Artist Feature: Rina Sawayama
- The Abnormal Music Head
- Feb 4, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 30, 2021
Rina Sawayama is a Japanese-British pop singer-songwriter who studied politics, psychology, and sociology at Magdalene College in Cambridge. She was born in Niigata, Japan in 1990 and stayed there until she was five, and that’s when her family decided to move to London, where she grew up and still currently lives. At University, she pursued her interest in music with a hip-hop group called the Lazy Lion with Theo Ellis, who is now known for being apart of the indie rock band Wolf Alice.
Her rise:
Rina is known for electropop, nu-metal, and generally more alternative takes and incorporations on pop and R&B music. Furthermore, she has always been an extremely progressive figure in the field of music and fashion modeling in terms of sexuality, identifying as both bisexual and pansexual. Her career actually started back in 2013 with her single Sleep in Walking but remained in obscurity until 2017 when she released her debut EP Rina. She notably worked two to three years in order to fund the release of the EP as an independent artist. In this project, she showcases the hints of clever incorporations of elements that are not entirely conventional to pop. From the subtle electric guitar riffs backing her vocals to the cascading synthesizers and electronic effects leisurely littered throughout the EP, Rina’s talent was unarguably present. The final track Cyber Stockholm Syndrome premiered as a single in March 2017 on The Fader, which is a cultural magazine, propelling her into a professional career and critical attention.
Recent and Present:
At the end of her touring throughout 2017-2019, Rina performed as a supporting act to Charli XCX, one of the most critically acclaimed and cutting-edge artists in recent times. This is definitely a fitting act as Charli XCX is at the pinnacle of the realm of music Rina would soon enter; that of which was filled with experimental pop, avant-pop, and other genres known for their progressive and nuanced nature not only in terms of conceptual content but also musical construction. At this point in early 2020, she was an unsigned artist until she signed with Dirty Hit Records, who helped her release the preview singles to her debut full-length album SAWAYAMA. Those singles included STFU!, a nu-metal, avant-pop cut, Comme des Garcons (Like the Boys), an homage to early 2000s dance tracks, and XS, which is personally my favorite track on the entire record.
I think this song and video are an extremely meritorious endeavor by Rina as the song serves as a powerful piece of social criticism of materiality and consumerism in Western society. This shows Rina’s preparation and general conceptual awareness of topics that may be meaningful to her and her audience when songwriting and executing her visual aids. The video itself arguably is a work of performance art, clearly portraying her message in her own unique methodology of spazzy movements, creepy editing, and the humorous nature of the video.
Future:
Rina Sawayama is one of the bigger names in the realm of music criticism right now, so her career is definitely propped up by a more stable structure. Pitchfork, the biggest organization for critical music journalism rated the album a 7.7 out of 10. TheNeedleDrop, the most prominent music reviewer on YouTube rated the album a light to decent 8. With such reviews, this situation is always a double-edged blade of sorts. Listeners in this community will always be anticipating her next record, assuring consistent listeners, but there will be high expectations for her from now on. SAWAYAMA was one of my favorite albums in 2020 because of her thematic work in discussing gender norms, countering fetishization of Japanese culture, and her general philosophy applied across a broad array of important topics. If anything I presented appealed to you, check her out!
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