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I have determined to make this life resound - Sheeno Mirin ft. RIME

pico

robot enjoyer
Sep 10, 2020
528
This is a now-older commissioned work for RIME. I've been so caught up with school since August that I never really got the chance to chew on it, but now that I have, I absolutely needed to share it with you all. It might take a couple of listens to acclimate to, I admit, but it's worth it.


Sheeno Mirin's song "Ended Up Dead" made a really sincere impression on me and exposed to me how difficult concepts could be conveyed really effectively in song and with a clever MV. I love that song so much, and when I listened to this song, at first I was kind of underwhelmed? But then I paid attention to the lyrics and was filled up with so much emotion. I'm serious, I get chills at the ending.

There's been on and off conversation throughout the years about Hachi's Sand Planet, whether it was right or wrong, and what effect it had, and recently especially about works that have explicitly commented on Sand Planet. But this song is so earnest and explicit in ways I feel like "response songs" in general have not really been. And yet I've seen no discussion about this song in English at all which is really a shame!!

So, with all that said, I think my interpretation is like this:
The song begins with an explicit acknowledgement of Sand Planet, stating that Hachi was factual in his assessment of the Vocaloid scene. It also feels very related to Unhappy Refrain, which is basically the only wowaka song that doesn't have an explicit reference in the rest of the lyrics. I think this is because wowaka reframed basically all of his feelings in Unhappy Refrain in Mother Goose but also because that stanza speaks for itself. All of those things are factually true. It's important to acknowledge how people can and often are hurt by imitation.

After that, though, the speaker starts to deconstruct what all of that actually means on the side of the artist and the community. First, that the music of their inspirations made such a sincere impact on them that they feel they have to replicate that sound, in a way (the sincere part of inspiration) but that they know they'll never be able to reach the same level as their inspiration. Instead, they have to hope that whatever they create as a product of that is imbued with enough of their respect and genuine adoration that it might somehow reach the people that made an impact on them.

Then, I think the song attacks the unfortunate realities of consumption of art and how awful it can feel when you're enjoying something without much of a critical lens. Like, I'm sure when we were all younger, we all loved songs created by Wowaka but weren't really thinking about it deeply. And many of us didn't understand the problems in the community when we were younger, either. And that can feel absolutely gut-wrenching when you finally realize what's going on. So that's self-admission on the part of the speaker-- but then that realization is what allows them to actually understand the art that inspired them and provides fuel for creating works that genuinely emotionally resonate with them. Even if the work they create now is still an inspiration, they're able to truly create something that is as much themself as it is their inspiration.

After that, I think it's a pretty clear conversation about the artistic struggle with originality and what that actually is. Yorushika/n-buna made a whole album about this. The speaker admits that, yeah, everything we create is an imprint of someone else, but if we ignored that entirely, and forgot the passion of our predecessors we would never really be able to progress as artists and make truly new things. It might be hard to stomach at times, but we create new ideas, and make other people feel new emotions, by passing on what has already existed.

Yeah, Sand Planet may have been "correct", but at this point, we also understand that it misunderstands something about the art that it tries to critique, and that the scathing view provided by the first part of the song doesn't tell the full story.

So, the overall effect is that the stories of the people that influenced us live on in our own words and works, and that it can be a beautiful thing about art instead of an existential, terrifying thing. The artist can then say that their own works will then influence others, and they'll live on throughout other people's art too. And that it makes other people's lives better!

I don't know what better way there could be to say thank you to someone like wowaka, and a more appropriate response to a song like Sand Planet. I remember listening to Sand Planet when it came out and being left with a horrible twist in my stomach, like I understood what the song was trying to say. I didn't completely disagree but I also felt a little bit offended? I felt like it was wrong. And I feel like this song perfectly verbalized that for me, as well as what inspiration and homage is and why it can be great and important. Sheeno Mirin was the perfect person to create this song because their music really is so unique, and doesn't really obviously sound like a wowaka song. But they're kind of saying, "no, I do write wowaka songs," and I can completely understand it.

That was a long essay but this song really did make me feel something lol, I hope you guys like listening to it as much as I did. What do you think?
 
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pico

robot enjoyer
Sep 10, 2020
528
I learned something new about this song after reading the niconico dict entry for it. This is Sheeno Mirin's 8th song, and all of the song names through the 8th are named shiritori style to another, the same way wowaka's first 8 songs were. That's why the lyrics say they're putting a "period" or an end to the cycle of "copying" in the lyrics, because the producers songs no longer contain a purposeful homage to their favorite artist.

I just thought that made the song even cooler.
 

Aia

DDR-tist
Jul 14, 2019
374
20
The Internet™
Wow these lyrics are so insightful! It's funny cuz I've been talking about this 👇 point about originality a couple months ago irl. Though I never took the time to see how that looks in the vocal synth scene, tbh I couldn't agree more!

This song has become one of my new faves, thanks
After that, I think it's a pretty clear conversation about the artistic struggle with originality and what that actually is. Yorushika/n-buna made a whole album about this. The speaker admits that, yeah, everything we create is an imprint of someone else, but if we ignored that entirely, and forgot the passion of our predecessors we would never really be able to progress as artists and make truly new things. It might be hard to stomach at times, but we create new ideas, and make other people feel new emotions, by passing on what has already existed.

Yeah, Sand Planet may have been "correct", but at this point, we also understand that it misunderstands something about the art that it tries to critique, and that the scathing view provided by the first part of the song doesn't tell the full story.

So, the overall effect is that the stories of the people that influenced us live on in our own words and works, and that it can be a beautiful thing about art instead of an existential, terrifying thing. The artist can then say that their own works will then influence others, and they'll live on throughout other people's art too. And that it makes other people's lives better!
 
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