Université de Fribourg

Japanese City Pop abroad : findings from an online music community survey

Sommet, Moritz ; Kato, Ken

City Pop is a loosely defined musical genre that first emerged in Japan in the late 1970s. Having undergone several recontextualizations and revivals in its country of origin, the genre has recently gained an international following among young Internet users. The most enthusiastic of City Pop’s new fans meet in social media groups and online forums; as of late 2020, a dozen fan communities...

Université de Fribourg

Intermediality and the discursive construction of popular music genres: the case of ‘Japanese City Pop’

Sommet, Moritz

In: Handai ongaku gakuhō / Journal of Handai Music Studies, 2020/16/17//15-42

Commonly said to embody the 'urbane' and 'refined' lifestyle of metropolitan Tokyo and to prefigure the transnational and consumerist characteristics of today's mainstream J-Pop, Japanese City Pop has undergone several recontextualizations since it first surfaced in the last quarter of the 20th century. I use City Pop as an example to interrogate the intermedial qualities of the processes at...