[bulmasman]

Originally Posted by sxesven

Damn, this is the first I learnt how you discovered Ayu, awesome. The epiphany feeling I think many of us recognize!

Do you know how you had found Jpop initially (before you discovered Ayu)?

Also, Napster, haha! By the time I discovered Ayu it was no longer around (at least not in its original form). I did use it for a long time though (that, then AudioGalaxy, KaZaA, Limewire, DC++... and then blogs with MegaUpload and such, I think).

I actually remember exactly how I found Jpop. I got a bit bored a while back and started writing about my musical history, just to try and put some thoughts/memories into words. This if from that:

Enter Hirosue Ryoko

What began as a random anime related search in mid to late 1999 lead me, accidentally, to a website for the singer/actress Hirosue Ryoko. Now, me being a clueless 12 year old, I had never even considered the existence of celebrities outside of who I’d seen in movies or on TV, or heard on the radio. Sure, I was already watching anime way before this point, but just hadn’t paid any more thought to what might be created in Japan.

This fansite I’d landed on somehow piqued my interest. I could have just clicked off and carried on looking for Tenchi Muyo content, but instead I carried on looking for Hirosue. This was where I started to realize Japan had it’s own music (crazy I know). I fired up the old Napster (because we did things completely illegally back in the day), and to my surprise I managed to find a song by her - Maji De Koi Suru 5byoumae.

...

after trawling sites for a while, I was lead to my next discovery - Sakai Noriko, or Nori-P.

This discovery proved to be monumental in my life as she quickly became the only thing I could think about. For a start, she’s the first “celebrity crush” I think I ever had - I just remember thinking she was beautiful (and she still is), so it prompted me to once again sail the pirate seas of Napster in search of treasure. That treasure was found in the shape of the song “Pure”.

OMG rereading that doc (which I wrote about 2 years ago) I actually give a mention to... sxesven for introducing me to Shiina Ringo lmao.

And through a friend’s recommendation (I’ll never forget you for this sxesven) Shiina Ringo, who kicked down my door and punched me in the face -