City Pop – Revisiting the Iconic Sounds of 80s Japan

City Pop – Revisiting the Iconic Sounds of 80s Japan

Hello and welcome to Japan Media Tour, I’m your host Stephen T. M., and today we’re heading back to the 80s to talk about City Pop as part of our ongoing mission to piece together the Japanese media landscape -But before we even get into the music, we

Need to understand the context within which it existed – the world of the Late Showa era -This was Japan’s golden age – the 1980s bubble economy, when it seemed like nothing could stop the island nation from becoming the world’s leading economic force, powered

By automobiles and electronics -There was a lot of legitimate fear in the United States that Japan was surpassing them as the world’s superpower -Some people in the States even refused to purchase Japanese products and shamed others for not buying American -This is the time when the idea of Japan as

A hyper-futuristic country was born -Think of the massive corporations from Japan that were thriving at that time: Sony, Panasonic, Hitachi, Toshiba, Nintendo, Fujifilm, Canon, Sharp, Toyota, Mitsubishi, and about a million more that changed the way we lived forever

-If I had a time machine and could travel to any place in any era, Tokyo in the 1980s might just be my choice, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that -That being said, I was watching a documentary the other day called Tokyo-ga, from Wim Wenders

In 1985, and he was lamenting the fact that the Japan he’d seen in the films of Yasujiro Ozu, that is the Japan of the 1950s and 60s no longer existed, and that everything had become Americanized by television -It reminded me of that Woody Allen movie

Midnight in Paris where the Owen Wilson character romanticizes the Paris of the 1920s, and then travels back in time where he meets a Parisian woman from the 20s who says she hates it and would rather be living in the late 1800s, La Belle Epoque

-But that’s just a little lesson in perspective that I’m going to continue to ignore -So whether it was the perfect era or not, Japan in the 1980s was prosperous, and it was selling a sort of ‘Japanese dream’ that’s been encapsulated in the art and

Media produced at that time -Not to mention cultural landmarks like the Shibuya 109, or Ichi Maru Kyuu department store built in 1979, or Tokyo Disneyland, which opened its doors in 1983 -The Nikkei Japanese stock market index tripled

At this time, as did the real estate market, and it’s been said that the land in greater Tokyo was 4 times more valuable than the entire United States -The Nikkei actually reached a peak in 1989, which it didn’t surpass until early 2024 -Japan was rich, and people were living extravagant lives

-It seemed like the party was never going to end, and that’s how City Pop music makes you feel -You want to travel to 1920s Paris? Go to a gallery and look at some surrealist paintings -You want to travel to 1980s Tokyo? Listen

To some City Pop -The city pop sound started to emerge in the late 1970s, and is characterized by smooth melodic vocals, catchy hooks, and complex arrangements featuring synthesizers -The genre was heavily influenced by American pop music and disco, as well as jazz and funk, but with a uniquely Japanese feel

-The musical arrangements were very intricate, especially compared to modern day pop music, and they have a kind of high-brow feel due to the jazz elements -City Pop went hand-in-hand with the party culture of the time, and was played in clubs

All across Tokyo late into the night -It was the type of scene that made young people feel mature, which the Japanese sometimes refer to as Adulty in Wasei Eigo, or Japanese English -The name City Pop is said to come from the

Japanese ads for Terry Melcher’s 1976 album Royal Flush, which was marketed as “Mellow City Pop” -The music magazine Record Geijutsu then categorised several popular artists of the late 70s as City Pop musicians -Now, no one artist is credited with inventing city pop, but Tatsuro Yamashita, appropriately

Known as the King of City Pop, is one of the most important figures in the 1980s pop scene, and was instrumental in the development of the genre -His song Christmas Eve was Japan’s best-selling single of the 80s and appeared on the charts

For over 35 straight years -This song was famously featured in a series of JR Central railway commercials that you should watch – they’re better than any Super Bowl commercial and at least as good as a few Oscar winning movies of the past 15 years -City Pop actually matches really well with commercials

-There’s nothing very risky about the music, and the songs are all about love and partying -There’s no subversive messaging involved, and why would there be? Everyone was living the good life and celebrating their opulence every day

-Tatsuro Yamashita got his start in the early 70s as a member of the band Sugar Babe, alongside Kunio Muramatsu, and Taeko Onuki -They released an album simply called Songs in 1975 before disbanding the following year -It seems like audiences just weren’t ready

For their sound yet, and they were actually booed off stage in Tokyo -However, over time Sugar Babe came to be respected as the pioneers they were -Yamashita released his first solo album in 1976 to moderate acclaim, but it wasn’t

Until 1980 that his album Ride on Time went number 1 off the success of the title track -From then on Yamashita was a household name in Japan, and would continue to rack up hit songs for decades to come -In fact, he’s topped Japan’s weekly Oricon

Albums Chart at least once in 4 different decades -One thing that sets Yamashita apart from a lot of his contemporaries in City Pop music is that he often creates every part of his music by himself, from vocals to percussion to computer programming -He was much more than just a performer, and

Has been referred to as a ‘sound craftsman’ -Tatsuro Yamashita is the highest selling male solo recording artist in Japanese history, and he ranked 6th on HMV Japan’s list of the top 100 Japanese artists, behind legendary acts like Yellow Magic Orchestra and Southern All Stars -On top of all that, he’s married to Mariya

Takeuchi, whom we can call the Queen of City Pop -And I think she might just be the most important figure in our story today -Takeuchi grew up in Shimane Prefecture in Western Japan at her family’s ryokan, which was established in 1877 by her great grandfather -By the way, old businesses like this are

Called shinise in Japanese -This term usually refers to businesses that are at least 100 years old, but some of them are much older, such as Kongō Gumi, which was founded in 578 CE, and is possibly the world’s oldest company still in operation

Today – it’s a construction company that builds and repairs temples and other world heritage buildings -At home, Takeuchi’s family was always playing records from all over the world and she credits the music of the Beatles for inspiring her to travel overseas -So she spent her third year of high school

Not in Liverpool, but rather in Rock Falls, Illinois before going on to study English literature at Japan’s Keio University -Mariya Takeuchi released her debut album, Beginning, in 1978, and it didn’t take long for her to achieve some level of commercial success -By the way, I think it’s worth mentioning

That just like her husband, Mariya Takeuchi is more than just a performer -She’s written songs for numerous different acts, including pop stars Yukiko Okada, Akina Nakamori, and Masahiko Kondō -Takeuchi’s first real breakthrough came in the form of her 1980 album Love Songs, which reached number one on the Japanese charts

-She went on hiatus for 3 years starting in 1981, feeling a bit overworked and stressed, returning with her comeback album Variety, featuring the song Plastic Love, which many of you may know -Plastic Love was the third single off Variety, and it actually wasn’t the megahit that you might have expected

-It did well reaching number 86 on the Oricon charts, but wasn’t as popular as the other two singles off the album -So why is Plastic Love such an integral part of the city pop narrative? -Well in 2017 the song was uploaded to a YouTube

Channel called Plastic Lover, and for whatever reason the algorithm recommended it to tons of people who would have otherwise never heard it -It doesn’t hurt that the song is an absolute banger, but a lot of people also credit the

Photo in the thumbnail for its popularity -I remember the first time I saw that thumbnail in my recommended videos – the black and white picture of a bright-eyed Mariya Takeuchi with her shoulder length hair – I was putting together a playlist for a house party and it popped

Up -I played it and I was blown away – then I went searching for similar songs and the rest is history – I was officially a City Pop fan -And I guess something similar happened to a lot of other people in the late 2010s, over

30 years after the song’s original release -In 2021 the song even got an official music video due to its newfound popularity -As for Plastic Lover’s 2017 upload, the photo that captured the attention of so many ended up being its downfall, as photographer

Alan Levenson filed a copyright strike against the uploader, and YouTube took the song down -For the record, Levenson apparently had a change of heart later on and he and Plastic Lover made up -So don’t send him any hate mail as he already

Received enough for one lifetime -If this photo really was responsible for so many views, then it’s really not so different than the album covers of the 1980s and their influence over young people at record stores in Japan -I guess I should mention that Levenson’s photo was actually originally used as the

Cover of Takeuchi’s single Sweetest Music, and not for Plastic Love -Now I know we all love a good album cover, but I think we probably underestimate the power they once had -How many people bought an album just because

It had a cool cover? Probably a lot -There were a few key elements that went into making a good City Pop album cover -Beautiful women, cool men, beaches, swimming pools, and a lot of blue and pink -The style was informed by pop art, surrealism,

And classic American advertisements -I see a lot of David Hockney influence in these pieces – City Pop idealized California, and no one captured the essence of the U.S. West Coast quite like Hockney -One illustrator whose work is synonymous

With the art of City Pop is Hiroshi Nagai, who designed iconic album covers like Eiichi Otaki’s A Long Vacation – a sparkling swimming pool with palm trees around it -By the way, before he became a City Pop icon, Otaki was a member of the band Happy End with

Haruomi Hosono of YMO -He also produced Sugar Babe’s album ‘Songs’ -I’ll also give an honourable mention to Eizin Suzuki who designed Tatsuro Yamashita’s For You album cover, among others -Again you can see how the American aesthetic influenced his work -The 1980s was probably the decade in which

Japan’s fascination with American culture reached its zenith with the popularity of icons like Madonna and Michael Jackson -The 80s really was just the age of the superstar though wasn’t it? Not just in Japan, but all over the world

-Let’s get back to the 2010s though, and the influence City Pop has had on contemporary Western culture -It’s helped to inspire new genres, like future funk and vaporwave -Future funk is kind of a misnomer I guess, seeing as it’s heavily influenced by the music of Showa Era Japan – it’s kind of

Similar to the concept of retro-futurism I suppose – a nostalgia for past visions of the future -And from a Western perspective, 80s Japan was like a vision of the future, what with all the neon signs and technological innovations

-So yeah, Future Funk is heavy on sampling funk, disco, and city pop, and it thrived on Soundcloud and YouTube, repurposing anime characters like Ramu chan and Sailor Saturn for thumbnails and album art -One of the most famous Future Funk producers

Is a guy out of Portland, Oregon, USA by the name of Yung Bae who has sampled just about every City Pop song in existence -The Vaporwave genre uses similar sounds and imagery, but is more chill, slowed down, and lo-fi, whereas Future Funk is more like dance

Music -If you search Vaporwave on Google or YouTube you’ll see screen caps from old video games, 80s office interiors, and lots of neon pink and aqua -Vaporwave has also bled into some Soundcloud and emo rap, and City Pop itself has even been sampled in huge mainstream pop hits like

Out of Time by the Weeknd, which incorporates multiple elements of Tomoko Aran’s Midnight Pretenders -Other recent City Pop samples include Tyler the Creator’s Gone, Gone, Thank you, which samples Fragile by Tatsuro Yamashita, as well as tracks by the likes of DJ Premier, The Alchemist, and Beanie Sigel

-So obviously City Pop has made its mark in the world of rap music -One notion I’d like to propose now is that when something comes back it never returns in exactly the same form as before -Originally, City Pop was representative of

The Americanization of Japan, but I think you could say the 2010s City Pop revival is about the opposite: the Japanese influence on the Western World -We all grew up on Japanese anime and video games, and so it was only natural we’d fall

In love with Japan – hell, that’s why this podcast exists in the first place -So if the City Pop revival is a mirror image of the original 1980s run, then it’s a well-worn mirror, cracked and dusty -We’re not dressing up in suits and mini

Dresses to go to the club and dance, we’re sitting in our rooms watching anime, but we’re listening to the same music – how does that work? -What was a reality in 1980s Japan is now a fantasy

-There’s a sense of hopelessness all around us and so we look to the past and think about better days -Perhaps this is why so much of the imagery accompanying vaporwave music is dreamlike – it’s an escape, a way to forget about the future and get nostalgic about days gone by

-Now I know that all sounds pretty glum and gloomy, but it’s actually one of the beautiful things about music – if you’re listening to a great song you can exist in any era you want – art is time travel -Anyway, let’s get back to reality, shall

We? -The 2010s may have been the first time City Pop really captured the imagination of Western audiences, but back in the 90s a new genre called Shibuya-kei emerged in Tokyo – sampling the nostalgic melodies of artists like Mariya Takeuchi, Taeko Onuki, and Miki Matsubara -Shibuya-kei takes many forms, and is highly

Experimental – I encourage you to search it up – check out artists like Cornelius and Fureneshi -While Fureneshi is a bit underground, Cornelius is massively successful, and actually did an NPR Tiny Desk concert back in 2018 – note that was around the time City Pop had come back into the public consciousness

-By the way, Shibuya-kei just means “Shibuya style” – there are other genres in Japan that use this same naming convention, such as Visual-kei -So a lot of people who hear vaporwave or Shibuya-kei remark that it sounds like video game music, and this isn’t necessarily a coincidence

-A bunch of Nintendo games in the 80s and 90s used music that was inspired by City Pop, including the Mario and Zelda games -The Fairy Fountain music from The Legend of Zelda is supposedly based off of Tatsuro Yamashita’s Morning Glory, as is the music from World 3 of Super Mario Brothers 3

-The influence of City Pop on anime music is even more obvious, with City Pop stars like Matsuko Mawatari and Miho Morikawa singing the themes for Yu Yu Hakusho and Ranma ½ respectively -And how about the influence on fashion? -In our previous episode on the Japanese fashion

Label Comme des Garcons I went through some of the Japanese fashion movements of the 80s, including Bodicon, or Body Conscious, which was basically a fashion trend characterized by bright colours and tight dresses -Bodicon style was very much associated with City Pop and the hedonistic night club scene of Bubble Era Japan

-I think I kind of dismissed bodicon fashion in the Comme des Garcons episode, and lauded the fact that Rei Kawakubo’s Shock of Black directly opposed it -And yes, Comme des Garcons 1981 debut in Paris was somewhat more thought-provoking

Than what most people were wearing to clubs in Shibuya at that time, but it’s worth noting what the frivolous bodicon style said about life in Tokyo in the 80s -Just like City Pop music, it was connected to the idea that people were enjoying life

And not worried about making grand political or philosophical statements, and there’s some beauty in that -I don’t want to make it sound like City Pop is totally superficial though, it’s great music, and it took great minds with

Great talent to dream it up in the first place -I’ll give a little shoutout to Haruomi Hosono and Happy End here – they’re not a City Pop band, but they’re credited with laying the groundwork for groups like Sugar Babe to then solidify the genre as one of

The most iconic movements of late Showa Japan -And City Pop really is a movement, it’s a vibe or a feeling more than it is one particular sound -For example, the music of Tatsuro Yamashita’s former Sugar Babe bandmate, Taeko Ohnuki is

Like something you’d hear in a jazz lounge while you sit and enjoy a whiskey and an indoor cigarette – this is 1980s Japan after all -Ohnuki’s songs are quite a far cry from those of Mariya Takeuchi, but still have the same underlying influences, and same sophisticated

Vibe -If Takeuchi’s music is more fun, then Ohnuki’s is slower and more soulful -Her most famous album is called Sunshower and starts off with the hit song Summer Connection, which is actually one of her more uptempo tracks -It’s a great album, and legends like Ryuichi

Sakamoto and Haruomi Hosono have their fingerprints all over the instruments and musical arrangement -You should also listen to Ohnuki’s 1978 follow-up titled Mignonne -I might even like Mignonne just as much as I like Sunshower -Ohnuki certainly collaborated with a lot of pop music heavyweights, but she was a star

In her own right -Aside from her deep City Pop catalogue, she’s done a bunch of music for video games and anime too, such as Mother 3, Animal Crossing, and the 2020 movie Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop -Another City Pop artist we need to talk about is Miki Matsubara

-Matsubara grew up in Osaka, where her mother was a member of a comedy jazz band called Crazy Cats -Just in case you didn’t know, Osaka is a kind of hot spot for comedy in Japan – just thought I’d throw that in there

-Now Matsubara didn’t become a comedian, but she did inherit her mother’s musical ability, playing the piano by age 3, and joining a rock band called Kurei in her teenage years -When Matsubara was just 17 and still in high school, she moved to Tokyo by herself and

Sang in different clubs around the city -She was noted for being cute, but having a powerful and mature voice that didn’t seem to match her looks – an example of the concept of gyappu that’s popular in Japan – I talked about this a bit in a previous

Episode, but it’s basically the gap between two different characteristics of a person, like how in Pikachu in Pokemon is very small yet very formidable in battle -It didn’t take long for Matsubara to be discovered and in 1979 her debut song Mayonaka no Doa, better known as Stay With Me became an immediate hit

-In 2020, Stay With Me actually ended up having a similar revival to that of Mariya Takeuchi’s Plastic Love -The song was all over YouTube and TikTok, and even spent time on top of the Spotify charts that year -As is the case with many City Pop artists, anime also contributed to Miki Matsubara’s

Success -Throughout the 80s and 90s she sang several anime theme songs, most notably for the Gundam series -Sadly, in the year 2000, Matsubara withdrew from the public eye due to a late-stage cancer diagnosis -According to a documentary segment about

The singer on a Japanese variety show, she sent out an email to friends and collaborators stating that she would no longer be making music. She also said that she would be cancelling her cell phone and email, and that there was no need to reply to her message

-Apparently Matsubara then burned her sheet music and records -There are many different interpretations as to why she did this, with some stating that she blamed her music career on her missing out on living a normal life -She also seems to have blamed her popstar lifestyle for her illness, and maybe burning

The music was cathartic, as though destroying the music was akin to eradicating her cancer -Matsubara passed away in 2004 at the age of 44, spending her final days at her parents’ house with her family -At her funeral, her husband read out her

Last email, in which she said she was hoping to get healthy and have a fresh start in life -Unfortunately she never got the chance, and although she may have blamed her career for missing out on other parts of life, I think she would have been happy to see the resurgence

Of Stay With Me 41 years after its original release -Her debut album Pocket Park was actually repressed on vinyl in 2020 -And the return of vinyl is yet more evidence for how powerful a force nostalgia can be

-That’s not what the City Pop era was about though – it was all about what was the newest, the shiniest, the best -People didn’t want vinyl records at that time – they wanted cassette tapes -And 1979 was the year Sony introduced the

Walkman portable cassette player -This was a game-changer – for the first time, you could walk down the street, listening to your favourite songs -Maybe walking through the busy streets of Roppongi, listening to Stay With Me or Plastic Love -This is also around the time cassette players

Became commonplace in cars -So maybe you’d be driving around Chiba Prefecture pretending you were on the Pacific Coast Highway -Pop songs became like the background music for people’s lives, and this helped define the City Pop style -Young people in Tokyo’s golden age could

Relate to the music with its glamorous aura matching the sparkling streets of the thriving metropolis -Music was now something you could take with you anywhere you went, and there must be a parallel innovation in the late 2010s that helped bring City Pop back -I think pretty much everything in our current

Era ties into social media somehow, and maybe it’s just the insane amount of access it gives us to music from all different times and places -All right, I’m going to feel bad if I leave out some of other the great City Pop artists,

So I’ll very quickly mention a couple more of my favourites -Anri, A-N-R-I is definitely worth checking out – her song Last Summer Whisper has a crazy bassline that just goes hard as hell -Toshiki Kadomatsu’s album Sea is a Lady is perfect music for cruising around in the summertime

-And Momoko Kikuchi and EPO also have some hits -If you haven’t already, you’re about to go down a YouTube rabbit hole that will never end -But what caused the 1980s City Pop craze to end? -I mean, every movement ends sooner or later,

But why did City Pop in its original form disappear at the time it did? -Not to say that it disappeared entirely – As we’ve seen, City Pop didn’t die, it just changed clothes. It traded in it’s vibrant colours for something more subdued

-Well the Japanese economy took a turn for the worse in 1991 and City Pop went down with it -The 90s were a time of economic stagnation in Japan, and are known as the Lost Decade -Times got tough, people got serious, and

They wanted music with a message -It was no longer so easy for them to identify with the carefree vibe of City Pop -The bubble burst, the lights came on, and the party was over -All right that’s all I’ve got on City

Pop for today – my research led me down a lot of different paths I’ll have to explore further in the future, so look forward to that -Now stay tuned for this week’s Bonus Topic -So in the wake of the sad news of the passing of Shigeichi Negishi – he was 100, by the

Way – inventor of the first karaoke machine, the Sparko Box, in 1967 I wanted to talk about karaoke a little bit -Karaoke is of course a Japanese word, kara-oke, kara meaning ‘empty’ and oke meaning orchestra -So your image of karaoke might involve a

Dimly lit dive bar that pushes a few tables aside every Tuesday where you get up and sing in front of an audience of drunk strangers -Maybe your down Florida way and you hear someone’s aunt singing Margaritaville while you order up a pitcher of Coors Light

-But if you’ve ever been to Japan, or watched the movie Lost in Translation, then you’ll know that the best way to sing karaoke is in a private room with your friends -Now, this type of private karaoke room is becoming increasingly popular in the west,

But it’s honestly shocking how ubiquitous these places are in Japan -Two things you can count on anywhere you go – conbini and karaoke -And I don’t know how many of my nights out in Japan end up at a karaoke spot, but

It’s a lot of them -It really is the perfect place to go late at night after the bar when you just want to party a little longer, or when the trains have all stopped and you’re too far from home

-Cabs are pretty expensive in Japan, and the trains generally don’t run very late, so a lot of people actually stay overnight in karaoke spots or manga cafes, as they’re cheaper than hotels -Usually there’s one or two people singing

And drinking while a couple others are passed out on the couch, getting the worst sleep of their lives -Private rooms aren’t the only way to enjoy Japan’s favourite pass-time though, karaoke is also common in certain bars, especially what are called Snack Bars in Japan -Snack Bars, or Snakku, are not what they

Sound like at all -These are typically small spots with an older woman called a ‘Mama’ who will chat with you while you drink -They’re a cornerstone of the Showa Era urban landscape – and every time I see one I just want to take a picture on an old Fujifilm disposable camera

-So yeah, in these Snakku you sing in the main room with all the other patrons, though they’re generally pretty small, so there won’t be that many people -Karaoke isn’t just for drunkards though, it’s pretty common for families to go together

Or for friends to go after school and sing a few anime theme songs while they eat some french fries or something like that -A lot of people in Japan will actually go to karaoke alone and practice their singing – this is called hitokara, hito being short

For hitori, which means alone -This is a good chance for individuals to practice their juuhachiban, which is one song that they are especially good at -I think everyone in Japan secretly has a juuhachiban – I’m still working on mine though, maybe Sky High by Jigsaw -Anyway, Japan really got karaoke right, and

I hope Western countries can step their game up a bit -The karaoke spots in Canada tend to be pretty grimey, whereas the ones in Japan feel kind of like little hotels or something, and a lot of them have all you can drink options

And some decent food -Definitely not the best food you’ll eat in Japan though -Those late nights in Tokyo usually involve a stop at a ramen shop either before or after karaoke -So yeah, RIP to Mr. Negishi, and to all of you, stay tuned for this week’s recommendations

-I’ve got a couple of recs for you this week, one for the party people, and then with all the talk of Americana I’m going to throw in a burger shop as well -So after talking for half an hour about City Pop you know I gotta recommend a club

-And one of the most famous clubs in Tokyo is Womb in Shibuya – it’s been around since the year 2000, and it’s still going strong -The club is open Thursday, Friday, Saturday until 4:30 AM -They get tons of big acts, both international

And Japanese, from the likes of Steve Aoki and The Chemical Brothers to Ken Ishii and Shinichi Ōsawa -Osawa is really sick by the way, if you’ve never heard him -It’s not a huge club, it’s 4 floors with

A capacity of 800, which is a good thing in my mind – I don’t like to be lost in a sea of people, and I prefer something a little smaller -Another thing I like about it is that the focus is on the music

-People don’t just go there to get wasted, they actually go because they enjoy the techno and house music the club is known for -Just to be clear though, people are wasted, that’s just not their sole reason for being there

-One thing I hate is clubs that just play top 40 and no one’s really even thinking about the music -Apparently Womb is also home to Asia’s largest mirror ball, if that matters to you -But yeah, check it out if you’re in Shibuya at some point -All right one more recommendation for you

Today: Henry’s Burger in Daikanyama – they’ve also got a location in Jiyugaoka, but that’s a bit far from central Tokyo -Now, I’ve had a lot of burgers in Japan, and I think Henry’s is pretty close to the top of the list – right up there with Handsome

Burger in Nagoya, which I recommended in the episode on Earthbound -Daikanyama is also a really cool area, so it’s worth checking out if you haven’t been there before -Henry’s offers a wagyu beef burger, as well as a pork burger – I’ve had both, and they’re both really good

-I prefer the beef, but that’s just who I am -The pork came with an egg on it, which is nice, but I like to keep it classic – some cheese, veggies, and a little special sauce – kind of like a Big Mac sauce – the type

They have everywhere these days -They’re smashburgers, again, like most spots these days seem to be, so if you’re hungry, I’d say get a double, because single smashburgers tend to be a bit small -So that’s it, go get yourself a burger

And head to the club -I hope you had fun looking back on Japan’s bubble era with me, and next week we’re going back to the well, once more, to watch the 1985 film Tampopo, a movie that’s as fun as it is clever

-It’s silly and genius all at once, and if you love food, especially ramen, then I think you’re going to enjoy it -It’s got some familiar faces in it too -Anyway, that’s all I’m going to say for now, this is Stephen T. M. signing off and I’ll see you next time for Tampopo

In episode 14 we dig deep into City Pop, the sophisticated music of Japan’s bubble era in the late 1980s. City Pop made a comeback in the late 2010s, with artists like Mariya Takeuchi and Miki Mastsubara inspiring genres like future funk and vaporwave. We also talk about anime, karaoke, and the Tokyo club scene.

Henry’s Burger:
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Womb:
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