Within specific genres of music, there are those ‘staple’ songs. A set of pieces that capture the essence of a genre. Within the City pop genre, you would find some staples, Plastic Love, Dress Down, Stay with Me, and Flyday Chinatown. Jazz Fusion sensation, Casiopea would be a staple band for the genre.
Still going today as Casiopea-P4, (Their 4th iteration) has been around since 1976 and became very popular in the 80’s even having a world tour. With almost 60 albums since its inception, the band focuses on instrumental music with high-energy and high-tempo music.
Over the years, they have had 13 different members come and go with the guitarist Issei Noro being the only member who has been in the band the entire time. The band even disbanded from 2006 until 2012 due to exhaustion.
For more about the history of Casiopea, I would highly recommend checking out T2norway’s video on the band which was uploaded in 2021.
Arguably, the band’s most popular song, Galatic Funk became a staple for City pop fans.
Galactic Funk originally was on the band’s 6th album Cross Point released in 1981 but has been re-arranged and re-recorded over the years.
Live
Studio
For me, this band and their live performances remind me of the Miami Sound Machine with Gloria Estefan with their high-energy, high-tempo music.
Back in 1979, a few days from her 20th birthday, Miki Matsubara released her debut single Mayonaka no Door (Stay With Me) under the Pony Canyon label but this wasn’t her first foray into music.
Matsubara’s mother was in a jazz band called the ‘Crazy Cats’ and while attending school, Matsubara was in the rock band ‘Kurei’ and played the keyboard.’
Stay With Me released on November 5th 1979 and it’s reached 28th on the Oricon charts. Matsubara would have continued success during her music career but Stay With Me is considered her best work.
In the 90’s, Matsubara worked on music for anime’s and commercials in Japan, most notably for Gundam
At the end of 2000, Miki Matsubara would inform her friends and colleagues to let her know that she could no longer continue her music career.
It was revealed that Miki Matsubara had a late diagnosis of uterine cervix cancer. Matsubara would battle the cancer for the last few years of her life. Matsubara died on October 7th 2004 at the age of 44.
Her music would live on in the great city pop resurgence of the 2010s when her song ‘Stay With Me’ would become a staple of the subgenre alongside Plastic Love.
The song would get another huge surge of popularity in 2020 when YouTuber, Rainych, created a cover of the song. The popularity would spread to platforms like YouTube, Twitter and TikTok.
Due to this popularity, Matsubara’s first album Pocket Park got a repress on vinyl in late 2020.
Lyrics – English:
[Intro] To you Yes, my love to you Yes, my love to you, you To you
[Verse 1] I am only me, you are only you I said that last night and still feel the same way You in your gray jacket with that familiar coffee stain Just as you always are Our reflection in the display window
[Chorus] Stay with me Knocking on midnight’s door Begging you not to go home (Ooh) That season when I cried right in front of your eyes Stay with me Saying our favourite words Holding on to our little moment (Ooh) I’ll never forget it as long as I live
[Verse 2] They say love and affection are two different things You told me last night Sometimes I think so too Winter comes again and your heart has gone away If I look back I see That I could always feel you by my sidе
[Chorus] Stay with me Knocking on midnight’s door There’s a holе in my heart (Ooh) That season when I cried right in front of your eyes Stay with me Distracted by my loneliness The needle on my record player (Ooh) Was stuck on a repeating melody
[Saxophone Solo]
[Chorus] Stay with me Knocking on midnight’s door Begging you not to go home (Ooh) That season when I cried right in front of your eyes Stay with me Saying our favourite words Holding on to our little moment (Ooh) I’ll never forget how warm it felt
[Chorus] Stay with me Knocking on midnight’s door Begging you not to go home (Ooh) That season when I cried right in front of your eyes Stay with me Saying our favourite words Holding on to our little moment (Ooh) I’ll never forget how warm it felt
[Outro] Stay with me Knocking on midnight’s door Begging you not to go home (Ooh) That season when I cried right in front of your eyes Stay with me
(Ooh, I’ll never forget how warm it felt)
Lyrics – Romaji:
[Intro] To you Yes, my love to you Yes, my love to you, you To you
[Verse 1] Watashi wa watashi, anata wa anata to Yuube itteta sonna ki mo suru wa Gurei no jaketto ni Mioboe ga aru kouhii no shimi (Ooh) Aikawarazu na no ne Shou uindou ni futari utsureba (Ooh)
[Chorus] Stay with me Mayonaka no doa o tataki Kaeranaide to naita (Ooh) Ano kisetsu ga ima me no mae Stay with me Kuchiguse wo ii nagara Futari no toki wo daite (Ooh) Mada wasurezu Daiji ni shite ita
[Verse 2] Koi to ai to wa chigau monoda yo to Yuube iwareta sonna ki mo suru wa Nidome no fuyu ga kite Hanarete itta anata no kokoro (Ooh) Furi kaereba itsumo Soko ni anata wo kanjite ita no (Ooh)
[Chorus] Stay with me Mayonaka no doa o tataki Kokoro ni ana ga aita (Ooh) Ano kisetsu ga ima me no mae Stay with me Sabishisa magirawashite Oita rekodo no hari (Ooh) Onaji merodi kurikaeshite ita
[Saxophone Solo]
[Chorus] Stay with me Mayonaka no doa o tataki Kaeranaide to naita (Ooh) Ano kisetsu ga ima me no mae Stay with me Kuchiguse wo ii nagara Futari no toki wo daite (Ooh) Mada wasurezu atatameteta
[Chorus] Stay with me Mayonaka no doa o tataki Kaeranaide to naita (Ooh) Ano kisetsu ga ima me no mae Stay with me Kuchiguse wo ii nagara Futari no toki wo daite (Ooh) Mada wasurezu atatameteta
[Outro] Stay with me Mayonaka no doa o tataki Kaeranaide to naita (Ooh) Ano kisetsu ga ima me no mae Stay with me
While listening to some Citypop, a track that seems to be on every playlist that I have on Spotify is ANRI’s I CAN’T STOP THE LONELINESS from her 7th album Timely!!
ANRI (Real name ‘Eiko Kawashima’) is a singer-songwriter from Yamato, Japan who has been releasing music since her 1978 album “Apricot Jam” and continues to this day with her latest being her 2018 self-titled album release.
I CAN’T STOP THE LONELINESS was Kawashima’s 2nd hit single. Her first being “Cat’s Eye” which was used as the opening song for the anime of the same name.
Cat’s Eye Intro
The songs were released the same year but I CAN’T STOP THE LONELINESS only managed to get to #4 in the Oricon charts. Cat’s Eye would be reach #1 for 5 straight weeks.
Generally with Citypop (Or Japanese) content, trying to get legal ways of listening to the music can be tricky… but not for Anri! All of her music is available on Spotify (in Ireland at the very least)
I just wished that other labels would do the same with Japanese music. Yeah, we might not be able to understand or translate the names, but at least we can listen to it.
Anyway, enough ranting about that… I do enough of that on Twitter 😉
Live Performance:
Studio Recording:
Lyrics:
JAPANESE (Romanji):
I CAN’T STOP THE LONELINESS Koraekirezu kanashimi ga tomaranai
I CAN’T STOP THE LONELINESS Doushite na no kanashimi ga tomaranai
Anata ni kanojo Awaseta koto wo watashi ima mo Koyande iru Futari wa SHINPASHII kanjiteta Hiru sagari no KYAFETERASU
Ano hi denwa ga Fui ni natta no Ano hito to wakarete to kanojo kara
I CAN’T STOP THE LONELINESS Doushite na no kanashimi ga tomaranai
Gokai da yotte anata wa warau dakedo KISSU wa Uso no nioi Dakishimerarete kizuita no Ai ga koko ni nai koto wo
Koi wa chiisana Arashi mitai ni Tomodachi mo koibito mo ubatte
I CAN’T STOP THE LONELINESS Kare wo kaeshite kanashimi ga tomaranai
I CAN’T STOP THE LONELINESS Dare ka tasukete kanashimi ga tomaranai
I CAN’T STOP THE LONELINESS Koraekirezu kanashimi ga tomaranai
I CAN’T STOP THE LONELINESS Doushite na no kanashimi ga tomaranai
ENGLISH: I can’t stop the loneliness On and on without end This sadness won’t stop I can’t stop the loneliness Why won’t the sadness stop
I still regret when you met her You two made a connection That afternoon on the cafe terrace
Later that day the phone rang suddenly It was her telling me to break up with you
I can’t stop the loneliness Why won’t the sadness stop
You said it was a misunderstanding and smiled But your kiss felt like a lie And while you were hugging me I felt no love
Love is like a small storm Both friends and lovers get swept up by it
I can’t stop the loneliness Please give him back The sadness won’t stop I can’t stop the loneliness Someone help me The sadness won’t stop
I can’t stop the loneliness On and on without end This sadness won’t stop I can’t stop the loneliness Why won’t the sadness stop
In March of 1986, Akimoto released her one and only album Cologne under the Victor record label but went under the radar when it was initially released.
In my previous post, I wrote about listening to a new genre of music, Future Funk for the last couple of years. There has been a sub-genre of Future Funk though which has had a resurgence in the last 10 years, known as City pop.
City pop is a loosely defined subset of pop music that originated in Japan in the late 1970s. … Since the 2010s, city pop has gained an international online following as well as becoming a touchstone for the sample-based microgenres known as vaporwave and future funk.Wikipedia
One of the more popular songs that define the genre is Mariya Takeuchi’s – Plastic Love.
Mariya is a Japanese singer and songwriter who has been performing since 1978. Her latest studio album, Trad, was released in 2014 reaching Number 1 on the Japanese Music Charts.
The 65-year-old recently re-released one of her singles, Inochi No Uta (Song of Life) with a DVD of her live performance of the song.
Plastic Love was originally released back in 1984 and was on her 6th album, VARIETY.
Mariya Takeuchi – Plastic Love
Mariya Takeuchi – Plastic Love
The song became popular in the West in 2017 when a user on YouTube uploaded the song (See above) and became a frequent recommendation for viewers on the platform.
Today, the song has amassed a whopping 31 Million views and is flying the flag as being the ‘mascot’ for Future Funk.
I cannot count how many times I have listened to this song. I only wished that Last.FM had some sort of integration with YouTube to find out that statistic.
More recently, I have come across some remixes of the song on SoundCloud and then discovered a load more on YouTube which brings me to the point of this post.
Rick Astley – Never Gonna Give You Up
3 years after the release of Plastic Love, Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up was released.
A song that has become a staple ‘meme’ within the Internet landscape since the late 2000s, which has also held up very well 33 years after its release with an eye-popping 693 Million views on YouTube.
Rick Takeuchi – Never Gonna Give You Plastic Love
YouTube user, Gemosu, released a video back in August of 2018, mashing the two songs together to give this 80’s lovers treat.
An opposite version of the song was created by Gemosu in May of 2019 titled: Mariya Astley – Plastic You Up
The thumbnail is truly something else.
2 absolutely stunning mashups of 2 brilliant songs from yesteryear.
This was the beginning of a new series of ‘The JukeBox’. No ‘editions’ or ‘series’ numbers this time, just posting about music. It’s time for a change in the format and I feel that writing about the songs, rather than just posting lyrics is more enjoyable. Expect more in the future.
This post was initially published on May 22nd 2022 and was last updated on the 6th November 2022.
A genre that I have been listening to a lot in the last couple of years has been “Future Funk”… ahem, I mean “Ｆｕｔｕｒｅ Ｆｕｎｋ 因為ヾ”
A genre born from the illustrious vaporwave sub-genre which was brought to popularity in the early parts of 2010’s with its sampling of music from the ’70s and ’80s English & Japanese pop and disco songs and the incorporation of synth-wave and other sub-genres of vaporwave and citypop.
![[The JukeBox] #82 – Casiopea – Galactic Funk](https://padraig.blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/casiopea_cross_point.png)
![[The JukeBox] #71 – Miki Matsubara – Stay with Me](https://padraig.blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/stay-with-me-miki-matsubara.png)
![[The Jukebox] #67 – ANRI – 悲しいがとまらない I CAN’T STOP THE LONELINESS](https://padraig.blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/anri-timely.png)
![[The Jukebox] #62 – Dress Down – Kaoru Akimoto](https://padraig.blog/wp-content/uploads/wordpress/2020/11/160498985287be434c768997cf069c5d.jpeg)
![[The Jukebox] #58 – Rick Takeuchi – Never Gonna Give You Plastic Love](https://padraig.blog/wp-content/uploads/wordpress/2020/05/rick_takeuchi.jpg)
![[The Jukebox] #57 – Macross 82-99 – Fun Tonight](https://padraig.blog/wp-content/uploads/wordpress/2019/11/futurefunk2.png)