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City Pop: The Late 70s-80s Funky-Smooth Japanese Music Phenomenon

H

HotHamBoy

Member
city_pop_feat.jpg


These are some of my favorite tracks so far in my 48 hours of plumbing the depths of this synth-heavy, jazz-fusion influenced, disco-boogie pop.

Junko Yagami - Communication

Hiroshi Satoh - Say Goodbye

Wada Kanako - Sunday Brunch

Noriki - Do What You Do

Toshiki Kadomatsu - I Can't Stop The Night

Toshiki Kadomatsu - Step Into The Light

Piper - Summer Breeze

Vizion - Somebody's Getting To You

Yasuha - Friday Chinatown

Moriko Tone - Talk To Me

Tashiki Kadomatsu -Midsummer Drivin'

Kikuchi Momoko - Deja Vu

Yurie Kokubu - Just A Joke

Junko Ohashi - Dancin

Tatsuo Yamashita - Silent Screamer

Kimiko Kasai - Mmm Mmm Good (1984)

Cindy - Destiny

Kokubu Yurie - Snob na Yoru e (1983)

Maria Takeuchi - Plastic Love

Miho Fujiwara - Eyes (California Crisis OST)

There's a lot more where that came from. Please share.

Here is a YouTube Playslist I'm putting together. 36 songs and counting.

City Pop: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLY3Y0oyg1eZxT-E2Ja2cjGOHN2L2Uq9dc
 
S

SD-Ness

Member
Wow. Never heard of this genre/style but I love it.

I tend to dislike the term "world music" as I think it's the result of western ethnocentrism. Nonetheless, I've always had eclectic tastes and enjoy discovering music from different countries/eras. Some stuff I've found:

Somalian 70's music scene
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073GVVZG7/?tag=neogaf0e-20
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/fe...ia-forgotten-music-1970s-170704123301195.html

East African dance hits from 1972 to 1982
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J4DOPWC/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Mulatu Astatke
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/23241-mulatu-of-ethiopia/

There's so much quality stuff to explore on youtube.
Click to expand...
Yes - YouTube is a digital treasure chest. I hope it never changes.
 
H

HotHamBoy

Member
SD-Ness said:
Wow. Never heard of this genre/style but I love it.

I tend to dislike the term "world music" as I think it's the result of western ethnocentrism. Nonetheless, I've always had eclectic tastes and enjoy discovering music from different countries/eras. Some stuff I've found:

Somalian 70's music scene
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073GVVZG7/?tag=neogaf0e-20
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/fe...ia-forgotten-music-1970s-170704123301195.html

East African dance hits from 1972 to 1982
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J4DOPWC/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Mulatu Astatke
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/23241-mulatu-of-ethiopia/


Yes - YouTube is a digital treasure chest. I hope it never changes.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, Ethiopian and Nigerian Jazz is the shit. I was turned on to Fela Kuti and Afrobeat like 12 years ago thanks to a friend and I went through a long obsessive phase.

Mulatu Astatke came my way thanks to the Broken Flowers soundtrack. So good.

But that's all another thread...

More on-topic, do you know Casiopea? They're a Japanese super funky jazz-fusion group operating at the same time as City Pop and they're definitely City Pop-adjacent.

6602589f.jpg


Casiopea - Midnight Rendezvous
That track is dank af
 
K

karobit

Member
Yumi Matsutoya ("Downtown Boy"), Kazumasa Oda (OFF COURSE "Yes-No"), and Kazuo Zaitsu (TULIP "Wake Up") collaborate on a song arranged by Ryuichi Sakamoto and backed by the Sadistic Mika Band. The only way "Ima Dakara" could be more city pop is if Tatsuro Yamashita and Mariya Takeuchi covered it.

Also, I know I plug this site every time one of these threads comes up, but you really can't go wrong plumbing the depths of Kayo Kyoku Plus
 
H

HotHamBoy

Member
karobit said:
Yumi Matsutoya ("Downtown Boy"), Kazumasa Oda (OFF COURSE "Yes-No"), and Kazuo Zaitsu (TULIP "Wake Up") collaborate on a song arranged by Ryuichi Sakamoto and backed by the Sadistic Mika Band. The only way "Ima Dakara" could be more city pop is if Tatsuro Yamashita and Mariya Takeuchi covered it.

Also, I know I plug this site every time one of these threads comes up, but you really can't go wrong plumbing the depths of Kayo Kyoku Plus
Click to expand...

barney-duff-veins.gif
 
M

Moonkid

Member
Taeko Ohnuki's got jams, too bad 4AM keeps getting taken down. The first track on that album and the self-titled tracks are dope.
 
G

game-boi

Member
I wish I could pull up the specific track I'm looking for (Face To Face), but a lot of stuff by Osamu Kitajima falls under this description.
 
N

Nerokis

Member
I love the sound.

It kills me that I can't find the lyrics to a lot of these songs, though. Like, I'm listening to Aran's Midnight Pretenders, and I hear the words "secret love" spoken in English...and I just want to know what's going on there.
 
T

thebeeks

Banned
Holy shit, thank you OP! I didn't know this was a genre! I found Yurie Kokubu on Radiooooo a while back and loved her stuff, but just assumed it was regular 80s Japanese pop. This is gonna be my entire evening.
 
S

Stencil

Member
Whoooa, HotHamBoy I owe you one! This stuff is amazing; didn't even know I was missing this in my life.

Big fan of this Mai Yamane track. That lead guitar tone is on fire.

oh hey, this track I found 10 years ago finally fits into a genre! Ippu Do is kind of City Pop, yeah??
 
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