Shibuya-kei

Shibuya-kei
Shibuya Crossing, 2007
Native name	渋谷系
Stylistic origins	Pop hip hop indie pop house soul jazz funk orchestral pop lounge pop French pop yé-yé bossa nova sunshine pop Italian soundtracks
Cultural origins	1990s in Shibuya, Japan
Typical instruments	Strings horns
Other topics
Chamber pop indie pop kitsch

Shibuya-kei (Japanese: 渋谷系^?, "Shibuya style") is an aesthetic and an eclectic form of pop music which flourished in the mid to late 1990s, emerging as Japanese retail music from the Shibuya district of Tokyo, Japan. The genre, a kitsch revival of 1960s culture, was strongly influenced by classic Western pop music, specifically the orchestral domains occupied by producers Burt Bacharach, Brian Wilson, Phil Spector, and singer Serge Gainsbourg. Artists engaged in a cut-and-paste style that was inspired by previous genres based on kitsch, fusion, and artifice. Unlike other Japanese music scenes, its audiences did not necessarily cross over into anime fandoms, but rather indie pop enthusiasts. This was partly because many of its bands were distributed in the United States through major indie labels like Matador and Grand Royal.

Shibuya-kei peaked in the late 1990s and declined after its principal players began moving into other music styles. According to English musician Momus, although Shibuya-kei continues to influence many musicians, the genre remains "dead" as of 2015, explaining that the subculture had a lot to do with the area itself; "Shibuya today is just an overblown shopping district, summed up for me by the disappointing Shibuya Hikarie center".