Tatsuro Yamashita, Mariya Takeuchi, Anri ~ Showa Era City Pop Resonates with Generation Z! Why These Classics of Yesteryear Have Garnered Such Attention, Part 3

 

For this trilogy of KKP articles on the entire "Shuukan Josei PRIME"（週刊女性PRIME...Women's Weekly Prime） piece (Part 2 is here) regarding City Pop, my sentimental setting has been the Shibuya branch of Tower Records since I would often visit the place almost once a week. It helped that one of my students lived not too far away from Japan's youth mecca.

One story that I have about that huge gray and orange building goes back to the late 1990s. A couple of my friends came to visit Tokyo and they liked their fair share of music, so I took them to Tower Records. At the time, there was a cafe in the basement which I think is now a presentation area. Also at the time, the move to non-smoking was starting to take a bit of hold in Japan, although smokers were reluctant to say the least. Well, the Tower authorities in their infinite wisdom decided to divide the cafe into smoking and non-smoking sections. The thing was that the non-smoking area which we three opted for was centered in the middle of the basement while the area surrounding us was still smoking-friendly...and there was no barrier for our supposed oasis of clear air, so there was no clear air. I guess the authorities took it to mean that people who had no cigarettes were free to enter the donut hole and that was it.

Yup, that's how we felt.

Anyways up to 2017, there was a cafe up on the 2nd floor of Tower Records and it was completely non-smoking as far as I know. Also, since it's been mentioned in the article by Katsumi Koizumi（小泉カツミ）, I wanted to show readers this recent YouTube video by Lost Turntable featuring Tokyo Vinyl Shibuya up on the 6th floor.

Now, let's get into the translation of the final third part of the article which will commence below this shaky photo of the city.

Will City Pop Soon Be Added to the World Music Genres?!

Tower Records' Tanoue, who was mentioned earlier in this article, says that City Pop has elements that attract overseas listeners. "While overseas music such as rock influences listeners, City Pop is characterized by having elaborate and unique chord progressions and intricate arrangements done in 16-beat. So I believe that made the genre very easy on the ears of foreigners. Because of the spread of its popularity, there has been an increase in the number of young people around the world dancing to City Pop played in places such as clubs, and I think they have gotten hooked on its groove."

Meanwhile, music critic Suzuki (also from earlier in the article) mentions that it's the sound that makes City Pop even more appealing to Generation Z. "Generation Z grew up in the age of the Internet. Basically, they grew up in an environment where they were exposed to digital right from the beginning, listening to a lot of music made on computers. The analog City Pop band sounds centering on real instruments had never been heard by them before, so I think that this was all very fresh to them".

Also, as mentioned earlier, the resurgence of the popularity of analog records has given a further boost.

"I thought the whole analog thing was only for snobby old men to reminisce about the old days, but young people are also going to vinyl records as well," Suzuki says. "Young folks who used to listen to digitally streamed music with earphones are now listening to it through speakers on record players and amplifiers. So I guess the sensation of sound emanating from the speakers and vibrating through the air feels viscerally good. That's why they've been wanting to listen to analog, especially through the old City Pop tunes".

Currently young bands such as Suchmos who have been categorized as Neo-City Pop have arrived on the scene making new sounds while also being influenced by City Pop. Having listened to them, the sound of any of those bands has been easy to hear and they have this fun groove. 

Suzuki adds "Perhaps the genre of City Pop will soon make its way to global music streaming services such as Spotify in the future".

Native Japanese music is flying into the world. If that is indeed so, it's something to look forward to, isn't it? That's the message that Suzuki left with me.

Suzi Suzuki is a music critic, radio personality and novelist. His recent book is "Keisuke Kuwata's Theory" (published by Shincho Shinsho), which explores the world of Keisuke Kuwata's lyrics.

Reported by Katsumi Koizumi for "Shuukan Josei Prime".

Translated by J-Canuck

October 25th, 2022: As for my two (non-existent Canadian) cents on the overall article, I can answer that above byline for this final section. It's already become a world music genre and it's certainly not a fad anymore. Considering how long it's been since "Plastic Love" hit YouTube and the fact that people are still talking about City Pop and even dancing to it, thanks to folks like Van Paugam, I don't think the genre will fade away into history. The first bloom of giddy discovery has probably passed though, with the result being that some folks will have gotten off the bandwagon and moved onto other genres or accepted City Pop but also enjoying other forms of music, while others are "true believers" like myself, the aforementioned Van and my good friend, Rocket Brown. Having said that, I'm not sure whether City Pop has had the majority of Generation Z running feverishly to pick up an old-fashioned record player and scrounging through record bins and online auctions like rabid squirrels to find those Tats or Toshiki Kadomatsu LPs, but it's nice to know that my favourite genre has been enjoying a second look more than 40 years later.