When you became an Ayu fan, what was it like?

[foxhana]

lucas ~~~ you a singaporean? O_o I neve rknew these things happened in singapore... I had many friends from other countries in my class, and we were all friends with them, even had one who went to hong kong already, but visited us durin gher holidays there wearing her old school uniform and sneaked into our class, pretending to be a student XD We even lied to our teacher that she's a new student and our new teacher believed LOL.

I knew but never knew.. O_O I guess............ you need to be in a class with good results from studies to avoid these things.. My friend was in a repeat class, she said that they gave up.. whereas she had not, so she was the top of their class lol. differences formed while we are all same. (>_<)

I am not sure if I should state my reply here, so long winded.... XD but can be shortened wahahahaha. Very very nice to hear you all talk about your first ayu meeting. I was crying to her youtube videos (she has her own channel now) while reading this topic. (>_<)

[Empry]

I think it was in early 2001 when I was visiting a mp3 rotation website because I wanted to download some anime music. Two of the songs that the owner had uploaded were 'M' and 'Far away' and if I remember correctly then the layout featured a picture of Ayu but I'm not sure.

Anyways, I downloaded 'M' and 'Far away' as the owner had recommended them. Listening to these songs, I became intrigued. The vocals weren’t the best and I didn’t understand a word but yet these songs sounded so sincere, so powerful and so emotional that they somehow touched my heart. Yes, this sounds so incredibly cheesy but somehow I knew that I’ve found what I was (unconsciously) looking for in music.

Due to my restricted internet access, I was not able to listen to many songs of Ayu till 2004 but the first CD that I bought, was the Connected Remix Single on the release day (7th April 2003). I still remember that day as I was so excited and I couldn’t find the single under new releases and had to ask the store owner to help me find it ^^;

On the 10th May 2009 I saw her finally live for the first time and I hope that I can see her again for her 2010 Tour

[Max_ZZZ]

I become a fan with Secret, and in total it was so exciting to get her new stuff! LOL like it was a constant flow of new stuff that just slowly pieced together how awesome I thought she was

[cosmeticmusic]

My relationship with Ayumi Hamasaki was a tumultuous one...

I first found out about Ayumi through Utada Hikaru. Like many J-Pop fans, I discovered Utada through the "Kingdom Hearts" franchise. However, it wasn't until 2007 when I actually started looking her up. This is an OCD habit of mine, but when I discover a new artist, I usually have to start at the very beginning of their discography. Otherwise, I feel I don't really understand where an artist is from and going to in their career, music-wise. So anyway, this was before I knew what file-hosting sites were, so I randomly typed in "Utada Hikaru" on the eSnips website, and listened to my very first J-pop song: "Kiss & Cry". To this day, I still love that song.

Where does Ayumi come into this? Well, I was reading more about Utada on Wikipedia, and discovered the name of her so-called "rival": Ayumi Hamasaki (Wikipedia and related articles was also how I discovered Ami Suzuki and other J-pop stars). Further "research" on forum sites (I didn't even know what a forum really was then) and the typical Ayumi pics that pop up on Google Images prompted me to think that Ayumi Hamasaki was nothing more than a plastic, Asian barbie doll. Now, I know better.

I read about her music anyway, and couldn't find an mp3 of "poker face" for some reason, so I tried her next single "YOU". What I found turned out to be my first Ayumi song: "You "Aggressive mix"". That song...turned me into a raving Ayu maniac. I'm serious. I thought that's how all her music sounded, all hyper and pumped up like a DDR game. However, when I heard the real version, I liked that one more. The more I discovered her music though, the more I liked her, and to this day I prefer her more experimental and pop music. It was like a whole new realm of music had opened up for me (and really, it truly had). Why, if I didn't discover Ayumi, I probably wouldn't have discovered any of my favorite artists. Although I don't listen to her regularly as I once did, I have a deep respect for Hamasaki and will remain a fan.

Then, I met Yasutaka Nakata...