Idol kayō

Idol kayō is the strain of Japanese kayōkyoku popular song performed by idol singers, the manufactured teen stars who dominated Japanese popular music from the early 1970s through the 1980s. Produced within a television-centred star system, the music pairs professional songwriters and arrangers with young performers marketed on image as much as voice, setting sentimental melodies to polished orchestral and synthesised accompaniment. Singers such as *Momoe Yamaguchi*, *Seiko Matsuda*, *Akina Nakamori* and *Momoko Kikuchi* defined the style's commercial peak, after which the idol system fed directly into modern J-pop.