Does Shiina have a Western equivalent?

[hank]

Originally Posted by sanhedrin

Robi Draco Rosa. (a/k/a "Robbie Rosa" and just "Draco Rosa")

He started out making bland feel-good pop as a member of Menudo in the 80s, but wanted to write his own songs so he left the group. After a couple of fairly mainstream, decent if generic albums he broke big with Vagabundo - an experimental, aggressive, dark pop/rock album that one might consider the Spanish KZK, an album that in the Hispanic Rock community is considered as important culturally as Nevermind was in the US. (Not that they sound similar, they just had similar levels of cultural impact) It sounds kind of like... Prince, Queens of The Stone Age, and Los Lobos at their most experimental (think Kiko or the Latin Playboys albums) all mashed together.

Wow, that sounds intriguing. Can you give us some representative song links?



Here's what occurred to myself:
Siobhan Donaghy, anyone?
Like Ringo's, her first solo album at 19 was more leaning to the indie-friendly guitar rock like Overrated: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBLMSX09ZME

But after a while, like Ringo, she took a more electronic avantpop turn,
with Ghosts: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ayz2QV4Pas
and songs like Medevac: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rev-cU-PQB4

And her chart-topping experience, I hear you ask? Well, before the solo career, she was the driving force in hits with a difference like Overload: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xfq...overload_music

(OK OK, so no loungey jazz during her too short career of two albums yet - but that would be almost too much to ask from anyone else but Ringo anyway, right?)

[Scribble R]

Originally Posted by Yahiko

I've heard some Bjork stuff and I really can't compare them, seriously, all I hear is someone who tries to be weird with no reason, apparently.. Some of her arranges might be good, but her music has nothing from other world.. they are not good enough, as for the lyrics I don't know, they could be good, I've never really paid attention to most of them... I can't see similarities at all :S

I heard Janelle Monae album yesterday, I liked some of the songs, but the others probably need a few more listens, I like the album's atmosphere but I can't see similarities between their (Janelle and Ringo) music, yet... but I think they treat their music in a similar way

'Treat their music in a similar way' I can understand. It's like when people say that two artists aren't comparable because Artist A and Artist B do not make the exact style/genre of music. Janelle Monae and SR are not the same, but they both claim or attempt to break barriers in pop music (Genre-bending and all of that). Same with Lady Gaga.

In this regard, Janelle Monae surpassed my expecations with Sincerely Jane (Scratched that Ringo itch big time), and merely lived up to them on the first chunk of the Archandroid. (Dance or Die, Faster, Tightrope)

[hank]

Oh but HERE's something I just gotta comment on, as a total France Gall aficionado myself:

Originally Posted by Entry№1

France Gall became famous for winning Eurovision in 1965, but became infamous for a song called "Le Succettes" released in the mid 60's. It was a song about lollipops, but had many double entendres about oral sex.

France Gall became a laughing stock afterwards, as she claimed she didn't know it was about sex since she released it only at the age of 18.
I've always thought she secretly did know what it was about from the get-go, but didn't like the large amount of negative publicity it created so she lied about not knowing what it was about.

You see, she most likely did NOT know about the double entendres. The times were SO much different from anything that ever came afterwards - this was even before the so called sexual revolution reached France (the country). You want more probable cause? In the mid-sixties the French radio board was very paranoid about letting anything half-indecent getting airplay and they banned many songs - but even they didn't see the lewdness of Les Sucettes. Yes, the times were so much different it's almost unfathomable to think these days.

What's more, after hearing about the truth France herself was so ashamed she actually sank into a clinical depression and couldn't leave the house for some six months. Strangely (and unfortunately), she never confronted Serge - or indeed her father who let it all happen - about this as she felt too proud to admit it had affected her.

All this is something she's consistently insisted through decades, even in her sixties in her tribute TV show, and she had grown into a very confident and down-to-earth woman, so I can't see how we could doubt her testimony.

here's another controversial song by Gall. This is called "La Petite", which is a song about a young girl falling in love with a friend of her father's. The creepy part is that the guy she is singing the duet with (Maurice Biraud) actually was a friend of her father's. This song was written by Serge Gainsbourg, who also wrote "Les Sucettes".

Just a quick fix: Serge had nothing to do with this particular song - BUT the lyrics were written by France's father, no less. The times must've been REALLY different back then!


So no, for me France Gall is far from being a Western equivalent to Ringo: she never wrote anything herself, nor had she ever any material even close to being "alternative" to any scene. (And I LOVE most everything she did, mind you.)

Having said that though, I admit there are a couple of aspects you could compare to Ringo: France had quite a lot of of style changes during her career, AND she had a sweet tooth for loungey jazz even in her teens.

[deflaco]

thom yorke.

[憂い菩薩]

Originally Posted by sanhedrin

Robi Draco Rosa. (a/k/a "Robbie Rosa" and just "Draco Rosa")

After listening to Draco y El Teatro del Absurdo, I definitely agree - Anyone who's got a chance should go to Grooveshark and find the album, and listen to the whole thing. I'm THOROUGHLY impressed, and it takes a lot for me to like a whole album (hence my borderline obsession with SR/TJ, and their numerous albums that I adore).

The album is really dark, like KZK dark, but more alt-rock and..downtempo maybe? And the lyrics are more like poems with music, which is a thought I've had many, many, MANY times reading lyrics. I don't know, man, I like this guy.

[ParisJihen]

I was just writing a text about how important SR is to me and why... but sorry guys, it would be a too long work to translate it from french :-/ but I came to the conclusion that there is only 1 or 2 artists/icons like her per century. So, what do we need to find an equivalent to her ?
- creativity - song-writing skill - originality - modernity - technical mastery - diversity of genres - This is for the creative part, then there's the interpretation part : Technical mastery (again) - charisma - energy - madness - elegance - grace - humour - the sense of entertainment... Then there's the level reached by the artist that proves his/her popular recognition : world class productions (arrangements & sound) - ability to sell out the biggest venues on tour with breathtaking shows year after year...
I only find ONE artist who gathers ALL these qualities, his name is DAVID BOWIE. He was my icon for the 20th century, Ringo is my icon for the 21st.

Well, Prince was not far from gathering all my criterias, but... I never liked him ! :-p

[frecklegirl]

Originally Posted by wilson

why?

Why??? Have you seen the video? Do you understand how superficially clean and uptight Japanese society is? How many other videos from up-and-coming young female pop singers feature girls touching and explicit sexual lyrics? Do I really have to spell this out for you? @_@

[Ringo~Bingo]

Bit late in the day for a response to that line from Wilson don't you think?

He wrote that in 2009 and hasn't been here for 5 months.

[frecklegirl]

Haha I know. But it was just too outrageous to let go!! (although I didn't notice it was from 2009, I was just catching up and it looks like I missed that when it happened)

[ParisJihen]

My post, though is very recent... But as it is mentioned: "ParisJihen doesn't have posts anyone cares about yet"... :-D / :-°