Trivia / Mariya Takeuchi

• Approval of God: Mariya Takeuchi herself acknowledged the meme of City Pop and "Plastic Love" getting millions of hits on YouTube in a 2020 NHK interview.
  Mariya Takeuchi: For some reason, around two years ago, a mysterious phenomenon began happening where my work from 36 years ago (Plastic Love) began becoming popular among overseas youth. To be honest, I think I'm probably the one that's the most surprised with the number of views the song got. I made the song when I was in my twenties and I was going for a western flavor with my music back then. The fact that in the exact home of western music, the (western) youth of today are listening to my music makes me truly happy. Personally, I think it was because the song was made while I was overseas and because I viewed it as one of my favorite songs to have arranged and played off that album. I feel that introducing the world and this era (Heisei/Reiwa) to this music is a very, very big achievement.
• Creator's Oddball: The somber "Plastic Love" is in stark contrast to Mariya Takeuchi's usual discography of wistful ballads, funky beats, and lighthearted love songs. "Plastic Love" was actually Mariya's personal take on her husband Tatsuro Yamashita's signature style. Tatsuro even arranged the music for the song for good measure.
• Sequel Gap: Here's a music video example. Being a not-so-famous song from her discography, the incredible fame of "Plastic Love" by Mariya Takeuchi in The New '10s made Warner Japan create an official music video for this song after 35 years.

---