City Pop S/D

Japanese Yacht Rock

rym has a lot of resources on the genre in general. here's one i've been into recently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rampKT5tINo

tatsuro yamashita is such a beach boys nerd he was covering "guess i'm dumb" in _1983_.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmScAoPrg_I

that Sandii is cool -- it seems like ABBA was a big thing for a lot of these guys

Tasuro Yamashita's 'Yellow Cab' is all time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwqMMtXI2Gs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QuYQEFEeKU

prob a lot of overlap with this thread: '80s japanese boogie/r&b/freestyle

This site is a precious resource:

http://convertibletoyokohama.com/

Not sure if many of the links have survived tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S6zwPR3QDo

Graydon's solo here sounds like a Peg outtake

just got the first pacific breeze comp in the mail. thought it had "plastic love" on it but nope. oh well.

in any case, I WANT MORE

You belong to the city

importcds.com to the rescue once again!!

also, SHIT YEAH THEY HAVE A FUCKTON OF THIS STUFF IN STOCK

Miho nakayama anyone? I suspect she’s more j pop than city pop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9FKxVa2Bs4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGgZjhqQb5E

And the versions by telepath 🐬

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePy-IP9JTCU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19vvE1VdYM8

bro importcds does not fuck about. i ordered that mariya takeuchi right before my last post in here and IT WAS IN THE MAIL TODAY!!

hell yes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwA0QzKA4rY

Listening to this and "80's trying to be 60's" is usually not my speed but the opener here truly makes it work.

sry for the timestamped youtube link that might not work because i am a foole but this song by polaris is ...oh dear how do i say this... a very crushing device indeed.

definitely approved for all audiences, but with a special recommendation to the city pop fans looking for contemporary equivalents.

(in case that link is indeed faulty, the song is "one" by polaris from their 2015 album music)

hi sorry for the redundancy, but it's been a couple weeks now and i still have to play that one on repeat a couple times daily. the unmerited multi-tracked vocals, the noodly doodle fuzz solo, those glistening vamps— there is nothing about this song that i don't love unconditionally. it seems to not take itself seriously whatsoever, but existing in a window of time where that's reality and nothing is actually that serious when it comes down to it and here's your soundtrack for that realization. oh my. very large tune.

between this and "SEASON" by fishmans —another huge nu-city pop tune— i'm starting to think of the next generation of japanese pop as like idk "post-pop" or "post-city pop" or something. it's so. . . willfully and carelessly eccentric, while the songs themselves are masterfully and perfected constructed. for instance, sometimes it feels like "SEASON" is too accessible (just like "plastic love" was when i first heard it). were they written by algorithms for crying out loud?! sorry for the cringe genre tags, it just seems like city pop was a lot more important than i could have ever surmised.

this merits a new dn

Ooh that fishmans tune is nice!

I'm interested in this music. I know very little about it

Taeko Onuki - 4:00AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sOKkON_UnQ

uk city pop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIWdGBN5Ms0
Shakatak – City Rhythm (Rockin' Dub Mix)

Would this count? (as heard on the Death Stranding soundtrack)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG0M_eZduxY

I think that's J-Pop?

Fair dos. I'm not sure of the differences between contemporary City Pop and J-pop; is it just a matter of style?

I thought City Pop was from the 70s-80s. Anything contemporary would just have City Pop influence I imagine.

Ahhh cool. I thought there was new stuff coming out - assumed Fishmans were a contemporary band but apparently not; they sound so modern

My understanding which could be completely wrong is that city pop generally has more of an almost jazz feel, sophisticated compositions, played by top studio session aces….

I'm not sure what genre Fishmans are. City Pop is a bit like Yacht Rock, hard to define but contains elements of soft rock, sophisticated disco, etc.

There's definitely new stuff that would likely qualify as City Pop, just don't think that Pop Virus song would count.
Also Fishmans, as far as I know isn't City Pop either. They're more dub/reggae with some Shibuya-Kei influences.

Like the time Jay Graydon and David Foster went to Japan to record with Maria Takeuchi

Yeah City Pop is a lot like Yacht Rock, but often gets a little funkier/jazzier/busier than Yacht Rock does. Also there can sometimes be some Beach Boys influence in there, that isn't really part of Yacht Rock. Basically it tends to pull from a slightly wider range of 70s/early 80s American influences.

i'm not super knowledgeable about city pop but there's also a whole aspect of it relating to the japanese economic bubble. probably the best-known city pop song is "plastic love", which went viral some years back. in terms of influences on the genre, i think it's also worth pointing out the influence of japanese fusion like casiopeia. there _is_ more recent city pop for sure, but it tends to be kind of "revival" stuff. i do think there's some crossover between shibuya-kei and city pop - for instance kirinji, i think their music has a _lot_ of city pop influence.

the beach boys influence... probably a lot of that comes through tatsuro yamashita, who is one of the city pop GOATs and is a _huge_ beach boys fan. he in turn has had a lot of influence of his own... you know how it is.

oh, also, a lot of YMO members had a lot to do with city pop, even though YMO aren't really city pop proper. that's also where you get kind of offbeat unexpected influences on city pop like david sylvian

a city pop record that i recommend a lot that doesn't get much play, probably in large part because it came out in '92, after city pop's commercial peak, is satoshi ikeda's _a love supreme_. you can also hear music in the genre branching out into different styles, like you got some acid jazz influence in there for instance.

for your next generation of city pop considerations-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTD5vKQhcqA
color filter - "vision" (2000)

Dope track

pre-City Pop ('77) deep cut from my buddy's auntie in Honolulu:

Nohelani Cypriano "Lihue"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE1mwfX_5EY

I love that song so much

Yeah, huge fan of Lihue!

I like the Vision track you posted but just sounds like a 90s jam though :shrug:?

subthread: city pop/reggae fusion

in this regard, i submit the following for your consideration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTb3s2AXGkk
junko yagami - "ジョハナスバーグ (Johannesburg)" (1985)

yeah that nohelani cypriano sounds awesome!

losing the plot a bit here, but on that note, here's a dj muro mixtape called hawaiian breaks that highlights hawaiian funk records. very fun!

that junko yagami tune appears on a comp that time capsule just put out, which focuses on the reggae tracks from pop & city pop artists...

https://timecapsulespace.bandcamp.com/album/tokyo-riddim-1976-1985

this one's not on it, and it's cheesy and stupid and perhaps kinda a beginner song in that whole area, but i do love it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4Hqy_PMGIw
Marlene – Zanzibar Night