Music in Tokyo

The Scene

Tokyo's music scene is the most infrastructurally dense on earth. Shinjuku alone contains hundreds of music businesses stacked vertically. CDs still outsell digital. Tower Records Shibuya — the world's largest record store. Golden Gai — 200 bars in six alleys — is the industry meeting ground. Shimokitazawa handles indie. Koenji is the psychedelic corridor.

Key Players

Cornelius produces pop at sonic detail most can't approach. Ryuichi Sakamoto's influence is permanent. Boris — 30+ albums of genre-defying noise. Utada Hikaru — best-selling artist in Japanese history. Nujabes created the lo-fi hip-hop template from his Shibuya studio.

History & DNA

Yellow Magic Orchestra invented techno-pop in 1978. Shibuya-kei in the early 1990s. The noise scene — Merzbow, Boredoms — pushed music to physical limits. Tokyo absorbs and reprocesses at accelerated speed.

Where to Go

• Tower Records Shibuya — 1-22-14 Jinnan. Nine floors.
• Blue Note Tokyo — 6-3-16 Minamiaoyama.
• Shimokitazawa — Shelter, Three, Basement Bar.
• Golden Gai — Kabukicho. 200 micro-bars.
• Disk Union Shibuya — Micro-genre precision.

The Outlook

The physical format economy gives Japanese musicians revenue streams streaming-only markets have lost. The domestic market is large enough to sustain a world-class ecosystem on its own terms.