Genre Mashup: While she's ultimately a pop singer through and through, she draws from a diverse range of genres and subgenres.Driving Song: 'Chuo Freeway,' about driving on the Chuo Expressway, is one of her most iconic tracks and is generally considered a J-Pop standard.Also implied at the very end of '12-Kai no Koibito' (On the 12th Floor). Driven to Suicide: 'Tsubame no You ni' (Like A Swallow) is about a woman who jumps off a building 'Compartment' is about a person overdosing on sleeping pills in a train car.Also, 'Reincarnation' is loosely themed around the supernatural. Concept Album: 'Pearl Pierce,' which is themed around the experiences of a Tokyo Office Lady.City Pop: Several of her songs from the 80s.The two songs were featured on the same single and appear back-to-back on the album 'Cobalt Hour.' In addition, her songs 'Nani mo Kikanaide' (Don't Ask Me Anything) and 'Rouge no Dengon' act as two sides of the same coin, the former being from the POV of the other woman and the latter from the jilted wife.Answer Song: 'Downtown Boy' is this for 'Uptown Girl.'.Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Being Japanese, this shows up at times when she puts English words and phrases into her lyrics.Yumi Matsutoya's music provides examples of: Outside of Japan, she is most famous for her work with Studio Ghibli two of her most iconic '70s songs were featured in Kiki's Delivery Service and another was popularized by its usage in The Wind Rises. However, no matter how 'mainstream' her music has become, she has always maintained a high degree of creative control and an uncanny ability to craft brilliant melodies and insightful lyrics. After marrying her producer Masataka Matsutoya, she continued to grow in popularity, becoming perhaps the biggest name in J-Pop during The '80s, both setting trends and borrowing from them. She eventually broke through to mainstream success in 1975 with the single 'Rouge no Dengon' (ルージュの伝言, Message in Rouge), and has been a superstar ever since. Because of her fairly plain looks and just-good-enough vocals, she struggled at first to find an audience, but steadily grew a dedicated fanbase due to her excellent songwriting and sharp production. In 1972, she released her first single under her maiden name Yumi Arai, and released an album annually from 1973 to 1976. Yuming began playing piano at a young age, and became active as a studio musician and songwriter while she was still a teenager. However, as her career has gone on, she has drawn from a vast array of musical genres, while still fundamentally remaining a Pop musician. As a songwriter, she was initially influenced by artists like Carole King and Joni Mitchell, as well as bands like Procol Harum.

While she is fairly obscure in most parts of the world, she is one of the legends of Japanese Pop Music in her native country, having been active since 1972 and having produced some of the country's most beloved pop songs of the '70s and '80s. Yumi 'Yuming' Matsutoya is a Japanese singer-songwriter.

Yumi arai