what is plastic love why is it over here every time I listen to music on YouTube
and how did this old Japanese single become so damn popular well I plan to
answer all this and more today so join me mr. Stevem on my wild ride through
the era of City pop
so City Pop was this big sub-genre in the late 70s and 80s it was a type of
music that was reflective of the new shiny modern Japan, Japan was seeing this
unprecedented boom in its economy Phoenix metaphorinng them into a world superpower
boosted even further by the Americans who were helping to fund their defenses
against the red threat ...communism now considering Japan didn't nor could they
have a military some of this money was funneled into technology cassettes
Walkmans, VHS's, cars, TVs, video game consoles, the list goes on Japan had
created a machine empire on the ashes of its past the cosmopolitan lifestyle was
in full swing influencing the topics and sounds of city pop it was the music of
the city after all it took bits and pieces from New Wave, synth pop, disco
jazz and whatever else was relevant at the time shoving them into a blender to
make what could be some of the sharpest pop music to come out of the Land of the
Rising Sun for more information check out van palgams video on the history of
city pop, so we have excessive living urban life a seasoning of American
influences and Engrish lyrics where does plastic love come in enter
Mariya Takeuchi it's 1978 a young musician on the way to become a pop idol
a couple years later she had a number one album and a single on the top 10 so
you'd think she'd ride this wave all the way to that legendary single but not
quite Mariya decided to take a break from music stating that her schedule had
became too excessive as she was living that classic pop idol lifestyle she
wouldn't return to three years where we'd find out you can't write that many
love songs without having a little bit of your own, she'd married her collaborator
the city pop King tetsuo yamashita once more she was also
pregnant thus unable to do the promotion for her newest album, variety was
released in 1984 and as the title suggests it was an assortment of songs
from a collection of different styles this time her husband was on production
and she was writing every song on the album the album starts off with once
again which is a blue soul style number which is a bit more distant and smokey
but as soon as that mist dissipates what we have in the distance
shimmering hypnotic groove striking you of its beat and never letting go of his
danceable grooves nostalgic feelings and catchy melody an instant joy from start
to finish you've got that quiet descending piano
before the beat reignites the somber vocals cutting through that warm
instrumentation and dancing melody you don't have to understand every word but
you can feel them and people don't read the lyrics but they should not only is
it a meditation on heartbreak it really speaks to the hollow plastic feeling of
what people do to fill in the sorrows of their life and loneliness we use this
plastic love to fill in our loneliness and insecurities buying commercial goods
in the hopes that they will make us feel more and avoid dealing with our own
personal anguish really deconstructing that party lifestyle and the problems
that come with it in a way that's even more relevant to today's generation
the
album variety skyrocketed to number one and like the YouTube version it saw an
unprecedented rise more so than anything in her career before this point
plastic love has a 14 million views on YouTube and as I must built a community around
it in fact all my friends I'll call him average Joe who has no interest in music
has heard the song and knows that plastic love is an absolute Jam YouTube
seems to be cultivating this record store in the digital space affecting how
people define their taste in the modern era mass producing the feeling of
finding these obscure gems on your own in a way that feels natural doing it so
well with the puppet strings that you don't even see them it's became such a
epidemic that noisey wrote an article about how plastic love was the best pop
song of all time now is plastic love the best pop song of all time?
I don't know if I could call it that it's pretty good
but uh it's No ah no sportsmen if you
know what I'm talking about but here so comes the other side of the argument
which happens anytime something like this becomes popular in a music space
the idea that it's overrated or not special anymore or not worth the
description of the best because people should be listening to X Y and Z now if
this song is introducing people to genres they'd never heard of and other
artists with the music bringing that deep joy to them
then what's the harm the music world exists beyond your playlist takeuchi is
one of the most celebrated popular musicians in a homeland she was
considered one the three daughters of RCA and since 1984 every one of her main
albums have went number one on the charts
she sold over 15 million albums as a result and it's even worth mentioning
that plastic love wasn't even at a hit at the time it charted at about 86 most
likely because of its a so-so cover which has been replaced for the YouTube
version with the cover of sweet music much better much better decision and
it's an amazing through the power of the internet and memes that a not so
successful single from the past with an artist that was mainly big in her home
country has cultivated 14 million views on YouTube and all it took was that
captivating smile some remixes and YouTube to stop finally deleting it so
that brings me to the next topic the power of music memes as promotion now
the original definition of memes from Richard Dawkins book The Selfish Gene is
that they are like jeans but for ideas they multiply through mimicking carrying
information while spreading and new tating the same way that jeans do and
the Internet age does idea is taking a new form we have these musical genres
that could be considered memes like future funk nightcore and vaporwave that
took concepts from city pop and samples especially from plastic love and turn
them into new content and riding them to self-destruction as plastic love became
a prominent sample in this community a gaved a cult-like following which
erupted a couple years back when it was posted on reddit and got to the top of
the hour listen to this subreddit before being deleted causing some sort of
Streisand effect where more and more versions of the song were posted to try
and fill the new demand that it was seeing now why did this happen to
classic love well I don't know when I like to argue that considering plastic
love does sample jungle boogie there may be in some meme energy in the blood of
it which has sewed a bit of a seed and it just took a lot longer than we
expected for them to blossom now one of the counter arguments against see pop
and its subsidiary genres is that it's more of an AESTHETIC than it is a genre and
that people are interested more on the look
the trend than they are actually the music and I completely disagree an
artist is not just in music the persona and visual character plays a huge role
in how you're introduced to that music and how is promoted I don't want to go
back to the world of brown sleeves and even if the visuals did entice people
there to begin with it's the content that keeps them around and keeps them
listening or you would have moved on to something else the newest trend the
newest aesthetic that's the most on point
the Internet has globalised music so those that didn't hit the shores of the
West now have the ability to become popular hits all over again we're even
seeing modern music like kpop become number ones in America which was unheard
of a decade before memes could well be the future of how we grow and promote
music some artists have even used memes and internet subculture to promote
themselves to massive success not to mention I'm sure a meme or two has made
a single even bigger than it once was the city pop genre is seeing a revival
in this current era not only in Japan but places like South Korea where
artists like ubin whose newest release city woman echoes the sounds of city pop
with her videos being a direct homage to that era with Maria's style in
particular how do we know that well one of her singles City love was accused of
being a plagiarism of plastic love and was swiftly removed from the album now
I've only heard a sample but it it does sound quite close but you know what they
do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so all hail the new age of
City pop with Mariah as the face that does run the place both introducing and
reigniting the genres legacy to a new generation
yo yo yo thanks for watching it's really really hot I'm melting and dying this
recording process was a horror show burner if you want to promote me doing
more terrible things that make me cry uh say hello to my patreon support me if
you like it if you want more videos these people are my wonderful backers
I'm not gonna pretend to pronounce their names Krait I'm gonna probably have to
ask them how to do that it's a good thing to do and I love them for
it so if you like city pop tell me about your favorite city pop paintings and
like the video or something did do nice things for me please go back
For more infomation >> This Is What Happens When You Do Not Brush Your Teeth - Duration: 1:32. 
For more infomation >> I TESTED OUT THESE "NEW" SOCIAL MEDIA APPS! THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED.. - Duration: 9:31. 
For more infomation >> What does computer model mean? - Duration: 0:41. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét