FamilyMart Jingle Remixes

About

FamilyMart Jingle Remixes (Japanese: ファミマ入店音, Famima Nyūten On) are a series of musical remixes based on the door chime used by the Japanese convenience store franchise FamilyMart. Since the release of a two-bar melody remix in September 2009, the well-known melody has spawned hundreds of memorable remixes on the Japanese video sharing site Nico Nico Douga (NND).

Origin

The doorbell "EC5227WP" was originally produced by Panasonic.^[1] Although not designed specifically for the convenience store chain, the melody became synonymous with entering a FamilyMart store due to its usage as the greeting doorbell in many locations. The original song (shown below, left) was first uploaded to NND by an NND pianist known as Matsuken Teacher on August 2nd, 2007. In the YouTube video description, Matsuken Teacher pointed to the association between the melody and FamilyMart.

While the song had been occasionally sampled in a number of MAD remix videos since 2007, it didn't raise any significant attention until two years later on September 9th, 2009, when it was sampled in a 2-bar melody Electribe^[2] remix video created by NND user KN.^[3] Titled "Tension Rises When Entering FamilyMart" in rough translation, the video gained one million views within the first month of release on Nico Nico Douga.

FamilyMart in Japan

FamilyMart (ファミリーマート)^[4] is a Japanese convenience store franchise that offers various goods including basic grocery items, magazines, beverages, alcoholic drinks and made-to-go snacks. Since the opening of its first store in 1981, the franchise has expanded across a number of other Asian countries, mainly South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, China, Bangladesh and Vietnam. In July 2005, FamilyMart opened its first store in the United States under the localized brand "Famima!!" With 15,240 stores worldwide (as of 2009), FamilyMart is Japan's third largest convenience store chain behind 7-Eleven and Lawson.

Spread

KN's unexpected infusion of a familiar melody and groovy club beats drew much attention on Nico Nico Douga, leading to creation of amateur tributes and remixes composed by other NND remix artists. Four days after the upload of KN's remix, DJ SatsukiIsTenkomori posted a follow-up remix sampling the same melody, accompanied by anime techno pop music and vocal tracks by NND singer Kana. ^[5]

Throughout September and October 2009, more than 300 remixes sampling the melody chime were uploaded onto Nico Nico Douga. As of April 2012, more than 700 user-submitted remixes are hosted on the site^[6], many of which have been since re-uploaded onto YouTube.^[7]

Notable Examples

As the remix expansion of the door chime continued to take hold on the site, NND users began name their remix renditions after specific locale branches of the FamilyMart franchise. Each rendition featured a distinctive style of remix, from the anime-pop music in the "Akihabara FamilyMart"^[8] (shown above) and happy hardcore music in "The Rotterdam Branch" to trance music in "The Ibiza Branch" and the orchestra in "The Vienna Beach."

Search Interest

External References

Editor’s Note: Registration is needed to browse the original videos listed in this section.