"Midnight" City Pop

 

Well, it's a lovely depiction of my AI request for "Walking under Tokyo skyscrapers at midnight in anime style" but I don't think the streets of my old stomping grounds were ever that empty during the bewitching hour. But I digress. 

In any case, I've come to realize that maybe City Pop's favourite hour is indeed 12:00 am considering some of the genre's songs. Perhaps it's because the time is a ripe one to still enjoy painting the town red but with a lot of the folks having raced for their final train or subway, there is now a larger openness to the city boulevards and avenues to fully enjoy the night and inhale that fresh air (or what goes for it in Tokyo). The feeling can be either on foot or in the car although I think that there is probably more of that excitement while whizzing the highways and byways in the latter. Of course, you can get the convenience of hearing the relevant music on the car stereo, too, although pedestrians are also able to listen on their smartphones.

Here are some of those "midnight" or "mayonaka" City Pop songs.

(1982) Kingo Hamada -- midnight cruisin'

(1990) Miho Nakayama -- Midnight Taxi

(1983) Tomoko Aran -- Midnight Pretenders

(1982) Takako Mamiya -- Mayonaka no Joke（真夜中のジョーク）

(1979) Miki Matsubara -- Mayonaka no Door （真夜中のドアー）