Steven Smith
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durianmilkshake.bsky.social
Steven Smith
@durianmilkshake.bsky.social
58 followers 26 following 1.7K posts
I write a weekly newsletter on the latest Japanese "City Music" with an accompanying playlist. It is free! 🚫No AI is used!🚫 Newsletter: https://neocitypop.substack.com/ Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1ojdY5RKVdES4RcvGFB6fJ?si=f7cda9e7015b4c
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A Starter's Guide to Neo City Pop

The format of this graphic is inspired by (stolen from) @earfeeder.bsky.social. I posted this on Twitter a year ago, but it looked like they weren’t using Twitter by that point so there’s a good chance they didn’t see it.
For an indie artist with almost no promotion, just hype from local DJs, my girl really got herself a following 🥲
open.spotify.com/track/1XWnVa...
Swim
open.spotify.com
Kimono R&B? 😑 keep digging that hole geniuses
Four suspects:
Arsène Lupin
Arsène Lupin
Arsène Lupin
Arsène Lupin (with mustache)
In the space of just seven minutes in the casual daylight of Sunday morning, four suspects stole nine pieces of France’s crown jewels from the Louvre.
nbcnews.to/47xHSXb
Brown Sugar.

They are all 10/10 so splitting hairs is kind of pointless, but Brown Sugar is one of only 4 albums I have downloaded on my phone. It is with me at all times.
The late great D'Angelo released just three studio albums during his 30+ year recording career, but each one had a profound impact on the musical landscape at the respective time of its release.

Which of his three albums resonates with you the most?

album.ink/dangelo
Aww man, just saw something about Taylor Swift using AI for her videos! Someone get motherfucko* on the phone!

*Japanese videographer who made SIRUP famous with a music video using rotoscoping
All pleasantly surprised they picked this one to do a video - it has the highest streaming numbers on Spotify, but it’s pretty clear it was not supposed to be the ”hit”.

A lot of videos are made way before the fact, but I feel like this one got picked because of the response to the song.
They are releasing Seiko Matsuda classics on four separate vinyls, split up based on PRODUCER. Has anything been done like that before?

Also it’s interesting that she has the traditional “city pop haircut” on 3 of the covers and then then a very 90s cut on the Hosono one lol
Hoping this EP gets a vinyl release (though wouldn’t mind if they waited until after bozo is taken care of and the tariffs are sorted out).

I also like a good rotoscoped MV. If every video did this it’d be overkill, but it‘s so much nicer than some of the “AI enhanced“ videos
youtu.be/KZ_bRorlE1I
주혜린 - 놀러 와 (909 jam) Official Video
YouTube video by 주혜린 Hyelyn Joo
youtu.be
I wasn't looking at my phone for a while and then checked it to find a text from my friend: "Quick question, was Utada Hikaru already popular when Kingdom Hearts came out?" Hopefully he wasn't on a gameshow because I responded two hours later lol
Because finally after a year, these Gen-AI playlists finally have comments like "how is this AI thing getting 200K hits and I can't get any", though they are mostly drowned out by tons of bots replying either "how do you know it's AI?!?" or "chill out bro [generic affirmation]". Is this a problem?
How does the AI music thing end?

Is there an analysis like "OK so artists who were getting paid 37 cents are now getting 36 cents because of the pro rata payments, so who cares the system is just slightly more broken" or are there waves of artists (besides ambient music) actually not getting paid?
Reposted by Steven Smith
MF DOOM released his debut album ‘Operation: Doomsday’ 26 years ago on October 19, 1999 | Listen to the album + revisit our tribute here: album.ink/MFDOOMopdoom
Reposted by Steven Smith
Meshell Ndegeocello released her debut album ‘Plantation Lullabies’ 32 years ago on October 19, 1993 | Listen to the album + revisit our tribute here: album.ink/MNdegeocelloPL
Nah I don’t mess with TV, but I heard from a very good source - one of only two I trust - that this was a very good album… I will be checking it out…
'Saturday Night Live' welcomes Sabrina Carpenter as the host & musical guest later this evening. Are you planning to watch?

Listen to her new album 'Man's Best Friend' here: album.ink/SCarpenterMBF
Check the playlist below, with new songs from blend house, CRCK/LCKS, Unvivid, Quw, E.scene, Show Chick Boy, YAMORI, Kazuki Isogai + GORO KUMAI, CHAPAH, and MALIYA:
open.spotify.com/playlist/1oj...
Spotify – Web Player
open.spotify.com
It's difficult to celebrate any music this week, but I carried on with the playlist as usual. Read about new Japanese R&B and indie here. I also put in YouTube links to the songs where available so you don't need to go to Spotify to listen:
open.substack.com/pub/neocityp...
NEO CITY POP CYCLE vol.3 iss.10
moca only
open.substack.com
Not an easy question, but this is one I always come back to For undeniable feel-good music. This and ”Never Too Much”