Ringo Shina
I have seen her name spelled different ways, I guess the only real way to spell it is in japanese. She's my favorite japanese artist. Well, my favorite japanese pop artist. There is some other interesting japanese music but as mentioned in the article you have to wade through a lot of crap to find it.
Got interested in her when I heard some mp3s downloaded off something or other, maybe I found them under a rock. But after that I wasn't happy until I had an actual CD in my hand. The only place I could find that had anything was the Tower Records on Sunset (the original eh?) Ouch, something like thirty bucks to satisfy (at least temporarily) that obsession. A nice album with the loudest song I have ever heard on it--"Identity" starts with a long punk rock style scream. I remember playing it for a bunch of friends outside of Sanamluang (my favorite thai restaurant in Los Angeles) and just laughing.
What he says in the article is true. There seems to be more and more interesting pop music coming out of japan. I used to wonder if it was just that I was acquiring a taste for it or if it was getting better. Of course it was both...
TIMEasia Magazine: Rinngo's a Star
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