안녕하세요. こんにちは.
"You listen to what?!"
This is common for me to hear.
"I don't follow American music."
The easiest way to let others know that as much as you don't know who/what I'm talking about, I probably don't know who/what you're talking about.
"Do you know what they are saying?"
When people don't fully understand or acknowledge that music goes beyond language. Some say it is the universal language. It can move you with no words, more than words. A beat. A melody. A voice.
Welcome to my new blog, You Listen To What?! (or YLTW).
I got swept up in my Japanese music playlists on Youtube today, which rabbit-holed me into looking up my previous blogs, which fueled the desire to start blogging again. I honestly get a lot of looks and confusion when people conversationally find out that I am into Asian music. It's more than that really, it's Asian entertainment, language, and culture. But for some reason the music part of it stands out the most. Yes, I enjoy listening to songs in other languages.
The actual start of it all was my mom introducing me to her co-worker that liked anime and video games (I have a love for N64 The Legend of Zelda from my dad). She is about 10 years older than me and a definite odd ball, but we get along so well and have common interests. I don't remember the exact year we met. I remember sleepovers, junk food, Yu-gi-oh marathons, and hours of watching her play Final Fantasy.
She lived with her older brother who would make us cool mixed CDs with tracks from anime shows we'd never heard of. I fell in love with melodic wordless game songs like "Time's Scar" from Chrono Cross (featuring the flute and violin), classic anime endings like Anna ni Issho Datta no ni (あんなに一緒だったのに?) sung by Japanese singer-songwriter Ishikawa Chiaki, and the Final Fantasy X-2 ballad "1000 Words" (English Version).
I had very limited knowledge of and access to such things at the time. Land line, no cellphones, no computer, definitely no internet. For a while in high school I would listen to American bands after school. I was influenced by friends, my older sisters, and what was popular at the time. I still have all the old CDs, I didn't decide to just throw out my history with music. But my tastes have changed through discovery.
It was ballpark early 2009. I'd bought myself a desktop computer with my first or second tax return after getting a job post graduation. We got semi-decent internet, and that was it, the gates were opened. Even though it wasn't my very first taste of Asian music, it was the first time I was able to really explore. I YouTube surfed through Jrock, Arashi, Jpop, and ended up head-over-heels into Hello!Project.
I hope you enjoy the journey as I reminiscence over memories, songs, groups, discoveries, changes, and my constant love and appreciation for music 💖
P.S ~ The picture on the right is my avatar on YT. It's Sayo Hinata (日向紗代) from the Jpop idol group YGA. Not a favorite group or singer really, the pose is one of several mentally associated with idols for me. It just caught my eye and I have been using it ever since lol.
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