In the mid-2010s, YouTube’s recommendations began fixating on a Japanese genre called “City Pop,” a nebulous musical movement that emerged in the late 1970s and early ’80s. It began with bands like Happy End, an influential outfit in Tokyo that was the first to make rock and psychedelic-folk music with Japanese lyrics. Happy End didn’t last long, but its members included Haruomi Hosono, who collaborated with many other musicians like Sato and experimented with synthesizers in the more avant-garde band Yellow Magic Orchestra.
