TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
City Pop: Soundtrack to Japan’s boom years goes viral
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Vinyl nostalgia: Kei Notoya, a DJ who has collected around 3,000 records with music from the City Pop genre, poses for a photo following an interview with AFP at his home studio in the Koganei area of Tokyo. ( AFP/Philip Fong)
T
el Liyanto wasn't alive during Japan's 1980s boom, but she loves the "timeless" City Pop hits of the era, now going viral thanks to a new generation of young international fans.
The glamorous soundtrack that accompanied the country's economic miracle is exploding in popularity decades after its upbeat synths, influenced by soft rock, boogie and soul, first hit the airwaves.
The retro genre is so hot that Canadian star The Weeknd sampled the 1983 track "Midnight Pretenders" on his latest release, and record companies are racing to reissue long-forgotten City Pop vinyl.
"It's like disco: a nostalgic sound, but also modern," said Tel, a 27-year-old from Indonesia who works for a creative agency, as she danced to City Pop in a Tokyo bar.
"I listen to it when I'm dancing, I listen to it when I'm chilling," she told AFP.
From its origins in niche online music circles, the revival was amplified by the YouTube algorithm, which detects when a song is being liked and shared, and then recommends it worldwide.
The most popular tracks, like Mariya Takeuchi's "Plastic Love", have tens of millions of views on YouTube.
