Music / Rina Sawayama

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Albums/extended plays

• RINA (2017)
• SAWAYAMA (2020)
• Hold the Girl (2022)

Singles

• "Sleeping in Waking" (2013)
• "Where U Are" (2016)
• "This Time Last Year" (2016)
• "Cyber Stockholm Syndrome" (2017)
• "Alterlife" (2017)
• "Tunnel Vision" ft. Shamir (2017)
• "Valentine (What's It Gonna Be)" (2018)
• "Cherry" (2018)
• "Flicker" (2018)
• "STFU!" (2019)
• "Comme des Garçons (Like the Boys)" (2020)
• "XS" (2020)
• "Chosen Family" (2020)
• "Bad Friend" (2020)
• "Lucid" (2020)
• "This Hell" (2022)
• "Catch Me in the Air" (2022)
• "Hold the Girl" (2022)
• "Phantom" (2022)
• "Hurricanes" (2022)
• "Eye for an Eye" (2023)

• Camp: Much of her music/aesthetic is drenched in camp. Justified by the fact that she's heavily inspired by early 2000s music, an era characterized by gaudiness.
• Genre Throwback: She's heavily inspired by 2000s music, which is prominent across both her songs and the music videos.
• Improbable Hairstyle: Her hair on the cover of SAWAYAMA. Lampshaded by a YouTube video where she couldn't even recreate it.

• A Hell of a Time: “This Hell” is about Rina embracing being damned to eternity in Hell since she’ll have her lover(s) there with her.
• Broken Record: The Cluster F-Bomb hook of "STFU!", which goes as follows:
  Shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up...
• Capitalism Is Bad: The theme of "XS." Specifically, it mocks Conspicuous Consumption, though the video puts a genuine invokedNightmare Fuel spin.
• Closet Key: "Cherry" is about meeting a girl that made her realize she's pansexual.
• Consuming Passion: "Flavour Of The Month" is about Rina feeling used in a relationship as simply a temporary fix for her significant other rather than someone to engage in a genuine romance with, and it uses a lot of food-based allegories to drive it's message home about Rina being compared to a sweet treat that brings euphoria for a few moments but is soon disposed of just as quickly.
  Gave you a taste of what you want
  Mint chocolate, scoops of bubblegum
  Taste so sweet, you couldn't get enough
  I, I was your flavour of the month
• Double-Meaning Title: SAWAYAMA is a subtle one: on the surface it's a Self-Titled Album, but since it features a recurring theme of family and identity it could also be interpreted as being about her parentage — the Sawayama family.
• Dream Sue: "Lucid" is an unconventional example, as it's a song about Rina getting to be the kind of person she's always aspired to be and live out her idealized life in her dreams, specifically addressing the "dream girl" that she wishes to be like.
  Hey girl, you are what I've been looking for, oh
  (What I been waiting for 'cause)
  Hey girl, you are what I've been dreaming of, oh
  (You're everything I'm dreaming of 'cause)
• Extreme Doormat: "Phantom is about Rina coming to terms with how she's been this all her life and hew efforts to reclaim her identity after having spent her entire life changing herself to please others.
  Once upon a time
  There was a girl, pleasing the world
  Dying to be liked, looking for love
  Wanting to trust
• Genre Roulette: Her songs can switch from smooth, honey-voiced pop to messy, angry metal.
• Genre Throwback: Mostly plucks inspiration from "diverse" 2000s music.
• Heel Realization: Realizing that she was the bad friend in a friendship that fell apart inspired "Bad Friend"
• Her Own Worst Enemy: "Hurricanes" is about Rina's pattern of self-sabotage as she struggles to find direction, which ultimately leads to her charging head-first into destructive emotional patterns to hide the turmoil she's going through.
  Always wanted to be best at everything
  Even when it brings out the worst in myself (worst in myself)
  So I create a storm and bury it deep, hiding the key
  In plain sight just in case I need help, help
  Chasing hurricanes
  'Cause I can't feel the rain
• Inner Child: "Hold The Girl" and "Phantom" feature Rina interacting with hers, the former being about comforting her younger self and giving her the nurturing and love she needed but never received, and the latter following Rina looking back on her history of compromising herself to appease those around her and wishing to change with her inner child by her side.
• Japanese Politeness: "Tokyo Love Hotel" is about how she sees western tourists to Japan as being inconsiderate to the incredibly polite locals, treating them like one-night stands that happen at the titular hotels without ever getting to appreciate them for their kindness.
• Location Song: "Tokyo Love Hotel" lampshades this phenomenon, calling itself "just another song about Tokyo".
• Metal Scream: One features in her Nu-Metal song "STFU!"
• Multilingual Song: "Akasaka Sad" includes a verse in Japanese.
• New Sound Album: Hold the Girl showcases Rina extinguishing the metallic influences off her last album in favor of much stronger pop rock, dance and adult contemporary styles. Downplayed, though, because the aesthetic remains a love letter to the noughties.
• Parental Love Song: "Catch Me in the Air" is an ode to Rina's mother and details Rina's life growing up with a single parent, more specifically how much she trusted the only parental figure she ever had and the desire she had to make her proud.
  So catch me in the air (mama, look at me now)
  Don't let me go (air)
  Mama, look at me now, I'm flying, I'm flying
• Pep-Talk Song: "Flicker" is an empowering anthem for those who feel ostracized or misunderstood as a result of their names or heritage.
  When you're down, feeling low
  Just remember your name
  They ain't us
  They ain't us, baby
  'Cause you know what they don't
  Just remember your name
  They ain't us
  They ain't us, baby
  (They flicker, flicker, flicker)
  But they ain't gonna shine like us
  (They flicker, flicker, flicker)
  Nobody gonna shine like us
  (They flicker, flicker, flicker)
  But they ain't gonna shine like us
  Nobody gonna shine like you and me
• Protest Song: Several of her songs, such as "STFU!", which is about how racists should shut up.
• Sanity Slippage Song: "Imaginging" is about Rina coming to the realization that she has been gaslit and questioning her entire reality as a result, all the while experiencing a sensory overload in what is implied to be a crowded space at the same time.
  I'm imagining
  So tell me what the fuck is up? What's happening?
  Right now my sanity is gone, it's vanishing
  I know I do this to myself, it's damaging
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: "Fuck this world" which expresses her frustration about environmental devastation.
• Self-Titled Album: Two. Her first EP RINA, followed by her first album SAWAYAMA.
• Shout-Out:
  • From "Bad Friend":
    Singing our hearts out to Carly
• Take That!:
  • Parts of "XS" reference Calabasas, famous residence of the Kardashians. Clearer in the Genius notes to the song.
    "Given that we all know global climate change is accelerating and [we might go extinct,] it seemed hilarious to me that [...] public figures were doing a gigantic house tour of their gated property in Calabasas in the same week as doing a ‘sad about Australian wildfires’ Instagram post."
  • "Tokyo Love Hotel" to Occidental Otakus and to her frustration of feeling like Japanese culture had been done to death by artists like Ariana Grande and Shawn Mendes.
    I guess this is just another song 'bout Tokyo
• Telephone Song: Heavily subverted with "Cyber Stockholm Syndrome", where the protagonist is addicted to her phone rather than real life.
  And she said "I'm not here for love tonight
  The way you touch just don't feel right
  Used to feeling things so cold
  Minimizing windows"
• Testosterone Poisoning: "Commes des Garçons" lampoons toxic masculine confidence. The music video reflects the theme.
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: "XS" ^note Excess

• Call-Back: The opening of "XS" plays bits of the "STFU!" chorus.
• Cross-Cast Role: She plays a businessman in "Bad Friend."
• Dancing Royalty: The final third of the music video of "This Hell" has Rina and her wife and husband put the dance floor on fire by dancing a combination of Country Music, Pop, and Rock. Hell, they even make their guests act as their backstage dancers and cause a couple of their detractors to change their minds and join the party.
• Eat the Camera: The camera zooms into Golden Rina’s mouth near the end of “XS” to reveal a golden splatter.
• Fan Disservice: Played with in "STFU!" She has scenes in an attractive, revealing black outfit, but the date is absent for those. Instead, he's present for scenes in which Sawayama plays a The Ring-inspired Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl crawling towards him. Fitting for a song about how racist white men should shut the fuck up.
• Gold Makes Everything Shiny: The products being advertised by the unnamed company in “XS” are mostly made of gold to go in hand with the song’s themes about overconsumption. It later turns out that they’re created using fluid milked from the body of a woman made entirely of gold.
• Homage: The moody, black-and-white music video for "Bad Friend" is a clear homage to the works of Akira Kurosawa.
• People Farms: The wonder drink from "XS" is revealed to be forcibly milked from captive women.
• Pink Is Erotic: "Cherry" is a song about Rina's conflicted feelings that come with her coming out, has Rina donning a short pink wig.
• Phenotype Stereotype: The white guy in "STFU!" asks her if she's mixed, because her eyes don't look so... (and then he proceeds to mock "stereotypical Asian eyes").
• Racial Face Blindness: The white date in "STFU" says she looks like "literally, either" Lucy Liu or Sandra Oh.
• Race Fetish: The white guy in "STFU!" evidently has one for Asian women. This leads to a disastrous date with Sawayama, who seethes at his piling microaggressions — e.g. thinking that all (East) Asians are the same.
• Robotic Reveal: After the back-up dancers from "XS" pour the drink on her, Rina starts to spark and malfunction until she's dumped in the trash at the end.
• Salaryman: Portrays an alcoholic variant in the music video for "Bad Friend"
• Sci-Fi Horror: Of the Capitalism Is Bad variety. Nearly three minutes into "XS," the viewers are treated to horrific scenes of Sawayama being experimented upon by scientists. We also have her TV presenter character, a malfunctioning robot addicted to Conspicuous Consumption.
• Shout-Out:
  • "STFU!" features the Kill Bill siren and scenes where Sawayama acts and is styled like Sadako from Ringu, among other references.
  • In a case of Freeze-Frame Bonus, the subtitles in "XS" include the memetic "talented, brilliant, incredible" speech by Lady Gaga.
• Themed Wedding: The wedding in “This Hell” has all of the attendees dressed as cowboys/cowgirls.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Cross-dresses in the music videos for "Comme des Garçons (Like the Boys)" and "Bad Friend."