When, Where and How did you first discovered Japanese Music?

[Mono 0]

2004 or something. Found Sigh' Imaginary Sonicscape on my brothers computer. Didn't love it, but found it extremely interesting and it opened my gate to more challenging music. Fell in love with the albums a few years later. There were other Sigh albums I feel in love with before that one, even though it was the first I heard.

Gackt and Miyavi were the first Jrockers I got into, in 06-07 or something. Still like a lot of what both have done, though far from everything.

[X-Marc 7]

i was watching new fist of the north star and gackt had Lu:na and Oasis as opening/ending. loved the songs and started looking for more=)

gackt btw also did voice acting in that anime=)

this was somewhere in 2005 i think.

after that someone sent me dir en grey, loved it, and i had tickets to go to Wacken and D'espairsRay played there. so i immediately started downloading their music and from there i started looking for more and more.

first bands i really listend to were (besides gackt,diru and despa)

asian kung fu generation

aikaryu

oz

rentrer en soi

maverick (now eat you alive)

mucc

sex machineguns

[Chise 0]

When: Don't know exactly. It was like 9 or 10 years ago...Let's say it was 2001.

Where: On my computer

How: Downloaded the japanese versions of the anime intros I liked back then. Liked the japanese versions even more.

[toma. 0]

At this point it's sad to say but An Cafe's Wagamama Koushinkyouku music video was my first taste of Jrock.

then from there I listened to An Cafe, Lolita 23Q, Kamikaze Shounendan and a bunch of other oshare bands.

[mohshuvuu 1]

When: 1999

Where: my old house

How: watching Rurouni Kenshin for the first time in the television.

[Keichan 0]

Um.. I think it was AKB48, Morning Musume, Nana Kitade or Hamasaki Ayumi.

 

When: probably 2009 or 2008

Where: Computer ^^, YouTube

How: I was an anime fan, you know. I guess one of the people I mentioned were in the suggestions.

 

[Takadanobabaalien 3607]

2003~2004, anime openings a friend showed me. Later on I found vk and well...

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

When: 2004, with hearing Gundam Seed's intro. I credit TM Revolution for getting me into Japanese music.

 

I didn't get into vkei / being really open to music that wasn't on the radio until 2007, however. I was at the mall with some friends and saw an issue of Purple Sky Magazine at a store with Versailles on it. I asked a friend who also liked Japanese stuff if she's heard of them and she said "Yeah, but they're kind of metal-ish." Since they had a French name, I decided to try them out anyway and my outlook on music went from "it's kind of scary," gradually to "it's okay if I  like a bit of everything." I became really into the vkei scene from stalking Hizaki's career, which accidentally led me to Madeth Gray'll since someone on youtube said he was a part of that band (he wasn't, they meant Schwardix Marvally. I've forgiven them, since Madeth opened me up to kote-kei once the out-of-tune shock value wore off).

 

I also found other bands through youtube but couldn't find where to download their music for quite a while, such as Metis Gretel / Megaromania (I didn't know they were related at first. I just thought they had strange singers), Saruin if I remember correctly, Malice Mizer, and Moi Dix Mois.

[Heroin 53]

I watched anime as a kid, so there were bound to be Japanese music which I really did not care much for at the time. When I got into it's a different story.

When: 2008 I was 14

Where: At my brothers house, using his Internet.

How: Had a friend on MySpace that had Maximum the Hormone (zetsubou billy) on her page song.

At the time I was like whoa! This music sounds so cool in the beginning, which I didn't bother to read the artist or song nor I bother to look back at it. Then time passed, my friend recommended me to watch Death Note and there I saw the credits and I was like HOLY FUCKING SHIT it's that awesome song!! That's when I was interested to discover japanese bands.

THOSE TIMES WERE AWESOME ;D

[Seimeisen 4406]

My story goes back to the summer of 2008. My sister had a copy of Dir en grey's Withering to death. (US version), and I ripped it to my computer out of curiosity. Not sure how she discovered them, but it was the first thing that I heard in Japanese, let alone another language. I tried the album out, thought it was pretty good, and I eventually got THE MARROW OF A BONE (US version also) later that season. During the fall, I finally got around to listening to THE MARROW OF A BONE, enjoyed it, and listened to Withering to death. once more.

Sometime in November, I went on a road trip and was downloading new stuff to listen to in the car. I decided to get DECADE 1998-2002. I continued my exploration of Dir en grey, was impressed, not necessarily amazed, until I heard Bottom of the death valley. After hearing that song, my obsession began, I started hearing Withering to death. and THE MARROW OF A BONE for what they really were, and I began digging deep into their whole discography.

My curiosity of Japanese music as a whole began to grow and I figured there would be some selections on iTunes... and that's when I discovered D'espairsRay, which helped me discover Japanese music blogs (edohsama SЯ JROCK UPDATER) and Monochrome Heaven (back when it was Tainted World), which both opened opened the door to the music I've grown to love over the past four years.

[Dark Kinma 960]

I discover in 2004, after chating with a person on msn she say to may "i listen japanese rock music" and i was curious to know it, she give me Cage by Dir en Grey and Kanashimi no Hate by MUCC and I has love it in the first playing, and after has got the passion to discover a maximum of band in a maximum of style.

And todayn my first favorite band is Dir en Grey, and that will be never change (maybe if they played music like  justin bieber I will be fight them xD)

[Champ213 1858]

It's funny how this ancient thread somehow got resurrected and now is pretty active again.

 

Anyway, my answer should be somewhere on the first page~

[Kaye 296]

Just about 10 years ago, around new years 2002.

 

My brother had gotten Kingdom Hearts for Christmas and we often played it together. The soundtrack totally got my attention so I went to look it up and was suprised that when I'd downloaded it, it was in Japanese and not in English. (I'd mixed up Simple and Clean for Hikari) I got addicted to Utada pretty fast and from there on out it never stopped.

 

 

edit: just noticed I already did my story on the first page. Oh well...

[OmegaChaos 1]

I was a huge Digimon fan and in 2004 Digimon Tamers aired in Estonia and it was pretty much Japanese version dubbed to Estonian.....I really liked the OP and ED....when I got my 1st mp3 player in 2005...I downloaded a lot of Digimon music....but in 2006 summer I wanted something harder and started to search for Japanese Metal on the internet...discovered a band called Sex Machineguns...after that in April  2007  I discovered my 1st Visual Kei band,which was Girugamesh...and then.....my evolution started......

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Of course I first heard Japanese music by watching anime in my early teens, but my first conscious endevour to listen/find music came in summer 2004. Actually, I was searching for something else on Google and mistakenly clicked on another link - that brought me to the 'visual kei' section of a Hungarian news/social site for goth/dark/industrial people. Naturally, I was curious, so I snatched all the PVs they had on the first page and then began my descent into the sweet sweet abyss of vk.

 

These were some of the first stuff I watched there:

 

Atsushi Sakurai - Sacrifice

Noir Fleurir - Giniro no basha

Dué le quartz - Rodeo

Baiser - Prism

Malice Mizer - Beast of Blood

Kagerou - XII Dizzy

[saltofstones 136]

My first contact with Japanese music (excluding Sailor Moon OST songs) was in 2006. A friend of mine showed me Kagerou's Zetsubou ni Sayonara and Wrist Cutter PVs, then Miyavi's Are you ready to rock? PV. It wasn't really love at first sound, but it was definitely interesting so I took everything he downloaded to give it all a listen later, which didn't really happen. Then a few weeks later I stumbled upon some guy's profile on a site dedicated to industrial music. He had a big DIR EN GREY background picture. Upon seeing that picture my sister asked who those Marilyn Manson lookalikes were. I knew a had some of their songs and a video from my friend, so we both watched the Obscure PV and that's when it finally clicked for me. We ended up downloading their complete discography that day. I still remember how confused we were listening to Missa and Gauze because they sounded nothing like Obscure. Nevertheless, DEG is still one of my favorite Japanese bands today.

[lichtlune 915]

Deathnote back in 2007 i think it was,  that got me into nightmare and a few others and then it sort of kicked off from there i guess.

[HIME 3]

In Elementary School or year 5 in Secondary School/ Gymnasium, I guess. That must've been when An Cafe where on a TV show I watched at that time. I still like them. But later I discovered more ofc. And when I got really into VK my dad told me he already knew about that stuff, lol.

[Eraser 66]

Deathnote back in 2007 i think it was,  that got me into nightmare and a few others and then it sort of kicked off from there i guess.

 

Same here! Well, not exactly... I watched a lot of anime before Death Note that got me into some japanese songs, but those were mostly j-pop openings/endings. I didn't really bother to download anything else from these artists than the songs featured in the anime. After I watched Death Note, I decided to check a whole album from the band, and that's how I got Nightmare's the WORLD Ruler, my first vk album ever. While I was listening to it, I had a conversation with a friend who was into japanese music for years. He suggested me some other popular vk bands, so I checked some other albums too at the same day. These were 12012's DIAMOND and Dir en grey's A MARROW OF A BONE, and if I'm right, D'espairsRay's MIRROR was my fourth vk album (one day later). After that, I started to geting into japanese music. I checked a lot of artists/bands - not just vk, but some "underground" music as well, like SHILFEE AND TULIPCOROBOCKLES, FLOPPY, spam_life etc. (these releases were really hard to get back then, but fortunately I had a friend who helped me with that). Anyway, I don't remember the majority of bands I was listening to these days, but the first vk bands I mentioned (I know, Dir en grey can't be labeled as vk anymore) are still really important to me. I don't think 12012 is a good band anymore, but I still visiting there site like every day to see if there is any news on their next release. And I don't think Nightmare is a great band either, but I get very excited when they announce anything new. Speaking of Dir en grey and D'espairsRay, they're still my two favorite japanese bands ever.

That's all I guess.

[asoth 2]

7 years ago now, I found myself idly reading the graffiti scrawled in a washroom stall at my high school; someone had written "Dir en grey is love" on the TP dispenser. I knew the band was Japanese, I knew there were a couple fans at my school, and I was really interested in Japanese culture, and after googling them later that day I fell in love. -shrugs-

 

Found out about some other bands through rotations, and even more through my own rotation, anime themes, some Japanese friends, etc. since then~

[jduv86 224]

Probably sometime in 10th grade when I got my copy of Thousand Arms and I fell in love with Ayumi Hamasaki. That was the first time experienced actual Japanese music. For some reason when I typed in Japanese music, Dir en Grey and Gazette came up. First, hated Dir en Grey. I heard "Ash" first and was like...eww...japanese music...then I heard Gazette "Anata No Tame No Kono Inochi" and was like "yeah! this is more my style"...then I went to Otakon in 2004 and saw L'arc en Ciel live. And then from there it was just an unending cycle. Started with more Gazette, L Arc en Ciel and Malice Mizer...then Gackt by himself. Then, I came back to Dir en Grey and then I went through a Pop stage as I went back to Ayumi Hamaski...so it was Ayumi, Koda Kumi, Amuro Namie, Se7en, and Boa (didn't know the last two were korean artists...Kpop actually came like 2 years ago to me. lol). Then back to Jrock with bands like Ruvie and Kurt and so on. And now I'm just a big jumble of music now. Love it all! Jrock, Jpop, Kpop...hate K-rock though.

[Tata_the_banana 32]

In 2002 I saw some Visual bands in an Anime and Manga magazine... I thought everyone would look like girls before cause someone told me all those Japanese rock bands do. XD But they didn't looked like girls, I could see those where men.(It was a picture of Dir en grey in their Filth outfits btw and a picture of Malice Mizer) So I was disappointed. And I listened to some Anime OSTs. I think my first song was Forever Love from X-Japan.
But I started listening to Japanese rock bands for real in early 2006, a friend showed me Gackt and Hyde. I really liked both and I started to listen to more and more music. I remember I went through a phase where I liked every band I started listening to. XD Oh well... But now I am more picky.

[Niku 8]

December 2006; got a video game for Christmas with Gackt's "Redemption" on it. Liked the song, so I decided to look up who sang it and at the same time discovered the website Last.FM. From there, I discovered Luna Sea ("Gravity") and D'espairsRay ("Abel to Cain") and some others I now like today.

FF7: Dirge of Cerberus?

It's where I first heard Japanese music too, though to be technical the first song you hear is Longing, not Redemption as the latter plays through the credits and Longing plays through the last boss.

[ichi 20]

I first encounter with Japanese music was more than 10 years ago. I saw L'Arc~en~Ciel's PV, Blurry, for the first time and since I wasn't aware/familiar with the culture and VK, I briefly had a crush on hyde thinking that he's a girl. 

[Hideaki 0]

Of course I discovered japanese music in Japan, but the first time I encountered  J-rock  was when a german friend showed it to me. My first impression was: WTF. All those guys look like women.  

So yes the first bands I encountered were Malize Mizer, Gackt, Miyavi and D'espairs Ray. 

Ahh good old times =).