La La La Love Song by Toshinobu Kubota is his second single that was released in 1996 which had featured the American model Naomi Campbell. This song and Last Friends focused on facing harsh truths about love in which loving someone can be the greatest hardship in life.
Prisoner of Love by Hikaru Utada was used as a theme song in the TV drama Last Friends. This song is loved by anime fans worldwide. The song followed the plot and spoke the minds of the characters.
Zen Zen Zense by Radwimps is a song that was written exclusively for the animation movie Kimi No Na Wa. This song also closely links with the TV drama Nigeru Wa Haji Da Ga Yaku Ni Tatsu.
The song has beautiful lines like ‘be more than a couple, be more than two, be more than one suggests different forms of love in which marital status, gender, or being with someone is just part of what makes us appreciate love. Here are ten Japanese love songs that everyone can enjoy. Love songs are common in all languages and convey various emotions related to love. Mariya Takeuchi: The Pop Genius Behind 2018's Surprise Online Smash Hit from Japan.įollow Last.The music industry in Japan is massive and has a significant impact on people’s lives. How Youtube's Algorithm Turned an Obscure 1980s Japanese Song Into an Enormously Popular Hit: Discover Mariya Takeuchi's “Plastic Love". On top of that, Takeuchi is also set to put out a three-disc compilation album, Turntable, on 21 August 2019. With the release of the “Plastic Love" music video, albeit abridged, Takeuchi fans worldwide, old and new, now have something to discover and revel in together. However, looking at YouTube's comments section for 'Plastic Love' now, many viewers don't really seem to care what language it's in." “Considering that it was mostly performed in Japanese, we figured it would be impossible to go abroad. “It never occurred to me to try to (release) work in the west," Takeuchi said looking back on the Variety era in an interview with The Japan Times. But now, it's also where her two worlds of fame merge. “Plastic Love" is one of the many milestones in Takeuchi's career, the single coming off her number-one album, Variety. These days, she's dropped a couple new singles as well as Souvenir The Film, a documentary to celebrate the 40th anniversary of her career. In Japan, Takeuchi has long been a well-renowned pop star with 12 studio albums under her belt, selling more than 16 million units by 2009. Likely a combination of all factors, the viral success of “Plastic Love" has launched Takeuchi into a different, obscure-yet-massive realm of fame compared to the kind she's cultivated in her motherland.įuture funk producer Night Tempo's “Plastic Love" remix. Others, such as YouTuber Stevem, discuss meme culture and the rise of sample-based genres like vaporwave and future funk spreading city pop's influence, and more specifically, Takeuchi's. Sources like Open Culture take into consideration YouTube algorithm magic. It isn't explicitly clear how Takeuchi's 1984 single resurged into the international mainstream in such a big way. Textured with haze and grain, the music video also plays on the romantic, nostalgic factor that city pop offers today. These fun, dreamy, and colorful atmospheres are brought to life by Hayashi's saturated, neon-lit snapshots of urban Tokyo.
The genre emerged during Tokyo's tech and economic boom in the '70s and '80s, drawing influence from the latest gadget crazes (think, the Walkman) to music reminiscent of city life (disco, soft rock, and funk, to name a few). Directed by Kyotaro Hayashi, the “Plastic Love" music video reflects the way city pop framed the world back then.