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Old 2013.07.10, 03:41 PM   #7
TurtleFu
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Honolulu
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TurtleFu deserves a fucking medal
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What I consider the best thing for Ringo has to be uniquely Ringo. It's one of the reasons why I can't say SS, simply because large chunks of that album are incredibly derivative. It's an excellent album but it can at times feel like a summary of the greatest rock music from the 90's.

So what has Ringo done that is so completely Ringo? I would say it is her characteristic blending of rock music with cool jazz and sweeping orchestration. Songs like Suberidai, which is not quite jazz and not quite rock and not quite pop, Meisai, which is a punk-ish jazz song with dense, chaotic alt rock arrangements, and Stem, which is sweeping and beautiful and passionate but it's not quite in that showy "diva" style or chamber pop adjacent. I haven't heard songs like that from other artists (though I think parts of Sufjan Steven's Illinois come really close to STEM)

But, ultimately, the best thing that Ringo has ever done is that she changed the landscape for popular music in Japan. She brought a genuine bratty punk attitude with a creativity in her songwriting to a market that did barely anything to acknowledge female songwriters (Matsutoya Yumi aside). I think Ringo is influential enough that she, Chara, Yuki from Judy and Mary, and Utada Hikaru all should get credit for allowing the new crop of songwriters today to have artistic freedom, especially female songwriters. Of those, Ringo was the one who was most obviously abrasive against the stereotypes for Japanese female singers.

Just my two cents.
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