Friends/Family You've Converted/Gotten Hooked

[Maou]

Originally Posted by Carlx

It's kind of a dilemma: showing the heavy but more interesting stuff or the more accesible but less personal/sensitive/whatever.

Her early B-sides are always the best. Suberidai, Aozora, Can't Take My Eyes Off of You, Love is Blind, or even Nippon ni Umarete.

[jsmoove5]

Originally Posted by Maou

Her early B-sides are always the best. Suberidai, Aozora, Can't Take My Eyes Off of You, Love is Blind, or even Nippon ni Umarete.

yeah,, suberidai.. that reminds me of when i was watching Ringo expo on dvd.. My fiance was listening when suberidai was playing, but she quickly turned away when Ringo brought out the knife and apple for yokushitsu.. and here i thought that was the highlight of that show..

[Masuku]

when i was moving out from my childhood home and had all my cds with me while sitting in my dad's car i decided to play some ringo and he got all excited about sanmon gossip for example "omg the orchestra here, there,, bassline!!!" ..

[lazer85]

I usually hate to bring up the fact that I am currently one of the many half-assed English teachers in Japan (the English is half-assed, not necessarily the teachers, it's half and half there.) but for this story I must.

In junior high schools, 90% of kids like AKB, Arashi or some other varient of Johnny's or girly pop music. At the very very best you get Perfume or Spitz. I used to tell students my favorite Japanese musician was Shiina Ringo and they just said 'Uh...I think I heard of it before...', I had one girl in class who told me she saw my favorite band on TV, but I have yet to meet a fan. When I was doing the same thing in high school 2 years ago, it was a little easier to find someone who listened to a few songs by her (like 1 out of 100) but junior high school is absolutely impossible. Their music taste is complete garbage.

Yesterday while training for the English speech contest, I let the kids have a break and when I looked up I saw 東京事変 written on big letters and Shiina Ringo sama written above it.
I instinctively shouted 'Who used the pink chalk!?'

And so I ended up having a long conversation about Shiina Ringo with a 12 year old. She had heard Ariamaru Tomi and became obsessed with it enough to find Tokyo Jihen and their latest album as well as the neo-Ringo release. So I told her I started studying Japanese in part because of a certain Ringo album. She asked which one and I told her she isn't ready for it yet. I said 'Try her first one...if you like it try her second one....if you like it, then listen to the third one...If you don't like it, try it again in a year or two. Shiina Ringo is pretty different from what your friends like right? Well this album is in a whole different universe than that...if you get it at 12, your a genius so you might not understand but start with MM.'.


It might have been a bit awkward for a 25 year old American guy to be telling this to a 12 year old but I think it was the right thing to do.
She probably went home and listened to it anyway....thus not sleeping whcih would explain why she was a mess at the contest.

[SakeIt2Me]

Good for you! If all teachers recommended good music, maybe the world would be a bit different...Hopefully she will be saved from the abysmal world of commercial pop.
I wonder what her parents will think when they hear her singing along to Kabukichou no jouu...LOL.

[lazer85]

At first I worried about that... and then I realized I don't care. I doubt she's stupid enough to think it sounds like a good idea.

Learning to have high standards in music taught me how to have high standards for everything including my own personality and output. So yeah I feel like I did something good, however awkward I was about it ('Oh my god!?! FOR REALZ!?!?" )

[Superficial Fan]

I sent my brother's youngest daughter (a grown-up, now) some links to videos and she seemed to really like Tokyo Jihen, unless she's just being polite. (She is wonderfully polite and well-socialized, so it's hard to know for sure.) Anyway, I've sent some more.

This has had immediate benefits for me, since I'm finding myself drawn in by Tokyo Jihen more than I have been for a while, and I've discovered some youtube uploads from the last year or so that I hadn't viewed before.

[Arabesque]

i've still yet to get anyone into shiina ringo, my brother says he likes her but I think that's based on a few listens and not on much

it's annoying because many of my friends have great taste in music, mostly stuff I've got them into, but they found Ringo's voice annoying the few times I played her

they'll come around I'm sure

[SoulExperience]

My mom has been open to my interest in video game/japanese music ever since I can remember. I got my mom liking Jihen and Shiina with "FAIR" and a few other songs. I don't know if she'd feel the heavier stuff as much though. Either way she loves the few songs she's heard quite a bit and that makes me pretty happy.

[so_cold]

Cappuccino, Suberidai, Tsumi to Batsu and Shuraba single ver. ... They always seemed to get an enthusiastic response, at least among the random people I know.

I once met a hip-hop producer who was really taken with DO Kurumaya-san, which was cool.