What made you addicted to Japanese Music?

[CAT5 9075]

^ Yep yep. Regarding Japan's metal scene - It's nowhere near as broad or diverse as the "western" metal scene. Geography alone should tell you that one.

To somewhat go back to the main topic, I will say that Japanese music was the first foreign music I'd heard where the language didn't sound "foreign" to me. I'm not exactly sure why, but the language seemed to comply with my ears. I think this is one of the reasons why I stuck with Jpop instead of kpop back when I was still getting my feet wet in foreign music.

[Number Girl 48]

People too often forget, if it weren't for those "unoriginal, sell-out" American or European artists, Japanese people would have never started playing rock music in the first place. That's where most of their ideas originated from. So gotta give the "white people" some respect, even if you hate all their music ever.

[evilcoconut 109]

It's funny, in threads like this, there's always the people who think ONLY JAPAN makes good music and then there's the people that say all they (Japanese artists) do is rip off Western artists and it's still the Americans and Europeans that make the best and most unique music.

I find both positions laughable, tbh.

[ronluna 17]

It's funny, in threads like this, there's always the people who think ONLY JAPAN makes good music and then there's the people that say all they (Japanese artists) do is rip off Western artists and it's still the Americans and Europeans that make the best and most unique music.

I find both positions laughable, tbh.

very true lots of arguments here huh?

they both made great music and its up to the fans which of them will satisfy them.

[jurideluhi 6]

woah.I didn't expect to see such replies that disagree about the topic asked.

seriously I didn't said that japan makes good music than western. Maybe you guys had misunderstood the topic's thread. Of course there's so much to explore than jap musics but hey,this is a jrock forum rite? why can't we survey people who likes to listen/addicted to japanese music? As myself,I listen to jap music everyday. I do think most people have different point of views and taste in musics.well its all up to them to reply in this thread but please,can't we be polite if you think jap music doesn't deserve the standard or same level as western or european music?

I do feel that any kind of music from around the world are unique. Not just one stands the better place.

Please stop any disagreements further than this.Excuse for my english.

thanks.

[lichtlune 915]

Wasn't sure if there was a thread on this but i thought it would be another interesting topic.

 

For me I'd have to say a combination of anime growing up and youtube really started it all for me. I liked the intro and outro tracks of deathnote so i decided to look it up on youtube and found Nightmare. I then saw the gazette, dir en grey and some others recommended to me. One thing led to another and here i am. 

 

How about you guys? 

[paradoxal 2948]

Back in 2006 my friend sent me a few songs via MSN () and I started liking them immediately. The first songs I've heard were Vidoll - Teddy and D'espairsRay - Valentine. There isn't much more to it - my friend just sent me the songs, I liked them, and started digging up more bands.

[violetchain 912]

I really loved glam/sleaze rock in my teens (and I still do, although to a lesser extent). I used to post on a forum about it, and I guess around 2008 or so someone started a thread called "Japanese metal", and I had no idea such a thing existed. I got into X JAPAN from there and started finding other bands while I was looking for more information about them.

[Tetora 625]

Saw TM Revolution Hot Limit PV... Was awesome.

[Mihenno 4195]

As stated above, a combination of anime and video games. BUT THEN... I saw the FFVII: Dirge of Cerberus commercial in 2006 which had Redemption by Gackt playing and I was like "wooooooooooooooooooooooooooow what is this song? why does this sound so good? omfg?" and then I used to play on a private server for this game I was obsessed with and a lot of the music in the game was replaced with jrock and I believe it was Abingdon Boy's School songs so I asked around and was given links to Youtube vids and then I just started exploring and yeah. :')

[Spectralion 394]

It's Cassis by The GazettE.

First time I saw Uruha, I think he is a girl.

 

After that, I've been searching for their discography and stumble upon many VK bands until now.

[Visutox 188]

In 2008, my sister recommended me to listen to girugämesh's "Kowarete Iku Sekai". I fell in love with this song. 
I was curious about giru', so I've checked more information. After that I discovered the Gazette with THE INVISIBLE WALL... And so on till today.

 

 I saw the FFVII: Dirge of Cerberus commercial in 2006 which had Redemption by Gackt 

 

Same here, Dirge of Cerberus was also one of the reasons, but in another way. When I bought the game, I fell in love with the intro (Redemption) and then, in the stage of the game where we can listen to Longing, I was like "Okay, that's a fucking awesome song". Gackt became one of my favorite artists after that. 

[Guest Magatsu]

Pokemon, sailormoon and dragonball Ψ(￣∇￣)Ψ

Anime(^з^)-☆

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Accidentally clicked on a goth/industrial site's visual kei section back in 2004 summer, got interested to try out some Japanese rock, so downloaded the PVs they had up there. Atsushi Sakurai, Dir en grey, Malice Mizer, Baiser, Buck-Tick, Dué le quartz, Kagerou, Noir fleurir, I think that was the selection.

 

...and the rest is history.

[Kaye 296]

Kingdom Hearts got me to listen to Japanese music, so it grew from there on out I guess. Should be about 11 years ago now?

[Qliffot 118]

Sailor Moon in early childhood distorted my personality irreparably. Then through long time nothing, but about 2005, as I were kind of true goth these days, I've accidentally discovered Malice Mizer, Moi dix Mois, Schwarz Stein, Velvet Eden and Dué le quartz shortly after I've obtained internet access. Some of them became my favourites. but I weren't really into this scene in more general sense before two years later, when I listened to, let's say Protoplasm, or 太陽届かない場所. Therefore, if there were no Rentrer en Soi, it's kind of possible I wouldn't be here at this moment.

[Flowiner 27]

For me, it is alike you Neolitch XD
I liked Death note's opening and ending, then I found out Nightmare on youtube, and then the other videos suggested were An Cafe, the GazettE, LM.C ... and I loved it x)

[digi 192]

My brother got me started on the scene as a whole at a young age, introducing me to X Japan, loudness, and even bands like The Piass and Werkmare. I guess since then...my interest for it grew immensely. Of course anime influenced it a lot too, which around that time, I started getting into bands such as Nightmare, Alice Nine, The Gazette etc..

 

To this day, I'm still not even sure how I got into angura and nagoya bands. It's been about 4 years now since I've been interested in it, at least. It's all probably due to me just clicking around on various youtube suggestions. I'm pretty sure it started out with me finding Codomo A, and what not, and then it grew from there. 

 

To be honest, I wouldn't even say I'm apart of the "fandom" (assuming that being in the fandom usually means you actually contribute to it). I just enjoy the music, that's all. 

[seikun 317]

I have been listening to japanese music since late 1998 along with watching anime. As usual, the close relationship between anime and Visual Kei bands whose songs were parts of some Anime's OSTs eventually brought me to Visual Kei.

 

In 2002 I moved to the capital of my country and I started to know some Visual Kei bands, but it was in 2003  that I started to listen to them more frequently because a radio programme started that year and they talked about anime, manga and of course, japanese music.

 

Well, in 2004 a TV programme that showed anime series started to show PVs and anime intros from anime series not dubbed at that time (mainly Visual Kei). One day they showed the PV Torikago by PIERROT and I loved the song and the easthetics of the band members and other day they showed the 2nd intro for Getbackers which is also a song by PIERROT (Barairo no Sekai), I loved it and when I returned to the capital after winter holidays I managed to know people who could share barairo no sekai with me. I met two girls and one of them gave me the whole discography of PIERROT. I was expecting to receive barairo no sekai only, but she was so happy about my request that she felt the need to share the whole discography.

 

After that, I started to know more and more bands. I loved what I was listening to, but also loved the easthetics, dramatism and the attitude of most Visual Kei bands which suited me perfectly since I have always been a bit non-conformist and have some criticism against my society and Visual Kei kind of provided me with a tool to express my non-conformism and critics against it, something I wasn't expecting at first.

[nullmoon 784]

Someone sent me Flora by Nightmare back in high school...I have no idea why as it did absolutely nothing for me. However, shortly after someone mentioned Glay so I downloaded Drive and pretty much listened to that for ages. Shortly after finding JAME, I ended up listening to Alice Nine, An Cafe, The GazettE, Abingdon Boys School etc, which later led to me finding heavier bands like Dir En Grey. 

 

For some reason, in the hilarity of my teen days I searched for 'emo japanese music' on MySpace and ended up finding 9mm Parabellum Bullet...go figure.

 

Finding the Japanese music scene was something different and something I could call my own I guess, so I've clung to the scene ever since

[hyura 465]

When I was about 12,13 years old I thought that dressing in black and having colorful hair was great so I befriended some gothy-looking older kids from my school.

It turned out they listened to bands like Dir en grey and Dué le quartz and they showed me songs and pictures. I can't really say I 'got' the music at first but it sure impressed me.

It was all really chaotic and noisy (lol propably 30kbit) and the bandmembers looked fascinating and beautiful. So I was hooked. Soon I got into more bands, met other fans and we traded homeburned CDs.

2004 was the year I really got into the fandom guess. D'espairsRay, Blood and Eve of Destiny all played in my city and I also got fast internet access so I could use filesharing software like Winmx and Slsk. ;D

[Ikna 1225]

My entrance to the Vee kay fandom was pretty similiar to most people's experience here. I was a huge Manga fan back in 2003 and a freaky mallgoth. So when I discovered in manga and anime magazines that Visual kei existed I was immediately interested, because it appeared to be the perfect mix of Mallgoth and Animu. The first bands I bought CDs from were of course Moi dix Mois. I "accidentally" saw their album Nocturnal Opera being sold in the CD section of an electronic retailer. I thought "whoo, that's goffick Vee Kay from Japan, I'm gonna buy it!!"
After this followed CDs from Dir en grey, D'espairsRay, Gazette and Unsraw. I was a big fan from 2004 to ca. 2006, then I had a one year pause. In 2007 I finally got internet (very late, I was 15 I think) and browsed around youtube, watching some Dir en grey PVs. Somehow I ended up watching Aliene Ma'riage and Madeth gray'll videos and I was hooked again. And since then my love for Visual kei (mainly oldschool) hasn't topped.

[Guest MollyMouse]

My older brother introduced me to X Japan and Loudness when I was like 11 or 12. I didn't admit liking them for a year XD after that I started searching bands and the styles and everything...that's basically it lol

[237Q 154]

I was never an anime or manga fan (except for Digimon when I was 6-ish, but I still look at it as - I could've watched any cartoon network show and get that hooked), so I skipped that phase. For me the deciding factors were Tokio Hotel and Cinema Bizarre. As embarrassing as it is (though I do still enjoy a song or two by each of these bands), it got me where I am. Mostly Cinema Bizarre though, as they were the ones openly talking about visual kei influence on their band.

Belieber of the 2006. and not regretting it!

[Gaz 1097]

For me the deciding factors were Tokio Hotel and Cinema Bizarre. As embarrassing as it is (though I do still enjoy a song or two by each of these bands), it got me where I am. Mostly Cinema Bizarre though, as they were the ones openly talking about visual kei influence on their band.

*embarassing high five* 

dont regret about it either though. if not these bands i doubt i'd ever got into vk because i was pretty much racist and japanese hater back then.

anyway from 2009 till 2011 i just listened mainstream stuff like gaze diru giru despu etc and i didnt really cared about fandom at all. but after registering on lastfm and discovering more and more obscure noname bands i started to talk with some people here and there. and then i found out about mh... so yeah ;v