Did you think that Shiina Ringo's voice was atrocious, at first?

[Tokyo Jihad]

I think that vids hilarious. Tho I think the bigger psycho is not in the video.

[jrockn86]

I did. The funny thing about jpop/jrock is that the vocals can be on the verge of irritating yet great lol...

[oh opeo]

Originally Posted by NIMH Rat

Her ability to remain on key, open-throated *and* closed-nasal simultaneously is her most captivating feature. People can be forgiven for not hearing it at first, likening it to Kate Bush (who is more open-throated), Tori Amos (ditto), or Alanis Morissette (heavy on the nasal).

I've tried singing like that, and its very difficult. DDD':

but yeah. First thing I ever listened to was Dynamite OUT's Kurumaya-San and I liked it.. so yeah.. if you like that performance, you can pretty much like every other song Shiina sings.

[kuro_neko]

there is a reason why people with unique voices either fail horribly or end up doing incredibly well as musicians. its the same most performing arts

case scenario: if you work on broadway and are talented all around and have a great look, voice, and talent, you are most likely a swing (meaning you play ensemble roles and understudy leads, you can pretty much take over any part at any given time if need be).

but those who grab the leads are generally ideal for their parts and bring a life and a uniqueness to the role, to voice.

I have seen swings take over for leads and even though they are comparatively strong in most lights, they just feel off, just feel weak in most regards, because they are a parody of that uniqueness which thrusts the leads into a different category although, perhaps initially weak when compared to most other swings.

ringo is no different. her voice may be annoying to some at first but it is uniquely hers and it serves as the stamp on her work, in the same way that any artist has a style.

ringo's voice never particularly bothered me. I first heard Identity and became acquainted with songs like Honnou, Gibusu, the major players off SS. Honnou was so catchy the vocals never really came into it, for myself or anyone who I know. lots of people who didn't listen to japanese music read romaji just so they could sing along to it.

the same was true for me and almost everyone musician or band I have loved. I hated YUKI's voice with a passion but the beats behind JOY and some of her other work drove me to youtube it as a guilty pleasure until I justified buying her work by proclaiming her in bjork's likeness, haha.

as for other posters saying ringo pulled this from here, grabbed that from there, ripped off megaphones from STP and all this other is just silly to me.

they say imitation is the highest form of flattery and it is often in taking what has come before you, using it to suit your own means and creating new work, thus transforming the process, that new art processes are created.

perfect example is photography. up until the process was discovered painting served as the closest rendering of an image we could get and when photographs were first created and used to depict literal real images it freed painting for more expressive and abstract purposes, creating a lot of surrealism and all sorts of abstractions.

anyone who claims ringo is a poser and we are all deluded fan-boys based on her looks is just here trolling and trying to stir up some heat for kicks.