Mike Shinoda's life story
What is Mike Shinoda's life story?
Mike Kenji Shinoda is an American musician, rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and graphic designer.
Born on February 11, 1977 in Agoura Hills, California. He has a younger brother named Jason. Mike's mother encouraged him to take piano lessons when he was six. When he was 13, he had a desire to start playing jazz, blues, and most importantly, hip-hop. During high school, he started to move towards playing guitar and rapping. Mike went to high school with Linkin Park bandmates Brad Delson and Rob Bourdon. During high school, the three formed a band called Xero, and tried seriously attempting to pursue a music career. After graduating high school, Mike went to college for graphic design and illustration.
Mike is the co-founder of Linkin Park, along with Chester Bennington. They founded Linkin Park in 1996. Their main focus for Linkin Park was to make music that was different than the other rock bands, instead of the traditional rock in the 90's they wanted to make a new pop-style of rock. At this time, there wasn't many alternative rock bands, making them popular for what they did. 8 years later after Linkin Park was founded by Mike and Chester, Mike decided he wanted a band of his own. Still staying with Linkin Park, Mike started his other band, Fort Minor. Fort Minor is a rap focused band, describing the life of Mike Shinoda.
Mike has many songs in Fort Minor describing his life, my main focus will be on his song "Kenji."
In the song "Kenji," Mike talks about his father. In 1905, his father came from Japan in 1905, when he was 15. Since it was hard for Japanese people to gain American's trust, his father worked super hard and earned enough money to build a store. He started to live a normal life, although people kept calling him an immigrant, he still respected them. Every day he would wake up and have bacon and eggs with his wife and kids. Kenji called himself "Issei," which means "First Generation in the United States," when everyone was afraid of everything, mostly of a Homeland attack though. Three weeks before 1942, Kenji's world turned upside down when he walked outside and saw on a newspaper that said the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and were coming for United States. Due to this, Kenji had a few days to get his belongings and get out. They were put in a town with soldiers surround the whole entire perimeter. Ken figured the only way out was to join the army. Some of the Japanese people in the army ended up flying to Japan with a bomb, 2 cities in japan were blown to bits, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When Ken got back, he saw that the soldiers thrashed the town and wrote on the wall that Japanese weren't welcome anymore. Soon after, Kenji died.
Back to Mike. He's a really smart and talented musician. If Linkin Park didn't have Mike, they would've been just like any other rock band. Mike introduced a whole bunch of different forms of technology to the musicians of Linkin Park, helping them create better styles of Rock. Introducing Rap to Linkin Park, they became a legendary rap-rock band that was one of a kind. Linkin Park first started becoming well known in 2000 with their debut album Hybrid Theory. The RIAA certified this album as Diamond in 2005, along with multi-platinum in many other countries.
Mike Kenji Shinoda is an American musician, rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and graphic designer.
Born on February 11, 1977 in Agoura Hills, California. He has a younger brother named Jason. Mike's mother encouraged him to take piano lessons when he was six. When he was 13, he had a desire to start playing jazz, blues, and most importantly, hip-hop. During high school, he started to move towards playing guitar and rapping. Mike went to high school with Linkin Park bandmates Brad Delson and Rob Bourdon. During high school, the three formed a band called Xero, and tried seriously attempting to pursue a music career. After graduating high school, Mike went to college for graphic design and illustration.
Mike is the co-founder of Linkin Park, along with Chester Bennington. They founded Linkin Park in 1996. Their main focus for Linkin Park was to make music that was different than the other rock bands, instead of the traditional rock in the 90's they wanted to make a new pop-style of rock. At this time, there wasn't many alternative rock bands, making them popular for what they did. 8 years later after Linkin Park was founded by Mike and Chester, Mike decided he wanted a band of his own. Still staying with Linkin Park, Mike started his other band, Fort Minor. Fort Minor is a rap focused band, describing the life of Mike Shinoda.
Mike has many songs in Fort Minor describing his life, my main focus will be on his song "Kenji."
In the song "Kenji," Mike talks about his father. In 1905, his father came from Japan in 1905, when he was 15. Since it was hard for Japanese people to gain American's trust, his father worked super hard and earned enough money to build a store. He started to live a normal life, although people kept calling him an immigrant, he still respected them. Every day he would wake up and have bacon and eggs with his wife and kids. Kenji called himself "Issei," which means "First Generation in the United States," when everyone was afraid of everything, mostly of a Homeland attack though. Three weeks before 1942, Kenji's world turned upside down when he walked outside and saw on a newspaper that said the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and were coming for United States. Due to this, Kenji had a few days to get his belongings and get out. They were put in a town with soldiers surround the whole entire perimeter. Ken figured the only way out was to join the army. Some of the Japanese people in the army ended up flying to Japan with a bomb, 2 cities in japan were blown to bits, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When Ken got back, he saw that the soldiers thrashed the town and wrote on the wall that Japanese weren't welcome anymore. Soon after, Kenji died.
Back to Mike. He's a really smart and talented musician. If Linkin Park didn't have Mike, they would've been just like any other rock band. Mike introduced a whole bunch of different forms of technology to the musicians of Linkin Park, helping them create better styles of Rock. Introducing Rap to Linkin Park, they became a legendary rap-rock band that was one of a kind. Linkin Park first started becoming well known in 2000 with their debut album Hybrid Theory. The RIAA certified this album as Diamond in 2005, along with multi-platinum in many other countries.
this is grat raely good i think a good directin to head with would be to brack down some of his learns and interviews he has had and maybe even sample some of his music to your blog by inbeding it in to your blog.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100% with Steaven. Including some sample music, music videos, and lyrics would work well. Think about some songs or videos that talk about Shinoda's personal or family life.
DeleteThis is a great topic to research since sometimes the artists in bands don't get as much recognition; people only see the band as a whole. You've got a good idea sharing Shinoda's life story via explaining one of his songs; that was thoughtful. It'd be curious to know how you'll continue this research, however, since you've answered the research question in one go. Maybe by analyzing more of his songs, and how the lyrics reflected important points in his life?
ReplyDelete