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City Pop: The Timeless Comfort of its Technicolour Sounds


Over the past decade, a wave of nostalgia has blessed our algorithm in the form of groovy

baselines and rhythmic drum patterns, packaged together in the exultant music genre that is City

Pop. In light of the genre’s remarkable resurgence in recent years, it only feels right to delve

deeper into City Pop’s rich cultural history and the appeal of its famed retro artists in 2026.

City Pop finds its origins in mid 70s urban Japan, centred around the large cosmopolitan city of

Tokyo. Musical sounds from the West and Japanese folk movements of the 60s aided in the

formation of the genre that defined the new ways of urban living. City Pop can be described as a

love child genre of sensational music movements of the past. Combining elements of jazz, funk,

disco and R&B, to create a sound that is exciting and refreshing, yet reminiscent of the sounds of

its musical predecessors.


The vibrant sounds of City Pop was a reflection of the cosmopolitan lifestyle of Japan’s ‘bubble

economy’ period of the 1980s. A period which saw rapid urban growth, heated economic activity

and technological advancements. Electronic instruments and Walkmans that became popularised

during this period helped the growth of the genre.


City Pop served two purposes among this new found way of living in the swiftly growing Tokyo

cityscape. One was to mirror the glitz of the expanding city in music form. With its high, polished

production and electronic sounds, City Pop could be felt as the musical representation of city

living in 70s and 80s Tokyo during its economic boom.


The other was to serve as a musical form of escape from the stresses and worries surrounding

the new world and fast paced city life. Album covers often depicted shiny vintage cars, speeding

down a highway, its destination unclear but seemingly away from the city or blue waves and

sandy beaches, impossibly coloured palm trees swaying in the forefront. Entire discographies of

various artists of the period were filled with tracks that explored the feeling of yearning for a

summer getaway.



Tatsuro Yamashita, better known as the ‘Godfather of City Pop’ broke out into the music scene

with the hit single Ride On Time in May of 1980. As the sixth single released in the artist’s career,

Ride On Time was the first of Yamashita’s songs to enter the Oricon Singles Chart, reaching its

peak at third place. The song opens with the lyrics ‘I’m running past the blue horizon now, Keenly

feeling the flow of time on me’. The rest of the lyrics that follow are equally idyllic and points the

way to a feeling of wistfulness that comes over an individual when driving along the ocean

horizon.



Alongside this idea of escape and remembering distant summer memories, comes the feeling of

nostalgic melancholy. City Pop has always been described as good driving music. Listening to its

glossy production in a car that speeds through dark rain streaked streets, bright city lights

reflecting off of puddles and droplets of rain on windows. This sort of atmosphere also feels fitting

to many of the hit 80s City Pop tracks, just as much as a sunny summer beach getaway. This

duality was also just another alluring factor to the multi faceted genre.


Just as quickly as the genre grew alongside the economy, the bubble period ended and so did

the joyous allure of the City Pop sounds. The 90s and early 2000s brought harsh economic

realities back to the everyday lives of Tokyo civilians and the popularity of City Pop went into a

steady decline.


The genre stayed dormant until social media algorithms brought back forgotten City Pop tracks to

Gen Z’s feeds. Miki Matsubara’s Stay With Me (Mayonaka no Door) single handed ignited City

Pop’s cultural revival in the 2020s. The song hit number 1 on Global Spotify Charts, seemingly

out of nowhere, in December 2020, staying in the number 1 position for an astounding 11

consecutive days. The technicolour sounds of hit titles such as Mariya Takeuchi’s Plastic Love

and Remember Summer Days by Anri, flooded TikTok and various other social media platforms.



The timing of this resurgence coincided with the global Covid pandemic. In a time of self isolation

in an uncertain world state, many young people reached for retro music in search of comfort. City

Pop is a vibrant genre of music, in which the melodies carry a sense of longing for a time that we

never experienced, with a jubilancy that transcends language.


The social climate of the pandemic generation strangely mirrored the stresses of 80s Japan. In

its original heyday, City Pop offered an escape from the chaos of a rapidly growing urban

economy. In the 2020s, the joyous tone of the genre offered peace away from a society

dominated by worries surrounding a global pandemic.



The resurgence of City Pop and its cultural impact in the modern day music scene can’t be

discussed without mentioning the iconic Masayoshi Takanaka. Whether the name rings a bell or

not, it is likely the algorhithm has brought you to the plethora of summer anthems present in his

expansive catalog of recordings. Over his 50 year long career, Takanaka has amassed a goliath

of a discography that has now amassed over 50 albums.


In a genre that is often associated with a sense of nostalgia that borders melancholy, Takanaka

offers the opposite side of the coin with his own purely jubilant brand of City Pop. The red

surfboard shaped guitar is a perfect symbol of his musical concept. The theatrical prop-like

instrument is a visual signature for Takanaka’s concert and has become a sort of totem for the

City Pop aesthetic in recent years. Though surprisingly, in March 2026 he admitted to The

Guardian that he had given away the iconic guitar prior to touring.


He admitted to giving it away to a local bar owner in Karuizawa on one condition; if he ever

needed it back, it would have to be returned to him. The iconic instrument made its way back to

Takanaka as he set upon his world tour in April this year.



At 73 years old, Takanaka shows no signs of halting the momentum City Pop has accumulated over the last few years. Just the other week, Takanaka performed to a crowd of 10,000 people at Crystal Palace Bowl as the headlining act for City Pop Waves. To his sold out crowd he confirmed he will return to London in 2027 to perform at Wembley. With the effects of Takanaka and other musical icons, the revived cultural phenomenon that is City Pop has cemented itself in the music scene for the foreseeable future with its unique brand of nostalgic, technicolour pop.

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