is a song by Japanese

city pop is a loosely defined form of Japanese pop music that emerged in the late 1970s and peaked in the 1980s. It was originally termed as an offshoot of Japan's Western-influenced "new music", but came to include a wide range of styles – including ...

singer

Mariya Takeuchi is a Japanese singer and songwriter. Regarded as an influential figure in the city pop genre, she is one of the best-selling music artists in Japan, having sold over 16 million records, and has received several accolades. Her husband is Tatsu ...

, featured on her 1984 album ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

''. Upon its release as a single a year later, it was moderately successful, selling around 10,000 copies. In 2017, "Plastic Love" saw a resurgence internationally when an eight-minute remix of the song was uploaded to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. It quickly garnered more than 24 million views, before a copyright claim over the album art unintentionally led to its removal. It was subsequently restored in 2019 and has garnered over 63 million views.

Production and release

"Plastic Love" was written and performed by Takeuchi and produced by her husband,

Tatsuro Yamashita , occasionally credited as Tatsu Yamashita or Tats Yamashita, is a Japanese singer-songwriter and record producer, who is known for pioneering the style of Japanese Soft rock, adult-oriented rock/soft rock music. His most well-known song is "C ...

. In an interview with ''

The Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched b ...

'', Takeuchi remarked: "I wanted to write something danceable, something with a city pop sound... he lyricstell the story of a woman who lost the man she truly loves." Yamashita also played guitar for the song, while Yasuharu Nakanishi played electric piano, Kōki Itō played bass guitar, and Jūn Aoyama played drums. The song was first released on Takeuchi's number-one hit album, ''Variety'' (1984). The single was Takeuchi's twelfth single to be released. A

twelve-inch single The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a 'single' or a few related sound tracks on each surfac ...

was released on March 25, 1985, which included an "extended club mix" and "new re-mix" of the song and reached 86th on the Oricon Singles Chart.

Resurgence

On July 5, 2017, an eight-minute fan-made remix of "Plastic Love" was uploaded to YouTube by a user known as "Plastic Lover". The video showed a cropped version of the cover of Takeuchi's earlier single "Sweetest Music", taken by Los Angeles-based photographer Alan Levenson. In an interview, Plastic Lover said that their video was a re-upload of a now-deleted video on YouTube. Coinciding with the

vaporwave Vaporwave is a microgenre of electronic music, visual art style, and Internet meme that emerged in the early 2010s. It is defined partly by its slowed-down, chopped and screwed samples of smooth jazz, elevator, R&B, and lounge music fro ...

genre's rise in popularity, Plastic Lover's upload spread rapidly throughout YouTube through the platform's recommendations algorithm. Its spread was also aided by

internet memes An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...

, discussions on

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, imag ...

, and

fan art Fan art or fanart is artwork created by fans of a work of fiction and derived from a series character or other aspect of that work. They are usually done by amateur artists, semi-professionals or professionals. As fan labor, fan art refers t ...

of the "Sweetest Music" cover on platforms such as

DeviantArt DeviantArt (historically stylized as deviantART) is an American online art community that features artwork, videography and photography, launched on August 7, 2000 by Angelo Sotira, Scott Jarkoff, and Matthew Stephens among others. DeviantArt, ...

. The video garnered 24 million views before being taken down for a copyright dispute with Levenson, but was then restored in 2019 with credit given to Levenson in the video description and thumbnail. As of May 2021, the video had more than 63 million views. Ryan Bassil of ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character t ...

'' noted that the song is "a rare tune that doesn't exactly need words to expertly describe a specific, defined feeling – one of lust, heartbreak, love, fear, adventure, loss, all caught up in the swirling midst of a night out on the town" and called the song "the best pop song in the world". Cat Zhang of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'' reported that younger city pop fans commonly cite "Plastic Love" as their "gateway to the genre". Multiple

cover versions In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of "Plastic Love" also exist, including by

Tofubeats , known professionally as Tofubeats, is a Japanese singer, record producer, and DJ. Kawai began producing music at the age of 14, under the name "DJ Newtown". He initially distributed his music online through websites such as 2channel and YouTub ...

, Friday Night Plans and Chai. On May 16, 2019, the short version of the official music video produced by Kyōtaro Hayashi was released on YouTube running 90 seconds long. The full version, which runs approximately 5 minutes, is included in the DVD and Blu-ray release of "Souvenir the Movie" released on November 18, 2020. The music video became available on YouTube on November 11, 2021.

Tower Records Tower Records is an international retail franchise and online music store that was formerly based in Sacramento, California, United States. From 1960 until 2006, Tower operated retail stores in the United States, which closed when Tower Recor ...

released a re-print of "Plastic Love" as a 12-inch single on November 3, 2021, along with LP records of Takeuchi's albums ''Variety'' and ''Request''.

Track listing

All tracks are written by

and arranged by

. ;12" single # "Plastic Love" (Extended Club Mix) – 9:15 # "Plastic Love" (New Re-Mix) – 4:51

Charts

References

External links