Walk into a Tower Records store in Shibuya or Shinjuku and you'll eventually come across the apparel section. The current fashion aesthetic here leans retro: Hoodies and T-shirts come emblazoned with text highlighting throwback music signifiers, from equipment ("cassette tape," "analog") to genres ("surf rock," "grunge").
The sweatshirt that seems most relevant to the music filling up the rest of the stores, however, reads "city pop."
Back in July, writer Ryotaro Aoki used this same space to write about the effort being made by domestic music magazines — and in particular CD-rental chain Tsutaya — to turn a horn-filled genre from the 1980s into a new trend. Bands such as Cero, Lucky Tapes and Awesome City Club got lumped together in this branding move ... steps away from the ¥4,000 hoodies, you can find their latest releases on display.