City Pop

City Pop (シティーポップ) is a subgenre of Pop music from Japan. It originated in the mid-1970s, reaching peak popularity during the late 1970s to 1980s. It also spread to other areas of Asia, particularly establishing a foothold in Hong Kong, where many covers of popular City Pop songs were popularized in Cantopop, in addition to inspiring the Pop kreatif genre in Indonesia.

It is considered a predecessor to modern J-Pop (though it certainly has more of a sophisticated vibe to it compared to modern J-Pop). Various City Pop songs are sampled in many Future Funk songs. Famous City Pop artists include, Mariya Takeuchi, Taeko Onuki, Miki Matsubara, Anri, Naoko Gushima, Tatsuro Yamashita, Junko Yagami, etc.

Much of City Pop was influenced by '70s and '80s Japanese "New Music" (New Wave) and techno-kayō ("techno-pop") artists, such as Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Akiko Yano, Ippu-Do, and Sandii & the Sunsetz. City pop combined these Japanese influences with the influence of American funk, jazz and soul music.

There are many City Pop compilations on YouTube for people to listen to, with channels such as Ganymede Cafe making 40 minute long compilations of City Pop songs. Many of these songs are played in the background of an old anime GIF on loop. City Pop is considered an aesthetic genre of music due to its casual and upbeat nature.

Despite the best years of City Pop being behind the genre, the spirit of it lives on as sometimes it'll be interspersed with Vaporwave (and a lot of Vaporwave artists will sample City Pop in their songs to invoke the imagery of sophisticated Japan on the rise in the 80's and 90's) and a lot of City Pop aesthetics will find themselves tied to the Lo-Fi aesthetic, thus ensuring City Pop's legacy in internet aesthetic history.

History[]

Origins (1970s to early 1980s)[]

City pop has its origins in the Folk bands of the early 1970s. The folk rock band Happy End is often considered the foundation of City Pop.^[1]^[2]

The city pop genre was founded in the mid-1970s by Haruomi Hosono and Tatsuro Yamashita.^[3]^[4] In the mid-1970s, Hosono founded the band Tin Pan Alley, which fused R&B, soul and jazz fusion with Hawaiian and Okinawan tropical flourishes. This led to the style of music that would be dubbed city pop.^[5] Hosono's collaborator Yukihiro Takahashi explained how city pop came about: "In the ’70s, Japanese musicians were being influenced by fusion and pop from the west. Japanese musicians are generally very technical, and though they try to imitate western music, it always ended up sounding very Japanese, including the vocals."^[6]

The genre became closely tied to the tech boom in Japan during the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the Japanese technologies which influenced city pop included Sony's Walkman, cars with built-in cassette decks and FM stereos, and various electronic musical instruments such as the Casio CZ-101 and Yamaha CS-80 synthesizers and Roland TR-808 drum machine. According to Rolling Stone, electronic instruments and gadgets "allowed musicians to actualise the sounds in their heads" and cassette decks "allowed fans to dub copies of albums".^[7] The development of city pop was closely tied to the development of techno-kayō ("techno-pop") in Japan. Prior to the formation of pioneering techno-kayō band Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1978, its three members Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi were involved in the development of city pop in the 1970s, introducing electronic music instruments to city pop prior to developing techno-kayō, which in turn influenced city pop in the 1980s.^[8]^[5]

Influence (1980s to 1990s)[]

City pop influenced instrumental jazz fusion bands such as Casiopea and T-Square, which subsequently influenced Japanese video game music.^[9] City pop also laid the foundations for the techno-kayō ("techno-pop") genre pioneered by Yellow Magic Orchestra in the late 1970s, which in turn influenced city pop to incorporate technopop elements by the early 1980s.^[10] In addition, city pop influenced J-pop, Shibuya-kei^[11] and anime music in Japan.^[12]

City pop's influence spread to Indonesia, leading to the development of a local style known as Pop kreatif.^[13] City pop also spread to South Korea, where a local Korean version of city pop in the 1980s influenced the development of K-Pop.^[14]

The British New Romantic band Japan were greatly influenced by YMO and frequently collaborated with YMO members. This led to Japan experimenting with City Pop in the 1980s. A few other British artists in this genre include Virginia Astley and The Dolphin Brothers.

The genre also spread to nearby Hong Kong as Cantopop artists made covers of Japanese City Pop songs until the 1990s.

Decline (1990s)[]

City Pop faded out of style in Japan after the late 1980s, largely due to the tanking of the Japanese economy in what came to be known as "The Lost Decade" (that Japan arguably still hasn't completely recovered from).

Revival (2010s to present)[]

竹内まりや_-_Plastic_Love_(Official_Music_Video) — 竹内まりや - Plastic Love (Official Music Video)

Probably the most well-known example of City Pop to the internet at large.

In the 2010s, City Pop has seemingly found new life thanks to edits of it being featured in Vaporwave and Future Funk. Future Funk artists in particular, such as MACROSS 82-99, tend to love to sample old City Pop songs and transforming them into funky new tracks. Classic City Pop also gained popularity around this time due to the fact the YouTube algorithm at one point decided to pick Mariya Takeuchi's "Plastic Love" to be the random video that turns up in everybody's feed to watch, which led to the song getting so popular that they decided to film a (new) music video for the song 35 years after its initial release!

Many anime fans from the '90s (when anime was just starting to take off in the West) might actually recognize a lot of popular City Pop artists due to a lot of the artists doing the themes for various anime that came out in the '80s and early '90s and the themes themselves generally carry a slight City Pop sound.

Since the 2010s, hundreds of city pop songs have been sampled, covered and remixed by a wide range of contemporary artists, including future funk and vaporwave producers, J-pop and K-pop artists, and North American R&B and hip-hop artists such as The Weeknd, Tyler the Creator, J. Cole, Chris Brown and Tyga.^[15]^[16] On Splice, city pop was a fast-growing genre in 2023 and 2024.^[17]

Music[]

City Pop's musical style is a fusion of different musical styles, both Japanese and foreign. Much of City Pop was influenced by '70s and '80s Japanese "New Music" (New Wave) and techno-kayō ("techno-pop") artists, such as Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Akiko Yano, Ippu-Do, and Sandii & the Sunsetz. City pop artists combined these Japanese influences with various foreign influences, most prominently African-American funk, jazz and soul music. City pop was also influenced by American soft rock (such as Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers), combining its song structures with Southern R&B from the US, Northern Soul from the UK, jazz fusion music, and Hawaiian and Okinawan vibes, to achieve a sophisticated and almost tropical sound.

The genre was born from the belief that the Japanese economy was only going to continue to thrive and grow and that the good times would never end (much like America's Roaring Twenties). The genre was thus heavily influenced by Japan's technological boom, incorporating new Japanese electronic musical instruments such as synthesizers and drum machines from Roland and Yamaha, while producing music intended for new Japanese portable devices such as Sony's Walkman or cars with built-in cassette decks and FM stereos.^[7] Much of the music was designed specifically to play in car stereos of the time, which were just starting to gain popularity, a very unique idea at the time.

Visual[]

A lot of City Pop images depict shots of opulent city life and high nightlife; hence the name. Many of these images are taken from tropical locations like California and Hawaii, featuring oceans, beaches, and palm trees. These images are often stylistically edited to show more pops of magenta, cyan, red, yellow, blue, and Purple.

Architecture is a common element depicted within the aesthetic, particularly pools and Modernist houses. City streets, skylines, and beaches are also prominently featured in city pop. Typically, these streets will be empty and peaceful with nobody around except a vintage vehicle (giving a similar vibe to the After Hours aesthetic).

Fashion[]

Clothing[]

City Pop fashion tends to be very opulent, high end, and draws a lot on the Yuppie fashion of the time (and so a lot of J-Preppy and Resort style turns up in City Pop fashion). Indeed, a lot of City Pop fashion has served as inspiration for a lot of modern Japan-inspired aesthetics such as Vaporwave and Lo-Fi. "Business Casual" is a popular phrase in City Pop fashion. Later City Pop music from the mid-to-late 1980s also draws a lot of inspiration in its female fashion from the then-emerging Bodikon subculture.

Sailor Moon and California Crisis anime are prime examples of City Pop outfits.

Typical City Pop fashion items include:

Dress shirts
Polo or rugby shirts
Knee-length khaki shorts or long pants
Shiny dress shoes
Sweaters, sweater vests, cardigans, or other woven tops
Pleated skirts
Muumuus or sundresses
Black or white jeans
Scarves
Suspenders
Hair accessories such as bobby pins, clips, bows, ties
White socks, knee-length or regular
Bracelets or bangles

*can be worn in neon or loud colours/patterns

Wearing City Pop motifs (cities in neon colours, cassettes, soda or strawberry milk cans, occasionally flamingos, etc.) can also be considered a less casual and/or more modern subset of City Pop fashion.

Citypop1 — A typical City-Pop women's hairstyle.

Hair[]

Hairstyles are reflective of the era, but simultaneously have a wide range.

In women's hairstyles, common characteristics include voluminousness, curliness, and heavy application of products like hairspray and dry texturising spray. These include: