doombox

I don't think the artist gen works but albums still do. Worth a revisit.
 

Goes to show that I've been listening to the same songs 100x times a day for the past 3 months. Don't send help, I am ok.
 

I think you would do well to read this thread again.

We've always had an open news forum where anyone can post. 

Okay let me stop you here. 
 
Who is siding with trolls? You mean the mods made a decision and certain members actually understand why and aren't sad about it. How about you try not to instigate this being something it is not. 

Holding out for an LP release like Myakuhaku, but won’t hold my breath.

I just listened to サイコ at Tatsuro’s radio program and DUDE I am blown away. It’s a song that matches very well their concept photos. It sounds like how the pictures look, if that makes sense. 
I can’t wait to listen to the whole album and cry. That’s it from me *mic drop*

Tell anything you want, but Mucc is one of the few bands in Japan that never failed in exploring new horizons, so I'm in with this jazzy direction!!

new Chung Ha slaps
 

La La Love is pretty good :D. I'll have to give the whole mini a good listen starting tomorrow. I miss China line tho ;_;. At least they're included in the song "Memories".
 
GFRIEND has me hypppped. I actually like this concept more than "Time for the moon night", which I thought was "artsy" enough for them.

I'm just gonna also point out for many of my friends that fit the narrative of jumping from J-rock to K-pop, and not just J-pop itself... I can tell you the number 1 reason was accessibility. Japan labels started closing many inroads to the west, region blocking their channels, having all the fan videos deleted, and making it very hard to buy stateside unless you went to a type of convention. Where when the "boom" of interest happened that wasn't the case. And also.. the price. K-pop is DRASTICALLY cheaper to collect. So in a way, yes it fills their need for ~exotic Asian musics~ because it's still fun and brightly colored without being so time consuming and wallet draining. I won't even go into the difference in fandom cultures here. But I don't think a lot of J-music fans see it from the other side and how much Japan intentionally shut out a lot of the more casual western fans. 

I can't believe that guy on the left photobombed MUCC

I'm just gonna also point out for many of my friends that fit the narrative of jumping from J-rock to K-pop, and not just J-pop itself... I can tell you the number 1 reason was accessibility. Japan labels started closing many inroads to the west, region blocking their channels, having all the fan videos deleted, and making it very hard to buy stateside unless you went to a type of convention. Where when the "boom" of interest happened that wasn't the case. And also.. the price. K-pop is DRASTICALLY cheaper to collect. So in a way, yes it fills their need for ~exotic Asian musics~ because it's still fun and brightly colored without being so time consuming and wallet draining. I won't even go into the difference in fandom cultures here. But I don't think a lot of J-music fans see it from the other side and how much Japan intentionally shut out a lot of the more casual western fans. 

+81 by Crystal Lake
Trigger by Sigma Memoria
missing the sky by Pulowzillia
瞞しに凪 by llll ligro
into you by KARD
嘘泣キ少女 by MonstlloW
Angelica Jewelry by Megaromania
vandal by sukekiyo
花魁パレード by RShitei
「人」と「形｣ by DIMLIM
 

I'm just gonna also point out for many of my friends that fit the narrative of jumping from J-rock to K-pop, and not just J-pop itself... I can tell you the number 1 reason was accessibility. Japan labels started closing many inroads to the west, region blocking their channels, having all the fan videos deleted, and making it very hard to buy stateside unless you went to a type of convention. Where when the "boom" of interest happened that wasn't the case. And also.. the price. K-pop is DRASTICALLY cheaper to collect. So in a way, yes it fills their need for ~exotic Asian musics~ because it's still fun and brightly colored without being so time consuming and wallet draining. I won't even go into the difference in fandom cultures here. But I don't think a lot of J-music fans see it from the other side and how much Japan intentionally shut out a lot of the more casual western fans. 

exactly this, dated is the perfect word. Nonetheless, glad to see Karin back.

The Last.fm listening reports for 2018 have arrived! How was your year in music? (You can access your report by going to your profile > Listening Reports > Last Year (2018))
 
Since there's a bunch of stats involved, I'll just share the basics of my report:
-5249 scrobbles
-674 loved tracks
-my top artist is Sotis Volanis
-top album is Emeis Ama Kollisoume De Tha Xekollisoume by Sotis Volanis
-top track is 蒼月オラトリオ -Ballade Version- by Ariabl'eyeS

Yay! Thanks for making the 2018 post. Gonna do my best to update this regularly and not wait until September like I did last year... >>;
 
 
Last updated: 4.13

@Zeus So I linked this thread in the plug session last night and I think we may have triggered @fictioninhope and @doombox's past trauma of requiring them to write about イリヤ -ilya- for their ORZ application
 
@platy & @Zeus - "Sink" is hands down one of my favorite VK songs ever. I'm pretty sure I first heard 9GBO in 2009, as The Gazette's singles leading up to DIM had reignited my interest in VK and they were one of the recommendations I received at the time.
 
@Ito - 2008 was a major year of exploration for me too! That's the year I truly started to learn about J-indie. and LOLZ, iirc, Spike actually bought that UNLIMITS album because he liked them so much.
 
@Zeus - That RENTRER EN SOI blurb is so bittersweet for me. Although I disliked the S/T and wasn't heads over heels with The Bottom of Chaos, I felt the band were starting to slowly regain their identity by the time Megiddo game out. I felt like with perhaps the next release, they would have fully integrated that heavier sound with their earlier one. It's a shame because they went out with so much untapped potential.
 
Or maybe it was for the best? Bearing in mind the trajectory of Satsuki's solo career and all....^_________^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

While writing up  blurbs for this list, we came to the conclusion that 2008 was a golden year for visual kei. So many good things were released or happening during that time. This took so long to come out because every time one of us was done, another person snuck in a blurb or two. If we didn't cut ourselves off, I'm sure we would have wrote a bit about everything released that year. I'm not expecting 2009's retrospective to have this many blurbs.