WOOOOOOOOOO! Citypop is a style of music from Japan in the 70's and 80's characterized by its bright subject matter, masterful pop production, and strange resurgence in popularity starting just this decade. Featuring an array of new Japanese instrumental technology from Casio and Yamaha as well as many skilled composers, the genre encapsulated 1980's neon Japan and now the world in the 2020's thanks to platforms like YouTube. A new peg on the wall of Japanese pop culture phenomena - perhaps the resurgence can be linked to the rise of Japanese lo-fi hip hop beats videos, as well as the prominence of Japanese music in memes, anime, and video games such as the Yakuza series. Regardless, Pacific is a rooting-tooting good time. One of the finest examples of pop music from this era, the album is actually a collaboration of sorts between three amazing musicians: Haruomi Hosono, who was in Happy End (an early psych rock band) and Yellow Magic Orchestra (one of the pioneers of electronic music). Shigeru Suzuki, also in Happy End and an accomplished guitarist on many solo albums. Tatsuro Yamashita, a popular figure in citypop with a flair for Beach Boys style harmonies and dense arrangements of sunny music with hooks that would make Quincy Jones blush. Each figurehead takes two to three songs on the album and runs with the theme of the "Pacific Ocean." many citypop albums have a single theme, such as a specific location or a night on the town, etc. The result is a combination of early electronic beats, vibrant funk, relaxed surf rock, and even some folk and jazz. It's so much fun. Citypop puts me in a great mood - it sends me to another time and place filled with palm trees and white clouds scattered through a blue sky. I have few additional words to say regarding this album and citypop as a whole. It is a joy to explore the amazing music from this era, to jam out to something from halfway across the world that still sounds so lively. Not to get corny, but this music has soul that will just not stop being funky. This is a summer day's sunshine condensed into a single album.
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