Minako Yoshida

Minako Yoshida's jazz- and R&B-inflected songwriting helped define the "urban pop" sound that would later be folded into city pop's broader identity. Her arrangements and vocal phrasing set a bar for sophistication that shaped expectations for the genre almost before the genre had a name, bringing harmonic complexity and melodic ambition to Japanese pop in the mid-1970s.

At a glance

Active

1974–present

From

Tokyo, Japan

Listen

In the issues

• 003
  Japanese City Pop

  Supporting cast · 1973-1989

  Japanese City Pop is a genre from Tokyo, Japan, 1973–1989. Its principal artists include Tatsuro Yamashita, Mariya Takeuchi and Haruomi Hosono. This issue covers 10 essential albums and 15 dated events.

Places

• Alfa Records Studio
  Tokyo · 1977-1994 · Japanese City Pop

  The in-house studio for Alfa Records, one of city pop's most important labels, where artists like Taeko Ohnuki and Minako Yoshida recorded many definitive albums.