Bangkok is having a City Pop moment. Art lovers are flocking to Hiroshi Nagai: Summer Dreaming, the legendary Japanese illustrator’s first-ever solo exhibition in Thailand. But while everyone’s busy soaking up the neon-and-palm-tree nostalgia, it’s worth remembering that Thailand has its own, very real relationship with City Pop.
Hiroshi Nagai is the man behind those unmistakable sun-drenched pool-and-palm-tree album covers — including Eiichi Ohtaki’s A Long Vacation — that came to define the visual language of 1980s City Pop. Over the past decade, a run of Thai artists have picked up the genre’s synth-driven, sophisti-pop DNA. They’ve taken jazzy chords, slick basslines, breezy melodies built for a late-night drive, and made them distinctly their own. Here are six Thai acts to add to your playlist before (or after) your gallery visit.
[Hero and Featured Image Credit: POLYCAT]
The Thai City Pop artists that should be on your radar
POLYCAT
If Thailand has a City Pop flagship, it’s POLYCAT. Formed in Chiang Mai and signed to the influential indie label Smallroom, the synth-pop trio built their entire identity around the sound and spirit of 1980s Japanese pop, right down to the chorus-drenched guitars and vintage synth tones. Their breakout hit “พบกันใหม่ (So Long)” made that influence obvious to Thai listeners, and the band has since become one of the most-streamed acts in the country, with tracks racking up tens of millions of plays. They’ve toured Japan repeatedly and are frequently cited as the act that introduced a mainstream Thai audience to the City Pop revival.
Armchair
For the genre purists, Armchair is where the Thai City Pop lineage really starts. Formed in Bangkok in 2001, the band’s debut album Pastel Mood became a defining moment for Thai bossa nova. Bossa nova is one of the direct musical ancestors of City Pop itself, and the same warm jazz-pop chords that Tatsuro Yamashita and his peers built the genre on in 1970s Tokyo. Armchair’s catalogue, spanning Design, Spring, and Tender, is less synth-heavy than POLYCAT’s brand of City Pop, but the smooth, unhurried sophistication is unmistakably cut from the same cloth. Consider them the genre’s Thai grandparent.
Phum Viphurit
Best known internationally for his 2017 viral hit “Lover Boy,” Bangkok-born, New Zealand-raised Phum Viphurit blends neo-soul, funk, and indie pop into something that shares City Pop’s easy, sun-warmed groove. His music videos are full of retro fashion and tropical colour, echoing the same nostalgic optimism that fuels Nagai’s paintings. Phum has become one of the region’s most recognisable exports, playing festivals across Japan and Southeast Asia.
Listen to Phum Viphurit on Spotify
Gym and Swim
This Bangkok quintet trade in what they call “tropical pop,” but the DNA is pure late-’70s/’80s West Coast-meets-Japan sophistication: warm synths, funky bass, and hooks built for a sunset drive. They’ve toured across Asia, including a much-talked-about run with Taiwan’s Sunset Rollercoaster, cementing their place in the region’s broader city-and-tropical pop conversation.
Whatcharawalee
Since 2009, Whatcharawalee helped lay the groundwork for Thailand’s retro-pop revival before “City Pop” was even a buzzword locally. Billed as a retro soul-pop outfit, the band’s catalogue — songs like “ลูกอม” and “ร่มสีเทา” — leans on warm, vintage production and unhurried melodies. With well over a million monthly Spotify listeners, they remain one of the steadiest names in Thailand’s nostalgia-pop lane.
Listen to Whatcharawalee on Spotify
atom chanakan
A more recent entrant into the retro conversation, atom chanakan makes soul-inflected pop that leans hard into vintage warmth — smooth grooves, bluesy inflections, and production that nods openly to decades past. Albums like CYANTIST show an artist comfortable blurring the line between old-school soul and the polished, urbane feel that defines City Pop at its core.
Listen to atom chanakan on Spotify
Note : The information in this article is accurate as of the date of publication.