Imagine Dragons made many versions of their new song "Take Me to The Beach". They collab with other artists in different languages based on the collabing artist. The one that get off the ground is the collab with Ado. Some people said the collab probably because of Party Like a Rockstar Podcast showed Ado performance to Jim Runge.
With the advent of vtubing industry, Japanese entertainment industry now on the projection of rising up again. Previously, their Copyright law and the CD/DVD/Blueray industry made them lazy. They rather stuck to their domestic market and never considered to cater to international market. That was when K-Pop took over the reign from the Japanese.
Don't get me wrong. I like Japanese music. Most of us in the 90s were anime lover. Myself have a favorite anime, the original Macross. I love the show and their takes on war and culture. What an eye opening anime.
Macross really shown a different side of imperialism. You don't conquer your enemies with power and war. You conquer them with culture!
The war hero were not Hikaru and his skull squadron. It was not the macross ship. It was Lynn Minmay who sang and made the Zentradis gave up.
My favorite Japanese comic is Golden Boy. It was written by a leftist. He put his thought provoking ideals through the sex and dialogues. He put two contrasting political view of democracy vs despotism views of ruling people.
By the end of the day, all of them are ruled by people in the top. The difference only the women was willing to follow Oe (the protag, pro choice) vs they were conditioned to follow Kongoji (despotism). By the end of the day, we are following some leader. Lol, such is society.
The Divide
These ambitions resonates with nowadays society. The divide between the working class and the one percents (people who were at the top earnings) are getting wide. People who are rich getting richer and people who struggling are getting put on the bottom.
This is happening because the illusion of benchmarking a nation's wealth with GDP. With GDP, the one percent can carry the whole nation's income up. However, the reality is many people now struggling to keep their end of meet.
I don't know why, while the COVID-19 turned the world upside down, the world also getting high inflation. Thanks to the Russia-Ukraine war, the Green Given Suez canal obstruction, and the US-China trade war, the world is getting bleak for each new day.
And when the world seems painted in black, some people are there with money to burn. They got tax holidays all the time. They can play whatever games they play and the taxpayers would be forced to bail them when their bet lost.
The boomers don't have their heart straight. They blame the new generations (the Gen-Z) as pathetically lazy. They said this generation is soft and not tough enough.
As a Millenial who born not long after the Boomer age, I think I have the reason to explain the gap. I live in the both ages. I think I can explain why.
The boomer was born after the war. They were born after the great recession. Their ideal was an American dream. Most of them can put their saving and buy a house and a car. They can build their family with good education.
Indeed, the land was so much cheaper back then. Our income can buy land somewhere. We can take bank loan and put the mortgage between 5 to 10 years. You can have a good car with thousands bucks. The gasoline was so much cheaper that you don't even care about the oil price.
Fast forward today, the land is hundreds more pricey. New generation is expected to not be able to own a house. They even struggle to provide the rent fee. They need to spend more than 30% of their income just to get the basic needs.
Does Struggling Worth It?
The pandemic makes many company to expect more from their workers. A trend of 996 in China, black companies in Japan, and long non-paid extended working time in US and many parts of the world making people working more than they are getting paid at.
The boomers enjoy this because they are usually getting bonuses. The companies in the past also try so hard to have the workers in the working. We felt the struggling is the whole company.
But, what happens now?
The workers are now only a collateral asset. We have seen many moves from the companies to paint their growth positive with putting some workforces off. By the end of the year, however, the executives getting bonuses and raises more than ever!
In the name of positive EBITDA, they paint the company with the blood and tears of the working class.
Is it worth it to work hard now?
is it worth it to put your allegiance to a company that would be so cold to put you out of work whenever they feels like it?
We can work hard as we can but at the end of the day we are not able to get our dreams. They are the one that got it all. We the struggling working class just getting our asses whipped without any carrot to get.
That's why many Gen-Z generation feel the effort is wasted and they choose to celibate. In China, many young generation chose to put off their work and going back to the countryside. In the west, the Gen-Z putting a movement called "Quiet Quitting".
It's a terrible term calling doing minimum according to your contract as quiet quitting. It's not that you breach the contract. On the contrary, the movement actually makes you honor the contract! But, you don't put extra meat for the company.
It should be called doing what the contract stipulates. You don't break your end of agreement. You are doing what you are obliged to. You are doing 9 to 5 strictly.
The business owners enjoy the pandemic and economic downfall by leveraging the working hour without balancing the worker right. This is happening in the name of economic recovery. But, they live laviously like the Versailles. They enjoy the precendent of incomes with the inflations.
Lol, such a twisted days for working condition nowadays. I mean, the Labor Laws were already established and ruled to have a fair pay and working conditions. We already had the struggle back in the days to put them. Sadly, we are now regressing back with the companies expecting their worker to work more than the contract stipulates.
This feels not fair. Money is not the only currency. Our lives and efforts are also currencies and they are not being valued as much as the money given.
Thus, the right decision is to quit the rat race. It is not worth it anymore. You are too far behind with someone who in the pole position.
In this struggling lives where we are not able to think about getting better lives, what privilege left for us to have?
This song says it all.
Strategic Movement by Music Industry
Anyway,
The concept of Western artists working with foreign artists are not that rare. Coldplay also releasing the same method with "WE PRAY" song. Many other artists and bands being relevance again when they started to work with artists from around the world.
The success of many old bands to break through the music industry is the factor to consider. I mean look at the bands who work with Baby Metal. They are now getting more views and relevance.
However, this song by Imagine Dragon and Ado may becomes a song that resonate well with this generation. It feels like rock band in the post-world war era. Like the New Wave at the Vietnam war. Like the Punk in the Great Britain recessions. They are all the voices that voicing the generations.
I can say that after this there would be more artists put their song about the recessions. May be expected to have another rebelling genre. Yeah, I'm in for a new genre rather than to put wars as outlet of frustration. We don't need another Hitler nor any psycho leader.
Come on, artists, your move.
End of Words
This song is so much relevant that I have a hard time to stop writing. LOL.
I don't really listen to Ado. However, I notice her technique is very much like Shakira. On the first listening I felt like I was listening to the Latin artist speaking Japanese. I know Ado have her own twist, but such vocal technique is not common in the Pop industry. It's refreshing to listen to this vocal technique again after the 2006 World Cup.
Imagine Dragons being Imagine Dragons really put the production so much better. One note I notice why the collab feels more than the other collab, as Chris Liepe pointed out, the production really excel at layering the vocals. They put the rawness of Ado voice surrounded with the Imagine Dragons stylized voice.
This technique of parallel processing makes the sound fuller and massive. It creates a punchy and sustain sound that makes the listening experience better. The variation of their voices also makes the music more energetic and chaotic good. No dull sound generated because of the way they try to put adlib technique to the vocal sound.
This technique usually to make drum or any strum instruments feels punchy and roomy, but they put it on the vocals. Really impressive! As many may say, there can only be seven notes, but the production have infinite possibilities. This music production is really top notch.
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