J-pop
Japan's own pop world. City pop rediscovered forty years late, the idol system and its economics, Utada and Hikaru's ten million, anime theme songs as a chart force, Johnny's and the 2023 reckoning, and a market that ran on CDs long after everyone else stopped.
Part of Pop
29 moments in this segment.
- - Teresa Teng - The Moon Represents My Heart. Teng's 1977 recording of the song that became the most widely known Mandarin pop ballad ever written, sung across the Chinese-speaking world.
- - Teresa Teng - Tian Mi Mi. Teng's adaptation of the Indonesian folk melody Dayung Sampan, the best-known Mandopop record ever made.
- - Teresa Teng - Ni Zenme Shuo. A Mandarin hit that helped carry Teng's voice across the Chinese-speaking world.
- - Teresa Teng sings Ni Zenme Shuo on TTV's Kun Zai Qian Shao. Teng performs for Taiwanese troops on Taiwan Television's forces programme.
- - Teresa Teng's full Kun Zai Qian Shao concert for TTV. The complete Taiwan Television special in which Teng performed for frontline garrisons - a landmark of her career.
- - Seiko Matsuda - Shiroi Parasol. Matsuda's fourth single, written by Takashi Matsumoto and Kazuo Zaitsu, from the peak of Japanese idol pop.
- - Anri - Windy Summer. Toshiki Kadomatsu's production for Anri, from the album Timely!! - a foundational city pop record.
- - Anita Mui - Red Doubt. A Cantonese version of a Momoe Yamaguchi song, from Mui's early Capital Artists run.
- - Anri - Remember Summer Days. Another Kadomatsu-written Timely!! track, later central to the city pop revival.
- - Akina Nakamori performs Kinku on NHK's Let's Go Young. A restored NHK broadcast from the peak of Japanese idol pop, released officially by Warner Music Japan.
- - Akina Nakamori performs Second Love on NHK's Let's Go Young. A second restored NHK performance from the same 1985 broadcast.
- - Teresa Teng - Airen. Teng's Japanese-language single, which topped the Japanese charts for weeks.
- - Teresa Teng sings Tsugunai at NHK Hall. Teng performs her Japanese-language hit at NHK Hall in Tokyo.
- - Seiko Matsuda - Ruriiro no Chikyuu. Sony Music Japan's official video for the 1986 song by the singer who defined the 1980s Japanese idol era.
- - Hikaru Utada - First Love. The title track of the best-selling album in Japanese history. Official VEVO upload of the 1999 video.
- - Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - PONPONPON. Warner Music Japan's official upload of the 2011 debut single that exported Harajuku kawaii aesthetics worldwide.
- - AKB48 - Koi Suru Fortune Cookie. The 2013 single from the idol group whose handshake-event and election model reshaped the Japanese music industry.
- - Site of Teresa Teng`s former residence 鄧麗君舊居址 - panoramio. 亞洲歌姬鄧麗君故居 Photograph dated 2014.
- - Gen Hoshino at the Fuji Rock Festival 2015. /dated 2015.
- - Celebration Flowers from Production Staffs in AIKATSU☆STARS! Aikatsu! Special LIVE…. Celebration flowers for the performers in the live concert, AIKATSU☆STARS! Aikatsu! Special LIVE 2015 Lovely Party!!. The production staffs of TV animation titled Aikatsu! arran… Photograph/scan dated 2015.
- - Perfume - TOKYO GIRL. Official MV from the technopop trio whose Nakata Yasutaka productions defined a decade of Japanese electronic pop.
- - Celebration Flowers for nao B.D. Live(?) orz Lv.34!!. 2019年1月27日に実施された日本のゲームソング歌手・naoのソロライブイベント「nao B.D. Live(？)orz Lv.34!!なおすん生誕独り会。」にて使用されたフラワースタンド。Zirco Tokyoにて開催された。 Photograph/scan dated 2019.
- - Japan's Junior Idols. Channel 4's Unreported World investigates the junior idol trade in Japan, in which schoolgirls perform for adult audiences as a route into pop.
- - YOASOBI - Idol. Theme to the anime Oshi no Ko and the first Japanese-language song to top the Billboard Global 200 excluding the US.
- - Babymetal's full set at Rock am Ring 2024. The Japanese metal-idol group's complete festival set in Germany, June 2024, uploaded by the festival itself. Kawaii metal as a Japanese pop export at European festival scale.
- - HIKARU UTADA SCIENCE FICTION TOUR 2024. 2024.07.24 さいたまスーパーアリーナ Photograph dated 2024.
- - The Cult of Kawaii: Inside Japan's Idol Industry. Long-form essay on the idol business, tracing its lineage from geisha and host clubs to the contemporary agency-managed idol economy.
- - Fuji Rock Festival 2025 aftermovie. The official film of Japan's Fuji Rock at Naeba in July 2025, from the festival's own channel, three days of the country's largest international music gathering.
- - Hikaru Utada - PAPPAPARADISE. A 2026 release from Utada's official channel, more than a quarter-century after First Love made her Japan's best-selling artist.
