How Plastic Love Was Shot to Fame in 2018: YouTube’s Magic

In 2018, the world saw a sudden revival of Japanese city pop genre in music. It is characteristically funky, has an urban yet vintage feel to it, and has elements of soft rock and adult-oriented rock, with hypnotic beats. YouTube’s recommendation algorithm had glitched and sent the seven to eight-minute mix of this track uploaded by a channel called Plastic Lover to almost everyone’s playlist. People were greeted with Takeuchi’s enigmatically smiling thumbnail. Soon, it became widely popular with the audience who did not care about the language, just pure vibes! Due to copyright issues, the original upload was taken down later on, but the song stayed stuck in people’s minds.

A Glitch Resurrected an Entire Genre: The Rise of J-Pop

People are unsure as to why or how YouTube’s algorithm picked up this particular video, but it resulted in the revival of Japanese city pop, and it spread like wildfire globally. Tracing the lineage of city pop, it forms the basis of sub-genres like vaporware, cyberpunk, and more. It has a distinct aura that listeners can immediately identify with, irrespective of the language. Most listeners of Plastic Love were not even aware of the bittersweet lyrics. Instead, they resonated with the tunes and emotions of the song.

J-pop was not particularly marketed to the Western audience when it first emerged in the late 70s – early 80s, despite its emergence being the result of Japan’s globalization and influence of soft rock from America and the economic boom. With the advancement of technology and the introduction of gadgets like cassette decks built in cars, stereos, and walkman around this time, city pop came to be associated with these. Tatsuro Yamashita is often referred to as the pioneer of this genre of music. He also happens to be the husband of Mariya Takeuchi. They are the power couple of the Japanese music industry. Yamashita was initially the producer for most of Takeuchi’s songs, and they eventually tied the knot.

After the famous algorithm glitch, people all over the world became extremely interested in the genre. And some of the current favorites apart from Takeuchi’s Plastic Love are:

• Stay With Me / Mayonaka no Door by Miki Matsubara (1980)
• Sparkle by Tatsuro Yamashita (1982)
• Good Bye Boogie Dance by Anri (1983)
• 4.00 AM by Taeko Ohnuki (1978)
• Kusuri Wo Takusan by Taeko Ohnuki (1977)
• Sugar by Sugar Babe (1975)
• Jazzy Night by Miki Matsubara (1980)
• Yume No Tsuzuki by Mariya Takeuchi (2019)
• Love Was Really Gone by Makoto Matsushita (1981)
• I Love You So by Junko Ohashi (2009)

The list is quite long! However, if you’re new to the world of Japanese city pop, these songs will get you started as you explore catchy beats, nostalgia, and the bittersweet essence of these masterpieces. Moreover, it is evident that the city pop genre has been relevant over the years, and artists continued to produce music in this style. The revival has also led artists old and new to experiment with city pop and related J-pop genres and aesthetics. It is not restricted to Japanese popular culture anymore. It is more of a global phenomenon. With people’s increasing interest in Japanese culture through anime, food, music, and more, a worldwide confluence of cultures is taking place. People are moving beyond language barriers and accepting art in various forms.

More about the Copyright Issue Involving Plastic Love

Photographer Alan Levenson took the highly loved picture of Takeuchi for her album Miss M, the same image featured in Sweetest Music instead. The YouTuber behind the Plastic Lover channel revealed that they were not the first to upload the song with the said thumbnail, but somehow their upload became the most popular one. Eventually, Alan learned about the use of his photograph, and he filed for a copyright claim. He did not know that YouTube does not allow adding credits and making changes after the video had been uploaded, and his claim basically struck the video down from YouTube. Owing to this, he received a lot of hate mail from lovers of the popular video and had resonated with it. Fans felt wronged and were outraged. However, Plastic Lover started a petition to stop the hate mail and encouraged the fans to inform Alan what the song and its combined experience with the picture meant to them. Eventually, Plastic Lover and Alan came to an understanding, and the video was re-uploaded by Plastic Lover in the same format, but with appropriate credits to Alan. Currently, an upload by the channel named Gun, where the appropriate credits are mentioned, has the highest views on the video, over 43 million. It seems like Plastic Lover’s YouTube channel was taken down once again after the copyright problem was solved.

So What Lies in Store for Mewbie Japanese City Pop Lovers?

You can check out the list of songs mentioned in the article – it is a good starting point for those who are new to J-pop. Obviously, many more amazing artists are waiting to be explored, just like Mariya Takeuchi was discovered miraculously. For now, we can hope for another rewarding glitch in the algorithm!