[ILoveGeniuses]

Originally Posted by MiiSan

It kinda saddens me this thread since I also listen to anime music and watch anime ._.

But I also understand the thing when you think you have alot in common with that person but it turns out that you don't have like nothing in common (I met alot of anime fans that mostly watch shounen anime like Naruto, Bleach, One Piece which isn't exactly my type)

I actually discovered J-music through anime, I had obsessions with the Inuyasha OST, Sailor Moon OST, Kotani Kinya, T.M.Revolution and Ayu in my early bounderies with Japanese music. It was really new for me, before I was listening to mainstream pop/R&B/Hip-Hop like anything MTV would broadcast *cough* and slowly got into animes and started to like it's OSTs, it felt like it really had emotion and the music was so wow compared to Rihanna or 50cent.
I didn't know relatives, friends or acquaintances who listens to J-music (except a close friend I had that I got her into Ayu) so I was really proud of myself that I discovered such wonderful music of Japan and I actually thought myself as being big J-music fan back then

I heard of Utada, Kumi, Namie etc later on (about a half year I think?) I was stubborn to listen to their music because they didn't really sounded like the type of music I listened back then (I didn't want more R&B, I just got out of it lol) + I hated when the youtubers always put Ayu down and say that Hikki & co. were the greatest ever. >_>

I slowly (but really slowly XD) got into J-pop until now that I actually have Ayu, Kuu, Hikki, JASMINE, ICONIQ, BoA in my top 10. I still explore the diversity of J-Music, either if it's in anime, mainstream or not.

So.. summary: I think it's good if they even got into anime music (which is still J-pop, J-rock), they just need time to obsess over it and then maybe they will be open to the diversity of Japanese music

I started off with anime too... My first and still favorite is Sailormoon. I first saw it in Japanese, and always watch it that way. Same with every other anime like. Just I'm pretty selective. I don't like every last one of them just cause it is anime. But I still put a barrier between anime and Jpop. However, I must also admit I don't like most of today's anime, and if I do find one i like, it's usually not a super popular one. I mostly like the old stuff from the 90's... bit of the 80's too.
As for Jpop, my experience with Ayu came all by chance. I saw one of her albums on CDJ while browsing around, and out of just pure randomness of being like hypnotized by the cover I decided to buy it. I got it, put it on and was hooked. That was 8 years ago though.