Okay, here we go!
Ayumi Hamasaki - She was the very first J-Pop artist I got into. I was introduced to Ayumi's music through a friend of mine, about when A BEST came out. She's part Japanese and her cousins live in Japan. One of them loves Ayu, so they sent my friend a copy of A BEST. Anyway, my friend let me borrow the CD and I fell in love with Ayumi. So when I went to Japantown and bought myself a copy.
BoA - I first listened to BoA when a friend told me how awesome she was. At first I only listened to her Korean stuff, but then I saw her perform "LISTEN TO MY HEART" and "VALENTI" in Japanese on Hey! Hey! Hey!.
I actually discovered a lot of artists through Hey! Hey! Hey! It used to play on the international channel on Sundays. I'm sad that it's gone now. Anyway some of the artists I discovered where:
Namie Amuro, Hitomi Shimatani, Ayaka Hirahara, and
Rina Aiuchi.
Other times, I was introduced to artists through friends. Those include
Gackt, Hikaru Utada, Asuca Hayashi, and
Koda Kumi. I became a fan of
T.M. Revolution and
Nami Tamaki through
Gundam SEED. And then I discovered some people at
Avex's Website.
Yeah.