Go Back   Electric Mole Forums > Shiina Ringo & Tokyo Jihen > Main Forum
Register FAQ Members List Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Main Forum The place for general discussion. Old news and speculation, polls, trivia, memorabilia, favorite songs, and so on.
Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 2012.02.01, 05:15 AM   #1
matan-san
Senior Member
 
matan-san's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Israel
Posts: 380
matan-san has had more than 15 seconds of fame
Smile Shiina Ringo's popularity amongst Japan's older generations

apparently she's much more popular than I thought, at least from what I experienced today..

a little background: I'm in my 2nd year of japanese studies in university and today we had an oral exam for the semester's end in which we need to talk in japanese for about 5 minutes and answer our teacher's (needless to say they are native japanese teachers) questions.
one of the teachers who examined me was my direct teacher who is 40-something and lived for about 20 years out of japan and the other one was the head of japanese studies in my faculty who is 50-something and lived for more than 30 years out of Japan. so, one of the questions was what kind of music I like to which I've answered J-Rock and then they asked me which artist I liked and my answer was Shiina Ringo of course. I was quite sure they both wouldn't have a clue who she is because of their old age and the amount of time they lived out of their homeland.
to my huge surprise, however, they both immediately know who she was! I was especially surprised the 50-ish teacher knew who Shiina is since she is known to be quite rigid and conservative.
I didn't have time to ask them more about how and how much they know her since the test was only 5 min. but I was really happy to know they at least know her.

So people here who live (or lived) in Japan, I'm interested to know how much Ringo is really popular among the general community
matan-san is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012.02.01, 05:51 AM   #2
W3iHong
Senior Member
 
W3iHong's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Singapore
Posts: 848
W3iHong is an asset to this community
Default

Hmmm, that is strange. I am quite curious about the reason behind this. Maybe next semester I will ask my Japanese teacher too about Shiina Ringo.
W3iHong is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012.02.01, 08:11 AM   #3
Glathannus
True Final Boss
 
Glathannus's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 2,423
Glathannus knows what you did last summerGlathannus knows what you did last summerGlathannus knows what you did last summer
Default

Japanese people don't need to appreciate Shiina Ringo's music (or even know what it sounds like), to be at least vaguely aware that there's a well-publicized musician called Shiina Ringo. It's like saying that Lady Gaga is popular among older Americans because they recognize her name.
__________________
You know Tokyo Jihen is a supergroup, when you can't blame most of the members for wanting to pursue other projects.
Glathannus is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012.02.01, 09:12 AM   #4
matan-san
Senior Member
 
matan-san's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Israel
Posts: 380
matan-san has had more than 15 seconds of fame
Default

I don't think my teachers know what she sounds like either, I'm just surprised they even know her name after living so many years out of Japan. I also meant "popular" is the same as "well-known". I think that if a group knows some artist's even without knowing his\her music it's enough for this artist to be well-known amongst this group
matan-san is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012.02.01, 09:42 AM   #5
Glathannus
True Final Boss
 
Glathannus's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 2,423
Glathannus knows what you did last summerGlathannus knows what you did last summerGlathannus knows what you did last summer
Default

A lot of Japanese people outside of Japan, live within driving distance of one Japanese shop or another. If the shop has a wide array of recent Japanese magazines, then chances are at least one of those issues will feature Shiina Ringo - even if it's a magazine which has nothing to do with music.

You could almost say the Japanese media is oversaturated with Shiina Ringo. If that's even half-true, then people casually following the Japanese media (which you don't need to be physically in Japan to do) are bound to come across her eventually.
__________________
You know Tokyo Jihen is a supergroup, when you can't blame most of the members for wanting to pursue other projects.
Glathannus is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012.02.01, 10:00 AM   #6
matan-san
Senior Member
 
matan-san's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Israel
Posts: 380
matan-san has had more than 15 seconds of fame
Default

there's a very small japanese community where I live (Israel) so there's not even one shop here that specialises in japanese culture , only lots of sushi restaurants, so I guess my teachers must've came across her name on the web.
matan-san is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012.02.01, 10:36 AM   #7
FadedSun
Senior Member
 
FadedSun's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Boston
Posts: 703
FadedSun raises the standards of what a community can offer
Default

I don't think it's that unusual that they know who Shiina Ringo is. I speak with an older Japanese woman(43 years old) from Japan for language exchange and she listens to Shiina. She also sent me a clip of her similarly aged sister singing "Gibusu" at karaoke once.
FadedSun is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012.02.01, 01:09 PM   #8
TurtleFu
Senior Member
 
TurtleFu's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Honolulu
Posts: 1,592
TurtleFu deserves a fucking medal
Default

It's actually quite funny.
The people who are Japanese but are not absorbed in current Japanese culture (Japanese-born International Citizens, 2nd Generation Japanese, etc.) are more likely to know about Shiina, BUT

the people who's "hobby" it is to know as much about modern Japanese pop culture as possible (so-called "Japanophiles") generally don't know about Shiina because they're too busy with the pop idols.

Just my two cents. Nobody in my class knew who Shiina Ringo was except for the teacher.
TurtleFu is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012.02.02, 06:10 AM   #9
deadgrandma
Senior Member
 
deadgrandma's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 4,764
deadgrandma knows what you did last summerdeadgrandma knows what you did last summerdeadgrandma knows what you did last summer
Default

Not to mention she is the face of Shiseido Maquillage in Asia...
__________________
Disco! Life is dead
deadgrandma is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012.02.02, 01:49 PM   #10
EmilScherbe
nameless monster
 
EmilScherbe's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Ruhenheim ...No... Nagoya
Posts: 1,011
EmilScherbe knows what you did last summerEmilScherbe knows what you did last summer
Default

Her career as a musician across three decades(90s 00s 10s).
She have 2 million seller albums at end the 20th century.
Most of her release recorded weekly top 10 chart.

She was referred by Foreign Minister's (and later Prime Minister's) speech
(referring Time Asia article in context of widespread of Japanese pop culture).
She was awarded by Agency for Cultural Affairs on account of
Expo '08 and Sakuran as "expanding Japanese pops".

As promotion of Stem/KSK she could use 2 prominent news show
instead of music shows.

She took charge of music for classic Kabuki play.
She took charge of theme songs of NHK's morning mini series drama.

I think she is admitted her quality/superiority in general and
a type of musician a conservative person middle aged man like me
prefer to introduce as a example of Japanese Pops to oversea peoples
(over AKB/morning something).
EmilScherbe is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Shiina Ringo mentioned in the media outside of Japan! so_cold Main Forum 21 2010.03.31 11:47 AM
PSYCHO Shiina Ringo, Polite Shiina Ringo -- her personality, etc. Scribble R Main Forum 22 2009.08.28 11:41 AM
Ringo Shiina as never before seen miffunevii Main Forum 7 2008.08.28 02:46 PM


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 06:21 PM.