Rina Sawayama
Rina

Let's start with the premise that "Alterlife" is, for me, the pop song that best represents the decade that just ended.

Let's add the fact that the themes addressed by Rina in her debut EP (sexuality and liberation) very well represent the feelings of a good portion of people aged 18 to 30.

Let's finish with the note that the lyrics in this Sawayama are anything but trivial and are influenced by the singer's studies (psychology, sociology, and political science), along with her runway walks, record recordings, or concerts.

The bar for pop, especially female pop, is reaching levels that could never have been imagined when Britney, Madonna, and Lady Gaga took us to a plastic world made of hits, glossy or faux horror worlds. The fusion between mainstream and indie has, in the opinion of the writer, led to a rise in the level of pop music, less tied to the logic of the major labels on one side and more open to a bit of experimentation, making the levers of current pop much sexier compared to the past (whether they are men, women, or non-binary).

Moreover, women are building a world of their own, no longer having to rely on typically male stylistic elements and ways of composing and performing (very few had successfully attempted it in the past) and are increasingly free to address their condition as women of the new millennium, women who no longer agree to just be good in bed and in the kitchen or who perhaps claim to be so. Labels and the heteronormative way of seeing are no longer central, you can be pop and talk about the deep fears that haunt you, as Rina Sawayama does, or launch campaigns to raise awareness about the condition of escorts like FKA Twigs is doing (imagine her 20 years ago, with a record label behind her that would never have allowed it).

This debut EP ends up giving us six songs and two interludes where there is that "back to the future" feeling, with guitars and synths that resonate of the '80s, even if you're not sure if it's 1980 or 2080 (listen to "10-20-40" or the nerve center of the record "Alterlife"). Or the rhythms of the early 2000s adapted to the 3000s in "Ordinary Superstar" (as though Britney Spears had a soul and put it into the music) or "Take me as I am." There is an absence of rules as in the way Rina presents herself, sometimes with no makeup at all and sometimes completely in drag. The girl doesn't want to be straight or gay, doesn't want to be pop or indie, doesn't want to be just a songwriter or a pop performer. She wants to be all these things together, not caring about the culture of her parents, not caring about the boomers who will mistakenly take her for yet another Britney Spears or a K-Pop exponent just for her oriental features (her parents are Japanese, but she grew up in London).

At the end of the EP, you're not entirely sure who Rina is, but you feel that she fully represents your desire to be anything that comes to mind, without worrying too much and without limits. And excuse me if that's not a little.