The Mid-Autumn Festival holiday is fleeting, and there is still a week to go before the National Day holiday. At noon on the first day after the holiday, the whole body is a low battery warning, and it is time to recharge yourself! Put on your headphones and find solace in the relaxed, bright, dynamic and free City Pop music melodies. In the recent feature, we invited 9 music lovers, including music producers, artists, music bloggers, etc. to share a city Pop private playlist that healed their moods. When the notes start to beat, it's better to leave all the tiredness, anxiety, and unhappiness to the music.
David Shu
Musician, producer, sound recordist
Weibo @Shu David DizzyBoy
SOMEDAY- YAMASHITA MEIRO
Whenever I'm lazy or timid, this song by Yamada lang will give me a lot of motivation to move forward. Funky's rhythm contains the breath of youthful sunshine, no matter how many times you listen to it, you can immediately be happy. In the mid-1970s, Yamadatarō, one of city Pop's representative musicians, traveled to the United States to record his first solo album. At that time, he accumulated a lot of experience, and he was also an important figure in promoting the development of Japanese recording technology and the recording industry, and he has always admired him as a recording engineer.
rise
Senior music planner and music critic
《DOWN TOWN》 - Sugar Babe
《DOWN TOWN》 - EPO
This is the number one city pop song in my mind, because I think two of its most famous versions — the male version of Sugar Babe's band in which Yamada tarantula participated and the female version of the EPO adaptation cover — are the examples of the male and female that City Pop pointed to in the 80s. Whether it is to explore the aesthetic and function of music, or the image and positioning of the performers, this song is very "representative". Every time I listen, I find the passion to go on an outdoor outing. In fact, for me, the appeal of City Pop is this optimism and humor about the boring life.
Taoschi
Young artists
《Smile at Mick Jagger》 - Akina Nakamori
The song is also very avant-garde to listen to today, 35 years later. Put on the headphones and enter a Ming Dish ASMR, she begins to rummage around you, light a cigarette, pour wine, stir glasses, typewriter, lazy and sexy vocals with the sound of the tape recorder humming, from virtual to real, left and right channels back and forth, making people very immersive. Listen often when you are alone, happy and at ease.
Zhou Yang
Video bloggers
Weibo @Zhou Yang HOPICA
《Through the Windshield》 - Kaoru Shibuto
The song, which was included on Sudo's 1983 album PLANETARIUM, was initially drawn to the Record Future style of the album cover. This cover is like predicting that the City Pop era will become a trend again in 40 years, confirming that aesthetics can never be outdated or advanced. If you look closely at the lyrics, you will find that there are many expressions of "greasy" and "shame" that are slightly "greasy" and "shameful" in the current social networking scene, such as "Assistant Xi から抱きついて (excitedly hugging you from the passenger seat)", but in this song, such "shame" seems extremely reasonable - because in City Pop, everyone will become the protagonist of love in life.
nana
Lead singer of the band RollingZoos
Weibo @RollingZoos
《Tides》- Yamashita Shiro
Friends who like City Pop must be very fond of Yamada Lang, a song I heard during the last typhoon day in Hangzhou. At that time, I stayed at home, troubled by some things in life and music, and the storm outside the window made the room even more quiet. This song is not full of jumping rhythm like most City Pop songs, but starts in a soothing way, and then gradually unfolds the atmosphere with a familiar tone, especially when the harmony appears, which can be said to repair me at that time. Then I opened the lyrics and saw a line that said, "Isn't it cold, barefoot." "I was touched.
Adam
Music blogger
Weibo @AdamPerez_ Wang Aidong
Love Begins- GOOD BYE APRIL
Good BYE APRIL celebrates their 10th anniversary this year, and here's a song from their third mini-album, Xanadu, released last year, "Love", which is a song that makes people want to fall in love. The whole album also has a feeling of returning to the 80s, boldly incorporating gorgeous choruses and dreamy electronic sound effects, and the rustic sense and nostalgic melody of lead singer Kura Pinxiang are also fully injected.
"CITY" - Shimohata Love
Voice actor Ai Shimota debuted as a solo singer last year, released the first mini album "Moonrise", the title song "CITY" with a strong 80s flavor, the voice is sophisticated, at first I thought it was an old singer. Ai Shimota himself is also very fond of the music of the 80s, and has written his experiences and feelings when he arrived in Tokyo at the beginning of the year into the lyrics, and the production of the songs has completely followed the music equipment of the 1980s, but after the completion, he still uses the latest post-processor, with a retro sense of the 1980s and a bit modern.
Radio Woon
Art illustrator, creator of the illustration project LALA COMPANY
Weibo @RadioWoon
《Climax Night》 - Yogee New Waves
Although it is a very young band, it can actually play such a good City Pop music. Their genre gives me the feeling of "summer hot late nights" and it was they first spotted on Fuji Rock in 2017.
《I'm a Boy》 - Sunny Day Service
Sunny Day Service album "DANCE TO YOU" plays a very City Pop concept, the arrangement and rhythm of this song is very relaxed, the chorus is simple and direct, and the constant repetition will make you quickly and can't help but hum along.
Zhou Zijie
Director, cinematographer, martial arts instructor
《Cat's Eye》 - 杏里
City Pop overlaps with the golden age of Japanese animation, and if you browse the City Pop playlist of the music player, you will find that many City Pop playlist covers will use animation screenshots. "Cat's Eye Three Sisters" is one of the sexual enlightenment, when I was a child, I may just think that the music is good, but now I see that this BGM full of Funk and dance music style complements some ambiguous pictures in the animation, and with the seductive limelight of the three sisters of Cat's Eye, it is full of modern rogue Robin Hood-style night city romance.
lulu
Director of Luuv Label, a Chinese and Japanese music label
Weibo @LuuvLabel
Tokyo - The Lamb
We represent the copyright of many Japanese independent artists, including many new artists influenced by City Pop in the 80s, and I was very impressed by The Lamb. Lead singer Takashi Watanabe's voice is gentle and romantic, and the song is inspired by a passage in Haruki Murakami's "Strange Bird Line". Contrary to the City Pop atmosphere driven by the rhythm of disco and future funk, The Lamb fuses neo-soul, jazz and saxophone to create its own Neo City Pop sound.
Editor, Interview — Luzy
Cover Illustration — Ono Itoe (from Weekend Pictorial No. 1186 "Romantic Island")
Figure — Album art for each music