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Old 2007.09.10, 08:57 PM   #1
justriiingo
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Default Your first taste of Japanese music.

It seems that quite a few of you are fans of Japanese music in general (and not just Shiina Ringo/Tokyo Jihen). What I wanna know is:

1. What was the first Japanese song you heard?
2. Which artists got you interested in finding out more about Japanese music?
3. Are there any genres of Japanese music or artists you particularly like?

For me the first Japanese song that I could remember I heard was Chage and Aska's "Meguriai". It was the theme song for this super popular J-drama "Tokyo Cinderella Story" which was on TV when I was 8 years old (so long ago...). I remember looking forward to watching it every Saturday. I still love the song till today.

The band that really got me into Japanese music was Luna Sea. One of their songs ("I for You") was the theme song for another J-drama "Kamisama mou Sukoshi Dake" (something like that). It's safe to say that they're my favourite rock band ever. That was also when I realised that Japanese music was more than the overplayed radio friendly stuff of SPEED and Ayumi Hamasaki (which they played on the Mandarin radio stations).

I don't listen to as much Japanese music as some of you on this forum, but I'm particularly interested in the J-Jazz scene (SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS, Sunaga t Experience, Indigo Jam Unit). For some reason I like it more than "traditional" jazz. Maybe because there's less of that annoying Jazz improv thing (I'm possibly the only person who hated Jazz improv.) There's just a sore lack of information about J-Jazz on the Internet so I'm having a hard time finding new music to listen to. I also like a lot of the Shibuya-kei stuff too, but it's mainly the old Fantastic Plastic Machine and capsule stuff. I used to like Jrock, but not anymore since there isn't quite a great Jrock band to hold up the scene since LS disbanded.

So yeah, even though I've been listening to Japanese music for some time, my exposure to it is still quite limited I think. Hopefully this thread will bring out some rare Japanese music that's worth listening to.
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Old 2007.09.10, 09:23 PM   #2
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1. What was the first Japanese song you heard?
That is very difficult to recall. It's probably anime-related, but I didn't necessarily first get exposed to anime songs from actually... watching an anime, which makes it harder to remember than, what my first anime viewing was. But then again, what about video games? In early days, practically all of them originated from Japan, so technically a Super Mario song on the NES is a "Japanese song". Or what if a game song was Japanese-made and had singing, but also had English vocals? What if it were Japanese vocals? Where do you draw the line? If you're talking about Japanese music that wasn't actually made for a soundtrack (but may have been later featured in a soundtrack), then the KSK vinyl version of Kuki was my cherry-popper, and boy oh boy was my intellect bleeding.

2. Which artists got you interested in finding out more about Japanese music?
Once again this is a messy topic for me to answer, because I got interested in video game music much earlier than I got into Japanese standalone music. Yasunori Mitsuda was the game music artist who peaked my interest and got me into habits that led into buying other artists' game music, and helped to shape my impression that Nobuo Uematsu is overrated (his remakes are decent though - and FFX OST was decent but hardly any of the tracks were actually his). Yoko Kanno has always been my favorite anime musician, and with blind love I throw money at her newer soundtracks for animes I haven't even seen yet. Shiina Ringo was the first standalone Japanese artist who peaked my interest.

3. Are there any genres of Japanese music or artists you particularly like?
I'm not a big fan of the Japanese Pop or R&B scene. It's okay when a group like Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra does something Pop-like once in awhile, because it'll have other styles like Reggae or Jazz for undertones. I suppose I'm a big fan of multi-genre (bonus points of the artist is consistent about including rock and/or jazz into the mix), indie (like Heart Bazaar or Hirama Mikio), and folks like SOIL&"PIMP"SESSIONS who may not evolve their style much, but they have their own fairly crazy niche.

Aside from whom I've already mentioned, I especially like Acidman (I have mixed feelings about their not-so-rockin' latest album), Asai Kenichi (pretty much everything the man has ever touched - solo career or otherwise), PE'Z, Shiina Ringo, and Yuu (solo career of the GO!GO!7188 lead girl).
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Old 2007.09.11, 04:26 AM   #3
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1. What was the first Japanese song you heard?

Probably video game soundtracks. Aside from some SNES and Genesis games, I really started taking gaming seriously during the Playstation/N64 era. The first game I took notice of the soundtrack for was probably Final Fantasy VII and I bought the soundtrack a few years later so that was my first Japanese music purchase, alongside a few others such as the Vib Ribbon soundtrack and I liked a lot of songs on Beatmania.

The first time I actively sought out a Japanese artist aside from sountrack material was after reading an argument on (I think) B3ta.com saying that all the geeks thought they were cool listening to Ayumi Hamasaki because she's a Japanese artist when she's the Japanese equivalent to Britney Spears, so I got curious as to actual decent Japanese artists. Found ProjectJ, read through a few pages and took a liking to a certain person called Shiina Ringo. My first Japanese song then would be La Salle De Bain (The only thing Kazaa found). Loved it, bought KSK and Shouso Strip.

2. Which artists got you interested in finding out more about Japanese music?

After that, I sought out similar artists. Mostly similar rock bands to Shiina. I think the second artist I got material for was Judy and Mary (Greatest hits) which I loved. I then moved onto Go!Go! and The Brilliant Green and after some recommendations on the old board I got into noodles. There are very few Japanese male singers I can tolerate, as I find their voices to be stuck in some cheesy 80's rock vortex.

Being a fan of heavier music too, I looked around and found Electric Eel Shock, Maximum The Hormone and Melt Banana and they (God knows how) lead me to Polysics and a quirky electronic group called Plus Tech Squeeze Box. And that is pretty much a list of every Japanese artist I listen too a lot (these are the groups I have albums for).

Oh and I got into The Pillows via FLCL.

3. Are there any genres of Japanese music or artists you particularly like?

As I've said, it's mostly Shiina-esque rock music, with a few hints of electronica and a few heavier bands (I wouldn't class them as Metal) plus some soundtrack stuff.
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Old 2007.09.11, 08:07 AM   #4
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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..

Last edited by milk : 2007.09.11 at 08:10 AM.
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Old 2007.09.11, 04:53 PM   #5
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It was probably a song from Sailor Moon, Ranma 1/2, Magic Knight Rayearth, or Pokemon, as those are the first anime/manga I got interested in back in 7th grade.

Jpop interest followed as a result of liking and wanting more from anime singers such as Maaya Sakamoto, and then my friends got into it more and started recommending me stuff, such as Shiina Ringo and Bonnie Pink.

Those three are pretty much my all-time favorites, with some Chihiro Onitsuka/Mai Hoshimura/Rie fu thrown in there too. I also like Spitz. I don't get into new artists very much these days, though, because it's overwhelming, and I've reached a point where I'm nowhere near obsessed with it anymore, so it's kind of like "why bother, I've already found what I like, who needs more?"
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Old 2007.09.11, 05:53 PM   #6
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my mom says...
that the 1st word I ever said was "Jaspion"
o.o
I'm serious



ok, since I was little I watched a lot of tokusatsu and thrash japanese movie godzilla alike... both with lots of japanese music (I still love the tokusatsu-songs),
then sailormoon/rayearth/saintseiya/yuyuhakusho... with portuguese opening/ending but some insert songs were in japanese
then came sakura/DBZ/kenshin
oh!
my love for the yellow monkey began there!
and in that fifa worldcup that was in korea/japan... you know, soccer is the main interest for common brazilians...
a TV show about general sports was making specials about korean/japanese culture
and you know what's happened
ayumi happened
I was a young post spice girl
I hated britney and aguilera since the begin
I always loved madonna when I was very young
still love her sometimes and sometimes not
and about what I like now, I'm lazy >_<
go to 5fav artists thread!

AHA!!!! found it!
I was waiting from this thread since the begin of this forum
here we go:

1 SR/TJ
2 Kojima Mayumi (not too far from the 1st place)
3 bonnie pink (but I hate her remixes)
fighting everyday for 4 & 5 places: Tsukiko Amano, Laruku(but never a solo work from its members O_O), gogo7188/Yuu, sambomaster, koda kumi(I like her since before her popularity ¬¬), nirvana(O.o so random ocidental music)
but I have to include buriguri, Hirrrrrrrrrama, capsule, maximum the hormone, ougi aina, spitz, suneohair, ua, ali project, matsutouya yumi, base ball bear, chatmonchy, ego-wrappin', galneryus, kotoringo, and aaaaaaaaaah I don't remember X_x
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Old 2007.09.11, 06:43 PM   #7
Tokyo Jihad
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The first "actual" japanese music I heard was on a International Showcase on MTV2. I remember I was the sickest I'd ever been and I thought I had anthrax poisoning. They played Hikaru Utada - "Automatic." It was withstandable, but didn't sweep me off my feet (howevva, Tatu - "Ya Soshla s Uma" followed it, and it did sweep me -- so Japan would have to wait a while til I perused it again.)

Japan got it's first shot, not too long after via Guitar Vader (via Jet Set Radio.) GV was the first act I'd heard from japan that I could relate to. From there I moved on to Puffy, and then I finally found Shiina (Brilliant Green and Cocco too. Kojima has some good ones, but i never went back to look into her. Wino as one of my first jap bands too, they had some good stuff, maybe i should go back to them.)

However not much beyond that, that I've found. I like rock, i like acoustic, I like electronic. "Genre" I don't care too much about, it can sound like whatever, have whatever instrumentation; so long as it has a nice melody and a rock attitude (which can be found anywhere from James Brown to Cat Power) I'm open.
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Old 2007.09.11, 06:50 PM   #8
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The first time i paid attention was thru anime. i wanna say either the "cutey honey" theme song(the first japanese song i learned..haha) or the ending song in "perfect blue"...which was an amazing movie...
i definitely got my footing thru anime. and then i decided to look into it...of course i was entertained by ayu, every little thing, aikawa nanase, etc when i first started. then, somehow, some way i discovered shena ringo...i think it was just by searching around in the internet(that mystical creation).
i've loved it since i started hearing the songs, tho. even if i don't know who sang the ending to perfect blue...maybe i should look into that...
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Old 2007.09.11, 07:23 PM   #9
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1. What was the first Japanese song you heard?

Like most people on this board, my first experiences with japanese music came from final fantasy. I was raised by squaresoft, first rpg being Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest (This was suppose to be a easy game, but i remember starting the game at 8 and not beating it until I picked it up again at 12).
The first song that really got me interested in the J-music scene, however, was Utada Hikaru's 'hikari'. I remember first hearing the song, then seeing the music video thinking it was so much better than the shit TRL was broadcasting.


2. Which artists got you interested in finding out more about Japanese music?

Utada Hikaru. Then I checked out J-fan.com, which led me to Do As Infinity, Every little Thing, Globe, Bonnie Pink, and The Brilliant Green. Don't really listen to Globe and Bonnie Pink anymore...

J-fan was really my lone gateway to J-music. I remember one night, almost 2 years after discovering j-fan, that I finally downloaded some of the recommended Shiina singles out of boredom. That was the best night of my life! First Honnou, then Tsumi, KoKo, and Gibusu.

3. Are there any genres of Japanese music or artists you particularly like?

What genre is JaM, GoGo7188, and The Back Horn? Also into the oldies like Momoe.
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Old 2007.09.11, 07:33 PM   #10
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Originally Posted by Lena-chan View Post
my mom says...
that the 1st word I ever said was "Jaspion"
o.o
I'm serious
hehe. I don't suppose that's portuguese for Japan...?
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