After 35 Years, Mariya Takeuchi’s “Plastic Love” Gets an Official Music Video

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If you’re even tangentially interested in Japanese culture, you’ve probably seen the rising popularity of “vaporwave” and “future funk”, retro-themed genres that frequently sample older Japanese city-pop music to new beats or rhythms.

A classic city-pop tune, Mariya Takeuchi’s 1980s hit “Plastic Love,” was sampled a bit – only to explode in popularity with an entirely new audience.


Due to the new popularity of the song 35 years later, Warner Music Japan has officially commissioned (via Arama Japan) a music video for Mariya’s 80s ballad. You can find a short teaser of the music video above.

The new music video was directed by Kyotaro Hayashi, who attempted to recreate the world of “Plastic Love” through his own vision.

Plastic Love was a track from Mariya’s 1984 album “VARIETY,” and it remains one of her most successful tracks as well as album releases to date. It reached #1 on the Oricon album charts, and a year later the extended remix of her song also hit the charts.

A fan re-upload of the song reached over 24 million views on YouTube, making it so popular it regularly found its way into the recommendations of millions worldwide. It was pulled due to copyright infringement, but has been reinstated recently due to the sheer number of views on the upload.

Lastly, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of her career, Mariya Takeuchi is set to release a 3-CD, 62 track compilation album titled “Turntable,” on August 21st of this year.

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