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City Pop
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Stylistic Influences:

City Pop is a loosely defined subgenre of Japanese Pop Music that began in the 'late 70s and peaked in popularity during the '80s. Blending Pop music with Funk and Jazz, as well as several other contemporary genres, the genre sports a pristine, urban sound and generally upbeat mood, reflecting Japan's economic prosperity at the time. Japanese Electronic Music instruments were also commonly used in the genre, such as Yamaha synthesizers and Roland drum machines.

In Japan, popular music from The '90s onwards is called "J-POP or J-Pop (Japanese Pop)". The songs before that era were called "Kayokyoku" (歌謡曲) or "New Music" depending on the genre. At that time, "New Music" referred to Japanese music that was not classified as folk songs or idol music. It hasn't been used since it changed to "J-POP".

The term "New Music" was born to distinguish it from works like Enka (traditional Japanese popular music) or idol songs that had been mainstream until then. "New Music" was influenced by rock, folk, funk and 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 teen idols or Enka singers that were all the rage. Some of the leading musicians in New Music were Kyu Sakamoto, The Peanuts, The Tigers, Candies, Pink Lady, Seiko Matsuda, Junko Sakurada, The Checkers, Onyanko Club, Yosui Inoue, Takuro Yoshida, Yumi Arai (current name Yumi Matsutoya, commonly known as Yuming), and Off Course.

In other words, "City Pop" is the name overseas fans beyond Japan have recently given to that type of Japanese music, which was originally popular in the 1980s and is part of a broader genre called "New Music", which would eventually evolve to J-Pop.

The beginning of the "City Pop era" is hard to precisely pinpoint, but generally dates back to the late 1970s. Tatsuro Yamashita and Haruomi Hosono are generally considered the pioneers of the genre. Hosono's output with his folk rock band Happy End was described as the "ground zero" for City Pop by writer Yutaka Kimura, followed by Hosono's work with Tin Pan Alley and Yamashita's work with his band Sugar Babe. City pop was then popularized by Taeko Ohnuki's 1978 LP, Mignonne (containing her famous song, "4 AM"), and Tatsuro Yamashita's album Ride on Time (1980). Hosono's work with Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) would also be cited as influential on the development of City Pop. While YMO primarily produced techno-kayĹŤ ("techno-pop"), their success in the late '70s led to the wide adoption of electronic production techniques in city pop by the early '80s. Hosono himself would return to the city pop scene after YMO's first dissolution in 1983, developing a style that combined both city pop and techno-kayĹŤ.

Regardless of its origins, City Pop became one of the mainstream configurations of J-pop in The '80s (along with idol pop and techno-kayĹŤ). Yamashita remained one of the most popular artists in the genre throughout its history, and is called the "King of City Pop" by many fans. His wife Mariya Takeuchi is also one of the most popular artists in the genre and is called the "Queen of City Pop" by many fans. Other popular City Pop artists from this time period include Miki Matsubara, Junko Ohashi, Anri, Akira Terao and Tomoko Aran. The genre particularly latched onto Japan's major economic boom in the late 80's, tying in with the country's feeling of optimism at a time when a cushy, comfortable lifestyle seemed accessible to anyone and everyone.

At the end of 1991, Japan's boom would come to an abrupt halt with the asset bubble's collapse, leading to the Lost Decades. Along with it, the optimism of City Pop would fall out of favor with the younger generations, who saw it as emblematic of the previous era's excesses. As a result, City Pop would be replaced in Japan's musical mainstream by Visual Kei, techno, and modern J-Pop, with its biggest artists and their influences shifting sound accordingly.

In the 2010s, City Pop would see a massive renewal in interest, especially online, entering the Western public consciousness for the first time thanks to its popularity as a choice for sampling in Vaporwave and Future Funk and bolstered by renewed attention towards pop and Electronic Music following the mainstream decline of rock. Mariya Takeuchi's 1984 song "Plastic Love" would become a particular viral hit on YouTube (despite its initial lack of popularity in Japan) thanks to a fan-made extended remix. The sudden Western interest in the genre would carry back over to Japanese audiences, to the extent where old City Pop artists would reissue their back-catalogs on CD and vinyl in the region, well after their heyday had passed.

List of City Pop artists:

Tropes associated with City Pop include:

  • Colbert Bump: Vaporwave and its offshoot Future Funk gave a massive boost in renewed attention to the genre, bringing it to Western attention for the first time decades after its heyday and gradually restoring Japanese interest in it as well.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The genre heavily fell out of favor among Japanese listeners after the asset bubble burst in 1991, but gained a substantial Western fanbase in The New '10s (which, incidentally, eventually carried back over to Japan as well).
  • Gratuitous English: Common across Japanese pop songs, with City Pop being especially prevalent due to the heavy influence from Western music.
  • He Also Did: He may be known as the face/father of City Pop, but Tatsuro Yamashita was already known for making songs for anime movies like Summer Wars and Mirai, as well for the series like Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple and And Yet the Town Moves.
  • Instrumentals: There're various famous instrumental songs that transmitted the same upbeat vibe of this genre. Some artists like Tatsuro Yamashita made various instrumental songs in their albums (and even a complete disc), even as singles. Cassiopea was famous for their instrumentals that blended funk, jazz, and city pop.
  • New Jack Swing: A similar genre which later became popular during the late '80s to early '90s (most commonly associated with Teddy Riley, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson). It has a similar sound to a number of earlier city pop songs produced during the early-to-mid-'80s (see Examples of City Pop section below).
    • Likewise, some songs produced by new jack swing pioneers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis have noticeable parallels with city pop, such as The Human League's "Are You Ever Coming Back?" and "Love Is All That Matters" (1986).
    • Context behind the similarities: In the early '80s, Japanese city pop producers dabbling in Jazz Fusion revived and modernizing the swinging rhythms of classic Big Band era swing Jazz. As a result, a number of city pop songs of that era had swinging rhythms similar to new jack swing.City pop was also greatly influenced by African-American funk music and Japanese techno-kayĹŤ production techniques (especially Yellow Magic Orchestra, who also greatly influenced American hip hop). On both sides of the Pacific, a similar sound emerged from a similar fusion of African‑American funk music, Japanese electronic production techniques (including Japanese electronic instruments such as the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer and Roland TR-808 drum machine) and classic swing jazz rhythms.
    • The term "new jack swing" more commonly refers to US and UK artists, whereas Japanese artists with a similar sound are more commonly labelled "city pop" or "J-funk" instead.
  • Popularity Polynomial: Popular in the Eighties, derided in the Nineties, popular again in the New Tens.
  • Real Life Writes the Plot: The history of the genre was strongly tied to the state of Japan's economy, and as such, reflects rampant commercialisation with breezy, indulgent synths.
  • Revival by Commercialization: Thanks to the rise of Vaporwave and Future Funk in the 2010's, City Pop saw a massive renewal in attention, especially among Western audiences, carrying over to Japanese listeners as well with time.
  • Sexophone: Like a bunch of western 80's pop, a number of City Pop songs feature prominent saxophone parts as a tie-in to romantic lyrics.
  • Spiritual Successor: Western listeners typically view Future Funk as this to City Pop: not only does the former embrace the latter's upbeat atmosphere, but City Pop songs are frequently sampled by Future Funk artists.
  • Transatlantic Equivalent: More trans-Pacific, but analysts frequently describe City Pop as Japan's version of yacht rock, sharing a similar soft rock sound and being tied to the decadent materialism of the 1980's. Its lavish production values also draw parallels with the British Sophisti-Pop movement, to the point where City Pop's newfound popularity in the west during the late 2010s helped spur a revival of sophisti-pop as well.

Examples of City Pop:

Works featuring City Pop:

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