If you were on any kind of social media yesterday you would know that Spotify released their year end wrap. It’s fun to see what artist and music are on the top of lists of friends or people I follow. Not surprising to me was that City Pop was on the top of my list for another year. In case you are not familiar with the genre it’s a sound that was popular in Japan in the late 70’s and through most of the 80’s. It’s best described as a fusion of a little pop, jazz, funk, and R&B or any combo of these. Kind of modern or “urban” sounding for the time. I’m somewhat butchering the description. I like to think of it as me being a child of the 80’s, feeling nostalgic for a particular sound but still wanting some thing new. It was my comfort music when Baltimore was on lockdown in 2020 and it kind of grew from there. Spotify’s city pop library has been constantly growing over the years so there is always something new to find.
As fun as the wrap is I realized a few years back that since I listen to a lot of Spotify generated playlist for this specific genre, what can wind up on the top of my list are songs that just happen to pop up a lot of times on those playlists. This year though is kind of spot on… though I would maybe switch the order around for a few of these.
While it’s not holiday related, it is a little recap of what I’ve been listening to the most this year. What was on the top of your list? Any surprises?
If by chance you were curious or wanted to give a little City Pop a listen here is a playlist I put together earlier this year. The title is lame…especially since there might be a song or two in the mix that may not fit in the genre but I’ll change it another day.