However, to get people from around the globe to listen to a genre that they probably have never heard of, a great track is not quite enough. “No matter how many other guys would pursue her, she couldn’t shake the feelings of loneliness that the loss created.” tell the story of a woman who lost the man she truly loves," Takeuchi explained to The Japan Times.Īccording to Takeuchi, the lyrics are about a woman who lost her true love. "I wanted to write something danceable, something with a city pop sound. 'Plastic Love' has a hypnotic groove and catchy melody but with lyrics that give off a hollow plastic feeling, we could all still relate to. In a fast-paced world, we are all chasing that glamorously shiny lifestyle, but often neglect what's actually important, leaving a big hole in our hearts. The background of 'Plastic Love' is still somewhat similar to the world we are living in currently, and perhaps that's why it still resonates with music fans. Taking pieces ranging from synth-pop to new wave to jazz to disco and with a little influence from the West - mainly the English lyrics - we now had a well-defined new genre called city pop that represents the 1980s bubble era in Japan.
Its cosmopolitan lifestyle also influenced music and city pop was born, loved for its ability to reflect a new kind of city life.
Towards the end of the Shōwa period in Japan, the country's shiny new modern cities were seeing Japan becoming one of the world's superpowers. Since then, Takeuchi has been regarded as one of the most influential artists in the city pop genre, while Yamashita has been labelled as the king of city pop. ‘Plastic Love’ was written and sung by Mariya Takeuchi and produced by her husband, Tatsuro Yamashita, in 1984. Even still, three decades after its original release, the track recently broke Japan's top ten sales chart for the first time and got a full-length official music video - which gives us a reason to listen to it another 24 million times.īut why is a nearly 40-year-old city pop song becoming so popular after so many decades? Mariya Takeuchi's 'Plastic Love' was originally recorded back in 1984 and has enjoyed a recent uptick in popularity with thanks to Plastic Lover, an unofficial upload on YouTube that cultivated 24 million views before it was deleted.
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