Japanese ’80s pop music, used on TikTok and by The Weeknd, gains millennial fans the world over – ‘Why is it so good?’ ask music lovers

City pop, the synth music that accompanied Japan’s economic boom in the 1980s, is so hot right now that even The Weeknd has sampled it on his latest release

Fans of the genre call it a ‘nostalgic sound, but also modern’ and say there’s more to it than enjoying upbeat tunes – ‘there’s something sad about it too’

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City pop, music from Japan’s boom years of the 1980s, is exploding in popularity decades after its upbeat synths first hit the airwaves. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:15am, 24 Feb 2022

Tel Liyanto wasn’t alive during Japan’s 1980s boom, but she loves the “timeless” city pop hits of the era.

She’s not the only one – the soundtrack that accompanied the country’s economic miracle is exploding in popularity decades after its upbeat synths first hit the airwaves.

The retro genre is so hot that Canadian star The Weeknd sampled the 1983 track Midnight Pretenders on his latest release, and record companies are racing to reissue long-forgotten city pop vinyl.

“It’s like disco: a nostalgic sound, but also modern,” says Liyanto, a 27-year-old from Indonesia who works for a creative agency, as she dances to city pop in a Tokyo bar. “I listen to it when I’m dancing, I listen to it when I’m chilling.”

Kei Notoya has collected around 3,000 city pop records. Photo: AFP

The revival has been amplified from where it began in niche online music circles by YouTube’s algorithm, which detects when a song is being liked and shared and recommends it worldwide.