Enamoring a generation of listeners who have never experienced the 1980s, Japanese city pop creates a mysterious link to the past for its present-day fans. Its ability to evoke nostalgia for a world they never lived in is a curiosity that can possibly be explained in three ways, each personal to me.

Even after decades of professional management, football clubs are still grounded in the communities of their birth, not their billionaire owners. There’s no better proof of that than football chants.

Eighteen years after Leslie Cheung’s untimely death, his music and the pop culture of 1980s Hong Kong seem more relevant than ever.

The MiniDisc, or MD, was a marvel of engineering that made sharing music easier than ever. And yet, this is probably the first time you’ve heard of it.