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 2014.11.18, 05:41 PM   #11
Inseu
Senior Member
 
Inseu's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 1,707
Inseu has had more than 15 seconds of fame
Default

Think about it, without the big stretch, there wouldn't even be Ringo's child in the first place.

Originally Posted by TurtleFu View Post
"moshi mo nozomi ga kanau to shitara kotoba wo kawashitai
boukoku datte onaji da mono"
You think posting these bird language means anything to anybody in this English friendly forum?

"The world is busy; if someone wins, someone else has to lose". Classic Japanese fascism.
Inseu is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2014.11.18, 06:19 PM   #12
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

The more I come here, the less and less I want to be a member anymore. Are we that desperate to get some value out of Ringo's new album that we resort to (admittedly somewhat interesting to begin with) threads like this, which deteriorate instantly anyway?

Fuck it. Im gonna do the unspeakable and give Sunny another try. That is what this thread has driven me to.

Though, I'm still 100000000% certain there's no deeper meaning behing NIPPON apart from it being a soccer tie in.
__________________
Disco! Life is dead

Last edited by deadgrandma : 2014.11.18 at 06:36 PM.
deadgrandma is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2014.11.18, 06:39 PM   #13
gekokujyo
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 683
gekokujyo knows what you did last summergekokujyo knows what you did last summer
Default

I'm also pretty sure there's no deeper meaning to NIPPON but I enjoy it wholeheartedly. I can appreciate that it is a cool/trendy way to articulate feelings of nationalism (nippon-bare, plz); it's usually quite difficult to do that without coming across as cheesy, mawkish, old fashioned.

I -do- however think that there is value in thinking of SUNNY as an album -about- Japan.
gekokujyo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2014.11.18, 06:43 PM   #14
TeslaGuy
apathy enthusiast
 
TeslaGuy's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 2,307
TeslaGuy knows what you did last summerTeslaGuy knows what you did last summer
Default

DG, why not take advantage of your ignore list before considering something more drastic.
TeslaGuy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2014.11.19, 01:03 AM   #15
Scribble R
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 2,392
Scribble R can barely hear you above the sound of how awesome they areScribble R can barely hear you above the sound of how awesome they are
Default

Don't ignore me

Gekokujo kind of touches on what I am trying to say. In the context of SUNNY , Nippon sounds more like a concept song in a sea of typically Ringo tracks.

There IS value in the album even if you don't want to see it because you 're too busy being angry about it. I'm posting these threads because I want there to be actual discussion about the music.

I was annoyed at the lack of new tracks, but I actually do thing they work together well, more than the tracks on Dai Hakken and maybe Sports

Last edited by Scribble R : 2014.11.19 at 01:12 AM.
Scribble R is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2014.11.19, 01:50 AM   #16
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

I'm not blocking anyone :-p
__________________
Disco! Life is dead
deadgrandma is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2014.11.19, 02:17 AM   #17
TeslaGuy
apathy enthusiast
 
TeslaGuy's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 2,307
TeslaGuy knows what you did last summerTeslaGuy knows what you did last summer
Default

And I posted my comment before DG edited and expanded his post. I had guessed that he was getting exasperated by the incivility here.
TeslaGuy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2014.11.20, 03:33 AM   #18
Entry№1
Senior Member
 
Entry№1's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 353
Entry№1 puts considerable thought into their posts
Default

Originally Posted by Inseu View Post
"The world is busy; if someone wins, someone else has to lose". Classic Japanese fascism.
Or just regular capitalism!

I think Ringo thinks and sings a lot about her identity. "Identity" on Shouso Strip is probably the best example of this theme from her early works. In the music video, she toyed with Eastern and Western cultural identities. Back then, it was interesting and subversive... and, ultimately, convenient for her now. These days, I feel like she's likely just pandering to Japanese nationalists and not exploring national identity critically. I mean, I'm not totally scandalized by this, but whatever. Sometimes you become a nationalist.
__________________
No one knows what's your struggle
Entry№1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2014.11.20, 11:39 AM   #19
zeroryouko
Ringophile
 
zeroryouko's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: La La Land
Posts: 629
zeroryouko raises the standards of what a community can offer
Default

"Nationalism" and "team spirit" are basically the same emotion, and symbols that represent one could easily be applied to the other. NIPPON is meant to cheer on a national team in a competition against other nations, and by Ringo's own admission the song was written to spec for NHK. In this case the competition involves professional athletes playing soccer, but the same principles could be applied if the team were instead an army and the competition were for territory rather than bragging rights. I don't see how NIPPON could possibly be expected to be anything else.

The Ringo we know today is, as much as anything, a product of her ongoing analysis and questioning of her Japanese identity over the years. She understands both Western music and Japanese music extremely well - not just the construction of it but the underlying emotions - the soul, if you will. She can do this because she can identify with both. She can deconstruct Western and Japanese musical forms into their basic elements of meaning and emotion, and recombine them uniquely to create Western music that is distinctly Japanese and Japanese music that is distinctly Western. But she is not beholden to either, and she has demonstrated many times that she is perfectly capable of writing from virtually any point of view. IMHO, that's a big part of her appeal.

All of which aside - in the end, she is Japanese, so why shouldn't she take some pride in Japanese culture?
zeroryouko is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2014.11.20, 04:59 PM   #20
gekokujyo
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 683
gekokujyo knows what you did last summergekokujyo knows what you did last summer
Default

I thought Ariamaru tomi was a pretty lovely critique of Japanese consumerism and excess (or just excess in general). I guess SR has always struck me as one of the most militant nationalists. Like, I think she and Mishima Yukio would be BFFs. So an album that's overtly about NIPPON-ness does not surprise me in the least.
gekokujyo 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


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 02:52 AM.