city pop????

>>70102887
I think just 80s pop. That's what city pop basically is, it's just that city pop has a Japanese temperament to it (I mean in how the vocals are sung, steadily and respectably).

Plus city pop, like a lot of Japanese music, has a technical, trained virtuosity to the keyboards and other parts, because of the way people are properly musically trained out there. All those really fast runs and flourishes and on-the-nose arrangements.

>>70102967
yeah i mean i have been working through some american 80s pop artists but i dont think ive fully enjoyed a full album by any of them desu. i realize with this type of music i think i gravitate more to its japanese counterpart for the reasons you mentioned though. do you have any recommendations for good 80s pop that has a similar feel?

You're looking for what's called "West Coast Rock."

If there are a lot of session players in the liner notes, it's a safe bet.

>>70103040
Yeah I think you're right that those features I described aren't in the Western counterparts. The Japanese stuff is sung in a flatter way and there's definitely that Japanese approach instrumentation (that you also hear in anime soundtracks and Japanese VG music) which for us I think really evokes a certain Japanese vision of the future and cities that is really comforting somehow.

American stuff tends to be more driving and workout-like, and more brash and over-the-top in affect. The melodies are different too. Japan as well as China use these certain types of melodies in their pop that I'd compare to what you'd hear in an anime theme, visual kei or japanese rock. Kind of a schmaltzy melody.

American stuff will likely have more black or latin rhythms in a lot of cases, and if not, some often might have kind of a "heartland" feel to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOGEyBeoBGM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6Q3mHyzn78
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfBdGT4dn4E

There's Hi-NRG, a gay club style, very metropolitan, but again that's a really different sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9GFjftYPK8

And then Freestyle, which is that latin flavor I mentioned. Definitely evokes cities and malls, but in a different way:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v8YragSIuI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b-6ksMdkrU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEWdlp29s2k

cont...

>>70103421
cont..

I actually think the closest thing in many ways would be 80s black music - the rnb of the time - like Electrofunk. This was basically the 'city pop' sound in the 80s. If people went to the city in an 80s movie, this is what they'd play. It's just that the tonality and melodies are so different from Japanese city pop... but the black stuff and Japanese stuff both have really hyperactive synth parts and really bustling, twinkly, city-evoking, futuristic sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amzp7W0RkPA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn8KYD1Vco0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObjLb6ElTvs

And then there was just big 80s crossover stuff that comes close. Basically, Western city pop. Again, much more emotionally 'open' than Japanese music though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzAO9A9GjgI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI7YHZVc7mM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH3giaIzONA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1ysoohV_zA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf_Lwe6p-Cg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMBk-O7D-R0 (this is probably the closest... there's actually tons of stuff like this I'm not thinking of. basically it's just the really 'generic' stuff)

That's not even really getting into English synthpop (that later Human League song I posted excepted, or Italian stuff, or later 80s stuff like Paula Abdul which probably comes really close.

>>70103433
>>70103421
thank you for these responses.

Then there was this whole kind of transitional era:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMXuuYnoRdI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sw54Pdh_m8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El1kgCqD7Xk

>>70103528
Then there's the whole 'driving at night with the city lights' almost subgenre of reflective, twinkly 80s pop ballads.

Which isn't like the faster, hyperactive side of city pop but a lot like the more slow songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuZA6qiJVfU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OFpfTd0EIs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdZ4SeK3Gos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuZA6qiJVfU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQDpW_mn0AU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC5InWPjtL8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItfyoMvJnx0

>>70103473
Sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbIEwIwYz-c

>>70103703
The chorus part with the "all that I needed was you" is really pretty and has nice city pop-like keyboards. I genuinely like the song.

>>70103421
Meant to put that Stacey Q track under the Hi-NRG category

>>70103473
I actually really recommend Freestyle. Just look for mixes of the dance style on youtube. It's probably one of the better choices as far as a really glossy, hyperactive 80s city pop sound that's just really bright and shiny and pop-y.

>>70103040
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snsTmi9N9Gs

A lot of japanese city pop is like disco in a lot of ways. Like a mix between some 70s disco features with 80s pop. But then those really corporate sounding chords, that sound like you're listening to a logo.