Event | “And Suddenly There Was City Pop…”: The Global Dimensions of the Retrograde Formation of a Japanese Popular Music Genre – International Research Workshop
Event | “And Suddenly There Was City Pop…”: The Global Dimensions of the Retrograde Formation of a Japanese Popular Music Genre – International Research Workshop
Dates: 19-21 March 2025
Location: University of Amsterdam
Registration: here
Contact: f.o.seibt@uva.nl
Credits: 1 or 2 ECTS
And suddenly there was “City Pop”. The music sounded familiar, and its name also rang a bell. But even if those in the know about the history of popular music in Japan might associate the term with the late 1970s and early 1980s, the music that today goes by the name “City Pop” usually wasn’t called that back then. This is also the reason why there is much debate about exactly what Japanese popular music is meant by the term “City Pop”. “City Pop” only recently became a genre designation, and the coinage and filling of the term with musical content from the past appears to be a process that involves actors not only from Japan. Even if the production and reception of the music that today goes under the name of “City Pop” was completely analogue at the time it was created and was limited to Japan, the formation of the genre of “City Pop” seems to be a global process that retroactively takes place in the digital environment of the Internet and challenges existing academic genre theories which assume that the formation of music genres can be clearly dated historically and traced geographically.
The workshop will not be held in the form of a conference, but is intended as a kind of expert meeting during which scholars researching “City Pop” and/or Japanese popular music of the 1970s and 1980s will together attempt to trace this decades-spanning, global process in as much detail as possible, as an example of cultural production transitioning cultures, temporalities and technologies.
The workshop is supported by…
ASCA, the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis
IASPM Benelux, the Benelux Branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music
- Matsushita Foundation
NICA, the Netherland Institute of Cultural Analysis
the University of Amsterdam’s capacity group Musicology the University of Osaka
… and organised by…
Oliver Seibt (University of Amsterdam, NL) and Ken Katō (Osaka University, JP)
Programme
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
9.00-9.15 Welcome Address
Oliver Seibt (University of Amsterdam, NL) and Ken Katō (Osaka University, JP)
9.15-10.45 (Panel 1) “City Music” and “New Music” 1
Moritz Sommet (University of Fribourg, CH)
Urban Psychogeography as Transcultural Intertextuality in the Lyrics of Matsumoto Takashi
Ai Ishikawa (Tokyo University, JP)
Choreography for the Sudden Emergence of City Pop: Analysis of the Singing Voices of Happii Endo and Their Cover Versions
11.15-12.45 (Panel 2) “City Music” and “New Music” 2
Anita Drexler (Osaka University, JP)
Grasping the Amorphous: On the Formation of a Canon of Nyū Myūjikku
II Tokikake (University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, US)
“City Pop”? Cool Japan and Perception of City Pop/New Music in and outside of Japan
13.30-15.00 (Panel 3) From “City Pops” to “wamono” 1
Davide Gnoato (Art University Linz in Vienna, AT)
City Pop and the Digital Revolution. Genre and Sound Identity by New Technologies
Martin Roberts (Emerson University, US)
Endless Summer: Transcultural Geographies of City Pop Art
Thursday, March 20, 2025
9.15-10.45 (Panel 4) From “City Pops” to “wamono” 2
Chris Tonelli (University of Groningen, NL)
Shibuya-kei, Pico-Pico and Hipster Re-Presentation: Proliferating the Pastiche that Regentrified City Pop
Tetsu Ōshima (Tamagawa University, JP)
Continuing Curatorial Practice: From Happy End via wamono to City Pop
11.15-12.45 Key Note
Toshiyuki Ōwada (Keio University, JP)
The Sonic Texture of City Pop – History, Musicians, and Its Representation
13.30-15.00 (Panel 5) Algorithms and Anemoia 1
Sayo Sakamoto (University of Southern California, US)
Collaging the Past: Vague Memory in Vaporwave and City Pop’s Nostalgia
Ollie Hershon (Durham University, UK)
Skylines and Supras: Exploring City Pop’s Resurgence in the Age of Anemoia
Friday March 21, 2025
9.15-10.45 (Panel 6) Algorithms and Anemoia 2
Benjamin Düster (University of Göttingen, DE)
A City Pop Fanon in the New Media Age? Material Genre Formations Between Algorithms, Vinyl and Cassettes
Shang Gao (Communication University of China, CN)
Digital Echoes: The Evolution and Cross-Cultural Reinterpretation of City Pop in Chinese Online Communities
11.15-12.45 (Panel 7) Non-Japanese and “Neo-City Pop” 1
Viriya Sawangchot (Walailak University, TH)
Resonances of City Pop in the 1980s Thai Pop Music
Herb L. Fondevilla (Rikkyo University, JP)
The J-Pop in Manila Sound: Hybridization in Popular Music
13.30-15.00 (Panel 8) Non-Japanese and “Neo-City Pop” 2
Cody Black (Duke University, US)
Playlisting the City: Genre, “City Pop,” and the Aural Politics of Personal Playlists in Contemporary Seoul
Ken Katō (Osaka University, JP)
Reimagining the City: Neo City Pop and Independent Soundscapes
