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

"it's probably pop music with something to do with the city" Dude gets it 👍

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.

Yuta: It's Mariya.... Everyone: Ahh....

0:24 "Its probably pop music with something to do with the city" If that isnt me trying to write an essay

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

the guy who said music trends rotate on a 20-30 year cycle is a smart dude

-Do you know her? -No -Mariya Takeuchi _AAAAAAA Aa Aa Aa

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 KZfaq, and then I asked her if she had heard the song before, and she said, "No."

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.

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’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.

"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

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.

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.

all the older people when they hear the artist name „AHHHHHH“ cute

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'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.

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

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.

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.

6:08 He's just politely saying "damn weebs at it again..."

"So it's all youtube algorithm?" *points gun* "Its always has been"

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.

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.

I believe the genre was called "New Music" back in the 80s. The term City Pop is a more modern western term.

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

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 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.

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.

「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

"Stay with me" is a really nice song too

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

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 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. 😄

"City Pop" for Japaneses is like "Bossa Nova" for Brazilians... kinda old and popular overseas, but somehow underestimated domestically

"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.

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").

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.

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

I love City Pop music. So relaxing.

I was at Tower Records a year ago and there was a whole stand dedicated to Plastic Love celebrating an anniversary.

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

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"

3:17 Anri is another great city pop artist, for those of you who are searching for more

私は20代の日本人ですが、KZfaqで海外の方が動画にしているのをきっかけにcity popにハマりました😁 両親(50代)に聞かせると懐かしい！と言われ、今では親子揃って聴いてます。何故海外の方にウケたのか詳しい理由はわかりませんが、私的にはあの昭和感が逆に新しい音楽に聞こえて新鮮です😆 自国の良いものを海外の方から教えてもらうってなんか変な感じですね（笑）せっかく素晴らしい音楽があるのにこっちであまり話題になってないのはもったいないと思いました😔

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'm just waiting for Pizzicato Five to be "rediscovered" so my tastes are relevant again.

3:20 she mentioned Anri, the true city pop diva.

Loved the questions led the interviewees and the clear editing. Pretty cool video!

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.

2:27 Tatsuro 👌 great taste

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 japanese,we called new music,not city pops .

Aw I love city pop! Sad it isn’t more popular 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.

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 fell in love with city pop after listening for the first time to the original openings and endings to Kimagure orange road. I particularly love Meiko Nakahara's songs.

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.

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.

Amazing informative video I loved it from beginning to end.

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'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.

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 🎶 😄

This was sooooo awesome ! I just recently started getting into City Pop and I love it 💕

Wow the thumbnail was Mariya Tekauchi's Plastic Love. I love that song!!!

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.)

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.

I'm from Philippines and love listening while singing Japanese songs. Heard and downloaded City Pop and love it.

Thank you Yuta for the informative video.

i love city pop! i've been listening to it since highschool and can't get enough!

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...

They all are quite nice people actually,and good interviews. Nice work man!

This video was so Wholesome. I enjoyed watching you so much. I would love to learn Japanese as well💗

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

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.

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’ve been waiting for this kind of video for a while! 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

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.

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.

Fun video with many regular folk perspective! I just want to say... there are multiple city pop / new music events in shinjuku & shibuya almost every night of the week for the last seven years.

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.

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 KZfaq 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.

Well here I go listening to Plastic Love again.

nice info thankyou

I have been listening to so much city pop music since last year that I "discovered it" I just love it..it makes me so happy

It’s very strange how KZfaq 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 KZfaqrs 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 KZfaq! Sorry for the long comment. I just found this extra convergence of my KZfaq items interesting. If you talk about Shinya Shokudou next, I’ll think you are spying on me.

I think it's because it's accessible to Westerners more because of the internet (the KZfaq 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 KZfaq, 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 KZfaq 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' KZfaqs 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.

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!

GRAZIE I'm working on a project and citypop is helping me with the mood, this was very helpful, so thank u and ciao🌻

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!".

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!

Plastic love, mermaid and summer blue is some of the good city pop song to vibe in long summer day.

I just listen to Mariya Takeuchi's Plastic Love. KZfaq recommends me (thanks a lot). I used to listen to this song back when I was in grade 2 (the year 2000).

I like city pop music,I often listen to it, and I think that's why I was recommended this video.

Hello Yuta I will also attempt to chip in at an explanation as to why City Pop is taking off in the US. The popularity of Maria Takeuchi's "Plastic Love" record, coincided with the rise in popularity of a genre called "Future Funk." Future Funk is a genre that was birthed by the internet, in by, taking and sampling 80s Japanese City Pop and refreshing it into a new life. a lot of these songs can be found primarily throughout the 2010s and even up to this day, where I think City Pop and Future Funk will see a great surge in the West. My main speculation coming from the fact that the US mainstream is starting to use more funkier and upbeat jazzy sounds. I'm very glad you made this video, stay hydrated my friend.

I recommend you Minako Yoshida's albums : Tobira no fuyu, Light n up, monochrome, Let's do it. There is also a banger that I just discovered : Wild Flower - Secret Love

Yuta this is the best video you’ve made in years