2025 Volume 60 Issue 3 Pages 540-547
This study examines the images of Japanese City Pop, a distinctive urban music culture that emerged in Japan during the 1970s, by organizing discourses and applying quantitative analysis to its lyrical content. The results suggest that the images of different words representing the idea of “City” reflect different aspects of the image of “City”, such as a prosperous one and a nostalgic one. Additionally, they show that Japanese City Pop has a wide variety of images related to “City” in lyrics, which have undergone changes over time. Moreover, they suggest that the images in lyrics reflect the actual cityscapes or historical contexts in Japanese cities, especially Tokyo. This study will contribute to the development of effective city branding strategies by utilizing the images found in Japanese City Pop.
