#HikaruUtada

This is a brief reflection on the idea of “illusion.” The reason I’ve been writing several articles about Hikaru Utada is because, while creating a playlist recently, I discovered a few new insights. She has a deeply listener-centered approach, and when I listen to her lyrics, I sometimes find myself caught in an illusion.Though she may be singing about someone else’s memories, it can feel as if she’s singing directly to me. It made me wonder if, during those three minutes, she composes her songs with the intention of forming a one-on-one connection with the listener.Of course, this is just my own interpretation—nothing more than a feeling. Still, whether or […]

While listening to Hikaru Utada’s “Mine or Yours,” I had a vivid impression of a horizontal helix — as if a cylindrical spiral were rotating gently across space. When I started listening to music while consciously imagining it spinning, I began to notice various patterns: vertical spirals, top-down whirls, clockwise and counterclockwise rotations. These motions can be perceived aurally, not just visually. When I asked ChatGPT about this, I learned that while there may be no formal academic term for “rotational music,” there are related concepts — such as the symmetric phrasing of waltz rhythms, the repetitive drive of Ravel’s Boléro, and spiraling melodic motion through ascending and descending scales. […]