Appel à contributions pour le projet de publication « City Pop Cartographies. Musical Landscapes, Cultural Dynamics, and Nostalgia », sous la dir. de Christopher Hepburn (University of Southern California).
« City Pop (シティ・ポップ) emerged first in Tokyo in the late seventies and early eighties, spreading to Seoul through international producers, reaching other parts of Northeast (China and Taiwan) and Southeast Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia) and even finding something of itself in Los Angeles, California. A reaction against the musical influences of former decades, City Pop embraced not only Japan’s more western-influenced new music (what we might now refer to as J-Pop) but also funk, disco, rhythm and blues, adult-oriented rock, soft rock, and boogie among others. In many ways, Tokyo nights had finally stepped into a more global daylight.
As the genre’s popularity surged, it became synonymous with urban lifestyle and identity, reflecting the vibrant and dynamic energy of an otherwise burgeoning metropolis. As such, the influence of City Pop extended beyond music, shaping fashion and aesthetics, ultimately capturing the essence of an era characterized by economic prosperity, advancements in music technology, and cultural evolution. Though the genre of City Pop eventually faded, a phenomenon that may be attributed in part not only to the bursting of Japan’s economic bubble but shifting musical trends and evolving societal tastes, its resurgence in recent years, especially in the west, not only underscores an ever-evolving tapestry of global music and culture but also raises many questions involving musical landscapes, cultural dynamics, and nostalgia. However, little to date has been written about City Pop from a scholarly perspective. The gap here is further stressed by attempts to explore the query ‘City Pop’ on search platforms that instead prompt unrelated suggestions, and many of the scholarly accounts that do exist may very well be characterized by their cursory nature, providing only brief and superficial examinations of an otherwise complex matter. »
Date limite de soumission : 30 mars 2024.
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