Is City Pop Popular in Japan? (Interview)

(Japanese) city pop, such as Plastic Love by Mariya Takeuchi, has become quite popular in the west. But is it popular in Japan too?

Snapchat: ThatYuta

[ThatJapaneseManYuta]

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.

[MorryOnTheFence]

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

Dude gets it 👍

[タカジョ]

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.

[OngoingDiscovery]

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.

[Mermzies]

0:24 "Its probably pop music with something to do with the city"

If that isnt me trying to write an essay

[dorukurganc]

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

[LeafGreen]

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

[B_Cleric_Time]

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

[nimay]

Yuta: It's Mariya....

Everyone: Ahh....

[tkm]

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.

[StudioQuigleyGaming]

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

[blueheartsu]

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.

[TexasStrong-ezjv]

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.

[steelguitar]

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.

[serifairy]

all the older people when they hear the artist name cute

[Emmahmaru]

"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

[oskiaranda]

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.

[Syakirin]

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

[LlanHeinrich]

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.

[IntelligenceCorn]

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.