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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)
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
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.
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.
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' 😅
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.
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!
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.
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)
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
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 just recently got into listening to music like this after listening to Himiko Kikuchi's "Flying Beagle". I was blown away and began listening to more like it, and everything else was just as good or better. The Japanese are jazz fusion wizards
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!
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 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.
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.
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.
<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="266">4:26</a> 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!)
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.
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.
"Ride on Time" is such a classic citypop album, it's worth listening all the way through. If you want one track I think the opener "Someday" is the place to start.
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!
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 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)
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.
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.
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.
There's a song called Crazy for You by Marina Saito which sounds like something from the era but was apparently only released 10 years ago. It's more full on than the 80s ones. Big voice, big brass hits, but somehow held together with a rather mild funky synth that continues throughout. Highly underrated.
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!
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
I’d enjoy hearing you talk about any song from Takako Mamiya’s “Love Trip” If you’re looking for something with slightly more intricate harmony, “Summer Candles” and by Anri is excellent. LOVERS ON VENUS is also a banger. Taeko Onuki is also extremely well-known and well-respected in the community. Her album sunshower is a pretty classic jumping-off point with some cool songs.
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).
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!
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.
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 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 never use tiktok but I was fortunate enough to play bass for a friends final performance for his degree and this was one of the songs. So fun to play on bass!! A couple of songs I would recommend if you haven't done them already are Dark Plum Sauce by Li Ronghao and Circles by Yoga Lin. Fantastic MandoPop songs
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