love of j-pop, k-pop, canto-pop through games?

[tmc]

Has anyone here been inspired to get into asian pop, j-pop, k-pop or canto-pop through their love of games.

I got into Faye wong many years ago after her beautifull 'Eyes on Me' song in FF VIII and still enjoy listening but have just discovered Utada Hikaru (of Kingdom Hearts fame), i've also enjoyed the ouendan sondtrack, DJ Max portable soundtrack and the World ends with you artists.

It seems that gamers in general are more open to Asian music probably because of our alure of the whole Japanese game scene, and whilst i don't know a word of the lyrics the passion and intent comes through.

I'd recomend all gamers to step into this niche genre of music (over here at least), for a song or two at least, even just on youtube and let me know what you think or if any of you have any more recomendations of female asian singers i could try out a listen to?

[NayusDante]

Oh yes... In fact, one J-Pop song actually got me into music in the first place, something that American music had failed to do.

The first piece of modern Japanese vocal music I ever heard was the original intro to Rockman X4. This song, Makenai Ai Ga Kitto Aru (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4bi3rbKdw8) by Yukie Nakama, absolutely captivated me. I had never heard anything that blended such emotional vocals with very electronic music. Given, this was at the start of the filesharing revolution, so I spent a lot of time looking for more. While I never found anything else by Yukie Nakama, I began to discover other artists that I liked. Eventually, I found Gackt, Malice Mizer, and Schwarz Stein, the only Japanese artists that I still really like today.

The frustrating thing is that back then, I was a kid. When you don't have a job, filesharing doesn't seem like such a bad idea. Once you understand copyright law, your attitude changes and so does your range of available music. My focus shifted to electronica in general, then synthpop and futurepop, which I could order on Amazon for reasonable prices. Import CDs have always been too expensive for my taste, so I simply went without Asian music for about 6 years.

Now that I'm actively hunting thrifts and the flea markets, the joys of cheap vinyl and cassettes have further changed my musical scope, pushing me into new wave and the like. However, it's also opened my eyes to see how far I've drifted, and I really miss the sound of J-Pop.

What I've heard in recent years, however, has somewhat turned me off. When my friends play the latest anime intros and endings, all I can hear is something generic. It seems that there's much less feeling and a more manufactured sound to it. If I got back into the scene, it would be that 1990-2004 era that I listened to before through what I could find online.


Recently, I've been listening to the CDs I burned back then, which have been carelessly shoved onto CDR spindles and forgotten for years. With a lot of it, I've forgotten the song titles and artists. After being hit with so much nostalgia, I'm thinking about ordering a few albums to get back into the genre.

If you want recommendations, I'm going to have to go through some stuff. Maybe I can finally identify some things and you can find something you like.

[DDCecil]

Thanks to a blind purchase of Digital Dance Mix Vol. 1: Namie Amuro for the Sega Saturn:

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/3329/2682536785a35b1bc377.jpg

Don't really care for any of her newer stuff, unfortunately. I'm also not a big fan of other J-Pop. But I do like Makenai Ai Ga Kitto Aru (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4bi3rbKdw8), as NayusDante mentioned above, and the songs on Osu! Takadae! Ouendan.

[tmc]

wow! thanks for the replies,

DDCecil, i'm going to seek out some Namie Amuro cd's and give them a shot, thanks!

NayusDante, thanks also, you come across as someone who, like me, stumbled upon asian music through a breif exposure through games and has gone on to really love it in it's own right!

You sound a lot more knowledgeable then me though so i'd love some recomendations when you get the time to look over some of your cd's thanks, it's just so difficult to know where to look when we're simply not exposed to the music to know where to look!

ps. Do you both understand Japanese language? or are you like me and treat the human voice as another beautfull instrument where the passion comes through no matter what the language?

thanks again.

[NayusDante]

I don't know any more Japanese than your typical American anime otaku. I just love the way that Japanese vocals sound. Back in 8th grade, I really loved the sharp contrast to what I was used to hearing, and didn't really care about what the language was.

Off the top of my head, here's all the Japanese bands I remember liking:
Malice Mizer - Gothic Rock
Gackt - A whole bunch of styles, he's amazing
Schwarz Stein - Darkwave
The Pillows - Rock
Ayumi Hamasaki - Pop, electronica, etc
Do As Infinity - Pop
Polysics - Noise rock, synthpop
...gah, I can't think of any more right now, I'll look on my old MP3 CDs soon.

Some random music on the 'Tube:
Kagrra - Ouka Ranman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGCjCzVM-xA)
Gackt - Cube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqpQznSe6v4&feature=related)
Schwarz Stein - Current (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAOdnTJT00k)
Yukie Nakama - One More Chance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOWqphytUfg)
Showtaro Morikubo - Moonlight (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdiuKQxKlMU)
Ayumi Hamasaki - Connected (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nql3Qdip0w) - not the mix I remember, but I love the vocals on this song

And I know there's a lot more, but I just can't remember them right now.

[Aussie2B]

I went through a brief j-rock phase back in my teens, unrelated to games, which largely was created by an online friend giving me tons of songs, but that's long passed. I still think Hide was cool, though. As for j-pop, I think it's largely the same as most American pop - soulless and derivative.

Games have, however, increased my appreciation for instrumental music tremendously, to the point that I barely listen to any music with vocals anymore. In fact, almost all of the music I listen to regularly is related to video games, either as original soundtracks, arrange albums, or original albums by composers that frequently work on games. I do dabble in a bit of movie scores, though, as well as the usual appreciation for classical. Through my love of video game music, I have come across some songs with vocals here and there that I really love but usually mostly because the backing music is so great. A few from games, like "Radical Dreamers" in Chrono Cross, and a bunch more from arrangements. Of all those, I think I like a vocalist known simply as "Ken" best who sung on several SNK arrange albums. Now that man can SING. He must be classically trained in opera or some such because he's just magnificent.

[NayusDante]

Does anybody know of a good source for import music? I'd love to start ordering some of the stuff I'm into, but typical import prices never sit well with me, especially now that I'm used to >$1 vinyl. I paid $30 for an import synthrock album, but that was a preorder, and most of the J-Pop releases I'd want are 10 years old and going for more.

[Damaramu]

I'm a big Hello! Project fan (Morning Musume et al). I get my jpop fix from Ebay. Good prices there. Just watch out for bootlegs coming out of Hong Kong or Taiwan.

[NayusDante]

Yeah, I got burned at an anime convention with some Schwarz Stein bootleg albums. I might be watching ebay for some lots.

[darkslime]

I started listening to j pop and then j rock after hearing the hikaru utada song in the start on kingdom hearts

[hbkprm]

herd it in the world ends with you

[NayusDante]

Ok, this has been killing me recently...

I'm looking for a music video. It had something to do with a clock maker, watch maker, or something like that. It was a female vocalist, but I can't remember who. Kind of a Pinnochio-Gepetto vibe going on. Anybody know what I'm talking about?