1. What was the first Japanese song you heard?
It would have to be a game sound track. I think I started out with Final Fantasy 7. I remember buying the semi-pirated Taiwanese version by this company called SM or Son May at a shop called Game Tokyo in a mall called Lucky Plaza. justriiingo should know what place I'm talking about since she's from the "little red dot" too.
That started off my game soundtrack collection which then naturally progressed to anime soundtracks like Evangelion. The first "real" Japanese song that I heard was probably "Can You Celebrate" by Namie Amuro..the ex-queen of JPOP. I love NA's "Dreaming I was Dreaming" a lot. I own her 181920 album and still love listening to it today. Body Feels Exitttttt!!
2. Which artists got you interested in finding out more about Japanese music?
From Namie Amuro, I moved on and bought an album by Ayumi Hamasaki and also one by Globe and slightly later on an album by Noriko Sakai. Also tried an album by Every Little Thing (ELT) and got to know about Rough Laugh from a J-drama called The Spiral (very similar to The Ring..I think it features Sadako too). Finally, after a few years of listening to more anime soundtracks, I discovered Bonnie Pink and Judy & Mary (from Rurouni Kenshin) and later on, with the help of the then-cool 96.3FM radio station, I found Shiina Ringo (Gibbs). She's the only Japanese artist whose albums I still am buying actively (including TJ albums of course). Bonnie Pink's earlier albums were better IMO..her more recent work doesn't really appeal that much to me.
3. Are there any genres of Japanese music or artists you particularly like?
Hmm..I think my answer in question 2 seems to overlap with this question..They would have to be Dreams Come True, Bonnie Pink, SR/TJ, Namie Amuro and Rough Laugh. Anime and game music are other big attractions.. Yoko Kanno's compositions for Cowboy Bebop really started off my love for her work. She's like a super genius who can handle almost any style of music... A favorite from my childhood days would be Sonic music on the Mega Drive. The music in Sonic 1 through to Sonic Adventure are the best ever. I was delirious when I managed to get Sonic soundtracks from the Internet way back then...the Sonic Remix album is one of the best Sonic music albums. It all started going down with SA2...it was such a pity and disappointment that I have not listened to any of the music from the newer Sonic games. Still, there were other Mega Drive games with great music...like Super Shinobi and Shinobi 3, the Bare Knuckle (Streets of Rage) series, Rockman (Megaman) and Mega Bomber Man! Brings back memories..
justriiingo: hey hook me up with the J-Jazz stuff! I wanna try something new..