John Ringo refers to the music he listens to while writing frequently; many of his characters are quite vocal about their preference for various bands that Ringo also likes. He even lists the tracks he listened to in postscripts in a few of his novels.
In the fourth book in his and Travis S. Taylor’s Looking Glass series (Claws that Catch (as usual with Baen, the ebook is here)), the heroic crew of the good ship Vorpal Blade happen upon a strange device in space; it proceeds to warp reality until all of the characters look, think, and act like anime character archetypes.
This is ridiculous enough; it only gets more so when they discover that they can operate the giant space MacGuffin by playing music. The crew forms a band and they play various rock, metal, and country songs; at one point, the hyper/manic linguist (who is, of course, smoking hot (what did you expect from John Ringo?)) sings lead vocals, true to anime character archetype, she breaks out into Japanese pop.
This song, to be precise. It’s one of Ayumi Hamasaki’s many hits.
She’s been the queen of J-pop for almost the last fifteen years; in a culture obsessed with youth and idols, that’s an eternity.
Aside: Don’t worry; the books in the Looking Glass series aren’t OH JOHN RINGO NO books.
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