I mentioned in the previous article involving Rei and Ginger Root's collaboration, "Love is Beautiful", that I had found some gold nuggets past midnight a few days ago. "Love is Beautiful" is indeed one of the nuggets, and another one happens to be the subject of this article.
When City Pop first became known to the international masses several years ago, enthusiasts absorbed and then sought out their new musical plaything for some time, even traveling to the source nation for singles and albums. Then, some of the more artistic and enterprising folks outside of Japan decided to make their own bona fide City Pop tunes in the 21st century after analyzing the chord progressions and hooks. KKP has posted a few of these including last week's "SHINKIRO" by VTubers Houshou Marine（宝鐘マリン）& Gawr Gura（がうる・ぐら）.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find a lot of information so far on Vantage aside from the fact that they are a Tokyo-based electronic artist who have a wide SNS presence including a YouTube channel and that they have made their own Vaporwave. But last month in October, Vantage & The Myracle released their "...first full authentic City Pop song" known as "Sunday Lonely Night". I'm assuming that Hibiya is the vocalist for the song and on hearing it for the first time, I got those early 1980s Anri（杏里）vibes when she was being helped out by Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）. The summery disco City Pop is there along with the horns which got me thinking of not only Anri but Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, too.
What is also cute is how the music video is done up like a gauzy karaoke video clip after it's been through the ancient VHS machine a few hundred times. Nice to see those 80s examples of technology including the portable radio, the boxy car and even that electric fan running in the lass' room. I've got one of those behind me as well.
Fireminer here. Thanks for the interesting article! These new-gen City Pop artists always fascinate me, especially people who aren't Japanese. Here is another article about a Vietnamese singer doing City Pop: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2022/12/15/music/city-pop-abroad/
ReplyDeleteI like to muse about whether the Internet as the primary vector for City Pop differs it from previous underground musical trends. Remember that interview with a Korean producer you posted earlier this year where he mentioned passing around tapes from Japan?
Hello, Fireminer. No problems here. It's been interesting how folks like Night Tempo were able to use the Internet to turbo-charge the dissemination of City Pop and therefore inspire people like Phung Khanh Linh. It probably took some months for Kyu Sakamoto's "Sukiyaki" song gain the fame that it did although back in 1961, television probably did help with the speed as well.
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