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CityPop is a Japanese genre of music that melds popular Western influences of the 1970s and '80s (including funk, boogie, acid jazz, disco, and AOR) with Japanese-style compositions and lyrics that depict an urban way of life complete with the luxuries and excesses afforded by the bubble-era capitalism of the 1970s and 1980s.

About City Pop:

The close of the 1970s saw many Japanese artists, composers, and writers experimenting with new styles of music, often borrowing techniques from their Western contemporaries, with those well-versed in adult contemporary, fusion genres (jazz fusion, acid jazz, Latin, bossa nova etc.), and synth-pop being of particular interest. Onto this musical framework, lyrics depicting an urban way of life, complete with the luxuries and excesses afforded by the bubble-era capitalism of the late '70s to late '80s, were added. There were, of course, exceptions, as some songs pertain more to introspective matters, but those are less common.
In many ways, this genre can be seen as a continuation of New Music, another Japanese invention that also took inspiration from Western genres (namely folk, jazz, blues, and soul).
Unlike its predecessor, City Pop often features a more vigorous rhythm and punchier bass lines, making the genre danceable and better suited to be played in discotheques and at parties.
As economic downturn fast approached the late '80s and early '90s, the genre’s popularity dwindled, as did its cultural baggage (the luxury and excess mentioned earlier).
Recently, City Pop has seen a surge in popularity, especially in the West, as more people stumbled upon these gems on platforms such as YouTube. Subsequently, some songs were remixed into vapourwave and future funk montages, bringing further exposure to the genre.

City Pop as a genre seems to fall under two periods, both with their own distinct sound and feel:
• The first period is the transition phase, in which many artists who had primarily performed/written New Music material were switching to a more upbeat and cosmopolitan style of music, heavily borrowing influences from funk (funky guitar riffs, Rhodes piano, accentuated trumpets), jazz (eccentric beats, elaborate bass lines, sensual singing), and soul (prominent vocals, uplifting orchestras), much like they did in their New Music years. This occurred from the mid to late 1970s all the way through to the very early 1980s.
• The second period is when the genre becomes well-established throughout Japan. This phase is characterized by the adoption of the new developments in music in the West, namely boogie (synths, slap bass, energetic beats), AOR (guitar riffs, solos, smooth flow, and vocals), and synth-pop. This period is the most visceral and often the most well-known to fans of the genre. This period also marks the departure of certain well-established artists towards other kinds of music, namely new wave, rock, alternative rock, new age, synth-pop, and standard pop. This occurred from 1979 to the end of the '80s.

Community Rules

To ensure the quality of submissions on this sub, please follow the following rules before posting:

❌ Do not shitpost, post spam or memes, or make low-effort posts
❌ Do not post photos of your music/album collection; there are other subs better suited for this kind of content
❌ Do not post links to news articles pertaining to the genre
❌ Do not post any City Pop-like song emerging after the decline of the genre (mid-'90s would be a soft upper-bound)
❌ Similar to the rule above, don’t post vaporwave/futurefunk remixes of City Pop songs
❌ Do not post links to mixtapes or radio stations
❌ Do not post the same song by the same artist more than once a month
❌ Do not downvote a submission because you don’t like the song or because there’s an issue with the media playback

Also, you’re encouraged to do the following:

⭕ Post songs by lesser-known artists or your crate-digging findings
⭕ Flair your posts
⭕ Post reviews or recommendations to your favourite songs/albums/artists (examples: -1- ; -2- ; -3- ).
⭕ Submit suggestions in regards to the subreddit

Here are some related communities worth checking out:

!JapaneseNewMusic
!Jfunk

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