Why have you chosen jpop?

[AyuDivine]

Why out of all music in the world, why did you choose jpop, kpop, cpop or asian music?

I choose it to get away from my country's music and I hate rap. It puts a bad image on us African Americans, I almost didn't score my Girlfriend just because she thought I was a thug, I told her I listen to Ayumi Hamasaki and she changed her mind! Thanks Ayu!!!

[Brittany]

I chose J-Pop because .. I have Asian blood and it's a way for me to feel comfortable and relaxed. 2 years ago, I felt disconnected with myself for some reason, than I ran into one of Ayu's "Voyage," singles, bought it .. and have felt connected since. Even though I'm Americanized, I felt no connection with my Asian culture until 2 years ago, thanks to Ayu. I think we all have a lot to thank for her

[Apprentice]

Originally Posted by AyuDivine

I told her I listen to Ayumi Hamasaki and she changed her mind! Thanks Ayu!!!

lol hehe thats a good story to tell. I got into Ayumi because I'm studying Japanese at school and thought listening to JPop would help me with my Japanese. And it has!! At first I didn't think I'd be into it, but then Ayu is such a unique artist. And her songs are cool!! Unfortunately, I've only heard Ayumi and Ken Hirai's songs, so I guess I haven't really chosen the whole J-Pop experience over the English songs.

[sxesven]

I didn't exactly 'choose' Jpop - I heard it and loved it. True story.

[kentris]

Like sxeven, I didn't really choose it, just in time I've grown to like it.

The fact I'm totally obsessed with the Japanese culture drives me liking JPop as well. I'm trying to self-learn Japanese at the moment.

[nanami606]

I haven't exactly "chosen" J-Pop because Ayu is the only J-Pop artist I love. There are some others but I don't listen to them as much and don't really think of them as of my favourite artists.

[Darkifrit]

I have chosen J pop with Kumi Koda (Real Emotion/1000 no kotoba) & Hikaru Utada (Hikari).
After, I listen to Ayumi Hamasaki (her album I am) and I was convinced that J-Pop was the music style which corresponded to me

[MsMiyabi]

My sister got into Anime to be honest and Later I found out I have Japanese Blood in me. So I decided to get more into the culture thats why. As for Kpop and Cpop I figured I give it a try

[Eternally]

I didn't choose jpop either. I just love listening to it. I have many more artists that I love to listen to that isn't just Asian music.

[Cyria]

I started with listening to anime themes and then moved on to Jpop/Asian music in general. For me it's mostly about getting to listen to good, pure pop without having to worry about the "burnout" that can happen if a Western artist has a big hit and I have to see his/her face everywhere. With Jpop I can control how often I hear an artist's songs or watch their videos/lives/and so on. That way I don't grow tired of singles as easily as I do when they're by a popular Western artist.

I love that jpop remixes are so easy to find. Even if I don't like an artist's main version of the song, there's bound to be some good trance/eurobeat mix around, or an instrumental if I think it would sound better without vocals. This is one reason why I'm a big fan of Ayu. She'd had so many remixes, even the "worst" of songs has at least one version I love.

[Joel]

well i used to live in michigan but when i was about 12 years old i moved down to tennessee near fort cambell were the 101st airborn division is and i was in a pretty well mixed enviorment... it pretty cool actually... it was about 30% of everything... except for african americanss were more popluated but everything is pretty equal... so there were a lot of asaians... must likely koreans though... on the tv there was more cable channels then there was at my old house... so there was one channel called international channel which they show a lot of korean tv shows and music but they also do france and other countrys like that... so the first time i watched it...THERES BOA!!!!!! thats the first time i saw boa and the video my name.. I LUV IT SOOOOOO MUCH! and so i was talkin about it amongst the friend and another friend heard named ashaley and she had my name cd and she let me borrow it! then a lil before that i was lookin for mp3s on a thing called bearshare and i found AYUMI HAMASAKI!! the song called evolution totally on accident... and that opened the whole new door to me... i was so happy.... i got 2 of my friends into her and now im not alone... the ayu population will grow... lol so thats how i got into it.... jpop/kpop fan for 2 yrs runnin

ayu was my favorite accident

[Joel]

Originally Posted by Brittany

thanks to Ayu. I think we all have a lot to thank for her

truely said

[Joel]

Originally Posted by kentris

I'm trying to self-learn Japanese at the moment.

lol me 2 but its a lil too hard by myself so im lookin sum were to see if they teach it over the summer

[kirika]

If it comes to me, I saw j-pop &j-rock artists in a magazine bout Japan few years ago (and read there about Ayu!^^). Fortunately this magazine contained cds with anime openings, some japanese songs and !!CMs with Ayu!! (I didn't have internet connection)
Since that moment I love Ayu and whole J-music world^^
A pity - in my country it's impossible to buy ANY of Ayu Cd's ;_;
All I have is Internet, but one day - I'll go abroad and buy all Ayumi's albums:]

[Coelacanth]

I don't know... I just get a different feeling listening to the Japanese language than I do listening to English. I started out with anime music too, (ugh) then I discovered Ayu and just fell in love with everything, it's just unexplainable. Now I really have come to like a lot of Japanese music, new and old, through many different genres. I'm currently really into B'z, Yutaka Ozaki, Love Pyschedelico, and Southern All Stars. But Ayu, will probably always be #1 for me, at least I'd like to hope so...

[ayu3657]

Like other people, I didn't choose Jpop. I watched a lot of anime, liked the themes, downloaded some Jpop, and I am where I am today. I don't just listen to Jpop, though. I listen to a little bit of everything (from metal to experimental to pop to whatever, except country). Plus, I just LOVE Japanese culture, and I hope to visit Japan sometime in the near future.

[hightea_xx]

i'm a huge japanese fanboi, culture, language, everything! jpop sorta...fit, i guess. i like how it's so diverse and how jpop actually encompasses many different styles. i'm sort of an...ADD child sometimes, and can get bored easily if it's just the same type of music ALL THE TIME. I like how jpop artists are constantly reinventing themselves, always changing. Even if it's not in a huge profound way, i find that i can map out the progression of most jpop artists through their careers and see a definate grow from one thing to another. and it's that ability to grow and change that i think reflects all of us, because we're always changing... I also love the sound of it...as in the music. it's so emotive, i can feel what the artists is feeling without even understanding what he or she is saying, though more and more theses days, i find i am understanding songs better which i think is helping my japanese vocabulary. i just <3 jpop to bits!

[isaac hiew]

Originally Posted by AyuDivine

Why out of all music in the world, why did you choose jpop, kpop, cpop or asian music?

I choose it to get away from my country's music and I hate rap. It puts a bad image on us African Americans, I almost didn't score my Girlfriend just because she thought I was a thug, I told her I listen to Ayumi Hamasaki and she changed her mind! Thanks Ayu!!!

Dude, this is a wierd world we're in here man..... in my country, 60% of us listen to Western music, and most of the rest listens to Cpop or whatever you name it. Well, the pop in my mother tongue (I'm a Chinese born in Malaysia), I got tired of that one, always copying the music from the international or jpop music.... I want some originality in my musics, that's why I chose Jpop because it just never die out on ya. The lyrics, although I had to understand them through translations, were unique. Not of those love ****.... nor story but it's the writer's feeling, which I think it was cool.

[elepop]

Since i hate bubblegum pop, rap, reggea, hip-hop and R&B music....

Asian music is almost the only thing i can stand (well, not the new chinese artists with no talents). Well, Ayumi is almost all i listen to. I didn't choose that. It's just what i like.

I'm asian too so...

[Delirium-Zer0]

I'm sorry, this post is REALLY long...

I KINDA did end up "choosing" jpop as my genre of choice really, after looking through lots of styles and countries for something i liked and didn't get sick of. I'm just a white girl who, in high school, was surrounded by peers who liked really really crappy music. I had been an avid music lover my whole life but after awhile, everything popular started to sound the same and, on top of it, really no good at all. I started out broadening my horizons listening to britpop like Sleeper, underground rock and techno by people like Massive Attack, PJ Harvey, Tricky, and Bjork, and later I discovered Faye Wong through my love of Tori Amos (because Faye did a cover of Tori's "Silent All these Years")... I listened to a bunch more Cpop for awhile, but Faye was the only artist that really stuck to me, so that genre didn't end up being a huge thing for me. I also heard of Lee Jung Hyun through the faye wong mailing list, so i experimented with some Kpop, but none of that really struck my fancy.

Which brings me to a fateful day in May 2000 when my sister was looking for mp3s by actress/singer Milla Jovovich, and accidentally downloaded an Ayumi Hamasaki mp3. It was just called "track_07.mp3" so my sister asked if i could identify it, since she knew i was into asian music. Turned out to be the album version of "TO BE". ^_^

After that i went crazy looking for more japanese artists, and learned to my surprise that it was the second largest music market on earth. Considering i'd heard of artists from EVERYWHERE besides japan so far, i felt kinda out of the proverbial loop. I ended up finding Amuro Namie, Gackt, Luna Sea, L'arc, Diru, hitomi, and a bunch of anime themes. Someone on napster recommended Aikawa Nanase to me much later that year. This was the coolest music i had ever heard ever in my life, and as a genre jpop has really stuck with me for the past five years.

Basically, after a long and grueling search, I found my music. hehe