Oh boy. It's time for Charles to learn about Airport Lady, Flyday Chinatown, Kimi Ha 1000%, Remember Summer Days, Shyness Boy, Stay With Me, Telephone Number and especially Summer Suspicion.
A million other people will say this, but if you’re exploring Japanese city pop, Tatsuro Yamashita and Masayoshi Takanaka are a couple artists you absolutely MUST check out. Absolute legends with impeccable discographies.
I'm ready for the Charles Cornell City Pop era. Here's a list of meaty compositions from the era: Kaoru Akimoto - Dress Down Tatsuro Yamashita - Sparkle Miki Matsubara - Mayonaka no Door / Stay With Me Taeko Ohnuki - 4AM Junko Yagami - Bay City Anri - Goodbye Boogie Dance (live)
80s Japanese music is pretty great. I have heard this song a few times while listening to citypop playlists, but had no idea it was so popular. It also has a fitting name, City Dolphin.
And T-Square just around the next corner! Takanaka and Yamashita are more within the genre of city pop, but all phenomenal Japanese bands/musicians from that era.
Definitely love the stuff they put out in their earlier albums. super flight is THE BEST ALBUM they’ve produced and also my personal favorite record of all time
American funk, jazz and boogie were a massive influence on City Pop. If you want to dive deeper into it, get ready for a whole new world of genre mixes and chord progressions. Check out Plastic Love by Mariya Takeuchi, the song that basically made City Pop famous in the west, or Mayonaka no Door (Stay with Me) by Miki Matsubara.
Interestingly, the Japanese audience never fell out of love with bossanova either and it has inspired a fair bit of vgm eg Costa Del Sol, Galdin Quay etc which young people in the 'West' are now enjoying. It's no longer 'elevator music' 😅
@@cooldebt Brazil has a major influence on Jazz and always has since the 1960s with Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim getting popular in the USA and in jazz. City Pop's biggest foundation in music is jazz in my opinion so it makes sense that they'd latch onto Brazilian jazz as well. Also there is an enormous Japanese population in Brazil so that could also be a major factor.
I'm Japanese and so surprised that you have picked many Japanese music, and I learn a lot from you and comments. I like seeing you are very excited about chords and rhythms lol
Japanese music is the big trend in the West, both old and new bands and artists are becoming very popular. There are so many greats in so many genres. I am always finding great music to listen to.
If you want to hear an amazing Japanese guitarist, listen to Masayoshi Takanaka! Everyone of his Songs sounds like a day at the Beach, "Beleza Pura" sounds kinda like "All the things you are" and everything is filled with jazz, samba, Funk and good vibes!
I'm actually kinda shook by the fact that you're covering Japanese City Pop! Genuinely one of the best genres ever! Edit: Curious to know what people's favourite songs / recommendations are.. Please share them! Some of my personal favourites are Shyness Boy, You Belong to Him and I can't stop the loneliness.
@@cooldebt for real. I didn't originally know it was from tiktok. I was listening to the album in the car during a drive (a midnight cruise, if you will) then it got to that part and my girlfriend was like "wait isn't that the song from tiktok?" I had no idea.
The absolute pleasure of seeing the joy on your face when you - person who already loves the magical world of music - found a new reason fall in love with music again is immeasurable. And it gets even greater because of the fact that the new reason for you is something I already love. Thank you!
Imagine growing up in the 80s, walking around in a Japanese department store with this type of music playing in the background. Grow up to study jazz and discovering even more magic in city pop. The nostalgia is unlike anything else.
Gotta do some T-Square! If it helps, their songs inspired the Gran Turismo(Moon Over the Castle/Knights Song) and Arc the Lad video game series, and I most recently found out, the Super Mario overworld theme(Sister Marian). Their super hits include Omens of Love, Truth(F1 Japan Grand Prix theme), Takarajima(performed in the Hibike Euphonium anime). One of their sax players Masato Honda, plays with the Seatbelts/Yoko Kanno(Cowboy Bebop-Tank solo). Keizo Kawano, former keys players, played on the Mario Kart 8 soundtrack.
They didn't just inspire the soundtrack, IIRC Masahiro Andoh's solo album was used AS the soundtrack. I do also find it funny that their mist popular songs aren't even their best, Taking Mountain(tops), Bad Boys and Good Girls, traffic jam, megalith, and Japanese soul brothers are all incredible pieces of music but almost never talked about.
@@Kumquat_Lord Consider that "best" is completely subjective, and it makes a lot more sense. Popularity comes from broad appeal. What interests you doesn't necessarily align with what has the most broad appeal. Though it does kind of feel bad when nobody ever seems to talk about what you love. I absolutely adore Yoshiko Sai's album Mikkou, but I don't see that album talked about much at all. There is some stuff out there, it's not like you have to search in Japanese just to get results, but still.
You need to check out Japanese jazz fusion next. T-square has some incredible songs, like Japanese Soul Brothers, Traffic Jam, Anchor's Shuffle, Future Fly, and Scrambling. Tons of fun to listen to.
I came across Japanese City Pop a few years ago when I heard Maria Takeuchi’s-Plastic Love for the first time on iTunes. I loved it and it took me into a deep dive of pre-JPOP music. It was a great discovery.
I love this song so much because it's about a kid spotting a dolphin in the Tokyo bay which is just so cute. that chorus of him doodling with his voice and the saxophone to me is as if the kid is calling out to the dolphin and the dolphin responding
I'd love to see you cover: Windy Summer - Anri FLY - Spectrum Sparkle - Tatsuro Yamashita Tatsugare - Mai Yamane And Love was really Gone - Makoto Matsushita Love was really Gone especially has a beautiful string outro that I know you'd absolutely love!
I’m Japanese, and I apologize for my poor English. I also love this song. Driving on Tokyo’s expressways while playing it is an incredible experience. Japanese city pop, which was originally known as New Music, has its roots in the band Sugar Babe. The group was produced by Eiichi Ohtaki and Tatsuro Yamashita, and they were heavily influenced by The Beach Boys. In addition to the influence of American pop music, they frequently used tension chords. These jazz-like, complex-sounding chords didn’t pair well with distorted guitar sounds, leading to a clearer and more urban sound. The music also reflects the fresh sounds of early ’70s West Coast rock and singer-songwriters, along with the influence of AOR and soul that were popular in America during the ’70s and ’80s. It’s fascinating how city pop incorporates various genres, rather than just following the trends of Western music. City pop feels like the soundtrack of Japan’s economic boom. I particularly appreciated when Tatsuro Yamashita said in 2019 that city pop isn’t just a genre but music that anyone can enjoy.
the best way that my music teacher explained tritone substitutions to me (without me even knowing) is that a tritone can either resolve inwards (ex. B&F resolving to C&E) or it can resolve outwards (ex. B&F resolving to Bb&F#) This duality fits the fact that there are two distinct dominant chords that share that same tritone (in the case of B and F, the two chords are G7 and C#7) and these chords resolve nicely to Cmaj and F#maj respectively; the chords whose roots and thirds are the notes that the tritone likes to resolve to.
Midnight Cruisin' and Gentle Travellin' albums are my all-time favourites. Period. The harmony, the texture, the composition overall. Brilliant. Love Kingo and thank you for showing some solid musical recognition 😎❤
My dad shared this with me this weekend. Re-listening to it now, the piano chord progressions seem to have a very similar feel to Steely Dan and CASIOPEA's approach. It's such a joy that music can bring people together across languages and oceans.
I'm glad to see so many people in the same boat that they just immediately clicked the video and was just delighted to see he finally got to this genre.
A lot of current music in Japan still has jazz influences. I have been checking out a lot of their rock/metal and some of the pop scene the last couple of years and they love to use jazzy/funky bass and some pretty jazzy sounding parts. There are also a lot of young jazz musicians over there. If you want an other Japanese pop artist (not city pop) that tends to use jazzy parts in their music (and a lot of different instruments live), you can check out a project like Zutomayo.
The Japanese music scene in all its genres is incredibly diverse and fascinating to listen to. The most surprising to me is the vocaloid industry, their producers, and their singers (some of which are VTubers). Some of the best pop I’ve stumbled accross in awhile. Then there’s the entire Japanese rock/metal universe, which has single-handedly reinvigorated my love for rock.
From what I observered a lot of young musicians in Japan regardless of genre read the Gakuten (Musical Grammar) books through and through which seems to be underutilized in the West.
@@OfficialTigerino That would make a lot of sense. You can see and hear a lot of them really know what they are doing and a lot of them can also play multiple instruments as well.
The full version of the 100 Girlfriend anime opening could easily pass as a full-on modern fusion jazz track lol. Insanely complex arrangement and harmony.
4:26 That's one of my favorite things to do, that exact progression and those melodic landing spots. You seem extra hyped, but probably more for being able to show it to new people, because I'm sure you've done that combo a bunch of times before, too.
Please listen to the album LOVE TRIP by Takako Mamiya, all tracks in order, it's such a wonderful journey (also, thanks for this analysis, I havent noticed all these details!)
I want Charles to look at popular 80s Japanese Hits now. I Can't Stop The Loneliness, Stay With Me and Plastic Love are probably the grooviest tracks in the world.
Omg!!! I literally commented on one of your other videos about Japanese City Pop, this genre of music is so intrinsically tied to my life!!! It’s my childhood in music form!
CITY POP ANALYSIS YESSSSS!! if youre looking for more things, def check out Cassiopea (they're more funk/jazz fusion from my understanding) as well as Ginger Root (not from the 80s but he's a modern artist with very very city pop-esque music)
The song itself is pretty whimsical and wistful too. :3 The title translates to 'Dolphin in Town' or 'Town with a Dolphin' and starts off like this: "In the milky way in midnight A boy caught a dolphin Splashing the stars The boy swam with the dolphin" The song goes on to talk about how an old sailor fondly remembers the old days and telling the listener about it - then sings about imagining the dolphins everywhere like in puddles after it rains. City-pop really likes theme of nostalgia, unrequited loves, or aesthetic/idealistic times.
I love the contrast between the joyful melody and the sad or emotional lyrics we often get in City Pop. When you're happy you enjoy the music, when you're sad, you understand it
I'm living for the citypop videos Charles! It's crazy to me how much jazz influence Japanese music absorbed in the 70s and 80s, considering its origin as such an American form of music, I'm loving it so much lately. I feel like you'll really enjoy Windy Summer by Anri or Sparkle by Tatsuro Yamashita in particular
City pop absolutely slaps. People are saying it elsewhere but you absolutely need to listen to Anri. Windy Summer is so, so good. Also Mariya Takeuchi is queen.
The thing is half the people who heard this hook probably didn't even know it was a full song. I just heard Crystal Dolphin by Engelwood and assumed that was it. Then I was listening to a city pop playlist and this song came on and I lost my shit.
The funny thing is we've been hearing these kinda sounds, especially the melodies, in video game music, and video games ofc were pioneered by Japan. Japan was so far ahead of its time.
Thanks for such a great video. I love your positive energy towards Music. I live in Montpellier France, and music is a big deal here. But watching this kind of videos inspire me to continue exploring weird and beautiful harmonic devices! Thanks Chanles!
Awesome vid! I'm familiar with City pop as a whole but have never heard this song before. Other cool Japanese artists who do some awesome things with harmony are Lamp and Kirinji. Would definitely recommend!
Everyone here is BEGGING you to listen to Casiopea. And if there’s one track I’d recommend, listen to their track Galactic Funk live on TH-cam. There’s a specific piano part that would be perfect for you to figure out when the solos start playing
I find it amusing how young people on TikTok are discovering 40-yr old pop music and sampling it for bgm (eg sped up or with some random 'dance' beat or something)
@cooldebt I think it’s a good way for those songs to stay alive! I’ve found a lot of cool old music through sampling. Also, some songs that use sampling end up sounding pretty cool. I don’t think it’s always a corner cutting method, sometimes just a genuine attempt at making art, like how you can make a collage out of old photographs.
The fact that the internet jumped straight into showing Charles the Mario Kart lick _but never ever let him know about city pop_ has immediately convinced me that even these algorithms have no idea what they’re doing.
I know nothing about music theory and understood nothing he said, but seeing him so excited and happy really made me happy for some reason. I'd say I enjoyed this video lot more than I anticipated.
PLEASE check out masayoshi takanaka. If you need any reasons he plays a surf board guitar and has arguably the best album cover to ever exist of him skydiving over seychelles. I dont think I need to argue this much more for, at minimum, a listen.
There is so much fantastic Japanese city pop. The music is at the same time joyful and nostalgic. For me it has the power to transport me to a better place. Some recommendations in no particular order: Tatsuro Yamashita’s Christmas Time in Japanese. Momoko Kiluchi’s album Adventure, especially the tracks Mystical Composer, Adventure and Nami Ni Naritai. But you basically can’t go wrong with any J City pop that has gotten a modern pressing, and they’re easy to come by because they have also been digitized and remastered most of the time
Sparkle by Tatsuro Yamashita Someday by Tatsuro Yamashita Airport Lady by Toshiki Kadomatsu BLUE AND MOODY MUSIC by Hiroshi Sato Can't recommend these for studying enough. Especially Sparkle, quite simple harmonically, but does very interesting things like never once resolving to the tonic chord, fun deceptive resolutions and just a great feel overall.
This puts me to mind of the Smooth Jazz era from the early '90s. I'm sure JCP was a huge inspiration to many of those acts. Note: I came over from watching this on Nebula (which could do with a comment system of its own).
The guy who made the Starlight Zone music for Sonic 1 is a part of a band called Dreams Come True which makes J-Pop and CityPop music, so that makes sense that you hear some similarities with other CityPop music. The Starlight Zone song can also be heard in a CityPop song that they made, called "薬指の決心 (kusuriyubi no kesshin)".
It's fun to hear how vgm uses jazz or pop from the West too as inspiration for some fantastic music. It's also fascinating to hear how The Consouls, 8Bit Big Band and J-Music Ensemble draw out those inspirations by using vgm as jazz standards. The Consouls' cover of Starlight really leans into the Latin music roots of the tune.
@@cooldebt Like Disco, CityPop has some Jazz and Latin influence but I think it's more in CityPop than Disco. If you like the Latin music influence in VGM, then you'll probably like the similarities between Spain by chick corea and Aquatic Ruins Zone from Sonic 2.
I found out about city pop at the end of last year and its become my favorite genre. Anri's music is something else. And "Stay With Me" is always the Goat
Oh CHARRLLES... I've waited till I had a good chunk of time to watch this... I absolutely love this song... found it accidentally when exploring Japanese City Pop and it quickly became one of my favourite genres... this is SUCH a tune and I'm so happy you explored it! WE NEED A CITY POP SERIES PLEASEEEEEE 🥹🥹🤌🏾🤌🏾
I can't wait for the day he finds Nujabes. I would LOVE a breakdown of some of the songs from Metaphorical Music. Songs like Horn in the Middle, Blessing It, and Letter From Yokosuka would be perfect for him.
Hi Charles I’m a massive city pop fan and here’s some recommendations for harmonically complex songs that are reasonably popular :) Summer suspicion - omega tribe Futari no natsu monogatari - omega tribe Galactic funk - casiopea Take me - casiopea Love is really gone - makoto matsushita Say goodbye - hiroshi sato Oh no oh yes - mariya takeuchi/akina nakamori Koi no Yokan - anzen chitai Sparkle - Tatsuro Yamashita Airport Lady - Toshiki Kadomatsu
I have NO idea how I didn't know about this before. What else should I check out???
Check out ANRI! Her city pop is insane. Thanks for the video!
You should do a video on the DUNE part 2 soundtrack
Check out chiptune fusion, like Anamanaguchi! More rock-influenced but has some jazzy sides.
Tatsuro Yamashita, absolutely legendary stuff my dude. Japanese City Pop is so wicked.
something totally different, you should check out Georgian (the country) folk tunes. Some incredible harmony and rhythm stuff going on over there
Oh boy. It's time for Charles to learn about Airport Lady, Flyday Chinatown, Kimi Ha 1000%, Remember Summer Days, Shyness Boy, Stay With Me, Telephone Number and especially Summer Suspicion.
I'd add telephone number by junko ohashi
4:00am
@@Alan-fx3wr 4:00AM my beloved
Kimiko Kasai, Mai Yamane, AB's, Joshino Fujimal, Makoto Matsushita, there's a lot more
ANYTHING by Tatsuro Yamashita
If this guy hasn't yet had his "first time listening to CASIOPEA euphoria" moment, I'm getting the feeling he's right about to
Ahhhh 100%. Can’t wait for him to make a video on Casiopea, I’ve (and I’m sure others have) been waiting for AGES
@@edeboyAGES is an anagram for SEGA
Oh man, should he start with a song from Casiopea (1979), or from Mint Jams?
Mint Jams and/ or Superflight would be sick
T H I S
A million other people will say this, but if you’re exploring Japanese city pop, Tatsuro Yamashita and Masayoshi Takanaka are a couple artists you absolutely MUST check out. Absolute legends with impeccable discographies.
Masayoshi Takanaka the GOAT of electric guitar and summer vibes, I found him out randomly on TH-cam and now I'm addicted to his music lol
Some Casiopea is a good idea too...
@@joaoericocaldasdelima7735 i was bouta say casiopea
Masayoshi Takanaka is absolutely essential listening, the king
Absolutely yes to all of you. Japanese jazz fusion and city pop is so damn good
He’s getting closer to CASIOPEA and T-Square!!
If he discover that, his musical life will be dramatically changed
@@ankokunokayoubi Lets not talk about it to protect him.
Fightman with both bands together is just 👌
@@CVerse so good that it's more of a myth than a real thing
WHEN HE DOES CASIOPEA I WILL BE THERE!
I'm ready for the Charles Cornell City Pop era. Here's a list of meaty compositions from the era:
Kaoru Akimoto - Dress Down
Tatsuro Yamashita - Sparkle
Miki Matsubara - Mayonaka no Door / Stay With Me
Taeko Ohnuki - 4AM
Junko Yagami - Bay City
Anri - Goodbye Boogie Dance (live)
4AM is SO GOOD charles would love it
anri is such good vibe to listen to while driving at night
ANRI is goated
i love sparkle so much
I’m so hyped for the Charles’s CityPop era!
Another one would be Makoto Matsushita - First Light
I work in a warehouse, and we are constantly blasting Japanese City Pop. It just creates such a vibe.
80s Japanese music is pretty great. I have heard this song a few times while listening to citypop playlists, but had no idea it was so popular. It also has a fitting name, City Dolphin.
also casiopea, they're my guilty pleasure lol
@@samcaplan4646 you should feel guilty for calling it a 'guilty pleasure' - they're like one of the best bands of all time and you should be proud!!
@@samcaplan4646 More like an innocent pleasure :p
Pretty great is an understatement lol
@@samcaplan4646 casiopea is such a sick japanese jazz fusion band, check out masayoshi takanaka and t-square if you got the time
Charles, brace yourself for when you get to japanese fusion/funk jazz.
Casiopea waiting on the corner ;)
Masayoshi Takanaka is really good too
@@mevo1762 Yes he is! Once you start there's plenty to look into.
@@mevo1762YES
@@mevo1762 With summer around the corner, listening to his whole discography is a NEED. He's the embodiment of summer chill music
And T-Square just around the next corner!
Takanaka and Yamashita are more within the genre of city pop, but all phenomenal Japanese bands/musicians from that era.
We gotta get this guy on some Casiopea. Personal pick is their jazz fusion rendition of Bridge over Troubled Water!
Been obsessed with Casiopea and T-square for about a year now, unrivaled energy from both groups
Casopiea are the GOATs
Full agree!! Their stuff bangs so hard
Definitely love the stuff they put out in their earlier albums. super flight is THE BEST ALBUM they’ve produced and also my personal favorite record of all time
100% dude, CASIOPEA is amazing. I love Crosspoint and their live version of Fightman (ITS TERRIFIC)
American funk, jazz and boogie were a massive influence on City Pop. If you want to dive deeper into it, get ready for a whole new world of genre mixes and chord progressions. Check out Plastic Love by Mariya Takeuchi, the song that basically made City Pop famous in the west, or Mayonaka no Door (Stay with Me) by Miki Matsubara.
Did you know Marcus Miller played on Tokyo Tower by Toshiki Kadomatsu?
Interestingly, the Japanese audience never fell out of love with bossanova either and it has inspired a fair bit of vgm eg Costa Del Sol, Galdin Quay etc which young people in the 'West' are now enjoying. It's no longer 'elevator music' 😅
I love Plastic Love
@@cooldebt Brazil has a major influence on Jazz and always has since the 1960s with Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim getting popular in the USA and in jazz. City Pop's biggest foundation in music is jazz in my opinion so it makes sense that they'd latch onto Brazilian jazz as well. Also there is an enormous Japanese population in Brazil so that could also be a major factor.
@@caladbolg777 Aah, that explains the incredible Mateus Asato!
I'm Japanese and so surprised that you have picked many Japanese music, and I learn a lot from you and comments. I like seeing you are very excited about chords and rhythms lol
日本の音楽を聞くことが好きですから、私もこの説明が好きですよね。勉強なりましたね！
（日本語勉強しますから、日本語は多分正しくないですけど。。）
@@Ebilkill だいたい伝わるので大丈夫ですよ！
Japanese music is the big trend in the West, both old and new bands and artists are becoming very popular.
There are so many greats in so many genres. I am always finding great music to listen to.
If you want to hear an amazing Japanese guitarist, listen to Masayoshi Takanaka! Everyone of his Songs sounds like a day at the Beach, "Beleza Pura" sounds kinda like "All the things you are" and everything is filled with jazz, samba, Funk and good vibes!
Shoutout to Rainbow Goblins, that whole album is an experience
I'm actually kinda shook by the fact that you're covering Japanese City Pop! Genuinely one of the best genres ever!
Edit: Curious to know what people's favourite songs / recommendations are.. Please share them!
Some of my personal favourites are Shyness Boy, You Belong to Him and I can't stop the loneliness.
There was a span of about a month where I would listen to nothing but Plastic Love. 😅
@@RedheadButNotReally Dude, same though! In fact, I think that was basically my gateway song into the genre! It slaps so damn hard!
I can’t stop the night-toshiki kadomatsu
City night-meiko nakahara
Friday magic meiko nakahara
Emotion meiko nakahara
Last summer whisper-anri
@@Mowmauf Thanks for the suggestions! Haven't heard anything by Meiko Nakahara before, though Last summer whisper is 👌Will check those songs out!
Check out Casiopea they are so good
My good man, you need to check out Casiopea
mint jam
I’m so glad the keyboard is there. I remember watching Charles Cornell videos upside down
Only City Pop songs can make me feel melancholic and happy at the same time, it's a pretty amazing genre. ❤
Yes! Same.
You nailed it
true
Saw Kingo Hamada and clicked. Simple as that.
A man of culture.
For real I was pleasently suprised.
Was not expecting it on my feed, but I ain't arguing about it either lol. Nice to see the album making the rounds.
I find it fascinating that young people using tiktok are choosing our old music as their bgm
@@cooldebt for real. I didn't originally know it was from tiktok. I was listening to the album in the car during a drive (a midnight cruise, if you will) then it got to that part and my girlfriend was like "wait isn't that the song from tiktok?" I had no idea.
Casiopea - Galactic Funk (Live) the keyboard solo is amazing!
Dude, the chords in there literally sound like Super Mario Kart - Rainbow Road
The absolute pleasure of seeing the joy on your face when you - person who already loves the magical world of music - found a new reason fall in love with music again is immeasurable. And it gets even greater because of the fact that the new reason for you is something I already love. Thank you!
Imagine growing up in the 80s, walking around in a Japanese department store with this type of music playing in the background. Grow up to study jazz and discovering even more magic in city pop. The nostalgia is unlike anything else.
Tatsuro Yamashita's album named "For You" is still selling hard copies. A joy to listen to.
I wish it were easier to listen to his music. TH-cam strikes down his music in videos everywhere
@@CVerse i just have For You, Ride on Time, Big Wave, Spacy as .flac files downloaded locally
I will immediately watch literally anything you put out from Casiopea
This song is honestly one of my favs to play on the bass its just so fun all the way through
Gotta do some T-Square! If it helps, their songs inspired the Gran Turismo(Moon Over the Castle/Knights Song) and Arc the Lad video game series, and I most recently found out, the Super Mario overworld theme(Sister Marian). Their super hits include Omens of Love, Truth(F1 Japan Grand Prix theme), Takarajima(performed in the Hibike Euphonium anime). One of their sax players Masato Honda, plays with the Seatbelts/Yoko Kanno(Cowboy Bebop-Tank solo). Keizo Kawano, former keys players, played on the Mario Kart 8 soundtrack.
Yeah, they're absolutely one of the classic names to check.
They didn't just inspire the soundtrack, IIRC Masahiro Andoh's solo album was used AS the soundtrack.
I do also find it funny that their mist popular songs aren't even their best, Taking Mountain(tops), Bad Boys and Good Girls, traffic jam, megalith, and Japanese soul brothers are all incredible pieces of music but almost never talked about.
T-Square is the goat. “Hank and Cliff” and “Circuit Wanderer” are incredible listens for real.
@@Kumquat_Lord Consider that "best" is completely subjective, and it makes a lot more sense. Popularity comes from broad appeal. What interests you doesn't necessarily align with what has the most broad appeal.
Though it does kind of feel bad when nobody ever seems to talk about what you love. I absolutely adore Yoshiko Sai's album Mikkou, but I don't see that album talked about much at all. There is some stuff out there, it's not like you have to search in Japanese just to get results, but still.
@@Kumquat_Lordfair, I think the “approachability”/mainstream ness of those songs are what make them popular, at least for me.
As someone who has never used TikTok, and never will use TikTok, I've heard this song LONG before that app was a thing
You need to check out Japanese jazz fusion next. T-square has some incredible songs, like Japanese Soul Brothers, Traffic Jam, Anchor's Shuffle, Future Fly, and Scrambling. Tons of fun to listen to.
Don’t forget CASIOPEA
I came across Japanese City Pop a few years ago when I heard Maria Takeuchi’s-Plastic Love for the first time on iTunes. I loved it and it took me into a deep dive of pre-JPOP music. It was a great discovery.
I love this song so much because it's about a kid spotting a dolphin in the Tokyo bay which is just so cute. that chorus of him doodling with his voice and the saxophone to me is as if the kid is calling out to the dolphin and the dolphin responding
I'd love to see you cover:
Windy Summer - Anri
FLY - Spectrum
Sparkle - Tatsuro Yamashita
Tatsugare - Mai Yamane
And
Love was really Gone - Makoto Matsushita
Love was really Gone especially has a beautiful string outro that I know you'd absolutely love!
I’m Japanese, and I apologize for my poor English. I also love this song. Driving on Tokyo’s expressways while playing it is an incredible experience. Japanese city pop, which was originally known as New Music, has its roots in the band Sugar Babe. The group was produced by Eiichi Ohtaki and Tatsuro Yamashita, and they were heavily influenced by The Beach Boys.
In addition to the influence of American pop music, they frequently used tension chords. These jazz-like, complex-sounding chords didn’t pair well with distorted guitar sounds, leading to a clearer and more urban sound. The music also reflects the fresh sounds of early ’70s West Coast rock and singer-songwriters, along with the influence of AOR and soul that were popular in America during the ’70s and ’80s. It’s fascinating how city pop incorporates various genres, rather than just following the trends of Western music.
City pop feels like the soundtrack of Japan’s economic boom. I particularly appreciated when Tatsuro Yamashita said in 2019 that city pop isn’t just a genre but music that anyone can enjoy.
"I apologize for my poor English"
*proceeds to write in flawless English with perfect grammar*
@@justaguywhocommentsforfun
Haha thanks!
I guess I underestimate myself sometimes
the best way that my music teacher explained tritone substitutions to me (without me even knowing) is that a tritone can either resolve inwards (ex. B&F resolving to C&E) or it can resolve outwards (ex. B&F resolving to Bb&F#) This duality fits the fact that there are two distinct dominant chords that share that same tritone (in the case of B and F, the two chords are G7 and C#7) and these chords resolve nicely to Cmaj and F#maj respectively; the chords whose roots and thirds are the notes that the tritone likes to resolve to.
CITY POP WOOOOOOOOO
Midnight Cruisin' and Gentle Travellin' albums are my all-time favourites. Period. The harmony, the texture, the composition overall. Brilliant. Love Kingo and thank you for showing some solid musical recognition 😎❤
My dad shared this with me this weekend. Re-listening to it now, the piano chord progressions seem to have a very similar feel to Steely Dan and CASIOPEA's approach. It's such a joy that music can bring people together across languages and oceans.
I'm glad to see so many people in the same boat that they just immediately clicked the video and was just delighted to see he finally got to this genre.
"You've probably heard this a million times. It was a massive TikTok trend." I am clearly too old for this content.
It's also used a lot in TH-cam in Among Us meme 😀 a few years ago
I had no idea citypop was relevant to tiktok or amongus. Clearly we are too old...
*sickest beat drop you've heard in your life*
>* DO DOO DO DO DOODOOT*!
A lot of current music in Japan still has jazz influences. I have been checking out a lot of their rock/metal and some of the pop scene the last couple of years and they love to use jazzy/funky bass and some pretty jazzy sounding parts. There are also a lot of young jazz musicians over there. If you want an other Japanese pop artist (not city pop) that tends to use jazzy parts in their music (and a lot of different instruments live), you can check out a project like Zutomayo.
The Japanese music scene in all its genres is incredibly diverse and fascinating to listen to. The most surprising to me is the vocaloid industry, their producers, and their singers (some of which are VTubers). Some of the best pop I’ve stumbled accross in awhile.
Then there’s the entire Japanese rock/metal universe, which has single-handedly reinvigorated my love for rock.
From what I observered a lot of young musicians in Japan regardless of genre read the Gakuten (Musical Grammar) books through and through which seems to be underutilized in the West.
@@OfficialTigerino That would make a lot of sense. You can see and hear a lot of them really know what they are doing and a lot of them can also play multiple instruments as well.
The full version of the 100 Girlfriend anime opening could easily pass as a full-on modern fusion jazz track lol. Insanely complex arrangement and harmony.
I just love Charles' enthusiasm and the nerdy (in a good way) in depth knowledge is captivating. Love it!
4:26 That's one of my favorite things to do, that exact progression and those melodic landing spots. You seem extra hyped, but probably more for being able to show it to new people, because I'm sure you've done that combo a bunch of times before, too.
I would love to see a deep dive into Masayoshi Takanaka's Rainbow Goblins! An absolutely beautiful vinyl. A masterwork imo.
The Rainbow Goblins album by Masayoshi Takanaka
I absolutely love how excited about music he gets. This really shows and puts to words how much I love music and everything that goes with it.
Please listen to the album LOVE TRIP by Takako Mamiya, all tracks in order, it's such a wonderful journey (also, thanks for this analysis, I havent noticed all these details!)
Your videos keep getting better man!
I want Charles to look at popular 80s Japanese Hits now. I Can't Stop The Loneliness, Stay With Me and Plastic Love are probably the grooviest tracks in the world.
Omg!!! I literally commented on one of your other videos about Japanese City Pop, this genre of music is so intrinsically tied to my life!!! It’s my childhood in music form!
CITY POP ANALYSIS YESSSSS!! if youre looking for more things, def check out Cassiopea (they're more funk/jazz fusion from my understanding) as well as Ginger Root (not from the 80s but he's a modern artist with very very city pop-esque music)
The song itself is pretty whimsical and wistful too. :3
The title translates to 'Dolphin in Town' or 'Town with a Dolphin' and starts off like this:
"In the milky way in midnight
A boy caught a dolphin
Splashing the stars
The boy swam with the dolphin"
The song goes on to talk about how an old sailor fondly remembers the old days and telling the listener about it - then sings about imagining the dolphins everywhere like in puddles after it rains.
City-pop really likes theme of nostalgia, unrequited loves, or aesthetic/idealistic times.
I love the contrast between the joyful melody and the sad or emotional lyrics we often get in City Pop. When you're happy you enjoy the music, when you're sad, you understand it
@@bananabread427 agree 💯
It's painfully beautiful 💙
I'm living for the citypop videos Charles! It's crazy to me how much jazz influence Japanese music absorbed in the 70s and 80s, considering its origin as such an American form of music, I'm loving it so much lately. I feel like you'll really enjoy Windy Summer by Anri or Sparkle by Tatsuro Yamashita in particular
City pop absolutely slaps. People are saying it elsewhere but you absolutely need to listen to Anri. Windy Summer is so, so good. Also Mariya Takeuchi is queen.
The thing is half the people who heard this hook probably didn't even know it was a full song. I just heard Crystal Dolphin by Engelwood and assumed that was it. Then I was listening to a city pop playlist and this song came on and I lost my shit.
that sounds SO COOL. Now I just want to hear more of this
Yessssssssss! More city-pop!
The funny thing is we've been hearing these kinda sounds, especially the melodies, in video game music, and video games ofc were pioneered by Japan.
Japan was so far ahead of its time.
We NEEEEED more of these as of yesterday
Thanks for such a great video. I love your positive energy towards Music.
I live in Montpellier France, and music is a big deal here. But watching this kind of videos inspire me to continue exploring weird and beautiful harmonic devices!
Thanks Chanles!
Awesome vid! I'm familiar with City pop as a whole but have never heard this song before. Other cool Japanese artists who do some awesome things with harmony are Lamp and Kirinji. Would definitely recommend!
I just got this album on CD on Sunday from my friend who visited Japan and played it at work today! What a coincidence!
I haven't finished the video yet, but I can already welcome you to the deep, dark hole that is City Pop, you're never getting away!😍😂
A dark hole lit up by neon lights and skyscraper windows!
Overplayed? thank god I don't know tiktok exists
Now you do and I feel bad for you
Funk Tik Tok.
Glad I never downloaded tiktok, I can enjoy my City Pop in peace that way lol
Everyone here is BEGGING you to listen to Casiopea. And if there’s one track I’d recommend, listen to their track Galactic Funk live on TH-cam. There’s a specific piano part that would be perfect for you to figure out when the solos start playing
Masayoshi Takanaka! I love the Seychelles album. 🤌🏻
The arrangement is also so good, everything has its place/space. The electric piano and bass are killing it in this track!
I find it amusing how people who frequent TikTok think that everybody in the world watches TikTok.
I find it amusing how young people on TikTok are discovering 40-yr old pop music and sampling it for bgm (eg sped up or with some random 'dance' beat or something)
@cooldebt I think it’s a good way for those songs to stay alive! I’ve found a lot of cool old music through sampling. Also, some songs that use sampling end up sounding pretty cool. I don’t think it’s always a corner cutting method, sometimes just a genuine attempt at making art, like how you can make a collage out of old photographs.
'菊池ひみこ (Himiko Kikuchi) - Stormy Spring' is a fun time. The piano solo is all over the place
You have to do a video on CASIOPEA, specifically their album Mint Jams. Its the cleanest live recording I've ever heard.
初めまして🤗🤗
日本人のコメントが無い様子ですが、よくぞ日本人アーティスト達の楽曲の素晴らしさに気付いてくれましたね🤗🤗👍️👍️🎶🎶
コメント欄を観ると日本人以外の方々が日本のCity Popに着目してくれている様子が見えて嬉しくなります👍️👍️🙏🙏
日本在住のアメリカ人[Dr.Capital]氏の動画でも、日本人アーティスト達の楽曲組み立てやコード進行が日本的だと賞賛されています🤗😍
The fact that the internet jumped straight into showing Charles the Mario Kart lick _but never ever let him know about city pop_ has immediately convinced me that even these algorithms have no idea what they’re doing.
I know nothing about music theory and understood nothing he said,
but seeing him so excited and happy really made me happy for some reason.
I'd say I enjoyed this video lot more than I anticipated.
PLEASE check out masayoshi takanaka. If you need any reasons he plays a surf board guitar and has arguably the best album cover to ever exist of him skydiving over seychelles. I dont think I need to argue this much more for, at minimum, a listen.
Taeko Onuki - Labyrinth
Toshiki Kadomatsu - Airport Lady
Casiopea - Galactic Funk (live 1985)
Junko Yagami - Bay City
Plastic Love, Tatsuro, Casiopea and Takanaka please.
There is so much fantastic Japanese city pop. The music is at the same time joyful and nostalgic. For me it has the power to transport me to a better place. Some recommendations in no particular order: Tatsuro Yamashita’s Christmas Time in Japanese. Momoko Kiluchi’s album Adventure, especially the tracks Mystical Composer, Adventure and Nami Ni Naritai. But you basically can’t go wrong with any J City pop that has gotten a modern pressing, and they’re easy to come by because they have also been digitized and remastered most of the time
CITY POPPPPPP
Sparkle by Tatsuro Yamashita
Someday by Tatsuro Yamashita
Airport Lady by Toshiki Kadomatsu
BLUE AND MOODY MUSIC by Hiroshi Sato
Can't recommend these for studying enough. Especially Sparkle, quite simple harmonically, but does very interesting things like never once resolving to the tonic chord, fun deceptive resolutions and just a great feel overall.
6:01 please never stop with these random memes haha
This puts me to mind of the Smooth Jazz era from the early '90s. I'm sure JCP was a huge inspiration to many of those acts.
Note: I came over from watching this on Nebula (which could do with a comment system of its own).
I don't know city pop. I don't know you. I don't know how the algorithm got me here, but I'm not complaining.
Dude your enthusiasm for music had had a huge impact on me. Ive always been enamored by pretty grooves too.
Stevie Wonder wrote music with chord changes like this. A lot of whole step changes, both up and down. This is music from the late 70's.
Finally someone recognizes Kingo Hamada, i hope people would listen to his other albums, he has some of my favorite albums in my life ✨
Hatsu Koi by Toshiki Kadomatsu. One of the best piano intros I’ve ever heard
I love being able to visualize the music on the sheet music! It adds a lot to be able to see what you are discussing as well as hear it!
just wait until he discovers Anri 🙏
japanese city pop is one of my favorite music genres ever
do casiopia next
What I like about city-pop is their bass-lines. Simple and straight to the point.
Starlight Zone from Sonic One borrows heavily from this I can see.
The guy who made the Starlight Zone music for Sonic 1 is a part of a band called Dreams Come True which makes J-Pop and CityPop music, so that makes sense that you hear some similarities with other CityPop music. The Starlight Zone song can also be heard in a CityPop song that they made, called "薬指の決心 (kusuriyubi no kesshin)".
It's fun to hear how vgm uses jazz or pop from the West too as inspiration for some fantastic music. It's also fascinating to hear how The Consouls, 8Bit Big Band and J-Music Ensemble draw out those inspirations by using vgm as jazz standards. The Consouls' cover of Starlight really leans into the Latin music roots of the tune.
@@cooldebt Like Disco, CityPop has some Jazz and Latin influence but I think it's more in CityPop than Disco. If you like the Latin music influence in VGM, then you'll probably like the similarities between Spain by chick corea and Aquatic Ruins Zone from Sonic 2.
@@lovestarlightgiver2402 Yes, sometimes Zorsy (The Consouls keys player) will break into Spain in the outro of a Latin inspired cover 😄
@@cooldebt Im going to check them out :) thanks fir the tip!
I found out about city pop at the end of last year and its become my favorite genre. Anri's music is something else. And "Stay With Me" is always the Goat
Japanese stuff rules brother !!!
Hamada-san is genius and very humble, you should check his album out
I actually don't think I've heard this ever before. I guess you were wrong.
Same. I'm too old for TikTok.
Oh CHARRLLES... I've waited till I had a good chunk of time to watch this... I absolutely love this song... found it accidentally when exploring Japanese City Pop and it quickly became one of my favourite genres... this is SUCH a tune and I'm so happy you explored it! WE NEED A CITY POP SERIES PLEASEEEEEE 🥹🥹🤌🏾🤌🏾
I can't wait for the day he finds Nujabes. I would LOVE a breakdown of some of the songs from Metaphorical Music. Songs like Horn in the Middle, Blessing It, and Letter From Yokosuka would be perfect for him.
The bass on this song makes me smile from the first to the last note
Like most of Japanese songs has killer basslines, this happens in every genre
Hi Charles I’m a massive city pop fan and here’s some recommendations for harmonically complex songs that are reasonably popular :)
Summer suspicion - omega tribe
Futari no natsu monogatari - omega tribe
Galactic funk - casiopea
Take me - casiopea
Love is really gone - makoto matsushita
Say goodbye - hiroshi sato
Oh no oh yes - mariya takeuchi/akina nakamori
Koi no Yokan - anzen chitai
Sparkle - Tatsuro Yamashita
Airport Lady - Toshiki Kadomatsu
I often wished I was around during the 80s, but I just love discovering "new" city pop and synthpop songs