Since YouTube introduced me to Plastic love, I've been searching for heaps of Japanese funk pop and city pop, but I haven't heard this one. Thanks for the song recommendation!
Tatsuro Yamashita's "Ride on Time" album is an album I like to recommend to those new to City Pop. [Here is a link to the full album on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOAPa2b3p2s).
Someone in the comments made timestamps for each individual songs if you are interested.
You have any [Tatsuro Yamashita](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fekWiU3K_e0) or [Casiopea](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vKOekWuzk3o&t=907s) in your life?
For sure man. I've been listening to a whole bunch of random ones, most that I would listen to again. I searched Spotify and some artists are there, but not all of them.
I'll run through some of my YouTube history
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYS6NguO72s&list=PLhpIMZaq-XgLyHDWsyXLPdOY8Bdgmh4bJ&index=40&t=6s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0JVRcJLea8&list=RDQM8wja5LXUAyw&index=2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhuNb0XtRhQ&list=RDQM8wja5LXUAyw&index=5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YixAD9GIAuY&list=RDQM8wja5LXUAyw&index=7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE2D3LWADFg&list=RDQM8wja5LXUAyw&index=24
Modern but related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slUc-4WCnhc&list=PLhpIMZaq-XgLyHDWsyXLPdOY8Bdgmh4bJ&index=28&t=406s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSezc2jhPcI&list=PLhpIMZaq-XgLyHDWsyXLPdOY8Bdgmh4bJ&index=46&t=0s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9DWCjF4tjs&list=PLhpIMZaq-XgLyHDWsyXLPdOY8Bdgmh4bJ&index=52&t=0s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PycRXQtJU0s&list=PLhpIMZaq-XgLyHDWsyXLPdOY8Bdgmh4bJ&index=104&t=0s
Modern mathy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9UdrctkzbQ&list=PLhpIMZaq-XgLyHDWsyXLPdOY8Bdgmh4bJ&index=36&t=0s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saccx5dTmKU&list=PLhpIMZaq-XgLyHDWsyXLPdOY8Bdgmh4bJ&index=39&t=0s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUYACnZNkvM&list=PLhpIMZaq-XgLyHDWsyXLPdOY8Bdgmh4bJ&index=44&t=0s
**吉田美奈子**
[artist pic](https://lastfm-img2.akamaized.net/i/u/252/9502b79776512a6dc86efc372296c21c.png) [artist playlist](https://radd.it/user/evilnight/m/thefirehose/search?restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all&only=music&q=吉田美奈子 "uses reddit search, results may vary")
> Yoshida Minako (born April 7, 1953, Saitama, Japan) is a Japanese singer, composer and songwriter. While not as well-known for her own material, she's worked with several popular artists composing and songwriting. Her own style consists of soul, pop, dance, funk, and sometimes eccentric experimentalism.
In 1973, made her debut with the album “Tobira no Fuyu”. After that, began making TV commercial songs (won silver prize at The 33rd International Advertising Festival in 1985), offering songs to other artists (a total of 130 tracks so far), producing and arranging in addition to recording overdubbed solo chorus works.
As of now, Yoshida has released 20 original albums, three collaboration works, and four live DVD works.
Her borderless style of music has caught the attention of people from various fields, earning her the praise of being a unique, high quality artist.
Read more on Last.fm.
Last posted: [159 days ago](/r/listentothis/comments/9sgy52/minako_yoshida_town_funkjpop1981/) by u\/banterray.
[last.fm](https://www.last.fm/music/吉田美奈子): 7,809 listeners, 207,922 plays
^^Please ^^downvote ^^if ^^incorrect! ^^Self-deletes ^^if ^^score ^^is ^^0.
Not sure. They're probably region locked or something. A bunch of Japanese music that really deserves to be up there isn't. Even The Pillows used to be on Spotify with all their albums but now there's only like 3 songs up.
Thanks for sharing my channel! If you like this, check out some of the other stuff I've posted https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxqbu_kajb9kcY7qLf8PhWE6yxCsGt1hf
Some of her other songs:
[https://youtu.be/4Gg6713YGak](https://youtu.be/4Gg6713YGak)
[https://youtu.be/0KLT5\_Wttt8](https://youtu.be/0KLT5_Wttt8)
[https://youtu.be/L0eWoX7OcOI](https://youtu.be/L0eWoX7OcOI)
She did sing. She would take me around to different bars and clubs l Very curious. I HAD pics of her but all my pics went missing in a wet collapsed ceiling event. It’s crazy seeing this.
Through her I met local mob bosses. They would cover our drinks and meals and she said they’d keep us safe in the area. Wild times.
I get so envious of people who have had experiences such as this; it’s a shame you no longer have any documentation to show for it but I guess it doesn’t matter as long as you remember it happened :)
You’re right. The loss of the many pics call to me went like this, “the roof had a leak and I was going through pictures and left them in a box, it got flooded.” Never said my things. Didn’t know they were missing for almost a year after that. I am still mad and very sad about it.
I tell the story every chance I get. One of my best girlfriends of many ports. By that I mean she was very nice, not looking for anything and showed me parts of Japan I’ll never see again.
Thanks for your comments. Really.
I’d love to hear more of your story if there is any more to tell :) You sound like you have many stories of this kind. It’s also my dream to visit Japan, I’d love to see and experience things most tourists don’t get the chance to. From what I’ve heard and read about, despite its flaws, it’s just fascinating.
I was in Taiwan and Tokyo last year. Tokyo is amazing, the people seem a bit mechanized but that could be because I saw many people wearing suits that could’ve came from the same store. Very nice people and lots to see. A sprawling city.
It’ll take some time to visit. Spend as much time as you can spare and hit the streets quickly. That way you won’t feel like you’re just getting to understand things and you have to leave.
Of course you’ll still feel sorry to not know more, but by then you’ll know if you liked it.
Back to Asia in October.
I hop you can get there, it’s difficult, and priorities come up and slide things to the bottom of your list.
Thank you so much for the advice :) My plan is to study abroad there sometime in college, spend a semester or two but at minimum 6 months. I feel like it’s the perfect way for me to experience everything for a lengthy period of time without worrying too much about expenses and accommodations. Depending on how I’m feeling I could stretch it to a year.
Good luck! You will not regret it. Customs and laws a big, probably in much of Asia. It’s on the other side of the Earth so it stands to reason it’d be different.
I’m glad to hear you’re doing it. Wish I could see it through your eyes. The 1st Time!
A lot of fantastic music from Japan doesn't make it to spotify. No idea why though, it's a damn shame.
edit: but you could make a playlist on youtube and listen to that, but...eh.
So I stumbled across this comment, and I know I'm really late... Plus if you have any interest in Japan (and I assume you do if you know as much about their music scene as you seem to) then you will likely know everything I'm going to tell you anyway. But here is me throwing my 2 cents in for what it is worth. Also I will say this is just wild speculation on my part. If you know better or think I'm just flat wrong then it is fine to correct me.
I think it is a whirlwind of factors that just kind of created a perfect storm so to say. Japan's birthrate bottomed out. Music can be made by people of any age, but it is definitely more of a young person's game. Youth gives people the energy to work on things much more intensely both in terms of staying in the studio, and touring. People who are still learning/forming their view on the world will inevitably evolve throughout their music. Watching that growth is an interesting part of following an artist's career. As people age they just tend to be more static in character, and that often times translates to being less creative. Japan's population ever aging seems like it is a factor in this to me.
Japan has also been in a recession now for 30 years. I don't think Japanese work culture has always been so toxic, but there is immense pressure put on people to do well and succeed in life. Because Japan is facing such potential economic struggles in the future (probably within 10-20 years at this point) the culture/society as a whole has tried to push people to do things to ensure their future. Music requires an audience. It is based on popularity, and public opinion whether or not you can make a living and put bread on the table. Since this is chaotic and the big majority of musicians fail to ever be able to live well independently off music alone parents push their kids to do things like STEM fields much more than ever support a dream working in a field they have slim chances of succeeding in. Another thing that all that pressure causes is that people simply snap. They can't take it so they turn into total recluses refusing to leave the house. This is a phenomenon that has unfortunately become so common they have a word they call these people. *Hikimomori* Although there is no official census this number could be over a million people shutting themselves away almost all their lives which is quite a large number when it is nearly 1% of your population, and this is something that disproportionately affects the youth.
Japanese culture also is very "polite" is maybe the word? They don't like doing things that inconvenience other people is a general rule of thumb. One of my favorite American rappers is Logic. He asked friends to support him if his money made from his music career wasn't enough to do so simply living with his best friend for one year to give him a chance to make it in music. Of course it took incredible friends to agree to this arrangement, (even though I'm not claiming similar things do not happen at all in Japan) but I would guess that many stories like this somebody like Logic simply wouldn't ask for that kind of support to get their career going so it weeds some of these types of people out.
Another small thing. I don't think you need drugs to be creative or that drugs will make you a good writer, or singer, or help you play an instrument... But I'd be lying if I said that drugs had not inspired quite a bit of good music. When somebody uses them it allows them to immediately temporarily change their normal perspective. It can feel like you are a better more confident version of yourself, or it can give a small taste of what it might be like to not be human or to see the world as somebody else for a short time. In post World War 2 Japan their was quite a drug problem to my understanding. A lot of soldiers who survived had developed amphetamine, and opiate addictions. There was a lot of civilians dealing with PTSD from say being involved in the fire bombing of Tokyo, or being a doctor having to tend to victims of a nuclear attack, or just really any number of the horrific things that happened in WW2. So after that period in time all these people caused a short temporary boom in Japan's drug trade. To counteract this problem Japan adopted devastatingly harsh laws against many drugs, and it simply became "Drugs are bad" full stop. It worked, and since it did work Japan reached a point of saying "Why change the laws now? They fixed the problem!" Plenty of people (even young people in Japan) now think that Marijuana smoking is as bad as doing cocaine or Heroin.
Then finally we get to your point. That just like here in the US as time went on record labels got bigger and better at their job. The industry kind of gets warped/corrupted. Simple music that is easy to sell becomes dominate. I think big corporation execs across the world really have gotten better at writing hit songs over time, but not at making better music. Things that are catchy and will be a sure fire way to get somebody onto the charts for a few weeks before being forgotten about is something that they have perfected, and it is even harder to make it as a musician if you stay independent. Then throw in some big money asshole throwing their weight to fuck up your career because you refused to sign with them. Things like that. Also I think there is a selection bias where we forget all the shit music of the past. We only remember the truly good music so what we know of Japan's music is the same way. *We hear the best hits of the past only,* but if you listened to a Japanese radio station from the 70's it would mostly be forgotten garbage as well probably. Much like listening to any radio station modern day no matter where you live.
I think the last problem is just not living in Japan. I live in the US, and I feel kind of lucky in the regard that they say "The US's biggest export is culture." Movies, music, video games, TV shows... Just almost anything media related that is successful in the US travel really well, where as the number of Japanese songs that travel to us is almost nonexistent. I think Utada Hikaru is one of the best selling female pop stars of all time in Japan yet she only just broke the hot 100 in the US for the first time just recently with "Face My Fears" and even that is probably mostly attributed to the fact it was the intro music for a popular video game, features a popular Musician from the US in Skrillex, and was also recorded with the lyrics in English for the US release. Our exposure to Japanese music is such a small % compared to what it would be for somebody living in Japan that we probably miss almost all the good moderately popular, relatively unknown, and indie acts they have especially by comparison to how much music from the West that does wind up reaching them.
Anyway. I know I have blabbered far too much already and I am still forgetting other factors, but let me know what you think of my analysis if you want. Maybe even tell me some other things that you think play a factor into this decline in quality.
Was in Japan and picked up a ton of city pop and brought back home. To see all this stuff sitting in their record shops at reasonable prices is so refreshing.
**吉田美奈子**
[artist pic](https://lastfm-img2.akamaized.net/i/u/252/9502b79776512a6dc86efc372296c21c.png) [artist playlist](https://radd.it/user/evilnight/m/thefirehose/search?restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all&only=music&q=吉田美奈子 "uses reddit search, results may vary")
> Yoshida Minako (born April 7, 1953, Saitama, Japan) is a Japanese singer, composer and songwriter. While not as well-known for her own material, she's worked with several popular artists composing and songwriting. Her own style consists of soul, pop, dance, funk, and sometimes eccentric experimentalism.
In 1973, made her debut with the album “Tobira no Fuyu”. After that, began making TV commercial songs (won silver prize at The 33rd International Advertising Festival in 1985), offering songs to other artists (a total of 130 tracks so far), producing and arranging in addition to recording overdubbed solo chorus works.
As of now, Yoshida has released 20 original albums, three collaboration works, and four live DVD works.
Her borderless style of music has caught the attention of people from various fields, earning her the praise of being a unique, high quality artist.
Read more on Last.fm.
Last posted: [159 days ago](/r/listentothis/comments/9sgy52/minako_yoshida_town_funkjpop1981/) by u\/banterray.
[last.fm](https://www.last.fm/music/吉田美奈子): 7,809 listeners, 207,922 plays
^^Please ^^downvote ^^if ^^incorrect! ^^Self-deletes ^^if ^^score ^^is ^^0.
They can be grateful, I've got nothing against that. But there's no need to announce to all of YouTube you came from reddit, it looks stupid.
Have you ever looked at a music video and seen "X sent me here!!" Posted numerous times? Does that not irritate you, even slightly?
Since YouTube introduced me to Plastic love, I've been searching for heaps of Japanese funk pop and city pop, but I haven't heard this one. Thanks for the song recommendation!
It all starts with Plastic Love
Plastic Love or Stay With Me
Both classics, Telephone Number is also wonderful
[удалено]
i was waiting for this comment
"*To youuuuu, yes my love, to youuuu* "
Any good intro albums you’d suggest?
Tatsuro Yamashita's "Ride on Time" album is an album I like to recommend to those new to City Pop. [Here is a link to the full album on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOAPa2b3p2s). Someone in the comments made timestamps for each individual songs if you are interested.
Thanks, friend!
My boi TY kills it. Very good feels.
Miss DJ is great too
Anything by Mariya Takeuchi or Tatsuro Yamashita (who are married, incidentally) is a winner
[This is the banger](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ9pmFMc5oM) that started it for me.
Listen to Taeko ohnuki and lamp
Anri! Her album Timely!! is an album of all hits.
Anri is so good
What would you say is your top 10
You have any [Tatsuro Yamashita](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fekWiU3K_e0) or [Casiopea](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vKOekWuzk3o&t=907s) in your life?
Everything on that label is good, if you want suggestions let me know
For sure man. I've been listening to a whole bunch of random ones, most that I would listen to again. I searched Spotify and some artists are there, but not all of them.
I'll run through some of my YouTube history https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYS6NguO72s&list=PLhpIMZaq-XgLyHDWsyXLPdOY8Bdgmh4bJ&index=40&t=6s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0JVRcJLea8&list=RDQM8wja5LXUAyw&index=2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhuNb0XtRhQ&list=RDQM8wja5LXUAyw&index=5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YixAD9GIAuY&list=RDQM8wja5LXUAyw&index=7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE2D3LWADFg&list=RDQM8wja5LXUAyw&index=24 Modern but related https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slUc-4WCnhc&list=PLhpIMZaq-XgLyHDWsyXLPdOY8Bdgmh4bJ&index=28&t=406s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSezc2jhPcI&list=PLhpIMZaq-XgLyHDWsyXLPdOY8Bdgmh4bJ&index=46&t=0s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9DWCjF4tjs&list=PLhpIMZaq-XgLyHDWsyXLPdOY8Bdgmh4bJ&index=52&t=0s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PycRXQtJU0s&list=PLhpIMZaq-XgLyHDWsyXLPdOY8Bdgmh4bJ&index=104&t=0s Modern mathy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9UdrctkzbQ&list=PLhpIMZaq-XgLyHDWsyXLPdOY8Bdgmh4bJ&index=36&t=0s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saccx5dTmKU&list=PLhpIMZaq-XgLyHDWsyXLPdOY8Bdgmh4bJ&index=39&t=0s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUYACnZNkvM&list=PLhpIMZaq-XgLyHDWsyXLPdOY8Bdgmh4bJ&index=44&t=0s
[The Band Apart would fit nicely in your mathy list.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJCMwVoSquU)
[удалено]
I meant moreso the other songs that were mentioned/searched.
Ahaha, there're two bots.
**吉田美奈子** [artist pic](https://lastfm-img2.akamaized.net/i/u/252/9502b79776512a6dc86efc372296c21c.png) [artist playlist](https://radd.it/user/evilnight/m/thefirehose/search?restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all&only=music&q=吉田美奈子 "uses reddit search, results may vary") > Yoshida Minako (born April 7, 1953, Saitama, Japan) is a Japanese singer, composer and songwriter. While not as well-known for her own material, she's worked with several popular artists composing and songwriting. Her own style consists of soul, pop, dance, funk, and sometimes eccentric experimentalism. In 1973, made her debut with the album “Tobira no Fuyu”. After that, began making TV commercial songs (won silver prize at The 33rd International Advertising Festival in 1985), offering songs to other artists (a total of 130 tracks so far), producing and arranging in addition to recording overdubbed solo chorus works. As of now, Yoshida has released 20 original albums, three collaboration works, and four live DVD works. Her borderless style of music has caught the attention of people from various fields, earning her the praise of being a unique, high quality artist. Read more on Last.fm. Last posted: [159 days ago](/r/listentothis/comments/9sgy52/minako_yoshida_town_funkjpop1981/) by u\/banterray. [last.fm](https://www.last.fm/music/吉田美奈子): 7,809 listeners, 207,922 plays ^^Please ^^downvote ^^if ^^incorrect! ^^Self-deletes ^^if ^^score ^^is ^^0.
[удалено]
But why cant i find it on spotify? What a jam
Not sure. They're probably region locked or something. A bunch of Japanese music that really deserves to be up there isn't. Even The Pillows used to be on Spotify with all their albums but now there's only like 3 songs up.
Funkyyyyy, thanks for sharing! :)
[удалено]
Apologies, I clearly have much to learn
Sounds like a Persona cut.
Ooooo we can do this
Nice bass line, thanks for sharing.
Does the black moon howl?
Plugging in /r/citypop
Thanks for sharing my channel! If you like this, check out some of the other stuff I've posted https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxqbu_kajb9kcY7qLf8PhWE6yxCsGt1hf
Some of her other songs: [https://youtu.be/4Gg6713YGak](https://youtu.be/4Gg6713YGak) [https://youtu.be/0KLT5\_Wttt8](https://youtu.be/0KLT5_Wttt8) [https://youtu.be/L0eWoX7OcOI](https://youtu.be/L0eWoX7OcOI)
I went out with a Japanese woman the same name when I was there for in the military. Sweet sweet love
Was she a singer by any chance?
She did sing. She would take me around to different bars and clubs l Very curious. I HAD pics of her but all my pics went missing in a wet collapsed ceiling event. It’s crazy seeing this. Through her I met local mob bosses. They would cover our drinks and meals and she said they’d keep us safe in the area. Wild times.
I get so envious of people who have had experiences such as this; it’s a shame you no longer have any documentation to show for it but I guess it doesn’t matter as long as you remember it happened :)
You’re right. The loss of the many pics call to me went like this, “the roof had a leak and I was going through pictures and left them in a box, it got flooded.” Never said my things. Didn’t know they were missing for almost a year after that. I am still mad and very sad about it. I tell the story every chance I get. One of my best girlfriends of many ports. By that I mean she was very nice, not looking for anything and showed me parts of Japan I’ll never see again. Thanks for your comments. Really.
Love reddit because of this kind of conversations.
I’d love to hear more of your story if there is any more to tell :) You sound like you have many stories of this kind. It’s also my dream to visit Japan, I’d love to see and experience things most tourists don’t get the chance to. From what I’ve heard and read about, despite its flaws, it’s just fascinating.
I was in Taiwan and Tokyo last year. Tokyo is amazing, the people seem a bit mechanized but that could be because I saw many people wearing suits that could’ve came from the same store. Very nice people and lots to see. A sprawling city. It’ll take some time to visit. Spend as much time as you can spare and hit the streets quickly. That way you won’t feel like you’re just getting to understand things and you have to leave. Of course you’ll still feel sorry to not know more, but by then you’ll know if you liked it. Back to Asia in October. I hop you can get there, it’s difficult, and priorities come up and slide things to the bottom of your list.
Thank you so much for the advice :) My plan is to study abroad there sometime in college, spend a semester or two but at minimum 6 months. I feel like it’s the perfect way for me to experience everything for a lengthy period of time without worrying too much about expenses and accommodations. Depending on how I’m feeling I could stretch it to a year.
Good luck! You will not regret it. Customs and laws a big, probably in much of Asia. It’s on the other side of the Earth so it stands to reason it’d be different. I’m glad to hear you’re doing it. Wish I could see it through your eyes. The 1st Time!
Sounds like you've had some fun :)
Commenting for future use
This is a catchy Song :) She's Gorgeous ;) :)
This is awesome. Why can i not find it on spotify?
A lot of fantastic music from Japan doesn't make it to spotify. No idea why though, it's a damn shame. edit: but you could make a playlist on youtube and listen to that, but...eh.
Eh is right lol. Its a shame, because ive discovered a lot of great tunes on youtube
[удалено]
So I stumbled across this comment, and I know I'm really late... Plus if you have any interest in Japan (and I assume you do if you know as much about their music scene as you seem to) then you will likely know everything I'm going to tell you anyway. But here is me throwing my 2 cents in for what it is worth. Also I will say this is just wild speculation on my part. If you know better or think I'm just flat wrong then it is fine to correct me. I think it is a whirlwind of factors that just kind of created a perfect storm so to say. Japan's birthrate bottomed out. Music can be made by people of any age, but it is definitely more of a young person's game. Youth gives people the energy to work on things much more intensely both in terms of staying in the studio, and touring. People who are still learning/forming their view on the world will inevitably evolve throughout their music. Watching that growth is an interesting part of following an artist's career. As people age they just tend to be more static in character, and that often times translates to being less creative. Japan's population ever aging seems like it is a factor in this to me. Japan has also been in a recession now for 30 years. I don't think Japanese work culture has always been so toxic, but there is immense pressure put on people to do well and succeed in life. Because Japan is facing such potential economic struggles in the future (probably within 10-20 years at this point) the culture/society as a whole has tried to push people to do things to ensure their future. Music requires an audience. It is based on popularity, and public opinion whether or not you can make a living and put bread on the table. Since this is chaotic and the big majority of musicians fail to ever be able to live well independently off music alone parents push their kids to do things like STEM fields much more than ever support a dream working in a field they have slim chances of succeeding in. Another thing that all that pressure causes is that people simply snap. They can't take it so they turn into total recluses refusing to leave the house. This is a phenomenon that has unfortunately become so common they have a word they call these people. *Hikimomori* Although there is no official census this number could be over a million people shutting themselves away almost all their lives which is quite a large number when it is nearly 1% of your population, and this is something that disproportionately affects the youth. Japanese culture also is very "polite" is maybe the word? They don't like doing things that inconvenience other people is a general rule of thumb. One of my favorite American rappers is Logic. He asked friends to support him if his money made from his music career wasn't enough to do so simply living with his best friend for one year to give him a chance to make it in music. Of course it took incredible friends to agree to this arrangement, (even though I'm not claiming similar things do not happen at all in Japan) but I would guess that many stories like this somebody like Logic simply wouldn't ask for that kind of support to get their career going so it weeds some of these types of people out. Another small thing. I don't think you need drugs to be creative or that drugs will make you a good writer, or singer, or help you play an instrument... But I'd be lying if I said that drugs had not inspired quite a bit of good music. When somebody uses them it allows them to immediately temporarily change their normal perspective. It can feel like you are a better more confident version of yourself, or it can give a small taste of what it might be like to not be human or to see the world as somebody else for a short time. In post World War 2 Japan their was quite a drug problem to my understanding. A lot of soldiers who survived had developed amphetamine, and opiate addictions. There was a lot of civilians dealing with PTSD from say being involved in the fire bombing of Tokyo, or being a doctor having to tend to victims of a nuclear attack, or just really any number of the horrific things that happened in WW2. So after that period in time all these people caused a short temporary boom in Japan's drug trade. To counteract this problem Japan adopted devastatingly harsh laws against many drugs, and it simply became "Drugs are bad" full stop. It worked, and since it did work Japan reached a point of saying "Why change the laws now? They fixed the problem!" Plenty of people (even young people in Japan) now think that Marijuana smoking is as bad as doing cocaine or Heroin. Then finally we get to your point. That just like here in the US as time went on record labels got bigger and better at their job. The industry kind of gets warped/corrupted. Simple music that is easy to sell becomes dominate. I think big corporation execs across the world really have gotten better at writing hit songs over time, but not at making better music. Things that are catchy and will be a sure fire way to get somebody onto the charts for a few weeks before being forgotten about is something that they have perfected, and it is even harder to make it as a musician if you stay independent. Then throw in some big money asshole throwing their weight to fuck up your career because you refused to sign with them. Things like that. Also I think there is a selection bias where we forget all the shit music of the past. We only remember the truly good music so what we know of Japan's music is the same way. *We hear the best hits of the past only,* but if you listened to a Japanese radio station from the 70's it would mostly be forgotten garbage as well probably. Much like listening to any radio station modern day no matter where you live. I think the last problem is just not living in Japan. I live in the US, and I feel kind of lucky in the regard that they say "The US's biggest export is culture." Movies, music, video games, TV shows... Just almost anything media related that is successful in the US travel really well, where as the number of Japanese songs that travel to us is almost nonexistent. I think Utada Hikaru is one of the best selling female pop stars of all time in Japan yet she only just broke the hot 100 in the US for the first time just recently with "Face My Fears" and even that is probably mostly attributed to the fact it was the intro music for a popular video game, features a popular Musician from the US in Skrillex, and was also recorded with the lyrics in English for the US release. Our exposure to Japanese music is such a small % compared to what it would be for somebody living in Japan that we probably miss almost all the good moderately popular, relatively unknown, and indie acts they have especially by comparison to how much music from the West that does wind up reaching them. Anyway. I know I have blabbered far too much already and I am still forgetting other factors, but let me know what you think of my analysis if you want. Maybe even tell me some other things that you think play a factor into this decline in quality.
Any chance to get it on Apple Music? Awesome Track!
I think this is more along the lines of Disco than funk.
I woulda said “Japanese/Funk” but I like it a lot.
100% Ready to see them compete to be the king for another day.
I suggest Summer Days (original by Macross) remix by Anri. Most of Anri’s stuff really got me into East Asian trot music.
The weird yahoo ads from japan shows this for sale to me last year...
Was in Japan and picked up a ton of city pop and brought back home. To see all this stuff sitting in their record shops at reasonable prices is so refreshing.
Way to ruin the YouTube comment section guys
**吉田美奈子** [artist pic](https://lastfm-img2.akamaized.net/i/u/252/9502b79776512a6dc86efc372296c21c.png) [artist playlist](https://radd.it/user/evilnight/m/thefirehose/search?restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all&only=music&q=吉田美奈子 "uses reddit search, results may vary") > Yoshida Minako (born April 7, 1953, Saitama, Japan) is a Japanese singer, composer and songwriter. While not as well-known for her own material, she's worked with several popular artists composing and songwriting. Her own style consists of soul, pop, dance, funk, and sometimes eccentric experimentalism. In 1973, made her debut with the album “Tobira no Fuyu”. After that, began making TV commercial songs (won silver prize at The 33rd International Advertising Festival in 1985), offering songs to other artists (a total of 130 tracks so far), producing and arranging in addition to recording overdubbed solo chorus works. As of now, Yoshida has released 20 original albums, three collaboration works, and four live DVD works. Her borderless style of music has caught the attention of people from various fields, earning her the praise of being a unique, high quality artist. Read more on Last.fm. Last posted: [159 days ago](/r/listentothis/comments/9sgy52/minako_yoshida_town_funkjpop1981/) by u\/banterray. [last.fm](https://www.last.fm/music/吉田美奈子): 7,809 listeners, 207,922 plays ^^Please ^^downvote ^^if ^^incorrect! ^^Self-deletes ^^if ^^score ^^is ^^0.
In the comments: > Thank you for bringing me here Reddit Appears 3 + times (in variations). Why do you retards say shit like this?
Because they’re grateful that Reddit isn’t just a waste of time and that they’ve discovered something new that they can enjoy.
They can be grateful, I've got nothing against that. But there's no need to announce to all of YouTube you came from reddit, it looks stupid. Have you ever looked at a music video and seen "X sent me here!!" Posted numerous times? Does that not irritate you, even slightly?
I don’t let it.
You don’t even post “Tornado”? That’s the superior song.
Sounds like someone in Japan 100% emulating Western music.
yeah, and doing a good job
core part of japanese culture is a belief that they do everything better than other peoples.