Driving to City Pop

 

I realize that I've done my personal quota of four articles for Friday, but I've decided to do one more tonight. For one thing, the article will be about City Pop anyways, and it's been an idea that has been percolating in my head for some weeks. 

Back in the summer, I was talking with old contributor JTM about heading back to Japan. I forgot when my friend went there last time but my last time was all the way back in the fall of 2017, just before the whole City Pop thing began exploding from YouTube. Since then, I've not only been noticing driving videos in Tokyo being put up on the platform by folks like J Utah as you can see above, but then City Pop guru Van Paugam had his old City Pop radio with the J-urban contemporary hits while the video showed that smooth ride on the highways and byways of the Japanese capital. Unfortunately, the powers-that-be eventually grounded Van's wonderful project, but others have taken up the torch and provided some more limited-time videos combining City Pop tunes and highway driving. For instance, the one below by YouTuber City Lover Dreamy. Gorgeous footage, by the way. 👍

Anyways, let's get back to the conversation between JTM and myself. Inbound tourism for Japan has started back up after a few years of the pandemic which is great news for most people. As well, even before COVID-19 wreaked havoc, there was the phenomenon of micro tours in which individuals and small groups had their tour organizer come up with very specialized trips whether it be tourists who simply wanted to look at temples in Tokyo or do anime adventures to regions where certain programs like "Girls und Panzer" or "Sailor Moon" were based.

Well, JTM and I figured that if it hasn't already happened, there ought to be City Pop fans who would love to have a micro tour devoted to all things connected with that genre. Perhaps they could be led to a Tokyo studio where Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）recorded one of his great albums in the 70s and early 80s or have a minivan tour through West Shinjuku among all of those skyscrapers that get featured in the original opening credits of "City Hunter". The piece de resistance though could be a one-hour drive within the capital via routes such as the Shuto or Tokyo expressways while those amazing City Pop hits are playing on the speakers and participants are swooning on the Rainbow Bridge or within the bright lights of Ginza. Wouldn't that be the heady experience? 😎

Hmmm... I figure that I won't be going to Japan again until late 2023 at the earliest, but perhaps I can live a bit vicariously and come up with my own drive-friendly City Pop songs for this round of Author's Picks. Perhaps "drive-friendly City Pop songs" sounds a bit redundant, though, since most if not all of those particular songs have that engaging beat built in for good automobile accompaniment. But putting that aside, my six choices are choices that simply got into my head immediately when I began musing about this topic, so I just quickly jotted them down. If you have your own favourite City Pop songs to drive to, please let me know down below if you wish.

December 31st 2022: There is a sequel now.

1. Makoto Matsushita -- One Hot Love (1981)

2. Masayuki Suzuki -- Mou Namida wa Iranai （もう涙はいらない） (1992)

3. Hiromi Go -- COOL (1985)

4. Mariko Takahashi -- Nigai Rhapsody（にがいラプソディ） (1983)

5. EPO -- Downtown (1980)

6. Kingo Hamada -- midnight cruisin' (1982)

Happy driving! And I hope that we all make it onto the highways of Japanese cities someday soon.