Nice honest review Jihad, I know how you cringe when you have to say anything somewhat positive about Shiina Ringo these days, but I do have to burst a bit of your bubble for a sec:
Originally Posted by Tokyo Jihad
Speaking of things being jettisoned: Saito Neko. Good fucking riddance.
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Saito Neko
is on NOPPIN though...
Originally Posted by Tokyo Jihad
I was then going to do the thing where I make a Beatles analogy to relate Shiina Ringo's originally giving these songs to other performers to release. "The Beatles gave 'I Wanna Be Your Man' to the Stones," I would say. "There's that demo of John singing 'Bad to Me'"I would point out. Then I would slam that no discerning listener ever wanted to hear Shiina's own renditions or would care. I would certainly not neglect that Shiina's original jettisoning of these songs shows just how much attachment she had to them to begin with.
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If you
had used this... I woulda said something on the lines of... "she didn't exactly give her songs to someone like The Stones, nope, she gave them to people like Chiaki Kuriyama" :-p AND/OR
"A lot of Ringo fans I know said quite frequently about songs she gave away "Cool song, but I wish Ringo had done it herself". So I think there would always be an interest in a project like this.
And then, going into the Kpop vs. Jpop thing (and not picking on you really, just adding some thoughts):
-I feel Ringo made the
right decision by not going to the west. Look at all the other attempts like Utada Hikaru- what a fucking embarrasment. I know Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is doing alright now- but in the end, she's just a gimmick "OH WOW WEIRD JAPAN!" (which unforunately will probably happen to Perfume- aka the "serious" Nakata pop project)- just like Kpop will eventuate to be.
-If Kpop making compromises ("expands its appeal") for the west makes it lose (what LITTLE) identity it already had, is it really a good thing? When the hype dies down (and it will, no doubt) what is going to be left except a confused, muddled, and dated music industry? I suppose it got them an article on Pitchfork, so there
is that :-p
-Which would you rather involve yourself with personally, Kpop industry where everything seems to be a carbon copy (even the big ones like PINK TAPE) of each other/western music from a decade ago or the Jpop industry that constantly is bringing out weird ass shit yet still labeling itself pop... I mean... wtf
BisKaiden! I guess it all depends on your patience level/ability to take away your western/pop minded conventions. And whether or not you care what other people think is a big part of it too.
I may be totally off track but this whole Kpop thing is quite confounding- sure its 'cool' pop, but since when were boy/girl bands cool to like to serious music listeners?
I wanted to have this conversation elsewhere but I just got bombared with stanny responses from both sides of the argument and gave up on reading the responses. Hope it doesnt happen here :-p