When I was in high school, I had a part-time job at a used car dealership. (I made a website for them.) It was a small shop and there were only a few staff members. People were quite chill there, and the owner would sometimes play music. His favourite artist was Mariya Takeuchi. That was the first time I heard of her. City pop was already "old" back then, so we wouldn't hear it on TV. It was the kind of music that his generation would listen to. So I was surprised when I learned that her song became popular overseas. And I'd remember the owner of the used car dealership. There's a lot of forgotten music in Japan. And if you speak Japanese, you will be able to access it directly. So if you want to learn Japanese with me, I will send you Japanese lessons where I teach you the kind of Japanese that real-life Japanese people speak today. Click here and bit.ly/3bqRkiK
I think talking about city pop as just Plastic Love is too limiting when the term covers a lot of Japanese pop music late '70s to the '80s; it's just old-school music. Lots more people would respond to Yumin, Matsuda Seiko, Yamashita Tatsuro, along with Takeuchi Mariya.
I'm a 56-year-old Japanese man. "City Pop" is the name foreigners have recently given to that type of Japanese music, which was originally popular in the 1980s being included in a broad genre called "New Music". So, if you had asked, "Do you know what New Music is?", the middle-aged Japanese would have understood it better. The term "New Music" was born to distinguish it from such as Enka(traditional Japanese popular music), idol songs, that had been mainstream until then. "New Music" has been influenced by rock and folk songs or sophisticated by an influence of the West Coast music. Many popular "New Music" singers and groups at the time refused to appear on TV shows because they were unwilling to perform with the dols or Enka singers. Some of the leading musicians in New Music were Yosui Inoue, Takuro Yoshida, Yumi Arai (current name Yumi Matsutoya, commonly known as Yuming), and Off Course. At the time, AOR (Adult-Oriented Rock), which was influenced by stylish foreign musicians such as Steely Dan, Christopher Cross, and Boz Scaggs, was very popular among young people, and AOR played by Japanese musicians was one of the kinds of New Music. Toshiki Kadomatsu, ANRI, Taeko Onuki, Eichi Otaki, Minako Yoshida, as well as Tatsuro Yamashita, Kazumasa Oda (Off Course), and Mariya Takeuchi can be considered as AOR-leaning New Music singers. By the way, Mariya Takeuchi's Plastic Love is highly regarded by foreigners, but among her songs, it is not that famous in Japan. In order of sales, "Jun Ai Rhapsody (890,000 copies), "Single Again (530,000)", "Camouflage (460,000)", and "Konya wa Hearty Party(390,000)". The term "New Music" seems to have spontaneously disappeared as the types of music have diversified and been lumped into the J-Pop or J-ROCK genres.
Thanks for this. Ironically, I met 'city pop' not listening to old music but new artists. There has been a new wave of Japanese artists replicating that AOR New Music sound with a modern touch and even covers of 80s songs these last 10 years (hitomitoi, Ryusenkei, Tomomi Sano, Blue Peppers, etc.).
Thanks for this explanation. I was going to leave a comment saying that my first impressions of the song (I had not heard of it, nor the city pop genre, before coming across Yuta's video) were that it sounds exactly like a huge amount of Western pop music from the early 80s, except sung in Japanese of course. My first thought was actually of Africa by Toto, but a quick Wikipedia search of city pop says that soft rock (the genre that Africa belongs to) did influence the development of city pop. So it seems I was able to make a very astute assessment based on my first impression. In the UK recently, late at night the BBC has been repeating medleys of TV music show performances from the 1980s, and the songs that appear in the medleys sound very, very similar to Plastic Love.
Mariya Takeuchi is kinda like the Madonna of Japan, she was constantly reinventing herself from like when disco dropped in Japan in 1976 to around the time the stock market crashed (and then recovered after a few years) in early 1992.
Yes, this is true. Plastic love isn't considered one of the traditional classics of takeuchi, it's mostly songs like eki, september and fushigi na peach pie, those kind of songs.
It wasn't a popular song nor a single so it just was blessed by the RUclips algorithm decades later so here we are. I was into "City Pop" but oddly enough didn't listen to Plastic Love until it was popular as I recognized the name from her being married to Yamashita. I prefer "Oh No Oh Yes" tbh.
So while city pop is something cool and different here in the west (I can't lie I've been on a city pop binge lately) it's basically boomer music in Japan. Makes sense
@@SMGJohn well yeah compared to the OGs who are like 50+yrs old in my craft, of course im not at their level yet, they've been dancing for 30+yrs, longer than i've lived, im 25 and been dancing since 2009, so of course I don't have their experience yet im a hongkonger, ppl from asian countries are initially taught to respect our elders, which i think makes sense. unless that elder shows an incredibly outdated/outrageously terrible way of thinking, we automatically give them respect for life experience they have until it is revoked from any detrimental actions they do my comment isn't about me, it's about praising the elderly who have attained wise words we can all go by through their life experience. I dont know how you're so triggered by just a few words in my initial comment
I’m Japanese college student. (19years old) I will write my impressions as a Japanese. (I'm not good at English, but I'll write it to tell people overseas) I was not surprised at this result because many Japanese have no awareness of “City Pop”. “Plastic love” is an album song, so it's not generally famous for Japanese. Of course, Mariya is famous. Especially "Genki wo dashite”(元気を出して),"Single again”(シングル・アゲイン),”Fushigi na Peach Pie”(不思議なピーチパイ), and "Suteki na holiday”(すてきなホリデイ) is famous songs. Tatsuro's "RIDE ON TIME" is very famous. "RIDE ON TIME" became a hit as a CM song and Tatsuro became famous. However, the most famous song by Tatsuro is "Christmas Eve". This was also a hit in the CM song. It still selling in winter. (Guinness record) On the other hand, I think Toshiki Kadomatsu is not well known. I think many people know it as a producer of songs such as Anri and Miho Nakayama. And I think Miki Matsubara is also not well known. I think there are many people who don't know she died. By the way everyone calls Japanese popular music "Japanese Pop", but in Japan, popular music from the 90's onwards is called "J-POP (= Japanese Pop)". The songs before that are called "Kayokyoku" or "New Music" depending on the genre. At that time, "New Music" was called music that was not classified as Kayokyoku or folk song. It hasn't been used since it changed to "J-POP". Thank you for reading this to the end.
I once sang "Plastic Love" at a Japanese karaoke session and I had a Japanese woman ask me, "Where did you learn about that song?" And I told her that I first heard it on RUclips, and then I asked her if she had heard the song before, and she said, "No."
My dad listens to Mariya Takeuchi when he was young. He met Mariya long time ago. He said, it was an amazing experience to meet her. I started listen to her and she's just an amazing artist.
Since I've moved to Japan, I've become a fan of hers too. City Pop is such a pleasant fusion of musical styles of the '60's, '70's, and '80's that were popular in the West.
As an American millennial, I think one of the reasons that city pop resonates with me is that I grew up with parents who were young in the 80s, so I heard a lot of 80s music at home, as well as anywhere in public, from the grocery store to the doctor’s office. City pop takes the best of 80s Pop stylings and production, but uses it on songs that I haven’t heard endlessly for decades. It makes the songs sound nostalgic and familiar even when it’s something you’ve never heard, and it’s really rare and captivating to feel that combination.
"city pop" is just J-80s. the reason why no one can find these songs on youtube is because ppl rename the genres to aesthetic garbage like city pop and type out the titles of the songs like t h i s which makes them impossible to find on youtube unless its in recommended
When I went to Japan, I went to a couple of record stores and some (most notably Tower Records and HMV Record Shop) had a section dedicated to city pop and I noticed that westerners were the ones mostly sifting through those records.
They (Tower Records and HMV Record Shop) were even selling the same city pop record collector's guide book in their city pop sections. Those two record stores were the ones I remember having a city pop section but other record stores (and places that sold physical media such as: CDs, tapes, and records) like RECOfan or BOOK•OFF didn't have a city pop section but did have J-Pop and 80s J-Pop sections.
Yukika - Neon Yukika - Love in Tv World Maria Takeuchi - Shiawase no Monosashi (vantage edit) Maria Takeuchi - Yume no Tsuzuki Anri - Remember Summer Days (macross edit) Tomoko Kuwae - Rainy Motion Tomoko Aran - Midnight Pretenders Kingo Hamada - Dolphin in Town Tatsuro Yamashita - Love Space
As an American who has been listening to Japanese music from the 60s, 70s, 80s, & 90s for most of my life, I'm surprised and delighted that city pop has become so popular over here.
Remo Williams the meaning of weeaboo has been bastardized and meme’d to death by the internet that it’s better not to take the word as something serious in labeling a person. The “current” meaning however is just a description of a person who see’s Japan as THE best country and culture ever, denouncing their own culture to something they see as “superior”, to a point where they actively hate their own and plan to move to Japan to live this fantasy. Usually it is associated with western anime fans who have fallen deeply infatuated w/ japanese culture presented in that medium and are “dissatisfied” with their own. Sorry if this doesnt ans your question but I hope it helps contextualize its meaning at least.
How do you feel about Visual Kei? The early 90s VK had a very 80s New Wave feeling (Luna Sea). The early 2000s VK almost sounded like American "Nu Metal." (Dir en grey). Is VK still popular in Japan? Do you think that maybe Younger Japanese People are more fascinated by Western Rock Bands, such as Nine Inch Nails or Marilyn Manson? I'm American, but I really enjoy Visual Kei!
4:58 I think he's closest to the reason why. There's been a subculture for old sounds and making it new like synthwave for example. Today it's a bit different thanks to the internet but back in the 70s all the way to the late 90s, most Japanese content never really went abroad. So for most non-Japanese it's not just a window to the past, it's a treasure vault that had been, until now never been discovered.
I discovered Plastic Love because my girlfriend (now fiancee, she's japanese) asked me if I knew it when started to play in a karaoke, where we went two years ago, in Shinjuku. She sang it quite well although her voice is lower... I must thank her for taught me this classic, 'cause within a few months I was already immersed in the city pop (and my style has always been heavy metal...). But it's so addictive, exciting, melancholic and warm at the same time, purely from the 80s, a type of music that instantly grabs you.
The term "City Pop" was invented in the 2010s in the West. Because of this most Japanese people never heard of it. Too bad you didn't tell them that it's a type of 80s / 90s Japanese Pop music and named a few more artists (Yamashita, Kadomatsu, ...). Maybe they would have recognized it more easily.
I always wondered why "City Pop". Maybe the songs' topics. There was a time when I used to just call it J-Pop and probably that's why I still call it that way.
Yeah, I noticed that they didn't know the term 'city pop' but they've at least heard of Mariya Takeuchi and one of them even name dropped Tatsuro Yamashita as well.
@Black Chandelier Mirage It's useful to define it at least as 80s/early 90s pop from the Japanese economic bubble. Because that informs the style that differentiates it from 90s or 00s J-pop the same way western 80s pop is vastly different from 90s/00s pop
Global capitalism is nearly there. At the end of the world there will only be liquid advertisement and gaseous desire. Sublimated from our bodies, our untethered senses will endlessly ride escalators through pristine artificial environments, more and less than human, drugged-up and drugged down, catalysed, consuming and consumed by a relentlessly rich economy of sensory information, valued by the pixel. The Virtual Plaza welcomes you, and you will welcome it too.
It takes someone with a mature taste to love it. It can be classified as Japanese soul music. Even though Japan retained traditions from hundreds of years ago, I think that Japanese people are much more westernized than the west, in terms of culture, like James stated. So they're more shallow than westerners.
It's popular because current mainstream music is trash so people look for old music they never heard before so they look for music from non English speaking countries that can only be found online if you don't live the the country of origin.
Crazy how popular the genre has become in the U.S. out of nowhere, but it’s an afterthought over there. If only the Internet was as advanced today as back then, who knows how popular those songs would’ve been sooner.
It's actually really sweet seeing these older Japanese getting that look of surprised glee, when they remember the music and artists they listened to when they were younger.
@@SlayerPix maybe you're right, but even it's considered "fancy", that is not quite popular. Most people couldn't name a few artists from Bossa, besides Tom Jobim
@@ygorventura Three brazilian folks speaking english in the comment section of a japanese youtuber. O povo escolheu a globo, isso é globalização ! kkkkk
Not sure because bossa nova is a genre but city pop is pop from the 80s it’s very music from the older generation. It’s like Mozart becoming popular again outside Europe. Feels very disconnected lol
I'm really surprised everyone in the comments seems to be familiar with city pop because I didn't know its existance until now even though youtube did recommend me plastic love, I had no idea it was part of a specific genre
Oh boy, into the rabbit hole you go Make sure to also look up "future funk" and the channel "Artzie Music", I myself got introduced to a lot of city pop by way of future funk and then the Plastic Love RUclips recommendation thing happened
I really wish someone could interview Mariya Takeuchi and other City Pop artists today, to ask them what they think about their songs becoming so popular overseas.
I played Tatsuro for my boss one day and she took my phone and started dancing around the store with it. She was married to a Japanese man years ago and loves Japan. We even import a Japanese motorcycle gear brand to the US at my store. I also played Cirus Town for a local ramen chef who is Japanese and he started to get tears in his eyes. It really surprised me. Now when we go to the ramen shop he plays Tatsuro on the speakers for a bit. I love me some City pop/new music.
I am from Costa Rica, and since 1985 I listen to Japanese Music, I've been collecting music for 35 years... and it's something new to me that the name "city pop" came up... I don't recognize that genre name, I just say I listen Japanese music and it includes "City Pop artists"
I mean, it's kinda like asking to an european if they know eurobeat, or an american if they know funk or house. Those genres are from 80-00 so a lot of people were babies or weren't even born when those genres were popular. It's very normal that the apperently older persons knew mariya, because at the time she was popular, they probably were already 10-15 to say the least.
Every American, young and old alike, knows what funk is. You would be very uneducated to not know what it is, irrespective of your age. Besides, age has nothing to do with this. You don't have to be born in a certain period to know things. Knowledge can very well be shared across generations.
I love your interviews!! I can actually follow along with what they are saying; and the subtitles help with what I don’t pick up!! I love the gentleman that said music comes in cycles and the one that said it takes a while for what’s popular in Japan to become something in the States. It’s true, even with the prevalence of the internet. This was such a cute interview!!!
"City Pop has become quite popular with some people in the West" - I'm sure it's popular amongst some people in Japan if you ask the right people. This is mainly a niche internet or a Japanophile thing. If you ask random people on the streets of a Western country, they probably would not had heard of it whatsoever.
@@Sherrice I didn't say actively listen, just heard of the genre. It's really popular right now and artists like Doja Cat have made city pop songs. Practically everyone 20 or younger uses some form of social media, city pop is impossible to miss.
I don't think this is a weeb or a japanophile thing. I think it is just that Plastic Love got viral and if people listen to lofi hip-hop they might cross into future funk and then city pop. Also it is popular with foreign artists such as Doja cat or YUKIKA.
Most people outside of Japan were introduced to City Pop through another genre: Future Funk. We listened to the remixes so much we sought out the original recordings and we loved it more. ^_^
It's kind of funny to me that no one knew what artists would fit the genre, but after hearing Takeyuchi one those two younger women said it sounds like Anri, who I am pretty sure fits exactly in the genre. Also, it's interesting how often people seem to know Tatsuro Yamashita (in Japan) but not Takeyuchi when the two of them are like...married, lol. I have heard some of Yamashita's music is sometimes played during Christmas in the mall, and I wonder if that's true or if Yuta could interview people about his music
Christmas Eve was playing in the background when I went to Tokyo Sky Tree last November. There were a lot of City Pop in the Tower Records and stores alike. The genre is known without a doubt..
City pop is just basically Japanese version of early 80's post-disco/funk. Like Evelyn "Champaign" King, and Patrice Rushen. It's not really a different genre from that.
Exactly. Its just late 70s to mid 80s American music with japanese vocals. A similar thing has happened with American 90s pop and current Kpop music. Same stuff, different langauge. Its nothing "New" though.
Finally, someone said it. This was my first impression of City Pop when I first heard it. It's literally just Japanese music inspired from what was popular in the west during that time, which is why I don't really get the hype. However, I'm not saying that I don't like it, because I do.
@@Huuduy1210 Yeah, it sounds like they just didn't know the label for it. Which makes sense since that type of music would be radio music so they wouldn't put much thought into _what_ it's called. How many of us listen to the radio and think, "ah, that's hip hop soul" instead of "oh, R&B"? Let alone remember songs from the past, haha.
I’m really happy that you made this video, tbh I discovered city pop at the beginning of quarantine/the pandemic and it’s kept me sane. Idk there’s just a certain quality to the music that hits me right in my heart. I love it. I was surprised that so many didn’t really think much of it I thought it was really popular over there....
*Fun Fact:* The Power Star theme from Super Mario Bros. franchise was actually influenced by a song called _Summer Breeze_ by Piper. The beginning of that song was familiar.
Btw Fun Fact: The the voice actress who voice Tomoyo from Cardcaptor Sakura was an replacement member of the original one of 4 members of a group band Saint Four.
City pop has that nostalgic feeling when you were going home from school or work and the sky and clouds are orange from the sunset. Also the feeling of driving in the city during the night with tall buildings lighting the horizon.
I've always just loved older music and with city pop it's always been something I listened to, and still do, when my depression is bad. It's the type of music that just intimately comforts me. Especially Tatsuro Yamashita, Miki Matsubara, Junko Ohashi, etc. It really helped me especially since we're in quarantine where I'm inside and isolated for a longer period of time.
This makes a lot of sense. Assuming that every one in Japan loves City Pop is like a foreigner coming to the west and assuming that everyone loves Culture Club Lol Older bands still have their niche, but the majority of the younger generation will have no idea who you're talking about.
Some will come to see that a lot current music samples 70s and 80s music. For example it's pretty clear that "Say So" by Doja Cat is another sampling of "Good Times" by Chic.
The thing about City pop (and also a lot of Japanese music in general, even modern music from today) that fascinates me is how much jazz and funk influence there is. Here in the west I feel like it's really difficult to popularize these kinds of music and instead it's always the same (boring) stuff on the radio, but in Japan with artists like 椎名林檎 (Sheena Ringo) or the whole City pop world, it just brings so much to the music scene. If someone showed me Sheena Ringo's music for example, without telling me how popular she is, I would have likely said something like "Sounds great, but probably a bit too unaccessible for the mainstream", because that is my experience from music in the west. In the case of city pop, as these people said, some of it may have even been mainstream music back then, which is quite fascinating to me given how much jazz and funk is in there. And although I focused on two examples here, I find that Japanese music in general (even some of those Idol groups!) tends to be much more musically creative and appealing to me personally. That is why I listen to so much Japanese music. Edit: I don't mean to bash current popular western (radio) music, it just doesn't appeal to me personally since I find most of it (not all!) boring from both an emotional as well as a music theoretical point of view. Lastly, sorry for some messed up English, it's early in the morning and my brain doesn't function 100% yet.
@@rzt430 True, but City Pop or New Music as it was originally called, isn't modern music either. I guess all music globally was just funky in that era.
@@samesoul while i do agree, what the original comment is talking about is the fact that modern japanese mainstream music take a lot more from jazz and funk than mainstream western music, which is undeniable. not to mention that genres that are considered niche in the west like jazz or even actual hiphop + the cultures around them are ironically better preserved in japan than their countries of origin. as for my initial statement take these japanese mainstream song as an example: ruclips.net/video/PLgYflfgq0M/видео.html ruclips.net/video/Ae6gQmhaMn4/видео.html whereas out in the west modern mainstream music leans more towards this kind of stuff: ruclips.net/video/PT2_F-1esPk/видео.html ruclips.net/video/JGwWNGJdvx8/видео.html of course i have considered that city pop/disco has had a small resurgence in the west the form of groups like honne or artists like tom misch but rather than the norm they're the outlier as is the case with groups like jamiroquai
@@rzt430 I disagree with funk influence being apart of mainstream over here in Japan. Yes your examples have a lot of views but are still pretty niche and are not the most popular types of sounds being played. In the states the most popular music is this Rappish/Popish blend not true Rap or Pop, think Drake. I think the difference is in the way niche is handled, in Japan niche is just that smaller fandom, but everything is kinda niche in Japan. Everything has a smaller fandom and there is no general bandwagon culture, but in the states niche is a small fandom plus it is shunned and looked down upon by a larger culture that just likes what's cool at the moment. I do agree tho that Japan tries to stay pure to the different cultures, like here in Osaka there's this Hip Hop club that's just like MCs rapping till 5am everynight, I seriously can't imagine anything like this place has been in the states since the 90s, everything from the rap styles to the fashion just feels so 90s its pretty cool, its like watching a vhs tape in real life, very surreal
yes it is!! I know that Kaori Iida, an ex-Morning Musume member from the early years, released a bossa nova cover abum in 2016, sung in completely portuguese! It's called "Ondas"
How do Brazilian people feel about Bossa Nova today? I've heard that in the past, Brazilian people hated Bossa Nova because it's an 'Americanised and watered down' version of Samba.
Takeuchi Mariya - Oh No, Oh Yes Ohashi Junko - Telephone Number Aran Tomoko - I'm in Love Yagami Junko - Follow Me Yoshino Fujimal - Who Are You Nakahara Meiko - Juggler Kikuchi Momoko - Mystical Composer Matsubara Miki - Stay With Me 真夜中のドア Iwasaki Hiromi - Street Dancer
Did you know that many Westerner / Gaijin are absolutely obsessed with Visual Kei? Please look up this video -- "IMF Jrock Feed" -- many Westerners love VK! Dir en grey is the best rock band ever!
So, as a first-generation anime fan in America in the 80's (boy that was a struggle for a while before it became mainstream) my first experiences with this genre came out of... well, anime. A great example would be Yukawa Reiko 湯川 れい子 whose work appeared in Kimagure Orange Road and Maison Ikkoku. Hot damn did (does? she's still alive in her 80s) she have a silky smooth voice. Anyway, I only knew her from anime, but in Japan she is (was? again this is boomer-level shit now) very well known, and totally not for the anime she collaborated on, but rather as an artist in her own right. Edit: The soundtrack I mentioned, Kimagure Orange Road Singing Heart, is basically "City Pop: The Album" and I've loved it fiercely for years. There was also the sequel Loving Heart, which was okay but lacked the flair of the first one, in my opinion. Still required listening if you like the genre these days. Time to pull my old CDs out again...
Shit I love 80’s anime especially KOR, fist of the North Star, and Maison Ikkoku, the feel of that time was something else. I hope modern anime ages as well as the 80’s
Kimagure Orange Road is one of my all-time favourite anime! I grew up watching that on VHS tapes as a child in the '90s. That was what first introduced me to city pop music. When I listen to city pop today, it reminds me of my childhood watching '80s anime like Kimagure.
I have always had a fascination with city pop ever since I was a kid. Whenever I listened to this genre, I used to imagine myself at a beach, walking on the sand with a significant other near a beach house under the moonlight while listening to the wave crashing loudly in the background.
I Love Japanese CityPop songs and I know some artists like ANRI, Tatsuro Yamashita, Mariya Takeuchi, Meiko, Miki Matsubara. I'm from the Philippines and I think there are few Filipinos actually knew this genre or this type of music. 😄
Idk but I hope it doesn't become too popular, once Hollywood notices it they'll bring it mainstream and they'll ruin it until everyone of us get sick of it. I hope it's just a small community getting together to enjoy a rare gem that no one else knows about.
@@Skycube100 hmm...I dont really think hollywood got balls for that. like, they always playsafe so much that sometimes (or, most of the time) movies or music is basically all the same thing. but i see the point. If anything tiktok might have a higher chance of making it so popular
@@salmanmahyuddin8384 I agree with you, they love playing safe. Although with the rise of 80s Pop Culture, Rick roll, Stranger Things, IT remake, and other 80s inspired shows, films, and music. I'm afraid they might do the same with City Pop. I love both 80s Pop Culture and Japanese City Pop. And It may not happen, I'm just hoping Hollywood getting their hands on the music genre wouldn't be a thing 😅🙏
It’s very strange how RUclips algorithms started putting City Pop into peoples’ feeds. I’m one of them. And boy am I hooked on the funkier songs. I think a big part of this is an ongoing wave of nostalgia for late 70s and 80s culture. I think among certain groups our 80s nostalgia has combined with our early love of Japan. There were many of us 80s kids who became interested in Japan thanks to the Ninja Invasion of the 80s and early anime brought over. A lot of us stayed interested through the Karate Kid era and later. This has let love of Japanese stuff mix with our 80s nostalgia causes by our.... cough cough advancing age :) Ninjas came, video games came but for most music didn’t. So we missed (at least I did) this stuff. I’m super glad that the RUclipsrs dug it up because a lot of it is very cool. It’s also very innocent which feels good in these dark days. One lady had heard of Yamashita Tatsuro. Check him out. I’ve bought a few CDs. And if you haven’t heard plastic love, I dare you to listen and not bop your head along with it. Beware some utterly horrible translations here on RUclips! Sorry for the long comment. I just found this extra convergence of my RUclips items interesting. If you talk about Shinya Shokudou next, I’ll think you are spying on me.
I grew up in the 90s, but interesting enough, I got a lot of 80s pop culture references through re-run TV shows, and that included 80s Japan pop culture. City pop really resembles many of the opening and ending theme songs of those old animes I used to watch when I was a very little boy.
Same just got into city pop like a month ago.Personally I blame covid. I've just been home chilling listening to lofi music from cowboy bebop,trying to escape the madness of the world and city pop shows up in my recommendations.
5:43 She's sharply on point. If it wasn't for all the vaporwave fuss, I'd hardly get in touch with Tatsuro Yamashita's music. And I love it! (I love waporwave, too, to be honest.)
I’m just glad more people are discovering Japanese artist. I from Texas and have listened to Japanese music since I was young. I wish I had more people to connect with growing up listening to visual kei and Jpop. It wasn’t till now more people expanded their music taste.
I think it's because it's accessible to Westerners more because of the internet (the RUclips algorithm basically made Plastic Love the song that it is) and the nostalgic up-beat feel. People in their 30s and late 20s remember that Japan was booming and people cared less about Korea and China, the phrase "big in Japan" entered the US lexicon, as the growing Japanese economy spread from music to sports - you began to see American players on Japanese baseball teams in the 80s the Japanese in US in the 90s (Nomo, Ichiro), Americans were obsessed with Game Boys and Playstations, our cultures were very different but since Japan became our Asian buddy, we started to embrace it a lot in the 80s-90s. We were close back then, now we have people more interested in Korea for example. It represents a nostalgic we never had or or known here in the West, the sound is funky and breezy and despite the songs being new to us mostly, they do evoke a pleasant nostalgia of a certain peaceful time. We also have to consider genres that have been related like chillwave which was popular in the US because it evoked a similar feel but made modern, it was relaxing and mellow and somehow evoked nostalgia by-and-large in the genre, extreme offshoots like vaporwave takes largely from the 90s, Japanese design and aesthetic. They all kind of relate to each other and why naturally a person interested in one genre might dive deeper and diverge into different genres. It's so easy to do these days with Spotify or RUclips, we are exposed to tons of music from everywhere now. Japan in general still has a lot of Tower Records, in the US, we don't have any at all, it's a chain that is like Blockbuster or something -- seen as a relic of the past. We have independent record stores and some famous ones still around that are struggling right now, but we do not have large scaled record stores all over American any more, they all died when CDs were beginning to lose to the mp3 and downloading. It's very different to Japan where a place like Tower Records is still seen as popular. I know LINE and Spotify all have music services in Japan but the country is really behind on the streaming era compared to most countries it seems. Also city pop is still kind of niche and not really that popular in the West. I'd say it's gives a false impression that a lot of people are listening to it over current mainstream or indie music. It has its place, but largely, people just liked Plastic Love and went down a RUclips rabbit hole or kept the auto-play button checked. Some people thought it just sounded nice while others continues down that rabbit hole. We can easily know what is popular now in Japan, it's not like their record labels' RUclipss are blocked. It's just a niche for some people to listen to and it's almost like muzak and easy to keep in the background, similar to why "lo-fi hip hop beats to study and listen to" channels are popular.
This was so wholesome. On another note, it's nice to see people on the internet who are so level headed.... Just thinking of some people in the west who would call citypop and wearing kimonos cultural appropriation and try to kick up hell about it. These japanese people are like "oh, that's cool, hope they enjoy it!".
Japan's got a long history of taking on influences and ideas from overseas and making them Japanese, so not many people would think of "cultural appropriation" or care when it's taking place. It's a compliment after all for people to appreciate things about you and your culture
Man, you said people on the internet are so level-headed... _tch!_ I wanted to start an argument because of it, but I just don't have it in me right now. Uh, "farts" is a terrible username, and you should feel terrible.
because those "cultural appropriation" things only exist in America. The rest of the world didnt have a problem if someone from outside their culture appropriate it.
@@yomomz3921 No, that's not what I said at all. Reread it slowly this time so your tiny brain can parse what is actually being said and rethink your attitude, maybe learn to digest information before you comment on it because your brain is clearly not equipped for quick exchanges. Have a nice day.
Haha, yeah, I knew immediately this might be the case... "City Pop" being a Western "retronym". There are similarly-vibed music across Asia... I grew up constantly listening to Hong Kong Cantopop through my parents, and some songs (when they'd cool it with those kitschy love ballads) would sometimes have similar vibes too, but it wasn't called "City Pop" or anything else then, lol (in fact, a lot of Chinese singers covered "City Pop" artists, incl. Anita Mui covering "Plastic Love").
I love that someone mentioned Anri, cause she would fit right into City Pop. I loved her R&B stuff growing up in the ‘90s, right before Max and Amuro hit the scene.
I'm amazed how many albums she released in the 1980s, and how they all had covers that don't reflect the album title in the slightest :D But yeah, I love Anri.
@@queuedjar4578 yup she started as an Idoru, but had a lot of jazzy funky tracks then did the R&B thing. Her singing got better and better along the way too. Absolute class act.
I'm Japanese, I think the genre "City Pop" was created recently (of course people listened to City Pop music before they were named as one genre.) So, they(in this video) don't know what City Pop is. But music-nerd like me enjoys City Pop music. BTW, my father likes Mariya Takeuchi and I talked to him about her popularity outside of Japan, he was so surprised;)
It’s really cool how a younger generation can start listening and popularizing older songs that pretty much obscure in their country And foreign music at that It’s good that older music won’t be forgotten
Fun fact: when plastic love released in Japan, it was gaining traction for two weeks only. It was also the singers lowest hitting song and that may be why people know of the artist but not the song. I only know of this after being stalked on RUclips by the extended version of the song recommending me to watch it. After listening to the song I saw another video recommended to me titled “this face has been lying to you” or something like that and the thumbnail shows the artists face from a cover of one of her other songs.
maybe it's because plastic love is more catchy than most of his other songs. I know Eki, single again, oh no oh yes !! and others, the pace is slower and calmer. After the 80s in Japan was the key moment when the Western style appeared in music in Japan, creating "New Music". the spread of the internet and Ytube in the late 2000s allowed some of these old songs to be broadcast, and the style unknown in the West became cult and was renamed City Pop. I've been listening to City pop for 2 years (I started with Junko Yagami 黄昏 の Bay City) and I don't know anything better to listen to when I walk around Paris especially at night.
4:39 that’s an interesting perspective, because it seems like there is also a time lag for American trends to be accepted elsewhere. For instance, a lot of the 80s guitar shredders became popular in Japan after grunge took over in the USA. Today, I hear a lot of indie/emo/math rock coming out of Japan, which really had its heyday in America during the early-mid 00s.
Lately, while editing my RUclips content, I've put a lot of these City Pop compilations on. Usually it's the same few songs replayed constantly, such as Plastic Love, but it's interesting to know why people like it. Personally, I love the cyberpunk genre, especially with anime like Armitage III and Bubblegum Crisis, and the nostalgic feel of City Pop and synthwave matches that aesthetic for me. I'm certain that if you asked a lot of youth in Japan these days if they know Bubblegum Crisis, they'll have no idea, despite it being very iconic in the west. Sometimes I find it easier to be an anime fan in America, because it's so easy to access all sorts of Japanese media for cheap.
The genre is actually called "Late night city drive - pop". Because it's so calming and soothing if you listen to these music while driving your car in the city especially when it rains. Also, it's because Mariya song that indicates this genre is about night life, also Junko's Phone Number is about booty call at night.
City pop is still pretty known in my country. Well most of the record in 80s and 90s were actually a dub version of popular japanese songs tho. Btw i came from Malaysia
Like these interviewees, I don’t think fellow Malaysians know what 'city pop' is, but they sure know Sheila Majid, just as these people know Mariya Takeuchi
Most of these people seem to be in the right age to have remembered some of this music, I guess they just didn't call it "city pop". My theory on why it's become popular in parts of the west is because it's like a time capsule for a very prosperous and exciting time in Japan when there was all this new technology and a lot of people enjoyed a very stable economy.
This. I read something similar on the origins of “City Pop”. A time of optimism in a booming economy and city people waving 10,000 yen bills for a taxi ride home after a night out. City people making music for city people. I wish I could find that article (maybe from Rolling Stone) but that was the basic idea behind “City Pop”.
It's also tied to vaporwave, a genre that slows down samples from songs from the 80s, creating nostalgia for an economically better times. These songs were first American songs but later Japanese songs were sampled.
Japanese dude here. If you hung out at Tower Records in Shibuya or Shinjuku during the early 2000s, then you absolutely knew what city pop was. Classic city pop albums from the 70s would be featured at listening stations from time to time, and popular contemporary bands like Kirinji and Sunny Day Service were often described as having a “city pop sound.” It’s a term that definitely would’ve been familiar to Japanese music aficionados back then, but judging from this interview, I guess we were in the minority... That being said, if you had conducted this interview outside of a record store, I’m pretty sure you would’ve gotten different results!
Okay, this video came up in my recommendations again for some reason, so I’m going through some of the comments, and I’m absolutely baffled by the number of Japanese people claiming that the term is a recent invention by Western fans. “City pop” as a genre name has been around since at least the late 90s, and probably even longer. And while I’m not aware of the exact origins of the term, this kind of music would’ve been EXTREMELY niche outside of Japan back then, and I have a hard time believing that it wasn’t coined in Japan. Seriously, am I the only Japanese person who remembers “city pop” being a thing in Japan long before Plastic Love gained international recognition??? I’m starting to worry that I might live in an alternative reality and I’m actually going insane. タワレコやHMVの大型店では、少なくとも90年代から普通に「シティポップ」っていう用語をずっと使ってたと思うんですけど…。
@Kraze And I’m telling you, as a Japanese person myself, that the word “city pop” has been used in Japan for a very long time. I accept that not everyone might be familiar with the term, and that for people of a certain generation, “new music” (which isn’t the same as city pop, in my opinion) is probably more recognizable. But just because these people have never heard of it doesn’t mean that “city pop” just popped out of nowhere. Japanese music fans have been using that term for decades.
im japanese-american (born in the US) and my mother is a japanese immigrant. she would play what we could call "city-pop" on CDs in our car and i remember a lot of those songs fondly. when city pop started becoming popular i rediscovered all of those songs and artists we would listen to in our car trips and it was very nostalgic. i also found a lot of other city pop songs that i didn't listen to during childhood that are amazing.
Its nice to see a song that initially wasn't a great success in the past, reach critical acclaim in the future. Hopefully it was an uplifting surprise to Mariya Takeuchi to get a second run of fame for her old music.
City pop is growing is because people feel depressed and hopeless for the future more than ever. It takes you back to the golden era of Japan where everyone's living their best lives and couldn't wait to make an even better future. Oh well… time to listen to some city pop :)
Fascinating! I personally love city pop! It savors of American disco music, but has a remarkably sophisticated sense of harmony, one more akin to classical music or jazz (as opposed to the more bluesy sound of western disco/soul). Kpop is quite similar to city pop in these respects as well. It’s so interesting to see how a sound/style can evolve in the hands of another culture!
City pop is what I consider "easy driving music". It's what you listen to when you're cruising down the highway or around town with a couple friends, taking in the scenery and shooting the shit. It's what I'd imagine hearing just as the sun starts peaking over the horizon at dawn, or as it's setting.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
When I was in high school, I had a part-time job at a used car dealership. (I made a website for them.) It was a small shop and there were only a few staff members. People were quite chill there, and the owner would sometimes play music. His favourite artist was Mariya Takeuchi.
That was the first time I heard of her. City pop was already "old" back then, so we wouldn't hear it on TV. It was the kind of music that his generation would listen to.
So I was surprised when I learned that her song became popular overseas. And I'd remember the owner of the used car dealership.
There's a lot of forgotten music in Japan. And if you speak Japanese, you will be able to access it directly. So if you want to learn Japanese with me, I will send you Japanese lessons where I teach you the kind of Japanese that real-life Japanese people speak today. Click here and bit.ly/3bqRkiK
Dame Da Ne
Nice story :)
Beautiful.
This is fairly common with cultural trade, being a decade or two out of date.
I think talking about city pop as just Plastic Love is too limiting when the term covers a lot of Japanese pop music late '70s to the '80s; it's just old-school music. Lots more people would respond to Yumin, Matsuda Seiko, Yamashita Tatsuro, along with Takeuchi Mariya.
"it's probably pop music with something to do with the city"
Dude gets it 👍
Is it normal that I would have been legit mad if Yuta didn’t mention “Plastic Love” when he was talking about city pop?
Obviously...
@milixe1 And this. Making of Citypop's Toffee Almond Popcorn ruclips.net/video/fcNSJl8cKug/видео.html
Lol I mean the way they pronounce city pop is literally those words in English, but he was explaining it in Japanese (Japanese words for city)
Drop the mic, we got a genius over here lol..
I'm a 56-year-old Japanese man.
"City Pop" is the name foreigners have recently given to that type of Japanese music, which was originally popular in the 1980s being included in a broad genre called "New Music".
So, if you had asked, "Do you know what New Music is?", the middle-aged Japanese would have understood it better.
The term "New Music" was born to distinguish it from such as Enka(traditional Japanese popular music), idol songs, that had been mainstream until then.
"New Music" has been influenced by rock and folk songs or sophisticated by an influence of the West Coast music.
Many popular "New Music" singers and groups at the time refused to appear on TV shows because they were unwilling to perform with the dols or Enka singers.
Some of the leading musicians in New Music were Yosui Inoue, Takuro Yoshida, Yumi Arai (current name Yumi Matsutoya, commonly known as Yuming), and Off Course.
At the time, AOR (Adult-Oriented Rock), which was influenced by stylish foreign musicians such as Steely Dan, Christopher Cross, and Boz Scaggs, was very popular among young people, and AOR played by Japanese musicians was one of the kinds of New Music.
Toshiki Kadomatsu, ANRI, Taeko Onuki, Eichi Otaki, Minako Yoshida, as well as Tatsuro Yamashita, Kazumasa Oda (Off Course), and Mariya Takeuchi can be considered as AOR-leaning New Music singers.
By the way, Mariya Takeuchi's Plastic Love is highly regarded by foreigners, but among her songs, it is not that famous in Japan.
In order of sales, "Jun Ai Rhapsody (890,000 copies), "Single Again (530,000)", "Camouflage (460,000)", and "Konya wa Hearty Party(390,000)".
The term "New Music" seems to have spontaneously disappeared as the types of music have diversified and been lumped into the J-Pop or J-ROCK genres.
Thanks for this. Ironically, I met 'city pop' not listening to old music but new artists. There has been a new wave of Japanese artists replicating that AOR New Music sound with a modern touch and even covers of 80s songs these last 10 years (hitomitoi, Ryusenkei, Tomomi Sano, Blue Peppers, etc.).
This is from 2016 😂
ruclips.net/video/ZhK2Jmq73qc/видео.html
Thank u.
言おうとしてたことを、既にきっちり説明していただけてましたね。ありがとうございます。
Thanks for this explanation. I was going to leave a comment saying that my first impressions of the song (I had not heard of it, nor the city pop genre, before coming across Yuta's video) were that it sounds exactly like a huge amount of Western pop music from the early 80s, except sung in Japanese of course. My first thought was actually of Africa by Toto, but a quick Wikipedia search of city pop says that soft rock (the genre that Africa belongs to) did influence the development of city pop. So it seems I was able to make a very astute assessment based on my first impression.
In the UK recently, late at night the BBC has been repeating medleys of TV music show performances from the 1980s, and the songs that appear in the medleys sound very, very similar to Plastic Love.
I’ve never met a Japanese person who hadn’t heard of Takeuchi Mariya. I also never met a Japanese person who had ever heard Plastic Love.
Mariya Takeuchi is kinda like the Madonna of Japan, she was constantly reinventing herself from like when disco dropped in Japan in 1976 to around the time the stock market crashed (and then recovered after a few years) in early 1992.
Yes, this is true. Plastic love isn't considered one of the traditional classics of takeuchi, it's mostly songs like eki, september and fushigi na peach pie, those kind of songs.
It wasn't a popular song nor a single so it just was blessed by the RUclips algorithm decades later so here we are.
I was into "City Pop" but oddly enough didn't listen to Plastic Love until it was popular as I recognized the name from her being married to Yamashita. I prefer "Oh No Oh Yes" tbh.
It’s like a New Yorker who listens to rap and having no clue who Biggie Smalls is.
คอมมิวนิสต์ so true
0:24 "Its probably pop music with something to do with the city"
If that isnt me trying to write an essay
- insert meme -
*Random Bullshit go!!!*
"Knife edge death match"
420 likes
Literally me fr
-Do you know her?
-No
-Mariya Takeuchi
_AAAAAAA Aa Aa Aa
So while city pop is something cool and different here in the west (I can't lie I've been on a city pop binge lately) it's basically boomer music in Japan. Makes sense
basically the equivalent of being into bruce springsteen (which is still totally fine of course)
i can't see the problem of hearing 'boomer' music, its normal.
@@thejuaneco ikr, I prefer to call them oldies (but goldies).
@@marcello7781 Facts
LOL, if city pop is boomer music idk wat am I. I listen to japanese enka
the guy who said music trends rotate on a 20-30 year cycle is a smart dude
With age comes wisdom and experience 👌
Its the same with fashion as well, but any sort of trend eventual comes back
It's true though. My dad noted the same thing and mentioned it almost a decade ago.
@@KRoromon
Clearly you do not have it since you just think that is true, age and wisdom are not related for vast majority of people.
@@SMGJohn well yeah compared to the OGs who are like 50+yrs old in my craft, of course im not at their level yet, they've been dancing for 30+yrs, longer than i've lived, im 25 and been dancing since 2009, so of course I don't have their experience yet
im a hongkonger, ppl from asian countries are initially taught to respect our elders, which i think makes sense. unless that elder shows an incredibly outdated/outrageously terrible way of thinking, we automatically give them respect for life experience they have until it is revoked from any detrimental actions they do
my comment isn't about me, it's about praising the elderly who have attained wise words we can all go by through their life experience. I dont know how you're so triggered by just a few words in my initial comment
Yuta: It's Mariya....
Everyone: Ahh....
I really like that response
To me this alone contradicts the conclusion that city pop is not popular in japan. The music is popular, the term itself that is new and not known
@@PrincipeRhoynar well it was popular, but pretty much no one listens to it anymore, regardless of what it's called
It's not Yuta tho...
Yea, didn't even say her last name. Are there just not that many famous-ish people named Mariya that they just know who he is talking about instantly?
I’m Japanese college student. (19years old)
I will write my impressions as a Japanese. (I'm not good at English, but I'll write it to tell people overseas)
I was not surprised at this result because many Japanese have no awareness of “City Pop”.
“Plastic love” is an album song, so it's not generally famous for Japanese.
Of course, Mariya is famous. Especially "Genki wo dashite”(元気を出して),"Single again”(シングル・アゲイン),”Fushigi na Peach Pie”(不思議なピーチパイ), and "Suteki na holiday”(すてきなホリデイ) is famous songs.
Tatsuro's "RIDE ON TIME" is very famous.
"RIDE ON TIME" became a hit as a CM song and Tatsuro became famous.
However, the most famous song by Tatsuro is "Christmas Eve". This was also a hit in the CM song. It still selling in winter. (Guinness record)
On the other hand, I think Toshiki Kadomatsu is not well known. I think many people know it as a producer of songs such as Anri and Miho Nakayama.
And I think Miki Matsubara is also not well known. I think there are many people who don't know she died.
By the way everyone calls Japanese popular music "Japanese Pop", but in Japan, popular music from the 90's onwards is called "J-POP (= Japanese Pop)". The songs before that are called "Kayokyoku" or "New Music" depending on the genre. At that time, "New Music" was called music that was not classified as Kayokyoku or folk song. It hasn't been used since it changed to "J-POP".
Thank you for reading this to the end.
Thank you so much! I appreciate your insightful comment!
韓国でも「シティポップ」がすごく流行っているので、日本人の友達に「最近、私シティポップにドハマりしちゃった」と言ったら「え、シティポップって何？」と言われて、「こいつ自分の文化も知らないんだ」と思った経験があります笑笑 日本で作った言葉だとてっきり思ってました
@@mqh2411 Thank you. I'm so glad.
@@isaacsuh5409 確かに「シティポップ」は和製英語(日本で作られた言葉)ですが、音楽に興味がある人以外は「シティポップ」と言われてもピンとこないと思います。1970年代辺りから使われ始めていたみたいですが、一般には浸透しないまま現在に至りました。
それにしても、あなたの日本語が上手でびっくりしました。とても嬉しいです。
Thanks for sharing,man. Appreciate it!!!
I once sang "Plastic Love" at a Japanese karaoke session and I had a Japanese woman ask me, "Where did you learn about that song?" And I told her that I first heard it on RUclips, and then I asked her if she had heard the song before, and she said, "No."
XD
Wow, nice
I'm in Texas, and I have "Plastic Love" on my playlist in the car. Mariya is as beautiul now, at 60, as she was 30 years ago.
Yep, city pop songs are perfect to drive!
They’re perfect to drive around on a weekend night
Right? She sure has passed the test of time very nicely!
Just like Hirohito Araki, she doesn’t age
Yeah, but that's just one song out of thousands.
My dad listens to Mariya Takeuchi when he was young. He met Mariya long time ago. He said, it was an amazing experience to meet her. I started listen to her and she's just an amazing artist.
That's so cool!
@@Dionaea_floridensis ikr!
Since I've moved to Japan, I've become a fan of hers too. City Pop is such a pleasant fusion of musical styles of the '60's, '70's, and '80's that were popular in the West.
@@drzerogi Soul music.
Your dad is a lucky man. An extremely lucky man.
As an American millennial, I think one of the reasons that city pop resonates with me is that I grew up with parents who were young in the 80s, so I heard a lot of 80s music at home, as well as anywhere in public, from the grocery store to the doctor’s office. City pop takes the best of 80s Pop stylings and production, but uses it on songs that I haven’t heard endlessly for decades. It makes the songs sound nostalgic and familiar even when it’s something you’ve never heard, and it’s really rare and captivating to feel that combination.
I think ya nailed that feeling I get with it too my dude.
This is the perfect explanation! I also have to add that it evokes feelings of an alternate childhood that I haven't lived myself.
This pretty much sums it up.
Ahhh that's so true
Yo, well said!
"city pop" is just J-80s. the reason why no one can find these songs on youtube is because ppl rename the genres to aesthetic garbage like city pop and type out the titles of the songs like t h i s which makes them impossible to find on youtube unless its in recommended
Yes, but some people do that so it makes it harder for youtube to find it and take it down
"like t h i s" made me laugh 😂😂
Hm?
no, they name it like 𝙩 𝙝 𝙞 𝙨
So westerners took something that already existed and added they’re own shitty take on it?
all the older people when they hear the artist name „AHHHHHH“ cute
Means while westerm teens, damn so your telling me Im listing to my parents music basically now i feel old
"So it's all youtube algorithm?"
*points gun*
"Its always has been"
When I went to Japan, I went to a couple of record stores and some (most notably Tower Records and HMV Record Shop) had a section dedicated to city pop and I noticed that westerners were the ones mostly sifting through those records.
But it was classified like "CITY POP" session?
@@yomiku11 Yes, it was
They (Tower Records and HMV Record Shop) were even selling the same city pop record collector's guide book in their city pop sections. Those two record stores were the ones I remember having a city pop section but other record stores (and places that sold physical media such as: CDs, tapes, and records) like RECOfan or BOOK•OFF didn't have a city pop section but did have J-Pop and 80s J-Pop sections.
Ah man, you make me miss Japan & their record stores! Damn this whole pandemic thingy!
Ah man, you make me miss Japan & their record stores! Damn this whole pandemic thingy!
Yukika - Neon
Yukika - Love in Tv World
Maria Takeuchi - Shiawase no Monosashi (vantage edit)
Maria Takeuchi - Yume no Tsuzuki
Anri - Remember Summer Days (macross edit)
Tomoko Kuwae - Rainy Motion
Tomoko Aran - Midnight Pretenders
Kingo Hamada - Dolphin in Town
Tatsuro Yamashita - Love Space
you mean space crush?
@@jules6824 not space crush. Love space
"Anri - last summer whisper" is pretty nice too
@@lavieja7938 Most of Anri's song are a banger 👍🏼
For me Meiko Nakahara is the best, listen to her
2:43 "It sounds familiar but I don't know."
That's all of us listening to city pop and Plastic Love for the first time.
As an American who has been listening to Japanese music from the 60s, 70s, 80s, & 90s for most of my life, I'm surprised and delighted that city pop has become so popular over here.
6:08 He's just politely saying "damn weebs at it again..."
🤣🤣
Is city pop popular with weebs? Or only us older japanophiles? I wonder if us people in our 40s can be weeaboo? I consider myself a pre-weeb. Lol.
Remo Williams the meaning of weeaboo has been bastardized and meme’d to death by the internet that it’s better not to take the word as something serious in labeling a person. The “current” meaning however is just a description of a person who see’s Japan as THE best country and culture ever, denouncing their own culture to something they see as “superior”, to a point where they actively hate their own and plan to move to Japan to live this fantasy. Usually it is associated with western anime fans who have fallen deeply infatuated w/ japanese culture presented in that medium and are “dissatisfied” with their own. Sorry if this doesnt ans your question but I hope it helps contextualize its meaning at least.
@@notmbr I made a vid about japanophiles and weebs if you're interested :) ruclips.net/video/8Oey1oDQXYQ/видео.html
@@eric1800es I'm 28. I listen to city pop without fail. It's becoming my favourite genre.
I believe the genre was called "New Music" back in the 80s. The term City Pop is a more modern western term.
It is like Jazz Noir. Not a real genre, but something that came out of RUclips. It is like name of playlist that became popular.
@@mdjey2 especially hashtag from social media post.
How do you feel about Visual Kei? The early 90s VK had a very 80s New Wave feeling (Luna Sea). The early 2000s VK almost sounded like American "Nu Metal." (Dir en grey). Is VK still popular in Japan? Do you think that maybe Younger Japanese People are more fascinated by Western Rock Bands, such as Nine Inch Nails or Marilyn Manson? I'm American, but I really enjoy Visual Kei!
@@mana_beast_beats1114 I'm no expert on the keis, but I believe the hype died down a little in the 2010's? It's still a thing, just not as widespread.
4:58 I think he's closest to the reason why. There's been a subculture for old sounds and making it new like synthwave for example. Today it's a bit different thanks to the internet but back in the 70s all the way to the late 90s, most Japanese content never really went abroad. So for most non-Japanese it's not just a window to the past, it's a treasure vault that had been, until now never been discovered.
And what a treasure!!!
Love it so much!!!
I agree
I discovered Plastic Love because my girlfriend (now fiancee, she's japanese) asked me if I knew it when started to play in a karaoke, where we went two years ago, in Shinjuku.
She sang it quite well although her voice is lower...
I must thank her for taught me this classic, 'cause within a few months I was already immersed in the city pop (and my style has always been heavy metal...).
But it's so addictive, exciting, melancholic and warm at the same time, purely from the 80s, a type of music that instantly grabs you.
The term "City Pop" was invented in the 2010s in the West. Because of this most Japanese people never heard of it. Too bad you didn't tell them that it's a type of 80s / 90s Japanese Pop music and named a few more artists (Yamashita, Kadomatsu, ...). Maybe they would have recognized it more easily.
I always wondered why "City Pop". Maybe the songs' topics. There was a time when I used to just call it J-Pop and probably that's why I still call it that way.
Marcello MCMXCVI Because j-pop is the way we call modern Japanese pop, I guess
@@marcello7781 associates it with the overused aesthetic of 80-90's midnight tokio
Yeah, I noticed that they didn't know the term 'city pop' but they've at least heard of Mariya Takeuchi and one of them even name dropped Tatsuro Yamashita as well.
@Black Chandelier Mirage It's useful to define it at least as 80s/early 90s pop from the Japanese economic bubble. Because that informs the style that differentiates it from 90s or 00s J-pop the same way western 80s pop is vastly different from 90s/00s pop
I heard Tatsuro Yamashita's Magic Ways playing in a gift shop in Asakusa. I told the clerk that I loved that song and she was so happy haahah
It's popular because there's a sensual, romantic and chill vibe to it + it makes you feel nostalgic or remember things that never even happened
Global capitalism is nearly there. At the end of the world there will only be liquid advertisement and gaseous desire. Sublimated from our bodies, our untethered senses will endlessly ride escalators through pristine artificial environments, more and less than human, drugged-up and drugged down, catalysed, consuming and consumed by a relentlessly rich economy of sensory information, valued by the pixel. The Virtual Plaza welcomes you, and you will welcome it too.
It takes someone with a mature taste to love it.
It can be classified as Japanese soul music.
Even though Japan retained traditions from hundreds of years ago, I think that Japanese people are much more westernized than the west, in terms of culture, like James stated. So they're more shallow than westerners.
@@AncEl7 Oops I forgot to mention I didn't write that, it's a quote I found on r/vaporwave. I wish I could write as eloquently as that...
It's popular because current mainstream music is trash so people look for old music they never heard before so they look for music from non English speaking countries that can only be found online if you don't live the the country of origin.
If you haven’t yet, anri’s timely!! Is my favorite album
Crazy how popular the genre has become in the U.S. out of nowhere, but it’s an afterthought over there. If only the Internet was as advanced today as back then, who knows how popular those songs would’ve been sooner.
It's actually really sweet seeing these older Japanese getting that look of surprised glee, when they remember the music and artists they listened to when they were younger.
"City Pop" for Japaneses is like "Bossa Nova" for Brazilians... kinda old and popular overseas, but somehow underestimated domestically
i don't think Bossa Nova is "subestimated" in Brazil lmao
@@SlayerPix maybe you're right, but even it's considered "fancy", that is not quite popular. Most people couldn't name a few artists from Bossa, besides Tom Jobim
@@ygorventura Three brazilian folks speaking english in the comment section of a japanese youtuber. O povo escolheu a globo, isso é globalização ! kkkkk
@@サレスおかみ it's funny to notice that one of these 3 has his name written in japanese characters😁
Not sure because bossa nova is a genre but city pop is pop from the 80s it’s very music from the older generation. It’s like Mozart becoming popular again outside Europe. Feels very disconnected lol
"Stay with me" is a really nice song too
My all-time favourite song!
"Fancy Free" is a really nice song too
so is Wash
I'm really surprised everyone in the comments seems to be familiar with city pop because I didn't know its existance until now even though youtube did recommend me plastic love, I had no idea it was part of a specific genre
Everytime I listened to an anime opening it would always appear in my recommendations.
Aint complaining tho
Oh boy, into the rabbit hole you go
Make sure to also look up "future funk" and the channel "Artzie Music", I myself got introduced to a lot of city pop by way of future funk and then the Plastic Love RUclips recommendation thing happened
Welcome to the club😊
@Jacob Miller Seconded. Timely is a great one
Don't forget Stay with Me.
I really wish someone could interview Mariya Takeuchi and other City Pop artists today, to ask them what they think about their songs becoming so popular overseas.
I mean, she's still apparently alive
I played Tatsuro for my boss one day and she took my phone and started dancing around the store with it. She was married to a Japanese man years ago and loves Japan. We even import a Japanese motorcycle gear brand to the US at my store.
I also played Cirus Town for a local ramen chef who is Japanese and he started to get tears in his eyes. It really surprised me. Now when we go to the ramen shop he plays Tatsuro on the speakers for a bit. I love me some City pop/new music.
So sweet!
I am from Costa Rica, and since 1985 I listen to Japanese Music, I've been collecting music for 35 years... and it's something new to me that the name "city pop" came up...
I don't recognize that genre name, I just say I listen Japanese music and it includes "City Pop artists"
I mean, it's kinda like asking to an european if they know eurobeat, or an american if they know funk or house. Those genres are from 80-00 so a lot of people were babies or weren't even born when those genres were popular. It's very normal that the apperently older persons knew mariya, because at the time she was popular, they probably were already 10-15 to say the least.
Kansei drift, eurobeat and chill 😎
Leopold very true. I can say that's exactly how we feel as a Japanese person.
House is definitely more niche, but if you ask an American about funk music, they'll know a good of funk acts. Just wanted to point that out
Every American, young and old alike, knows what funk is. You would be very uneducated to not know what it is, irrespective of your age. Besides, age has nothing to do with this. You don't have to be born in a certain period to know things. Knowledge can very well be shared across generations.
I know eurobeat because of Initial d
I'm just waiting for Pizzicato Five to be "rediscovered" so my tastes are relevant again.
Shoutout to P5! It'd be interesting to see a big Shibuya-kei resurgence actually.
Yess
Yeah I can see Shibuya-kei being the next city pop craze in a couple decades
Pizzicato Five is such an underrated band group of that time.
Yes! Triste, Magic Carpet Ride, and It’s Midnight in Tokyo are my favorite songs by P5. Nomiya and Konishi are great!
3:23 "It sounds like something that would be playing at a fancy shop." He just explained why city pop fits with the vaporwave aesthetic
I love your interviews!! I can actually follow along with what they are saying; and the subtitles help with what I don’t pick up!! I love the gentleman that said music comes in cycles and the one that said it takes a while for what’s popular in Japan to become something in the States. It’s true, even with the prevalence of the internet. This was such a cute interview!!!
I love City Pop music. So relaxing.
"City Pop has become quite popular with some people in the West" - I'm sure it's popular amongst some people in Japan if you ask the right people. This is mainly a niche internet or a Japanophile thing. If you ask random people on the streets of a Western country, they probably would not had heard of it whatsoever.
Depends on the age of the random person in a western country I'd say. If they look 20 or younger they've probably heard of it.
R R citypop not popular since 90s who in the world will remember it after 30 years
@@ycantiusegeorgiantextforhandle I highly doubt this. It's a label for 80s/90s music and most people that age really don't listen to it.
@@Sherrice I didn't say actively listen, just heard of the genre. It's really popular right now and artists like Doja Cat have made city pop songs. Practically everyone 20 or younger uses some form of social media, city pop is impossible to miss.
I don't think this is a weeb or a japanophile thing. I think it is just that Plastic Love got viral and if people listen to lofi hip-hop they might cross into future funk and then city pop.
Also it is popular with foreign artists such as Doja cat or YUKIKA.
People listening to city pop in Japan is probably the same as people listening to Hall and Oates in the US. Anyway, I love it.
I'm from the UK but I do listen to certain hall & oates songs like "out of touch" sometimes (mainly due to the out of touch thursday meme though lol)
Ey what's Wrong with HalL aNd OaTEs?
That's the problem....I do listen to Hall and Oates thanks my father constantly playing it.
@@thepokemonqueen I always knew that song from GTA Vice City.
Queenie my mum loves their song I can’t go for that cus it sounds like funk lol.
Most people outside of Japan were introduced to City Pop through another genre: Future Funk. We listened to the remixes so much we sought out the original recordings and we loved it more. ^_^
Exactly, the only reason I know of City Pop is through Future Funk, and I'm pretty enthusiastic about both.
Totally!!
「シティポップ」という言葉は海外で出来た言葉だからね、日本人には伝わらん
It's kind of funny to me that no one knew what artists would fit the genre, but after hearing Takeyuchi one those two younger women said it sounds like Anri, who I am pretty sure fits exactly in the genre. Also, it's interesting how often people seem to know Tatsuro Yamashita (in Japan) but not Takeyuchi when the two of them are like...married, lol.
I have heard some of Yamashita's music is sometimes played during Christmas in the mall, and I wonder if that's true or if Yuta could interview people about his music
Christmas Eve was playing in the background when I went to Tokyo Sky Tree last November. There were a lot of City Pop in the Tower Records and stores alike. The genre is known without a doubt..
Tats is much more popular and still active in the music industry, if the interviewer ask if they know him pretty sure its a YES
City pop is just basically Japanese version of early 80's post-disco/funk. Like Evelyn "Champaign" King, and Patrice Rushen. It's not really a different genre from that.
This. I was listening to it for a while before I knew that it was tagged as City Pop. Before, I just thought of it as Disco.
Brenna Russell too
Exactly. Its just late 70s to mid 80s American music with japanese vocals. A similar thing has happened with American 90s pop and current Kpop music. Same stuff, different langauge. Its nothing "New" though.
Finally, someone said it. This was my first impression of City Pop when I first heard it. It's literally just Japanese music inspired from what was popular in the west during that time, which is why I don't really get the hype. However, I'm not saying that I don't like it, because I do.
@@ZemusPremus it's because of the weebs
Aw I love city pop! Sad it isn’t more popular there
it was...in the 80's and 90's though
Any recommendations
Actually if you said old jpop they will know . You see they know mariya takeuchi
@@Huuduy1210 Yeah, it sounds like they just didn't know the label for it. Which makes sense since that type of music would be radio music so they wouldn't put much thought into _what_ it's called. How many of us listen to the radio and think, "ah, that's hip hop soul" instead of "oh, R&B"? Let alone remember songs from the past, haha.
@@weridplusho its 30 years , most of them now 50,60 already, is hard for them to remember, 😄
I’m really happy that you made this video, tbh I discovered city pop at the beginning of quarantine/the pandemic and it’s kept me sane. Idk there’s just a certain quality to the music that hits me right in my heart. I love it. I was surprised that so many didn’t really think much of it I thought it was really popular over there....
I was at Tower Records a year ago and there was a whole stand dedicated to Plastic Love celebrating an anniversary.
*Fun Fact:* The Power Star theme from Super Mario Bros. franchise was actually influenced by a song called _Summer Breeze_ by Piper. The beginning of that song was familiar.
That's a really nice fact. Thanks!
I heard the song before, but didn't realize...
Btw Fun Fact: The the voice actress who voice Tomoyo from Cardcaptor Sakura was an replacement member of the original one of 4 members of a group band Saint Four.
City pop has that nostalgic feeling when you were going home from school or work and the sky and clouds are orange from the sunset.
Also the feeling of driving in the city during the night with tall buildings lighting the horizon.
Yeah, it makes you feel nostalgic for a time and place you never experienced.
@@bodaciouscowboy It is like a memory of future for me
Because it's Japanese soul music.
@@AncEl7 Its American 70s Music with Japanese Vocals. Its not Japanese Soul and its nothing new.
Weird, considering most Japanese were blasting Michael Jackson and Madonna back then. If you want to be all NoStAlGiC just listen to 80's music lmao.
I've always just loved older music and with city pop it's always been something I listened to, and still do, when my depression is bad. It's the type of music that just intimately comforts me. Especially Tatsuro Yamashita, Miki Matsubara, Junko Ohashi, etc. It really helped me especially since we're in quarantine where I'm inside and isolated for a longer period of time.
This makes a lot of sense. Assuming that every one in Japan loves City Pop is like a foreigner coming to the west and assuming that everyone loves Culture Club Lol Older bands still have their niche, but the majority of the younger generation will have no idea who you're talking about.
Some will come to see that a lot current music samples 70s and 80s music. For example it's pretty clear that "Say So" by Doja Cat is another sampling of "Good Times" by Chic.
Wow the thumbnail was Mariya Tekauchi's Plastic Love. I love that song!!!
The thing about City pop (and also a lot of Japanese music in general, even modern music from today) that fascinates me is how much jazz and funk influence there is. Here in the west I feel like it's really difficult to popularize these kinds of music and instead it's always the same (boring) stuff on the radio, but in Japan with artists like 椎名林檎 (Sheena Ringo) or the whole City pop world, it just brings so much to the music scene. If someone showed me Sheena Ringo's music for example, without telling me how popular she is, I would have likely said something like "Sounds great, but probably a bit too unaccessible for the mainstream", because that is my experience from music in the west. In the case of city pop, as these people said, some of it may have even been mainstream music back then, which is quite fascinating to me given how much jazz and funk is in there.
And although I focused on two examples here, I find that Japanese music in general (even some of those Idol groups!) tends to be much more musically creative and appealing to me personally.
That is why I listen to so much Japanese music.
Edit: I don't mean to bash current popular western (radio) music, it just doesn't appeal to me personally since I find most of it (not all!) boring from both an emotional as well as a music theoretical point of view.
Lastly, sorry for some messed up English, it's early in the morning and my brain doesn't function 100% yet.
Mainstream music in the states was all Funk in the 70s and 80s.
@@samesoul definitely not the case for current timeframe
@@rzt430 True, but City Pop or New Music as it was originally called, isn't modern music either. I guess all music globally was just funky in that era.
@@samesoul while i do agree, what the original comment is talking about is the fact that modern japanese mainstream music take a lot more from jazz and funk than mainstream western music, which is undeniable. not to mention that genres that are considered niche in the west like jazz or even actual hiphop + the cultures around them are ironically better preserved in japan than their countries of origin.
as for my initial statement take these japanese mainstream song as an example:
ruclips.net/video/PLgYflfgq0M/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/Ae6gQmhaMn4/видео.html
whereas out in the west modern mainstream music leans more towards this kind of stuff:
ruclips.net/video/PT2_F-1esPk/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/JGwWNGJdvx8/видео.html
of course i have considered that city pop/disco has had a small resurgence in the west the form of groups like honne or artists like tom misch but rather than the norm they're the outlier as is the case with groups like jamiroquai
@@rzt430 I disagree with funk influence being apart of mainstream over here in Japan. Yes your examples have a lot of views but are still pretty niche and are not the most popular types of sounds being played.
In the states the most popular music is this Rappish/Popish blend not true Rap or Pop, think Drake. I think the difference is in the way niche is handled, in Japan niche is just that smaller fandom, but everything is kinda niche in Japan. Everything has a smaller fandom and there is no general bandwagon culture, but in the states niche is a small fandom plus it is shunned and looked down upon by a larger culture that just likes what's cool at the moment.
I do agree tho that Japan tries to stay pure to the different cultures, like here in Osaka there's this Hip Hop club that's just like MCs rapping till 5am everynight, I seriously can't imagine anything like this place has been in the states since the 90s, everything from the rap styles to the fashion just feels so 90s its pretty cool, its like watching a vhs tape in real life, very surreal
Hey, Yuta!
I'm brazilian, and I've heard that the *Bossa Nova* is popular in Japan
Is it true? Can you make a video about this?
yes it is!! I know that Kaori Iida, an ex-Morning Musume member from the early years, released a bossa nova cover abum in 2016, sung in completely portuguese! It's called "Ondas"
How do Brazilian people feel about Bossa Nova today? I've heard that in the past, Brazilian people hated Bossa Nova because it's an 'Americanised and watered down' version of Samba.
@@ycantiusegeorgiantextforhandle Some people don't listen to it today. It's like a *brazilian boomer music* but i like it
That would be an interesting topic, I listened to bossa nova before city pop, its still one of my favorite genre today
Bossa Nova is popular in Japan just like hiphop, rap, EDM, K pop, jazz, and many others are.
Yesss this was my request :D
Please do a follow up for the topic, with your own analysis and opinion
And lastly....
🎶 I CAN'T STOP THE LONELINESS 🎶 😄
Takeuchi Mariya - Oh No, Oh Yes
Ohashi Junko - Telephone Number
Aran Tomoko - I'm in Love
Yagami Junko - Follow Me
Yoshino Fujimal - Who Are You
Nakahara Meiko - Juggler
Kikuchi Momoko - Mystical Composer
Matsubara Miki - Stay With Me 真夜中のドア
Iwasaki Hiromi - Street Dancer
I japanese,we called new music,not city pops .
Did you know that many Westerner / Gaijin are absolutely obsessed with Visual Kei? Please look up this video -- "IMF Jrock Feed" -- many Westerners love VK! Dir en grey is the best rock band ever!
How do you feel about Visual Kei? Dir en grey is my favorite band. I am American.
So, as a first-generation anime fan in America in the 80's (boy that was a struggle for a while before it became mainstream) my first experiences with this genre came out of... well, anime. A great example would be Yukawa Reiko 湯川 れい子 whose work appeared in Kimagure Orange Road and Maison Ikkoku. Hot damn did (does? she's still alive in her 80s) she have a silky smooth voice. Anyway, I only knew her from anime, but in Japan she is (was? again this is boomer-level shit now) very well known, and totally not for the anime she collaborated on, but rather as an artist in her own right.
Edit: The soundtrack I mentioned, Kimagure Orange Road Singing Heart, is basically "City Pop: The Album" and I've loved it fiercely for years. There was also the sequel Loving Heart, which was okay but lacked the flair of the first one, in my opinion. Still required listening if you like the genre these days. Time to pull my old CDs out again...
Shit I love 80’s anime especially KOR, fist of the North Star, and Maison Ikkoku, the feel of that time was something else. I hope modern anime ages as well as the 80’s
💜💜💜💜
Kimagure Orange Road is one of my all-time favourite anime! I grew up watching that on VHS tapes as a child in the '90s. That was what first introduced me to city pop music. When I listen to city pop today, it reminds me of my childhood watching '80s anime like Kimagure.
I've probably heard a few anime songs that could be City Pop. I have a Kimagure Orange Road song collection too. Loving Heart.
I have always had a fascination with city pop ever since I was a kid. Whenever I listened to this genre, I used to imagine myself at a beach, walking on the sand with a significant other near a beach house under the moonlight while listening to the wave crashing loudly in the background.
2:27 Tatsuro 👌 great taste
3:17 And Anri! 🎼lovers night
The lady know her music
They all are quite nice people actually,and good interviews.
Nice work man!
I Love Japanese CityPop songs and I know some artists like ANRI, Tatsuro Yamashita, Mariya Takeuchi, Meiko, Miki Matsubara. I'm from the Philippines and I think there are few Filipinos actually knew this genre or this type of music. 😄
Basically the world wasn't ready for City Pop when it was released. Need to 'culture' it first.
Idk but I hope it doesn't become too popular, once Hollywood notices it they'll bring it mainstream and they'll ruin it until everyone of us get sick of it.
I hope it's just a small community getting together to enjoy a rare gem that no one else knows about.
@@Skycube100 city pop is just 70s music
@@Skycube100 hmm...I dont really think hollywood got balls for that. like, they always playsafe so much that sometimes (or, most of the time) movies or music is basically all the same thing. but i see the point. If anything tiktok might have a higher chance of making it so popular
@@travishylton6976 Not really, Plastic Love is under Mariya's 1984 Album "Variety".
Some songs under City Pop are 70s, others are 80s and even 90s
@@salmanmahyuddin8384 I agree with you, they love playing safe. Although with the rise of 80s Pop Culture, Rick roll, Stranger Things, IT remake, and other 80s inspired shows, films, and music.
I'm afraid they might do the same with City Pop. I love both 80s Pop Culture and Japanese City Pop. And It may not happen, I'm just hoping Hollywood getting their hands on the music genre wouldn't be a thing 😅🙏
It’s very strange how RUclips algorithms started putting City Pop into peoples’ feeds. I’m one of them. And boy am I hooked on the funkier songs.
I think a big part of this is an ongoing wave of nostalgia for late 70s and 80s culture.
I think among certain groups our 80s nostalgia has combined with our early love of Japan. There were many of us 80s kids who became interested in Japan thanks to the Ninja Invasion of the 80s and early anime brought over. A lot of us stayed interested through the Karate Kid era and later.
This has let love of Japanese stuff mix with our 80s nostalgia causes by our.... cough cough advancing age :)
Ninjas came, video games came but for most music didn’t. So we missed (at least I did) this stuff. I’m super glad that the RUclipsrs dug it up because a lot of it is very cool. It’s also very innocent which feels good in these dark days.
One lady had heard of Yamashita Tatsuro. Check him out. I’ve bought a few CDs. And if you haven’t heard plastic love, I dare you to listen and not bop your head along with it.
Beware some utterly horrible translations here on RUclips!
Sorry for the long comment. I just found this extra convergence of my RUclips items interesting.
If you talk about Shinya Shokudou next, I’ll think you are spying on me.
I grew up in the 90s, but interesting enough, I got a lot of 80s pop culture references through re-run TV shows, and that included 80s Japan pop culture. City pop really resembles many of the opening and ending theme songs of those old animes I used to watch when I was a very little boy.
robto totally! Same with video games. Listen to the music in Sega’s Outrun. That could be city pop music easily.
Remo Williams im obsessed with outrun and I’m just 16. The game is just brilliant and was ahead of its time for the 80s
Same just got into city pop like a month ago.Personally I blame covid. I've just been home chilling listening to lofi music from cowboy bebop,trying to escape the madness of the world and city pop shows up in my recommendations.
5:43 She's sharply on point. If it wasn't for all the vaporwave fuss, I'd hardly get in touch with Tatsuro Yamashita's music. And I love it! (I love waporwave, too, to be honest.)
waporvawe?
@@intensellylit4100 is a new music genre usually from city pop songs get remixed and slowed down its tempo
@@neohybridkai Thats not what Vaporwave is.
Youre thinking of Future Funk
@@musicaccount8930 Future Funk accelerates the tempo. Vaporwave does uses city pop songs but also western music, like Diana Ross.
yeah without saint pepsi i wouldn’t have found tatsuro yamashita
city pop めっちゃいいですね☺️
親の影響でユーミンとかは聞いてたんですけど、こんなメロウでグルーヴ感あるジャンルが確立されてたのは知らなかったです！
竹内まりやさんも聞いてみます〜
I’m just glad more people are discovering Japanese artist. I from Texas and have listened to Japanese music since I was young. I wish I had more people to connect with growing up listening to visual kei and Jpop. It wasn’t till now more people expanded their music taste.
I think it's because it's accessible to Westerners more because of the internet (the RUclips algorithm basically made Plastic Love the song that it is) and the nostalgic up-beat feel. People in their 30s and late 20s remember that Japan was booming and people cared less about Korea and China, the phrase "big in Japan" entered the US lexicon, as the growing Japanese economy spread from music to sports - you began to see American players on Japanese baseball teams in the 80s the Japanese in US in the 90s (Nomo, Ichiro), Americans were obsessed with Game Boys and Playstations, our cultures were very different but since Japan became our Asian buddy, we started to embrace it a lot in the 80s-90s. We were close back then, now we have people more interested in Korea for example. It represents a nostalgic we never had or or known here in the West, the sound is funky and breezy and despite the songs being new to us mostly, they do evoke a pleasant nostalgia of a certain peaceful time.
We also have to consider genres that have been related like chillwave which was popular in the US because it evoked a similar feel but made modern, it was relaxing and mellow and somehow evoked nostalgia by-and-large in the genre, extreme offshoots like vaporwave takes largely from the 90s, Japanese design and aesthetic. They all kind of relate to each other and why naturally a person interested in one genre might dive deeper and diverge into different genres. It's so easy to do these days with Spotify or RUclips, we are exposed to tons of music from everywhere now. Japan in general still has a lot of Tower Records, in the US, we don't have any at all, it's a chain that is like Blockbuster or something -- seen as a relic of the past. We have independent record stores and some famous ones still around that are struggling right now, but we do not have large scaled record stores all over American any more, they all died when CDs were beginning to lose to the mp3 and downloading. It's very different to Japan where a place like Tower Records is still seen as popular. I know LINE and Spotify all have music services in Japan but the country is really behind on the streaming era compared to most countries it seems.
Also city pop is still kind of niche and not really that popular in the West. I'd say it's gives a false impression that a lot of people are listening to it over current mainstream or indie music. It has its place, but largely, people just liked Plastic Love and went down a RUclips rabbit hole or kept the auto-play button checked. Some people thought it just sounded nice while others continues down that rabbit hole. We can easily know what is popular now in Japan, it's not like their record labels' RUclipss are blocked. It's just a niche for some people to listen to and it's almost like muzak and easy to keep in the background, similar to why "lo-fi hip hop beats to study and listen to" channels are popular.
@Leopold *that's literally what he meant*
Your comment should've been a RUclips video that I would watch
@@moseygded4004 Perfectly reflected in BTTF Part II, where it was prophesied that Japan would take over the U.S. economically speaking.
3:20 she mentioned Anri, the true city pop diva.
This was so wholesome. On another note, it's nice to see people on the internet who are so level headed.... Just thinking of some people in the west who would call citypop and wearing kimonos cultural appropriation and try to kick up hell about it. These japanese people are like "oh, that's cool, hope they enjoy it!".
Japan's got a long history of taking on influences and ideas from overseas and making them Japanese, so not many people would think of "cultural appropriation" or care when it's taking place. It's a compliment after all for people to appreciate things about you and your culture
Man, you said people on the internet are so level-headed... _tch!_ I wanted to start an argument because of it, but I just don't have it in me right now.
Uh, "farts" is a terrible username, and you should feel terrible.
because those "cultural appropriation" things only exist in America. The rest of the world didnt have a problem if someone from outside their culture appropriate it.
@@yomomz3921 No, that's not what I said at all. Reread it slowly this time so your tiny brain can parse what is actually being said and rethink your attitude, maybe learn to digest information before you comment on it because your brain is clearly not equipped for quick exchanges. Have a nice day.
well I don't see it as cultural appropriation but it can be cringe at times
Loved the questions led the interviewees and the clear editing. Pretty cool video!
This was sooooo awesome ! I just recently started getting into City Pop and I love it 💕
3:17 Anri is another great city pop artist, for those of you who are searching for more
Haha, yeah, I knew immediately this might be the case... "City Pop" being a Western "retronym". There are similarly-vibed music across Asia... I grew up constantly listening to Hong Kong Cantopop through my parents, and some songs (when they'd cool it with those kitschy love ballads) would sometimes have similar vibes too, but it wasn't called "City Pop" or anything else then, lol (in fact, a lot of Chinese singers covered "City Pop" artists, incl. Anita Mui covering "Plastic Love").
盗作模倣の中国人
I love that someone mentioned Anri, cause she would fit right into City Pop. I loved her R&B stuff growing up in the ‘90s, right before Max and Amuro hit the scene.
I'm amazed how many albums she released in the 1980s, and how they all had covers that don't reflect the album title in the slightest :D
But yeah, I love Anri.
I always lumped Anri into the City Pop genre since her music has the feel but I guess she would qualify more as an idol artist.
@@queuedjar4578 yup she started as an Idoru, but had a lot of jazzy funky tracks then did the R&B thing. Her singing got better and better along the way too. Absolute class act.
I'm Japanese, I think the genre "City Pop" was created recently (of course people listened to City Pop music before they were named as one genre.) So, they(in this video) don't know what City Pop is. But music-nerd like me enjoys City Pop music. BTW, my father likes Mariya Takeuchi and I talked to him about her popularity outside of Japan, he was so surprised;)
It’s really cool how a younger generation can start listening and popularizing older songs that pretty much obscure in their country
And foreign music at that
It’s good that older music won’t be forgotten
Fun fact: when plastic love released in Japan, it was gaining traction for two weeks only. It was also the singers lowest hitting song and that may be why people know of the artist but not the song. I only know of this after being stalked on RUclips by the extended version of the song recommending me to watch it. After listening to the song I saw another video recommended to me titled “this face has been lying to you” or something like that and the thumbnail shows the artists face from a cover of one of her other songs.
maybe it's because plastic love is more catchy than most of his other songs.
I know Eki, single again, oh no oh yes !! and others, the pace is slower and calmer.
After the 80s in Japan was the key moment when the Western style appeared in music in Japan, creating "New Music".
the spread of the internet and Ytube in the late 2000s allowed some of these old songs to be broadcast, and the style unknown in the West became cult and was renamed City Pop.
I've been listening to City pop for 2 years (I started with Junko Yagami 黄昏 の Bay City) and I don't know anything better to listen to when I walk around Paris especially at night.
@@Lodai974 oh no. I agree the song has grown popular I’m just explaining why Japanese citizens aren’t familiar with this specific album.
@@theshadowmaster2702 Isn't Plastic Love part of Variety? And at the same time as you said, It was literally a track that most people didn't care
@@renren47618 all I’m saying is why it was probably not too popular as most songs.
4:39 that’s an interesting perspective, because it seems like there is also a time lag for American trends to be accepted elsewhere. For instance, a lot of the 80s guitar shredders became popular in Japan after grunge took over in the USA. Today, I hear a lot of indie/emo/math rock coming out of Japan, which really had its heyday in America during the early-mid 00s.
Well here I go listening to Plastic Love again.
😌
Lately, while editing my RUclips content, I've put a lot of these City Pop compilations on. Usually it's the same few songs replayed constantly, such as Plastic Love, but it's interesting to know why people like it. Personally, I love the cyberpunk genre, especially with anime like Armitage III and Bubblegum Crisis, and the nostalgic feel of City Pop and synthwave matches that aesthetic for me. I'm certain that if you asked a lot of youth in Japan these days if they know Bubblegum Crisis, they'll have no idea, despite it being very iconic in the west. Sometimes I find it easier to be an anime fan in America, because it's so easy to access all sorts of Japanese media for cheap.
I'm from Philippines and love listening while singing Japanese songs. Heard and downloaded City Pop and love it.
The genre is actually called "Late night city drive - pop". Because it's so calming and soothing if you listen to these music while driving your car in the city especially when it rains. Also, it's because Mariya song that indicates this genre is about night life, also Junko's Phone Number is about booty call at night.
City pop is still pretty known in my country. Well most of the record in 80s and 90s were actually a dub version of popular japanese songs tho.
Btw i came from Malaysia
Same, I love Sheila Majid's Sinaran
@@nickryan6787 couple of her song was featured in an old japanese nissan r32 advertisement..
Like these interviewees, I don’t think fellow Malaysians know what 'city pop' is, but they sure know Sheila Majid, just as these people know Mariya Takeuchi
Most of these people seem to be in the right age to have remembered some of this music, I guess they just didn't call it "city pop".
My theory on why it's become popular in parts of the west is because it's like a time capsule for a very prosperous and exciting time in Japan when there was all this new technology and a lot of people enjoyed a very stable economy.
This. I read something similar on the origins of “City Pop”. A time of optimism in a booming economy and city people waving 10,000 yen bills for a taxi ride home after a night out. City people making music for city people. I wish I could find that article (maybe from Rolling Stone) but that was the basic idea behind “City Pop”.
It's also tied to vaporwave, a genre that slows down samples from songs from the 80s, creating nostalgia for an economically better times. These songs were first American songs but later Japanese songs were sampled.
Japanese dude here. If you hung out at Tower Records in Shibuya or Shinjuku during the early 2000s, then you absolutely knew what city pop was. Classic city pop albums from the 70s would be featured at listening stations from time to time, and popular contemporary bands like Kirinji and Sunny Day Service were often described as having a “city pop sound.” It’s a term that definitely would’ve been familiar to Japanese music aficionados back then, but judging from this interview, I guess we were in the minority...
That being said, if you had conducted this interview outside of a record store, I’m pretty sure you would’ve gotten different results!
Okay, this video came up in my recommendations again for some reason, so I’m going through some of the comments, and I’m absolutely baffled by the number of Japanese people claiming that the term is a recent invention by Western fans. “City pop” as a genre name has been around since at least the late 90s, and probably even longer. And while I’m not aware of the exact origins of the term, this kind of music would’ve been EXTREMELY niche outside of Japan back then, and I have a hard time believing that it wasn’t coined in Japan.
Seriously, am I the only Japanese person who remembers “city pop” being a thing in Japan long before Plastic Love gained international recognition??? I’m starting to worry that I might live in an alternative reality and I’m actually going insane.
タワレコやHMVの大型店では、少なくとも90年代から普通に「シティポップ」っていう用語をずっと使ってたと思うんですけど…。
@Kraze And I’m telling you, as a Japanese person myself, that the word “city pop” has been used in Japan for a very long time. I accept that not everyone might be familiar with the term, and that for people of a certain generation, “new music” (which isn’t the same as city pop, in my opinion) is probably more recognizable. But just because these people have never heard of it doesn’t mean that “city pop” just popped out of nowhere. Japanese music fans have been using that term for decades.
im japanese-american (born in the US) and my mother is a japanese immigrant. she would play what we could call "city-pop" on CDs in our car and i remember a lot of those songs fondly. when city pop started becoming popular i rediscovered all of those songs and artists we would listen to in our car trips and it was very nostalgic. i also found a lot of other city pop songs that i didn't listen to during childhood that are amazing.
4:09 "It sounded nostalgic to me." Ah yes, the fake 80s memories in Japan
I like city pop music,I often listen to it, and I think that's why I was recommended this video.
Its nice to see a song that initially wasn't a great success in the past, reach critical acclaim in the future.
Hopefully it was an uplifting surprise to Mariya Takeuchi to get a second run of fame for her old music.
I agree with the guy that said time lag.
Also gives a nostalgic feeling and they are very catchy
Yuta this is the best video you’ve made in years
City pop is growing is because people feel depressed and hopeless for the future more than ever. It takes you back to the golden era of Japan where everyone's living their best lives and couldn't wait to make an even better future.
Oh well… time to listen to some city pop :)
Music really is a time capsule
Do a video asking Japanese people about Future Funk. That would be very interesting.
I second this
Fascinating! I personally love city pop! It savors of American disco music, but has a remarkably sophisticated sense of harmony, one more akin to classical music or jazz (as opposed to the more bluesy sound of western disco/soul). Kpop is quite similar to city pop in these respects as well. It’s so interesting to see how a sound/style can evolve in the hands of another culture!
I’ve been waiting for this kind of video for a while! 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
City pop is what I consider "easy driving music". It's what you listen to when you're cruising down the highway or around town with a couple friends, taking in the scenery and shooting the shit. It's what I'd imagine hearing just as the sun starts peaking over the horizon at dawn, or as it's setting.