My J-Music Obsession
At the moment I'm in the middle of the first phase of my road trip to Austin; spending some time with my sister who's on spring break (yes, I know February just ended) and my parents. So I've had a chance to take a breather and prepare for the 1,300 mile trip ahead of me. It's surprising just how unproductive one can be when sitting on a comfortable couch. Since my mind will be occupied with enough serious subjects by the time I get there, I wanted to just sit back, relax and write an entry I've been meaning to write. I realize that my entries haven't been entirely serious as of late, but hopefully that'll change in the coming month or two.
So let me give you a little preview of what's to come on Avalonstar. No, it's not design related, but I'm sure you already know that by looking at the title. When I started "the Aries Project" its core mission was to provide content about the different aspects of my life--from design, to blogging and now, music. But not just any music, Japanese music. If you find yourself bored or uninterested, you can stop here and wait for the good stuff come late-April. But if you'd like to take another trip into my head and even some samplings courtesy of Jen, then keep reading.
So it all started with...
I'm thinking to myself if this would really apply, but I'd have to say my first forays into the world of Japanese music would parallel those of many others--discovery through anime. One would watch the subtitled version of an anime (or a dubbed anime that kept the original theme song) and find the theme song catchy. That happened to me via few favorites, such as Neon Genesis Evangelion and Dragon Ball Z. But more than anime, I believe gaming had a great affect on my taste in music. I could specifically attribute this to the Final Fantasy series, or just any game that Square Enix makes, or Nobuo Uematsu composes. Obviously, Bemani and Dance Dance Revolution and even Initial D made tremendous contributions to my library. However, venturing further into my game music addictions is something I'll save for later. ;)
Then came...
Jen. Yes, I was brainwashed drawn into the next phase of my Japanese immersion by Jen. It started almost a year ago when Jen received CDs full of PV's (promotional videos or music videos that are released to promote an upcoming single). To be honest, it took me a while to catch on, since I was so stuck to my existing loves. But once those the melodies started to intertwine, that's when the process began. I'll let Jen talk a little more on it:
plus, it's a lot more fun now that i've
brainwashedgotten bryan into it, as well. i can listen to it with him, talk to him about it, get his opinions, dance to it with him. ^__^ it's so nice to be able to share something i love so much with him. he's also been sucking people other people into it, he uses jpop (most of the time) as the intros and outros to his podcasts! they're usually the songs we'd been listening to most at the time (bwahahahaha, my brainwashing can now spread world-wide)
On that note, I'll leave you to explore Jen's selection of PV's on your own. If you take a look, pay particular attention to her latest four, as they go over her 21 favorite artists (most of which are mine as well).
As for the upcoming section, as I said earlier, watch for it in late-April as I'll introduce you to a lot of the music I love--game, girly or otherwise.