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  #21  
Old 24th July 2022, 02:37 PM
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I wonder anyone discovered ayu when they saw EGG....

I have been questioning myself that for two decades.
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  #22  
Old 26th July 2022, 09:55 PM
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I'm curious, how did you encounter Hikki, BoA and Kuu? While I had a vague notion of the existence of J-pop I knew nothing about it (let alone any artists) and my infatuation was just the lucky result of downloading randomly some stuff in KaZaA. I didn't even know where to look though!
I got into Hikki via Kingdom Hearts (cliched I know! Esp as I don't have a lot of time for the franchise these days) and got their Deep River and Colours CDs for Xmas 2003 through Amazon. I had previously discovered CD Japan after looking for somewhere to buy the Silent Hill 3 soundtrack so knew somewhere I could buy JPop from. Around the time I got into Hikki, FFX2 was coming out so I decided to buy the albums of the artists who did both the English and Japanese version which got me into Kuu (and Sweetbox). I remember at the time I was putting in my first few JPop orders CDJapan were advertising Feel My Mind so I was intrigued by what Kumi's music was like.

After that I was looking up information on Hikki online and came across the Hikaru-Online forums and from there found threads on BoA, Namie and Ayu.

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CeReSu, super cool, so much respect for all the people who ran these amazing websites back in the 00s - they were incredible resources for everyone, I'm sure. I certainly relied on them heavily! (Divine Ayu was my most frequented!)
I used to love browsing through fansites, looking at the affiliates for websites of other singers I liked. There was a lot of great avatars and wallpapers on these sites too. I used to spend ages reading the lyric translations on Divine Ayu.

Last edited by mi|kshake; 26th July 2022 at 10:13 PM.
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  #23  
Old 27th July 2022, 06:07 AM
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They were various events for me
1) Watch InuYasha on TV -> Get into BoA -> Who are the other song singers?
2) Ayumi Hamasaki and Aikawa Nanase were very popular on forums and KaZaA -> Downloaded RAINBOW album, I loved it
4) Downloaded whole discography, I was stressed out by the numbers of songs and CDs -> Delete all her discography, I also deleted BoA's discography I thought she was too cheesy at that time
3) Saw Boys & Girls PV on TV -> starting again to gain interest on her
4) Bought Memorial address from Amazon because the cover was cute -> It turned out Memorial address was an amazing album!

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Good times



Damn, you were an early adopter! Crazy. Do you remember how you came across YOU or was it just around? (You're from HK I guess?)
oh my gawdddddddd
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  #24  
Old 27th July 2022, 11:20 AM
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Mine started end of 2005, I was 14 and quite into mangas and one of my friends at school had downloaded some J-pop songs online (eMule, thank you!) and made us listen to them as they were 'funny' - the first Ayu song I ever heard was 'WE WISH', then 'evolution'.. and that was it.
I noted the name down and went on eMule that same evening to find more songs to add to my mp3. I remember downloading evolution, About You, My Name's Women, Ourselves and SEASONS.
The rest is history, downloaded more and more, burnt CDs with pretty homemade covers - lol, annoyed all my family with Ayu and playing her songs in the living room, started buying albums ((miss)understood was my first) and DVDs to watch her perform live (I lost count of how many times I've watched the Arena Tour 2006), find fan website to gather all the info and photos I could (Ayu Paradise, AyuAngel, I'm looking at you )... Never looked back.
I went to a Kuu / BoA / Yuna Ito phase, but Ayu is the only one that stuck all those years... 17 years and counting!
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  #25  
Old 27th July 2022, 11:32 AM
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I discovered Ayu when I was 15 back in 2002. Me and my brother were into anime at the time so my only experience of Japanese music was through intros/outros and I had a few on my Winamp playlist. My brother had built his own anime review website so had made a few friends through it and one of them sent him 'Boys & Girls'. I remember him being quite smug, playing it to me and saying it was a "proper" J-pop song and not from an anime. I thought it was OK and added it to my playlist.

Boys & Girls happened to play when I was bored one afternoon so I decided to Google 'Ayumu Hamazaki'. I found a website that listed all of her singles, including their chart placement and how much they had sold. I was really surprised to see how popular she was and decided to do some more research. LOVE ~destiny~ was the first song I downloaded and I loved it. To this day it gives me a really nostalgic feel. The next one was evolution and that was that. I was a fan. (Spent an absolute AGE searching for 'A' and I remember being really annoyed about it before I realised that even though it was a single, it was 4 separate songs and none them were titled 'A' haha). I asked for the RAINBOW album for my birthday in January 2003 and it was my most treasured possession haha.

Funnily enough, my brother never got into J-pop and thought I was weird for liking it so much. However without him I wouldn't have found so many artists who I still love, wouldn't have seen the smattering who have performed in the UK and wouldn't have travelled all the way to Japan 12 years ago to see Ayu in concert. So I owe him a lot for my great experiences

Last edited by powpowparn; 27th July 2022 at 11:34 AM.
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  #26  
Old 28th July 2022, 04:26 PM
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Haha, damn, I love reading all your stories, so awesome! Clearly anime was a gateway for many people, understandably (we barely got any anime here though, so no dice - though I personally also don't really watch anime).

@visionfactory: I can only imagine the stress, hahaha, I've been trying to catch up to what I missed and even though I've now pretty much heard everything I hadn't I am still trying to figure out what my favourites are among the newer material. I've really been enjoying LOVE again for instance (among many other things of course) and every time I play it and hear something great I check what song is playing and am like, ah of course! But then the next time I play it exact same thing happens Also funny because it's basically like every song catches my ear because of its awesomeness :biggle

@Lyssayu: very recognizable in some aspects (like annoying everyone ) and I also had a bunch of phases (for a while Hikki displaced Ayu, for instance, I still love Hikki to absolute death btw) but Ayu always comes out on top and is probably my most consistently loved and consistently listened-to singer. Also the one that has managed to evoke the most extreme emotions, from utter elation to whatever is the exact opposite of that

@powpowparn: So awesome! I'm so jelly of all these people that have been to one or even a whole bunch of Ayu concerts! I think if c. 2003 you had given me a magic lamp and three wishes it would probably have been see Ayu in real life, see Ayu in real life and see Ayu in real life
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  #27  
Old 28th July 2022, 10:21 PM
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I think it was about 2002 when I knew Ayu because of a magazine from Spain named Dokan about manga, anime and JPop. In one number, there was an article about Ayu, and it included an CD with some songs, mainly from A BEST, which was my first Ayu album. Since then I'm an Ayu-fan
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  #28  
Old 28th July 2022, 11:49 PM
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Super cool! Do you still have that CD (or do you remember what was on it)?
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  #29  
Old 29th July 2022, 09:27 PM
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Yes I do, I still have that CD. It included A Song for XX, Trust, Depend on you, LOVE ~Destiny~, WHATEVER (I think it was some of the Ferry Corsten remixes) and some more.
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  #30  
Old 29th July 2022, 09:52 PM
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Wow, that's awesome. Discogs has another Dokan CD in their database, how amazing that that even existed back then!

If possible could you share some pics?
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  #31  
Old 29th July 2022, 10:23 PM
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I have to remember where I have the CD, check if it still works, taking some pictures and uploading them, but I can try, if you're interested
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  #32  
Old 30th July 2022, 09:16 AM
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That would be awesome :3
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  #33  
Old 31st July 2022, 09:52 PM
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Mid December 2000, while using Napster (really showing my age here ). It was half a live recording of Far Away. I had to go to my school Christmas play straight after I listened to it, but it was stuck in my head the entire time and I couldn't really concentrate on anything else - it was like one of those life changing moments/epiphanies you see in films etc... and I knew then and there I was hooked. I'd already been dipping my toe into Jpop for about a year or two before this, but then and there I decided I was all in lol.

Moved through Napster, to Audio Galaxy, To Kazaa and then DC++ (which was INCREDIBLE back in the day) while trying to amass as much of her music as possible. I remember spending almost 2 to download the Dome Tour dvd rip on dial up internet, and seeing her perform live in that concert blew my tiny 14 year old mind.

I've never looked back ^^


EDIT: Also, the True OG's will always remember EGG lmao
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  #34  
Old 1st August 2022, 11:39 AM
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Damn, this is the first I learnt how you discovered Ayu, awesome. The epiphany feeling I think many of us recognize!

Do you know how you had found Jpop initially (before you discovered Ayu)?

Also, Napster, haha! By the time I discovered Ayu it was no longer around (at least not in its original form). I did use it for a long time though (that, then AudioGalaxy, KaZaA, Limewire, DC++... and then blogs with MegaUpload and such, I think).
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  #35  
Old 1st August 2022, 03:28 PM
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Originally Posted by sxesven View Post
Such cool stories again!


CeReSu, super cool, so much respect for all the people who ran these amazing websites back in the 00s - they were incredible resources for everyone, I'm sure. I certainly relied on them heavily! (Divine Ayu was my most frequented!)
Yeah it took a lot of times but I really loved these moments and I really loved working on the web, creating content and wallpapers, sharing news... that I decided a few years after the opening of my website to study webdevelopment ! Since 10 years now, I'm a digital webdeveloper ! Always thanked Ayu for that because I wasn't happy in my first job and thanks to her, I do a job that I like every day
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  #36  
Old 1st August 2022, 05:04 PM
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It was in 2003.

At this time, I was a big fan of Final Fantasy and the X-2 was about to be released.
A fan made two videos about it and the background music moved me. Like never before.

The only hint I had were thin. "M" and "Naturally" which were on the video in a corner.

I did not know at this time that they were both remixes (M above and Beyond and naturally dolly remix).

So i started to download EVERY song called M and naturally on emule/kazaa.
Once I finally found the right ones, I had the proper title and artist.

From these proper foundations, I've started to download the songs of this artist, Ayumi Hamasaki which was unknown to me. Man, the more I was downloading and listening the more I enjoyed her music.

20 years later, I keep listening to her music every single day of my life and had the chance to meet her twice (London and Paris), to see 2 concerts in Yokohama.

I'll never thank enough this guy who made these videos.
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  #37  
Old 1st August 2022, 06:17 PM
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Originally Posted by sxesven View Post
Damn, this is the first I learnt how you discovered Ayu, awesome. The epiphany feeling I think many of us recognize!

Do you know how you had found Jpop initially (before you discovered Ayu)?

Also, Napster, haha! By the time I discovered Ayu it was no longer around (at least not in its original form). I did use it for a long time though (that, then AudioGalaxy, KaZaA, Limewire, DC++... and then blogs with MegaUpload and such, I think).
I actually remember exactly how I found Jpop. I got a bit bored a while back and started writing about my musical history, just to try and put some thoughts/memories into words. This if from that:
Quote:
Enter Hirosue Ryoko

What began as a random anime related search in mid to late 1999 lead me, accidentally, to a website for the singer/actress Hirosue Ryoko. Now, me being a clueless 12 year old, I had never even considered the existence of celebrities outside of who I’d seen in movies or on TV, or heard on the radio. Sure, I was already watching anime way before this point, but just hadn’t paid any more thought to what might be created in Japan.

This fansite I’d landed on somehow piqued my interest. I could have just clicked off and carried on looking for Tenchi Muyo content, but instead I carried on looking for Hirosue. This was where I started to realize Japan had it’s own music (crazy I know). I fired up the old Napster (because we did things completely illegally back in the day), and to my surprise I managed to find a song by her - Maji De Koi Suru 5byoumae.

...

after trawling sites for a while, I was lead to my next discovery - Sakai Noriko, or Nori-P.

This discovery proved to be monumental in my life as she quickly became the only thing I could think about. For a start, she’s the first “celebrity crush” I think I ever had - I just remember thinking she was beautiful (and she still is), so it prompted me to once again sail the pirate seas of Napster in search of treasure. That treasure was found in the shape of the song “Pure”.
OMG rereading that doc (which I wrote about 2 years ago) I actually give a mention to... sxesven for introducing me to Shiina Ringo lmao.

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And through a friend’s recommendation (I’ll never forget you for this sxesven) Shiina Ringo, who kicked down my door and punched me in the face -
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  #38  
Old 2nd August 2022, 11:09 AM
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So amazing reading all these stories and how much impact Ayu has had on everyone here... very moving
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  #39  
Old 2nd August 2022, 11:59 AM
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i found out about ayu around Spring of 2021, mainly because of an oomf on twitter who stans her but also from looking up info on the biggest acts in japan. before that i was mainly a lamb and a kpop stan (still am~) and so as u guys know, Mariah is the most successful western act in Japan and also kpop acts usually also debut in Japan, which is why i liked looking for that info. i was mostly unfamiliar with jpop music other than vocaloid songs and a hikaru utada phase i had in 2019 (i got back into them this year with the release of the spectacular album Bad Mode). Naturally, ayu being the icon that she is and having sold as many records as she has, she appeared towards the top of these lists and was usually referenced in regards to Japan’s top popstars of all time. i was pretty impressed with her accolades, so i decided to check out what music she had. i’m not gonna lie i felt a bit overwhelmed when i saw that she had more albums than Mariah (which already has an extensive discography and took me a while to finish it), but i decided to pick something based on some factors:
- how much my mutuals have mentioned it
- which title/artwork intrigued me the most
and that ended up being LOVEppears! at first i didn’t listen to the whole album, and only listened to “appears” since it seemed like the closest thing to the title track (also the single cover looked crazy [not particularly in a good way if i’m being quite honest] to me so i thought “what could this song possibly sound like?”) and i IMMEDIATELY fell in love. i kept hitting repeat again and again and subsequently i ended up listening to the full album (and absolutely adoring it) which is what ultimately inspired me to start listening to her other albums.

fast forward to now, and ayu is my second most listened to artist of all time on lastfm, and she ended up being my most streamed artist of 2021 with loveppears and appears being the most streamed album and song respectively. it is always so nice to find artists that just click immediately with me, and the fact that she’s able to connect with people like me who don’t know Japanese based on just her sound and passion alone, makes me admire her so much more!!

i know i’m super late to the ayu party and it’s true that one of these days she might want to step away from singing to focus on her personal life, which i wouldn’t blame her especially after so many years! but until that day and even afterwards, i will continue to love and support ayu dearly!! <3
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  #40  
Old 2nd August 2022, 05:40 PM
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Good times



Damn, you were an early adopter! Crazy. Do you remember how you came across YOU or was it just around? (You're from HK I guess?)
This joke is all I needed to start my day greatful... and to quit lurking around and actually post in your thread. Love watching you making this forum talkactive again! And. I should give you the secret handshake I give you to all the dutchies around here.

Actually, I wish my origin story is cool as well, but unfortunately somebody (I used to know) introduced Ayu by blasting Beautiful Fighters in the car. We had drama in high school (I don't wanna get ugly in here, but I will never forgive her for how she handled it) around the time Ayu released Rock 'n' Roll Circus. So we basically had three years enjoying Ayu and this forum together. I am not worried she will be reading this, since she is no fan of Ayu anymore, and if she does... well, hello, hope you are having a good life.

But since we liked different songs of Ayu, I like to tell I heard GAME someday, and was immediately hooked. Which is true. GAME is the song that made me fan. And to this day, I still love to chat about Ayu and blast her music in the car and play "let me guess the song by listening 1 second to the intro, just to show off" with my dates. I know it is not really an amazing skill, but I am actually proud of it, haha.
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