{"id":586,"date":"2025-04-30T13:33:54","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T17:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/wrt118\/?p=586"},"modified":"2025-05-02T13:23:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T17:23:18","slug":"persona-series-rb-style-ep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/wrt118\/persona-series-rb-style-ep\/","title":{"rendered":"Persona Series – R&B Style EP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

https:\/\/drive.google.com\/drive\/folders\/1t1G_rXHW_DSUWu_NYgi7nZkPY3XTlCWX?usp=drive_link<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As someone who enjoys playing video games, one of the most important factors to my experience is my enjoyment of the soundtrack. What music plays and when is incredibly important to me as a creative; I was even more fascinated by the knowledge that video games sometimes even make the effort to have up to three composers, while a movie might have one. Persona<\/em>, a series created by Atlus, with its music mostly composed by Shoji Meguro, is memorable to fans like myself partly due to its beautiful soundtrack, both vocal and instrumental. Some of the vocalized music plays during battles, but many of them play while the played character is exploring their surroundings outside of fights, which make up the songs in this collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Persona<\/em> is a series dedicated to self-exploration and the willingness to see past flaws to discover who one truly is, and is primarily based in Japan. While Black people are a relative rarity in Japan, Black culture and influence in Japanese music and fashion is apparent, especially in Persona<\/em>\u2019s music. The songs in this collection have roots in R&B and acid jazz, with the former originating from African-American culture, which is one of the reasons I was drawn to Persona<\/em> to begin with. The dilemma that Black anime and video game lovers face constantly is the pushback against our inclusion in the aforementioned media due to claims of \u201cforced diversity\u201d, despite other cultures claiming our music and fashion for themselves, which is something I cannot ignore. Persona<\/em> does not yet feature Black characters, and it\u2019s unclear if it ever will. Therein lies the goal of my remix and my critique: to incorporate a Black voice in the music even if Persona <\/em>may not put us in the spotlight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Persona<\/em>\u2019s music in and of itself is a remix of different cultures, especially Azumi Takahashi, who was the main singer of Persona 3: Reload<\/em>, the most recent installment in the Persona series, a remake of the original Persona 3<\/em>. In her singer biography, she is known to sing R&B, gospel, soul and jazz, all of which are genres created by African-Americans, and her voice reflects this. To find her own voice, she had to remix and take inspiration from Black singers to be able to sing in her \u201cown\u201d style. It might even give the impression that Atlus is trying to recruit singers who are able to copy Black voices, without even attempting to recruit singers from which the sound came from. However, there is the dilemma with the idea of remixing. Even my mind was initially under the impression that Black voices were simply being copied. Something even more interesting was the fact that because the game was a remake, she had to remix the previous singer, Yumi Kawamura\u2019s songs. Takahashi\u2019s \u201cMass Destruction\u201d, a song in Persona 3<\/em> that is beloved by fans, was thoroughly criticized because it didn\u2019t sound like Kawamura\u2019s version, showing how Takahashi\u2019s remix and originality, her very singing identity and ability was criticized because she put her own soulful spin on Persona 3<\/em>\u2019s vocal soundtrack, moving away from Kawamura\u2019s brand of vocals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My initial idea was to create a cover of these songs, since I\u2019m already experienced with singing them. However, I made the decision to tighten up the lyrics and change them a bit to make them a true<\/em> remix. If the soundtrack was going to be inspired by R&B love songs and culture, I wanted to put more of that feeling in there. Because the song lyrics repeated in the second verse, there didn\u2019t seem to be much room for creativity for the singers, and part of my critique lie in that it didn\u2019t feel like 2000s rhythm and blues<\/em>. This would also come in the form of ad-libs and riffs, which I did my best to incorporate in every song of this collection, because R&B and improv have a sense of predictable unpredictability in how the songs will be sung. For example, in \u201cHeaven\u201d, a song played for a little girl who\u2019d lost her mother, I decided to switch up the rhythm of the lyrics to leave more space for original riffing and different lyrics. This was an experiment for me as well, as I\u2019d never changed the lyrics of these songs before. In that moment while I was recording, I had to put what I truly felt<\/em> into my vocal chords and diaphragm. I had to believe what I was singing if I was going to make this a remix<\/em> instead of a cover, and put myself into the words and rhythm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My collection of remixes(which now could be seen as a remix of a remix) that includes a song from Persona 3 Reload<\/em>, could be seen by others as a simple copy of Azumi Takahashi, which might in fact be true. I used the voices of singers in Persona<\/em>, as well as R&B singers that I grew up with to frame my own, not just for the purposes of this project, but for my future as a vocalist. This collection of remixes wasn\u2019t just a reclamation, it was also an absorption to add to my own original \u201cvocal pattern\u201d and my identity as a singer. All of those things are connected for any creative, and they\u2019re needed, even if the uninformed will call it \u201cfake\u201d or a \u201ccopy\u201d of someone else\u2019s. This collection of Persona <\/em>remixes is still my own rendition, just as Takahashi\u2019s is Takahashi\u2019s, and Kawamura\u2019s is Kawamura\u2019s, even if the songs themselves are owned by Atlus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remix is a form of critique because it\u2019s a reminder for the original to stay open-minded. There\u2019s always another way to look at something, always another way for something to be imagined. I would also call this collection a form of intervention because as I mentioned before, I love the Persona<\/em> series. I don\u2019t think anything will stop me from singing the songs for years to come. But I learned from this class that if you really do love something that you grew up, try your hand at reimagining it. It doesn\u2019t have to become truth for everyone, but as long as you continue to reimagine, recreate and remix, you can even gain more experience as a creative yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Musical Content Copyright Disclaimer (Fair Use) under section 107 Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. This collection was used for educational purposes, with original vocals and mixing skills, all audio was purchased legally. Copyright Statement: This collection is not intended to infringe any copyright laws in any way. This is for the sole purpose of education; no profit is gained from this. It is the copyrighted property of its respective owner(s).<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/drive.google.com\/drive\/folders\/1t1G_rXHW_DSUWu_NYgi7nZkPY3XTlCWX?usp=drive_link As someone who enjoys playing video games, one of the most important factors to my experience is my enjoyment of the soundtrack. What music…<\/p>\n

Continue ReadingPersona Series – R&B Style EP<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":6440,"featured_media":592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-an-original-remix-sp25","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/wrt118\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1138\/2025\/04\/unnamed.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/wrt118\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/wrt118\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/wrt118\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/wrt118\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6440"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/wrt118\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/wrt118\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":608,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/wrt118\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions\/608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/wrt118\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/wrt118\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/wrt118\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/wrt118\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}