Tatsuro Yamashita, Mariya Takeuchi, Anri ~ Showa Era City Pop Resonates with Generation Z! Why These Classics of Yesteryear Have Garnered Such Attention, Part 2

 

Continuing on from yesterday's translation of Part 1 of the "Shuukan Josei PRIME"（週刊女性PRIME...Women's Weekly Prime） article from a few days ago with that really long title that you see in the above byline, I'd like to present the translation of Part 2. 

The above video by the YouTube channel Andy's Travels was put up all the way back in March 2010, so I was still very much living the Tokyo life back then, which included frequent visits to the Shibuya branch of Tower Records, and as such what you see there is what I regularly experienced. In my subsequent visits to the place in 2014 and 2017, it did undergo some reorganization of floors. The 7th floor English-language book section was plunked down to the 2nd floor where the J-Pop CDs used to be when I visited in 2014, and as you read in yesterday's article, I found out that the 6th floor which used to be the classical music section is now Tokyo Vinyl Shibuya, the area where all of the records are sold. I just wonder how different Tower Records looks since my days of dropping by.

Part 2 begins under the following photo.

The Man Who Started It All, Tatsuro Yamashita, Sparks a Revival in the Reiwa Era

It's said that the source of City Pop was the legendary indies band, Sugar Babe (1973~1976), of which Tatsuro Yamashita was a member. The song "Downtown" which was a huge hit for EPO (1980) was actually a cover of the original 1975 single by Sugar Babe.

"The intro of Tatsuro Yamashita's 'SPARKLE' is what makes this City Pop". Suzi Suzuki says this as he brings out the guitar and performs the chords.

"SPARKLE", recorded on Yamashita's "For You" album, starts with the crisp, dry sound of guitar cutting which really shows the characteristics of City Pop. 

In June of this year, the singer-songwriter released his newest album in 11 years, "Softly", and it's been brought out on the three unique media of compact disc, vinyl record and cassette tape. There was also publicity for this new album, with Yamashita appearing numerous times on radio programs. He even conducted a long interview on "Kan Jam Kanzennen Show", a TV Asahi music show which is popular with young people, although he only appeared via audio. His previous songs then got some attention from that interview, and at the same time, City Pop itself, for which Yamashita has been considered to be an originator of the genre, ended up in the spotlight.

The 1984 "Plastic Love" by Mariya Takeuchi, Yamashita's wife, has been replayed more than 50 million times on YouTube. Furthermore, Tomoko Aran's 1983 "Midnight Pretenders" has been sampled on one of the tracks on popular Canadian artist The Weeknd's "Dawn FM" album which reached No. 2 on Billboard and became the topic of discussion online and among music-loving young people.

Even so, there are a variety of genres in Japanese music beginning with J-Pop, and they have a long history. So, why has only City Pop spread around the world? 

That will be answered in the final part tomorrow.