Thursday, November 22, 2012

Track Four: Unhappy Refrain-Wowaka ft. Hatsune Miku


Today I bring you a song by one of my favorite Japanese composers, Wowaka; with help from electronic singing program Hatsune Miku.

 I agonized over what I was going to say about this song for a couple of hours. It's hard to pin down exactly *what* I like about this song. It has a very distinct musical texture, it almost sounds as if a bunch of loops were randomly put together and played at the same time. It's this kind of... disjointedness that I like. Frankly, the song drives my parents nuts.

When I asked them what they didn't like about it, they said it was annoying. I then compared it to a punk song that both me and my parents really like. This song also has some "annoying" qualities. It makes me wonder if songs like this are my generation's form of punk music; they sound weird just for weirdnesses sake. I asked my mom why she liked punk when she was a teenager and she gave me a very interesting answer. She said she liked it because it was weird, because it was different, because it wasn't on the radio, and because nobody else liked it. I think that's why I like this song. It's different. If you're over a certain age, it might not be your cup of tea, but I encourage you to give it a listen. You might be surprised.

Don't forget to leave me a comment about what you like or don't like about the song. I want to see what some of you guys think.

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Singable English translation: http://letsget-lyrical.blogspot.com/2011/06/unhappy-refrain-miku.html
The lyrics are pretty vague, even in Japanese. You can choose to interpret them however you want.

2 comments:

  1. I actually like the first 37 seconds of this song. It's just the super-high, sped up "Alvin and the Chipmunks" vocals that are annoying. If you like that sort of thing you might give a listen to DJ Screw and see if you like it super-slowed as well.

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    1. I think it's a bit of a totally different animal but I guess he's okay?.. Not really my favorite.

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