

 

A gem

 

This song is perfect

I realized I needed to hear more Mariya Takeuchi than Plastic Love (which is also perfect) and this was a good first listen

 

Plastic Love was actually a random album cut that wasn’t really a big song until this weird Western revival of City Pop happened, which is a fun fact to me

 

Hell yeah. I'm very novice when it comes to City Pop (basically only heard the Pacific Breeze comp and a handful of scattered albums) but I always want to go deeper so this thread is definitely my vibe.

Also shout out to "a pile of Murakami books"

 

Now this is a genre I can vibe with.

 

It is really interesting, when I listen to it in retrospect it makes sense that it was a random album cut but also it's so damn good that it's surprising it wasn't given more eastern acclaim at release

 

Apparently it was a late single for the album, but not one of the relevant ones.

Anyway, they put out an anniversary version of the album in 2014. I’m thinking of ordering the CD, but I don’t know how good the actual album is.

 

I’ve heard the first one of those compilations and I thought a lot of it was definitely more rudimentary than the stuff I am into. Definitely cool releases though.

 

I really live this life now

 

Gave this one a listen on a walk this morning. Big fan of "Nami Ni Naritai" and "Ame No Realize" in particular. Light in the Attic reissued it recently too, so this one is actually on streaming.

 

They’re doing the Lord’s work

 

It really seems like it. Anytime I hear of one of these records getting reissued it’s usually by them. They put this incredible record out a few months back. Definitely not City Pop, but it’s great Japanese ambient.

 

My favorite city pop/mandopop influenced band these days is Sunset Rollercoaster.

 

None of Takeuchi’s albums from that era are on Apple Music. This is some bull

 

City pop influenced Kpop done by a Japanese singer, what a ride of a sentence. Anyway, I'm sure this would be up your alley.

 

I got an ad for this in Instagram today calling it City Pop. It’s pretty fun.

 

epo's discography is now on streaming services. she's a classic artist of the genre, but because she's been largely unavailable in the west is not as well known. she wrote most of her work with tatsuro yamashita. her first album down town is probably the best place to start, but im partial to her 1984 album hi touch hi tech.

 

Japanese City Pop, a playlist by rjananda20 on Spotify
If anyone needs 7+ hours.

 

Oh yeah

 

Fantastic album. Great grab.

 

Christmas gift from my mom.

It doesn’t have that 7 minute version of Plastic Love I know from YouTube though, even though it has three versions. I wonder where the long version is originally from.