# The 8 Best City Pop Tracks of All Time

Tokyo in its bubble years: session-perfect studio pop made for people with a new car and a coastal road, borrowing American funk, soft rock and disco and polishing them past anything the originals attempted.

- **Origin:** Tokyo, Japan, 1976
- **Tempo:** 90–130 BPM
- **Also known as:** シティ・ポップ, japanese city pop, light mellow
- **Tracks:** 8
- **Updated:** 2026-08-30
- **Canonical page:** https://waxonia.com/genre/city-pop/

## The list

### 1. [Mariya Takeuchi](https://waxonia.com/artist/mariya-takeuchi/) — [Plastic Love](https://waxonia.com/track/mariya-takeuchi--plastic-love/)

*1984 · Moon*

A woman announcing she will not fall in love again, over the most buoyant arrangement imaginable. Rediscovered by a YouTube algorithm thirty years later and now the genre's front door.

Also on: [Sung to Someone](https://waxonia.com/theme/sung-to-someone/).

[Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Mariya%20Takeuchi%20Plastic%20Love) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=T_lC2O1oIew)

### 2. [Tatsuro Yamashita](https://waxonia.com/artist/tatsuro-yamashita/) — [Ride on Time](https://waxonia.com/track/tatsuro-yamashita--ride-on-time/)

*1980 · AIR*

Yamashita is the architect of the whole sound — arranger, producer, and the man stacking his own backing vocals twenty deep. This is the record that made him a household name at home.

[Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Tatsuro%20Yamashita%20Ride%20on%20Time) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=D3JuhTytFgI)

### 3. [Miki Matsubara](https://waxonia.com/artist/miki-matsubara/) — [Mayonaka no Door / Stay With Me](https://waxonia.com/track/miki-matsubara--mayonaka-no-door-stay-with-me/)

*1979 · Canyon*

Recorded when she was nineteen. The intro is four bars of pure confidence, and four decades on it did the same thing to streaming that Plastic Love did.

[Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Miki%20Matsubara%20Mayonaka%20no%20Door%20%2F%20Stay%20With%20Me) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=lags8E4hvow)

### 4. [Anri](https://waxonia.com/artist/anri/) — [Windy Summer](https://waxonia.com/track/anri--windy-summer/)

*1983 · For Life*

Toshiki Kadomatsu's arrangement, and about as close as pop gets to a sensation of speed. Everything in city pop that is about a coast road is about this record.

[Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Anri%20Windy%20Summer) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=-8WTumwpvmg)

### 5. [Tatsuro Yamashita](https://waxonia.com/artist/tatsuro-yamashita/) — [Sparkle](https://waxonia.com/track/tatsuro-yamashita--sparkle/)

*1982 · Air*

The guitar figure that opens For You, and the most imitated four bars in Japanese pop. Nothing here is doing more than it needs to.

[Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Tatsuro%20Yamashita%20Sparkle) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=pqobRu9aR3M)

### 6. [Taeko Ohnuki](https://waxonia.com/artist/taeko-ohnuki/) — [Sunshower](https://waxonia.com/track/taeko-ohnuki--sunshower/)

*1977 · Panam*

Ohnuki came from Sugar Babe with Yamashita and went somewhere stranger — closer to Brazilian harmony and orchestral pop. The connoisseur's answer to the obvious picks.

[Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Taeko%20Ohnuki%20Sunshower) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=uhILzP60STQ)

### 7. [Yellow Magic Orchestra](https://waxonia.com/artist/yellow-magic-orchestra/) — [Rydeen](https://waxonia.com/track/yellow-magic-orchestra--rydeen/)

*1979 · Alfa*

Not city pop and impossible to separate from it: the same studios, the same players, and a synthesiser future that the rest of the scene absorbed within a year.

[Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Yellow%20Magic%20Orchestra%20Rydeen) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=-BUZ_zRAmf0)

### 8. [Junko Ohashi](https://waxonia.com/artist/junko-ohashi/) — [Telephone Number](https://waxonia.com/track/junko-ohashi--telephone-number/)

*1984 · Philips*

Disco brass, a chorus built to be shouted, and a voice with more grit than the genre usually allows. City pop when it stops being wistful.

[Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Junko%20Ohashi%20Telephone%20Number) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=XJWqHmY-g9U)

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