title: Urusei Yatsura, creator: Rumiko Takahashi, source: Makeagif
title: Cream Lemon, source: Makeagif
title: Crusher Joe, creator: Haruka Takachiho, source: Animesher
title: Cream Lemon, source: Makeagif
title: Maison Ikkoku, creator: Rumiko Takahashi, source: Pintrest
title: Cream Lemon, source: Makeagif
Feel like going back to nostalgic Tokyo? Come explore City Pop a style of music from Japan that incorporates elements of Western boogie, soft rock, R&B, and Adult Oriented Rock. Though there are many different definitions and styles of this genre, most agree that this style of music is urban pop music for urban life. It reflected the economic bubble of 70s and 80s Japan.
Musically, the genre traces back to the soft rock era in America. It draws a lot on the easy listening styles to create a soft groove style. The works of Haruomi Hosono and Tatsuro Yamashita are considered the pioneers of this genre. Japanese technology also influenced city pop included various electronic musical instruments such as the Casio CZ-101 and Yamaha CS-80 synthesizers and Roland TR-808 drum machine. This created a fresh and western sound to it and also frequently used English lyrics to differientiate it from other Japanese music.
This style of music peaked in the mid to late 80s as new sounds like Eurobeat and Jpop took off. Many of the key artists in this genre retired or took on new styles to keep with the times. Inexplicably, the genre made a resurgence here in the US thanks to the YouTube algorith. The song Plastic Love by Mariya Takeuchi randomly got picked up by the YouTube algorithm and was in everyone's feed. This created interest in the song and this mysterious genre no one had heard of until this moment in time. Soon other song like Stay With Me by Miki Matsubara took off and a newfound appreciation for this genre grew. This has led to new genres taking inspiration like Future Funk taking inspiration from it.
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This album was written entirely by her and was produced by her husband Tatsuro Yamashita.
Plastic Love saw an unexpected resurgence and reached 63 million views on YouTube as well as charting at number 5 on the Oricon charts in 2021.
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8 of his albums have gone number one on the Oricon charts.
As a producer, he does backing vocals, guitar arrangement, computer programming, synthesizer, and percussion.
His biggest hit is the song Christmas Eve.
The song Midnight Pretenders was sampled by The Weeknd for his 2022 song Out of Time.
This album also incorporates elements of rock and new wave into it.
Momoko began as an actress before becoming an idol girl.
After success as an idol, she tried to branch out artistically to explore genres such as rock. However, she was unable to make a successful transition.
She is still a successful actress in Japan starring in several shows and movies.
She was a child prodigee having an extensive background in music before her beginning. She participated in the 8th Yamaha Popular Song Contest (Popcon) and won the Outstanding Song Award.
Her first single sold 120,000 copies.
Ryuichi Sakamoto worked as arranger on this album for all of the songs.
Though it was a commercial disappointment at the time, its reputation has grown and is one of her most critically acclaimed albums.
The song Yume No Tsuzuki was featured in the soundtrack for the movie Hawiian Dream.
K Pop singer Yubin based her song City Love on Plastic Love which also featured a City Pop inspired video.
She has composed song for numerous other singers.
The song Cats Eye is the opening to the anime of the same name. It also was one of the best selling singles in Japan in 1983 staying at number one for 5 weeks.
She sang the closing theme for the 1998 Olympics in Nagano.
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Their song Firecracker was extremely influential in the hip hop community and has been sampled several times. It peaked at 18 on the R&B and 42 on the dance charts.
Their song Behind the Mask was almost included on the album Thriller by Michael Jackson.
She later moved to America and would fly back and forth to perform concerts in Japan.
In 1983, she released an all English album in the US titled I Wanna Make a Hit Wit Choo. Though she became disassitfied with her due to the production and her English.
Go has had a long career with various different musical styles including pop, kayōkyoku, R&B
For a while, he dated Seiko Matsuda though the relationship didn't last due to differing beliefs.
He did a version of Livin La Vida Loca titled Goldfinger '99.
He has starred in several movies and tv series.
She has had a long musical career exploring several genres such as jazz, disco, and funk.
Her husband was Aki Ikuta who was the manager of Yellow Magic Orchestra and Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Omega Tribe has gone through numerous lineup changes and name changes over the years.
Several of their songs focus on the themes of the sea, summer, and resorts.
Throughout her career she has explored several genres such as funk, boogie, Adult Oriented Rock, and disco.
Starting with her third single, she had 24 consecutive number one hits on the Oricon charts which for a while was a record.
She is often referred to as the Eternal Idol and is the second highest selling idol girl with a total of 29,510,000 records sold.
He is a founding member of the influential bands Yellow Magic Orchestra and Happy End.
He has produced records for artists like Seiko Matsuda and Sandii.
Additionally, he produced the theme to Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind.
They become popular through their unique synchronized personas and each new single would be accompanied with a unique dance culminating in 9 consecutive number ones.
Their song Kiss in the Dark was a top 40 US hit and led to a short lived tv series called Pink Lady and Jeff here in the US.
This album was produced by David Foster who has produced countless hit songs.
It's a precursor to Seiko's multiple attempts to enter the US market. Her first attempt was a duet with Donny Walberg which peaked at 54. She has also scored 3 US dance hits 2 of which were top 20 hits.
He has scored several movies including The Revenant, Snake Eyes, Royal Spaceforce, and Black Mirror:Smithereens. His score for The Last Emperor won an Oscar.
He starred in the movie Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence with David Bowie.
She performed the song in the 4th opening for the anime Urusei Yatsura.
This album has some New Jack Swing elements and seems partially inspired by Janet Jackson's album Control.
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