CITY-POP: An Exclusive Mix for AOR Disco by Diego at zZounds

"What I had in mind when creating this whole mix is to highlight the vast territory Japan was staking out during their Golden Age of City-Pop music," says Jesus Diego Olivas. "From 1977-1989, true trailblazers like Tatsuro Yamashita, Haruomi Hosono, and Momoko Mikuchi (to name a few!) were making cosmopolitan Japanese pop music. Its this style we now call City-Pop that mixed all sorts of genres like Funk, Soft-Rock, Sunshine Pop, West Coast AOR, and Exotica in ways that promoted a growing, changing Japanese generation. In essence, one more in tune with celebrating leisure and whatever new kind of freedom this idea/music provided. How else can you explain the glorious free-form soul music of Tatsuro's or Hiroshi Sato's?

Hiroshi Sato

Travel to Japan and you'd be surprised how many of these artists are monumental figures there, but sadly unheard of in our own United States. Unfortunately, for us it seems that time and licensing deals, have made it hard to discover the scope of this style (let alone hear this music). However, this is my attempt to do so, and that's something I'd recommend others to read more about on zZounds.com. At the end of the day, this isn't a TED Talk, but a celebration of some truly great music that is ripe for rediscovery.

Momoko Kikuchi

Also, for all of you AOR Disco fans: an exclusive nugget I uncovered while digging for this info. How about Tatsuro Yamashita's brilliant commercial music work? It features specks of live performance, a true first! When we're talking about snapshots in time, this is one, for City-Pop."

Artist	Release	Track	Year
CBS/SONY Sound Images Series	The Aegean Sea	Day Break	1979
Piper	Gentle Breeze	Highway of the Sun	1983
CBS/SONY Sound Images Series	New York	New York Subway	1978
Momoko Kikuchi	Adventure	Mystical Composer	1986
Makoto Matsushita	First Light	This Is All I Have For You	1981
Tatsuro Yamashita	Ride on Time	Silent Screamer	1980
Minako Yoshida	Monochrome	Black Moon	1980
Taeko Onuki	Sunshower	何もいらない	1977
Miharu Koshi	Parallelisme	パラレリズム	1984
Mariah	Utakata No Hibi	不自由な鼠	1983
Piper	Sunshine Kiz	Hidin' In Your Shelter	1983
Toshiki Kadomatsu	Weekend Fly to the Sun	Brunch	1982
Haruomi Hosono	Bon Voyage Co.	Roochoo Gumbo	1976
Toshiki Kadomatsu	Sea Is A Lady	Way to the Shore "Eri"	1987
Seaside Lovers	Memories In Beach House	Melting Blue	1983
Tatsuro Yamashita	Big Wave	Only With You	1984
Yukihiro Takahashi	Saravah!	Present	1978
Sugar Babe	Songs	Mirage City	1975
Happy End	Kazemachi Roman	Natsu Nandesu	1971
Hiroshi Sato	Orient	Kaze Hikaru	1979

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CITY-POP: An Exclusive Mix for AOR Disco by Diego at zZounds by AOR DISCO on hearthis.at