City Pop is popular outside of Japan for a variety of reasons including nostalgia, interest in Japanese culture, and vinyl collector crazes.
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2023 is set to be a record year for City Pop with Anri releasing some of her most iconic albums, finally giving fans an affordable option to obtain her music in physical format.
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2023 is set to be a record year for City Pop. From Anri getting a feature on CNN, to the huge news that a certain king of City Pop is having his entire RCA/AIR years discography repressed. Ofcorse, we’re talking about Tatsuro Yamashita. The significance of this repress event cannot be understated due to how crazed city pop vinyl collectors are when it comes to Tatsuro vinyl. The cream of any collection almost always includes a copy of For You, Spacy, or Ride on Time.
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Okay, so maybe these 5 records don’t need to be re-released but they sure are on my radar for some of the most sought after records in the City Pop style. Maybe this is more like a wish-list than a blog post, so sorry in advance. Some records I haven’t included are Anri’s discography and Tatsuro’s because it seems they are determined to never make more of their music available on vinyl ever again, or some reason I can’t understand.
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City Pop vinyl is extremely collectable because of certain factors, mainly that LPs have always been sought after collector’s items, and also fans of Japanese culture are usually innately collectors of things like figurines, cards, and manga among other things. The tendency was already there, it just needed a shove in the right direction. Humans like to collect things, this much is definitely true. Anything that can be collected, will be collected.
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Takako Mamiya has captured millions of listeners’ hearts with her iconic City Pop album; Love Trip. Everyone who knows City Pop knows of this record. It’s an illustrious example of Japanese Jazz Pop Fusion that has a very late night vibe to it, and Takako’s voice adds a very husky, sultry creme on top of it that would make anyone swoon. Love Trip, the record, has been repressed several times now since her popularity caught on, and the album almost always sells out.
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City Pop, the sound of metropolitan Japan in the 80s has now become more widely known than a few years back. Its magical melodies and sincerely funky rhythms have already captivated millions of people, creating a surge in popularity for many iconic Japanese artists. Even though the world has already become enamored with the most notable of City Pop artists, there exists a plethora of Japanese musicians in the genre that are catching their second wind now that Japanese record labels are starting to re-press
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Ah, feel that Yokohama breeze! The azure horizon sparkles in the distance as the ocean whispers its crescent waves coalescing onto the sandy shore to meet your toes. The crystal blue waters look like glass and as you breathe in deeply you feel the kiss of the sun peaking through a perfectly white cloud atlas as you exhale deeply, finally. Summer is here…
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City Pop is a nostalgic genre of music for many people in the West for several reasons. Firstly, City Pop was popular in Japan during the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, a time when Japan was experiencing a period of rapid economic growth and cultural expansion. This era is often referred to as the "Bubble Economy" in Japan and is remembered as a time of great optimism and prosperity.
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Miki Matsubara is a Japanese singer, songwriter, and composer who has become one of the most well-known artists from the country in the same fashion as Mariya Takeuchi, whose songs are finding a new life after being re-discovered by international audiences overseas that have come to adore the nostalgic mystique of the singer. Few Japanese artists are ever remembered fondly overseas unless they make a lasting impression on the world, and this standard is exemplified in the case of Matsubara, whose legacy was revitalized decades after her debut.
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Hideki Saijo was a famous Japanese music and television star who drew comparisons to Elvis Presley for his passionate stage persona that defied traditional Japanese preconceptions about music performance. His real name was Tatsuo Kimoto born on April 13, 1955, in Hiroshima.
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Contemporary City Pop aesthetics are at the intersection of Vaporwave, Future-funk, and Retro Anime design ideologies. Generally a combination of re-occurring motifs combining 80s style-tropes mixed with Japanese sensibilities, pastel colors, and scenery involving city life along with similar concepts.
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In every genre there are albums that exemplify the sound, and City Pop, while more loosely defined than others, still has a distinctive style that is recognizable to those who know what to look for. The checklist for City Pop almost always includes a fusion of two or more elements from genres like Funk, Jazz, Pop, or Disco crowned with English chorus sections, blaring instrumental solo, and warm production quality.
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A lot of people ask me this question seeing as I have a collection of over 200 City Pop records and know a thing or two about record stores in Tokyo. I've put together this guide to help you plan your trip to Tokyo better...
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