CHAI meets Mariya Takeuchi

The moment CHAI begin performing—with the sweetest incantations of the line ‘I’m just playing games, I’m just playing games’—listeners are electrocuted by a sugar-fuelled sense of deja vu.

Japanese four-piece rock band CHAI have been gaining a reputation for their self-conscious song writing, going far beyond the surfaces of bubblegum pop. Their cover of 1980s city-pop star Mariya Takeuchi’s ‘Plastic Love’, released by Sub Pop Records in November 2020, pays tribute to a moment in Japanese pop-cultural history that was as age-defining as it was timeless. Linking back to the era, CHAI’s rendition recharges Tokyo’s urban scenery with joy.

An Everlasting Anthem

Originally based in Nagoya, the ‘neo-kawaii’ frenzy of MANA, KANA, YUUKI, and YUNA has become an international phenomenon since the releases of albums PINK (2018) and PUNK (2019). While known for an explosive sound and chaotic performances, amidst disruptions of the 2020 global pandemic, the band reinvented themselves through the softer melodies of their most recent release, WINK (2021). Shortly beforehand, CHAI released their cover of ‘Plastic Love’, the most iconic single of chart-topping 1980s idol Mariya Takeuchi, alongside a video in which the band, dressed all in white, guide viewers across Tokyo.

During the disorientating changes that rapidly unfolded in Japan’s 1980s post-war economic boom, Mariya Takeuchi’s song was a universal anthem for modern love amongst idol-obsessed youths. She was a best-selling legend of the bubble era, forever immortalised in the ongoing international craze for City pop music. But now, having had one of her hit singles circulated ubiquitously online in various remixes and mashups by fans, she has become known as a figure of vaporwave meme culture. For future generations, ‘Plastic Love’ has become an imaginary reference point for a historical moment of extreme optimism.

Meanwhile, as the new flag-bearers of Japanese pop music, CHAI’s rendition shows a self-awareness towards the band’s own position in cultural phenomena by forming connections through time. While showering listeners with immaculate City-pop instrumentation, their up-to-date production style is matched by soft and playful Shibuya-kei vocals, echoing other moments of the band’s post-modern legacy. Their video’s lo-fi dreaminess alludes to the peculiar mark that 1980s Japan made on the popular imagination through the lens of the internet—but in sharing their favourite places, the band addresses audiences in the present.

The journey through Tokyo that CHAI takes listeners on is also a historic one, connecting the time of Mariya Takeuchi to the reality of current urban life. In spite of the irony of the post-internet age, a heartfelt joy shines through.

Plastic Love (2021), a single by CHAI, is available on Sub Pop Records.