How did you get into Japanese music?

[CREA.tive]

Like most people, ANIMES...especially Inuyasha and Gundam Seed

[Cyria]

Anime for me too. At first I was just interested in theme songs/soundtracks, but soon I started looking for other songs by artists who'd contributed to series I liked. It was refreshing to listen to pop that hadn't been played to death on radio (at least not here where I live ).

Originally Posted by Ani_C

Anime, mostly Gundam Wing. GW has awesome music!~

Yeah it really did Anime inspires alot of people here I see, shame I grew up on DBZ though...

"Dragon Dragonball..Dragonball Z....

[Annabelle]

In early 2003, saw ad for Kingdom Hearts on TV, heard Hikaru Utada's "Simple and Clean", loved the song, downloaded it. Loved Japanese music ever since.

[chibi_sunny]

Originally Posted by Ani_C

Anime, mostly Gundam Wing. GW has awesome music!~

You said it!
GW songs really brings back memories.

By 8th grade, I had became a big fan of manga through my friend, who had introduced it to me. She made a CD with anime songs and then gave it to me to listen. One of those songs was "Shiranai Sora" from Chobits (along with "Rhythm Emotion" remixed ver. from GW), and I immediately fell in love with Japanese songs.

[Ani_C]

^ Ahhh, you brought back even more good memories! I just remembered how good the remix was chibi_sunny ^^ And I think my bro got the whole GW series yesterday so I'm bound to watch it all soon.

[Mirai Noah]

First through anime (Gundam Wing for me too), and then my Japanese friend introduced me to Ayu.

[chibi_sunny]

Originally Posted by Ani_C

^ Ahhh, you brought back even more good memories! I just remembered how good the remix was chibi_sunny ^^ And I think my bro got the whole GW series yesterday so I'm bound to watch it all soon.

As much as I like GW, it bores me at some points. xD
White Reflection's my favorite, followed by "Just Communication". There were some really great midis for these two songs too.

Originally Posted by Mirai Noah

First through anime (Gundam Wing for me too), and then my Japanese friend introduced me to Ayu.

So many GW fans!
I guess Two-Mix was really popular back then.
I still love this duo.
And there was still slow transition from anime songs to Ayu.

[Ani_C]

Hehehe, once GW finished I was so anime deprived D: Then a few years later Inuyasha came along, and an year later Ayu emerged from that hahahaha! I guess it's just because GW some of the best music that this all occured eh?^^

[lotusoka]

Thank you, Steven *vinylfantasy*

[chibi_sunny]

Originally Posted by Ani_C

Hehehe, once GW finished I was so anime deprived D: Then a few years later Inuyasha came along, and an year later Ayu emerged from that hahahaha! I guess it's just because GW some of the best music that this all occured eh?^^

I remember hating Dearest when I first heard the song, and I didn't change my mind until a couple of months ago.
As a matter of fact, I wasn't sure if I liked Ayu's songs or not when I first heard her.
Supposedly the Two-Mix song "Divin' to Paradise" was from GW, but it doesn't sound like the actual singer. Cute song though.
Then hyper Maaya Sakamoto songs and CCS soundtracks really encouraged me on my path to becoming obsessed with J-Pop.
Other anime songs I have came to like were chiefly from Chobits, as mentioned before, as well as from RuroKen, FMA, and Bleach.
I guess what made GW so popular (other than the bishies I mean) was that Two-Mix was one of the first J-Pop bands to experiment with trance and remixes. Their songs sounded really modern and suited the theme of GW.

[LacusClyne]

Originally Posted by summersnow

It was SPEED who brought me into Jpop. That was already almost 9 years ago. I saw their best album advertisement on TV and was attracted to their music. Surprisingly one of my classmates bought the best album and so I borrowed from her. As I really liked their best album and so I bought a copy for myself. So slowly I discovered other Jpop singers through buying compilations like Best of Jpop 1 and 2. At that time, Ayu's YOU and SEASONS were included in the compilations but I didn't really take much notice of it. Just that I was surprised she wrote her own lyrics. I became her fan during her M and evolution era. I am... was my first Ayu album I bought. =)

Well before the SPEED era, I was already very into anime especially Sailormoon. I was really very crazy over it during that time, LOL! I collected alot merchandises of it, eg. stickers, cards, t-shirts, figures, jigsaw puzzles etc... =)

ah, SPEED. i remember them, i get to know them through my seniors when i enter Secordary school. my senior from Secordary 4 (Choir)is their huge fan, she manage to sing all of their songs without missing a word!!!! she was the one who tempted me to learn the langugue. in the past, i just like japanese, that's all.

and Sailormoon!!!! i went crazy too, remember those trading cards machines all over the country? i was too addicted to it, i still had my 500+ cards with me....and the stickers, magnets.....Sailormoon was my first set of manga!

[summersnow]

Originally Posted by LacusClyne

ah, SPEED. i remember them, i get to know them through my seniors when i enter Secordary school. my senior from Secordary 4 (Choir)is their huge fan, she manage to sing all of their songs without missing a word!!!! she was the one who tempted me to learn the langugue. in the past, i just like japanese, that's all.

and Sailormoon!!!! i went crazy too, remember those trading cards machines all over the country? i was too addicted to it, i still had my 500+ cards with me....and the stickers, magnets.....Sailormoon was my first set of manga!

I started to learn abit of Japanese by myself at that time. I would always sing along with them and read the Japanese lyrics on the lyrics booklet while listening to their song. Slowly I knew how to recognise and read hiragana, katakana and afew kanji. So I could say that it was SPEED who introduced me the Japanese music and its language.



Yup!! You mean the 20-cent-per-card machine? I still remember that I would always ask coins from my mother to try my luck whenever I passed by the machines. I still keep those cards with me!! And did you collect the sticker album? I mean the A4-size sticker album book. ^Haha at that time, I really spent quite alot money on Sailormoon. =)

[truehappiness]

Anime for me too.

Weird how that happened.

[immel]

The first time I think was when a friend showed me the video of Gackt and Ayumi performing Silent Night, but I didn't get stuck until the same friend showed me a live video of Gackt performing Vanilla. After that I started listening to Gackt a lot, and a little MoMu. 5 years later I got into Ayumi.

[rainday]

Friend sent me an Ayu song

[Keishi]

First Love & Automatic was quite big in my country during '99, so I decide to buy Utada's debut album. I LOVE IT. But it didn't intrigue me to dig more of the Japanese albums.

But I did follow Utada's career since then. (albums only, coz singles didn't reach this place at that time).

I was also quite an otaku at that time. I watch a bunch of animes & mangas and I also happen to listen to some anime ost. I'm guilty for calling them J-Pop, but that's true.
But still, the percentage of me listening to Western music was bigger. Until the point I only listen to mainstream Western music.

And then I was at the Singapore HMV, and I spotted DEEP RIVER album. I also spotted FFX-2 Original Soundtrack CD. At that time, I was also into gaming, so I decide to purchase that. Mind you. I've never played FFX-2 before purchasing that CD. In fact, that CD intrigued me to play the game. The music was awesome. Takahito Eguchi & Noriko Matsueda did a great job. I love the whole CD minus some of the horrifying dungeon music.

But 1000 Words brought me into another world where I finally discovered how talented Japanese musicians are. Koda Kumi's voice astonish me. Period.

I didn't really dig her music, though. Well, most likely because I haven't met Internet.






Ah. During my FFX-2//Kumi fanboy era, I saw Ayumi Hamasaki's video, Real me on MTV. And it's a Real ****.
The visual effects are great and stunning. But the song doesn't work. Especially as an introduction.


Another day, I discovered M on MTV. And I was truly shocked. I can't believe she's the same girl who sang Real ****. I love that song very much <3
But I didn't have time to go shopping for CDs....so I think I've forgotten about her for almost a year.

Until I finally spotted A BEST. And saw M on the tracklist. I was like..."Wow, isn't this the "Maria" song?"
So I bought it and I like it <3 <3 <3

I'm already an Internet addict at that time, most likely because I frequent GameFAQs a lot (was still a big gamer).

So I decide to search for her, and here I am. As ChrisKay. At AHO & AHS.
Her music was really inspiring. And also her artistic images that she's been portraying. So there. The cosplayer fanboy era started <3.

[Chandrachan]

Originally Posted by Ani_C

Anime, mostly Gundam Wing. GW has awesome music!~

Ditto!! Gundam Wing's ending song was my first Japanese song that I heard and I really liked it even though I didn't understand one word of it - than came Escaflowne's Op song that I fell in love with - Inuyasha also introduced me to Avex artists - Do As Infinity/Every Little Thing/Hitomi Shimatani/Namie Amuro/BoA and Gundam SEED introduced me to SONY artists - Mika Nakashima/T.M.Revolution/Tamaki Nami - mostly animes/PS2games

[Chandrachan]

Originally Posted by chibi_sunny

White Reflection's my favorite, followed by "Just Communication".
So many GW fans!
I guess Two-Mix was really popular back then.
I still love this duo

I was just trying to remember their name a few mins ago!! - I LOVE Two-Mix!! and White Reflection has to be my fav Gundam Wing song!! I also LOVE Gundam Wing I just bought the whole series!! ^_^ Ah so many great memories!! I also loved DBZ but they didn't leave any Japanese songs in the anime like Gundam Wing did

[asuna]

anime for me... started with Digimon, discovered Ayu, and the rest is history