How did you get hooked up with Jrock?

[Disembodied Spirit]

Hello there, I'm just wondering how you guys got in touch with Jrock. Because there's not many Jrock as in in the top40 hit charts for example. For me, I don't listen to Jrock, but I really like to know how the people who listen to it did get involved with the whole "scene."

:cool:

[kairi~vs~rinoa]

i got into jrock about a year or so ago when my best friend introduced me to L'Arc~en~ciel. her older brothers have liked the jrock scence for ages and she caught onto it. I was looking for a L'Arc site to find out more about them and i came across a picture of Diru and just fell in love. i loved the vk look and how they weren't afraid of what they looked like. i admire confidence in people.
Jrock is just so different to western music in many ways. fair enough the play the same instruments etc but i think they are more imaginative with their songs and lyrics. and i've always had a soft spot for oriental guys :blush:
i generally love the oriental culture so to start listening to their music was a must.

Maybe you should try some jrock songs Spirit? see if you like it or not. no harm in trying =)

[Disembodied Spirit]

Will do, thanks :)

[Horizon]

I got into JRock when I was attempting to look for Kotani Kinya pictures (hard as well, man! >.<!!). Eventually, I came across an avatar site and there was Gackt and a bunch of others (some of whom I mistook for females...:relief:), but, yeah...That's how!

And like was already said, you definately should try out some of this music. 'Tis amazing from all that I've heard from it! :p

[Disembodied Spirit]

Yea I will try it, though, what you said. They do look like yeah, girls :p

[DemonHunter]

trough anime

[Kinsao]

I was searching for something on Google that had "malice" in it, and it came up with the site projectj.net, the page on Malice Mizer. I thought "that sounds an interesting name for a band" and checked out the page. I read about them and at the bottom was a sample song for download. The song was Syunikiss. I never looked back! :p

(It took me a while longer to get much more jrock tracks though, because I didn't have broadband until March this year! :blush: )

If you're interested to hear, check out some of the 'recommendations' threads on this page and the next page (like the one started by Mycernius). And I'm happy to send you stuff if you want! What kind of music do you currently enjoy?

[Horizon]

Yea I will try it, though, what you said. They do look like yeah, girls :p

And? Your point? Why should it matter what they look like? I hate those terms and requirements! :angryfire:

...:o

I'm done now.

And, like Kinsao, I'd be glad to upload you some stuff as well!

[Disembodied Spirit]

I listen to system of a down allot, and dope.. Though, that's the only band in that genre. For the rest I like Punkrock (english) and such :)

[Kinsao]

Hey, I think there's a lot of j-rock you'd like, then! :cool: DemonHunter is the resident expert on j-punk (if there's any such thing! :clueless: ) But if you like heavy kind of stuff... well then... *shuts up already* :blush:

[Disembodied Spirit]

:P Haha, yeah ^_^ Though, I dont like stuff such as slipknot.

[Anchyyy]

trough anime

Same here!!:D

[pinkkillerkisou]

Back in 2000 my friend show me a picture and told me she wanted to make this dress. The conversation went something like this:

"Hey, hey look. Isn't this dress gorgeous. I want to make it."

"Oh that's nice. It's pretty"

"It's a guy you know."

"Is it really?"

"Yes... isn't he hot." :love:

"Uhh... sure." :souka:

Yea... it went something like that. :lol: Turns out that picture was of Mana... and she started making me listen to Malice Mizer. But it didn't really all click. I never knew I was listening to jrock. I rediscovered it on my own 2 years ago. I discovered Gackt who look strangly familiar then after about 2 month and rediscovering Malice Mizer I realized I already knew about jrock. :blush:

[SaKeVi]

I discovered it when I was a little kid (about 13 years ago, hahaha) my brother gave me a tape of Loudness and I liked it... then, I got involved a lot with X, Luna Sea and some other bands.... later I got into punk and found out a lot of things from Japan... and I'm still stuck there in punk, hehehe.

DemonHunter is the resident expert on j-punk (if there's any such thing! :clueless: )

Sorry Kinsao, there isn't such thing as j-punk over there... it is just punk... or maybe japcore, but this one (japcore) is almost considered as a punk style (japanese, obviously =P)

I would like to know what kind of punk you like (street punk, hardcore punk, crust punk, d-beat, anarchist, straight-edge....) to give you some advice, and of course, if you're patient (as DemonHunter... sorry man) you can find me (every month... =/ ) in soulseek, so you can download some japanese punk stuff I have (my nickname is skv)

See ya!!

[Kinsao]

Sorry Kinsao, there isn't such thing as j-punk over there... it is just punk... or maybe japcore, but this one (japcore) is almost considered as a punk style (japanese, obviously =P)

I would like to know what kind of punk you like (street punk, hardcore punk, crust punk, d-beat, anarchist, straight-edge....) to give you some advice, and of course, if you're patient (as DemonHunter... sorry man) you can find me (every month... =/ ) in soulseek, so you can download some japanese punk stuff I have (my nickname is skv)

See ya!!

lol - I didn't think there was such a thing as 'j-punk'... it was just a word I made up. :blush: Japcore sounds interesting... I don't know what sort of stuff I listen to already! Just... anything... :? I never even got into punk really yet... I just pick up random stuff without knowing anything about it. :bluush: Balzac apparently is good punk band? I heard of them a longtime ago but I haven't got any of their music yet.

[advigilo]

trough a online comic called: the way too you're heart
it is such a rockin' comic :-) i am still hooked....
anyways if ya wanna read it, you can find it under Manga on www.onlinecomics.net.

have fun!

[advigilo]

baroque (the band!) has some punk infleuences, and i think it sounds pretty good!. any punk bands someone can recommend?

[DemonHunter]

lol - I didn't think there was such a thing as 'j-punk'... it was just a word I made up. :blush: Japcore sounds interesting... I don't know what sort of stuff I listen to already! Just... anything... :? I never even got into punk really yet... I just pick up random stuff without knowing anything about it. :bluush: Balzac apparently is good punk band? I heard of them a longtime ago but I haven't got any of their music yet.


Balzac is awsome,you can get there two latest release trough the misfits webstore


there's lots of awsome punk/hardcore bands in japan
and psychobilly

and @skv,when are you back online :p

[Kinsao]

Balzac is awsome,you can get there two latest release trough the misfits webstore

Thanks, I will definitely check them out! :cool:

[hayakuchan]

about 2 years ago i started it with Hyde's solo project, "Hello"... and then L'Arc~en~Ciel.

first i saw Hyde's pv on TV, I read about him in a magazine... so I started to adore him. And then.... Internet became my bestfriend! I found all about him in Internet ^^

after that i found other bands which were very good! so i love j-rock till now.. ^^

[DemonHunter]

Thanks, I will definitely check them out! :cool:


i have lots of stuff by them

[SaKeVi]

lol - I didn't think there was such a thing as 'j-punk'... it was just a word I made up. :blush: Japcore sounds interesting... I don't know what sort of stuff I listen to already! Just... anything... :? I never even got into punk really yet... I just pick up random stuff without knowing anything about it. :bluush: Balzac apparently is good punk band? I heard of them a longtime ago but I haven't got any of their music yet.

Hehehehe, I'm sorry, but even though you made that word up, there are lot of people who already use that word incorrectly to refer japanese punk worldwide... but that word isn't used even in Japan.

Japcore is famous thanks to Gauze, it is the best band ever (after G.I.S.M. of course :-) ) and how can I explain it... Gauze has an unique style: they make you believe they play songs too fast, but actually, it isn't that fast... this kind of "fastcore" (fast punk actually) is what everybody knows as Japcore, lots of bands after Gauze adopted this new "style" to make it a "japanese release", hehehehe.

I'll try to upload some stuff of Gauze, mp3 and videos, so you can see what it is actually.

baroque (the band!) has some punk infleuences, and i think it sounds pretty good!. any punk bands someone can recommend?

As Demon said, there are tons of japanese punk bands... Japan has one of the biggest punk scene in the World, so it would be difficult to recommend you bands, but I'll try:

- Abraham Cross: They are the best crust punk band in Asia.
- Disclose: Amazing D-beat... they are known worldwide between punks.
- G.I.S.M. : The legend of punk in Japan... hardcore mixed up with some heavy metal influences (thanks to his guitar player...) and an insane vocalist (Sakevi) made them now a Cult Band.
- The Stalin: Another good recomendation, they were just the image of pure punk, hahaha.
- Laughin' Nose: I don't know why, everybody love this band... they began as a hardcore punk, but slowly changed to punk rock... their songs sound "happy", even some of them have strong lyrics.
- Ghoul: Another legendary band, they used to play street punk, with another crazy vocalist (Masami) and 8 years were enough to put upside down the punk scene in Japan.
- Death Side: This ones are the icon of hardcore punk in Japan... I like the crazy mohawk of the singer, hahaha.
- S.O.B.: Well, this guys played Grindcore, but were veeery famous between punks in Japan, they made lots of tours to Europe in the late 80's with Napalm Death... this is the most famous japanese band in European Undeground.

I hope it helps, if you need more bands, let me know, I'll be glad to help you.

and @skv,when are you back online

I'm sorry man, I'm again at school and I come back home very late... I'll try to be again there soon, lots of people are asking about their downloads, hehehe... but I have a lot of surprises when I go back to slsk, like a rare live show of Randy Uchida group (ex. G.I.S.M.) and tons of live tapes.

See you later!!

[DemonHunter]

please dont use megaupload for those gauze video's

i only have the early discography by gauze


and Die You Bastard is also nice

[pinkkillerkisou]

Those bands all sound so interesting SaKeVi. I'll look into them. :p

I've heard so much good things about Balzac. I'll have to look into them too... I wish my computer was faster. :(

[Kinsao]

Thanks so much for all the recommendations SaKeVi! :happy:
I will be sure to look for these. :-)

[pinkkillerkisou]

I just got some Balzac songs... I love them! They are fantastic and fun to listen to. :dance:

[Seui]

Well, mine is kinda long...I couldn't figure out what a Gackt was for the longest time. I hadn't been exposed to the j-rockness at that time, and someone posted a pic of him, I was like *Wo, that's a guy*, so I did a search and it was true. I later went on to find out he was Malice Mizer's lead singer, and I dl'd a few songs, which I loved! So, I then dl'd some of his own music, and the rest was pretty much history. My knowledge has grown since, I only have one of Miyavi's songs, considering I really don't know any good ones, but I'd be more then glad of you guys/girls could help me out with that! Yes, the story is still longer then that, but I thought I'd give the cut down version, and yes, I know of more bands then just MM! ;)

[Yokan]

I got into jrock about a year ago when watching a short clip on www.sushicam.com :blush: then I accidently downloaded the same song from 'X JAPAN - FOREVER LOVE'. it was my first ever jrock song, although in my child time (i am 16 now) I heard endless rain from somewhere, i totally forge tho. Now I liek all the bands, especially L'arc~en~ciel and Dir en grey. ^_^ :relief:

[Kinsao]

Hey, welcome to the forum, Yokan! :wave:
I like your avatar. :-)

[Phaidon]

Basiclly through an anime samurai deeper kyo and my friend typed in kyo on google and found kyo from dir en grey.

It continued on after that.

[Yokan]

Hey, welcome to the forum, Yokan! :wave:
I like your avatar. :-)

thanks Kinsao! :p

[_Kodou]

I got into Jrock when my friend someow found about abour Dir en grey. She sent me a whole bunch of pictures and made me guess who was who with just giving me names. I got them all right most of the time:-)! Then I thought they looked like a cool band so I searched for their music on the internet, and found out about a lot of other Jrock and eventually got.. er, over obsessed! :cute:

[isayhello]

Dir en Grey song - Toshiya's bass - Dir en Grey - Miyavi picture - Miyavi song - dead on floor - and I was hooked! :okashii:

[Tsukasagirl]

My friend sent me a song by miyavi.At first i didn't know what it was, but as I listened to it longer it grew on me.Then I saw pictures and I was instantly hooked on him.Which leads me here now^^

[Riyko]

My parents listened to j-rock before I was born because my aunt lives over in Japan and she always sent them tapes of bands to listen to. The first band I listened to was X-Japan and I loved their music alot. I've been listening to it since I was born you could say.

[Hyde_is_my_anti-drug]

How I got into J-Rock? This could take awhile, I will TRY to be quick.
Right so first came Anime. Loved it and more importantly loved the music. Started getting lots Anime soundtracks. Boyfriend at the time was really into Gackt, I had said something about good Japanese music the first time we met and he at once said, "Have you heard Gackt??" with a fanboy twinkle in his eye. I was then forced to look at pics and listen to Malice Mizer. I liked it but wasn't crazy over it.
Nearly a year and one breakup later, current girlfriend brought up Gackt. I had a very negitive reaction at first because I was reminded of my ex. Girlfriend quickly got me over that however with one of many yaoi-esque stories about Gackt. So I ordered a Gackt CD for my birthday ("Rebirth"). I also got a lot of birthday money and with it I ordered L'Arc~en~Ciel's "Smile" and US concert DVD (between first getting into Gackt and birthday had rented Moon Child and became obsessed with Hyde). And the rest is history.

[Yuuwaku]

Through Gravitation. I´ve got Vol. 1 on DVD, and quite liked the music (at least the ones with lyrics ^^; ), got the soundtrack, and after some time I wanted to listen to more J-Stuff, but rather Rock. So off to Ebay, by Search typed "J-Rock", got a list of different artists, and went by which cover I liked best, which was "The Frustrated" from Glay. So yes, that´s my story. :-)

[chizuri]

I got into J-Rock mostly through anime, because the first experience I had with J-Rock was the Otakon '04 L'arc~en~Ciel concert. :blush: Then I decided to buy a few of L'arc's albums, so I did some internet research, and came across Diru. :love: I had known about Gackt for a while and that he was really popular, but I hadn't really started listening to his music (Malice Mizer or otherwise) until about a year ago. Then there's the fact that my cousin lives in Japan and has released an album (it's more J-Pop, I'll upload the song if anyone wants it. There are only two tracks, and one of them is instrumental so ... XD), so she sent that to us and I really liked it and wanted more. So, yeah. I'm a fairly new J-Rock fan... ^^;;

[Hyde_is_my_anti-drug]

That is so awesome that your cousin put out a CD!!!

[chizuri]

It was only one song, and I don't think she's gonna do it again. Because she's actually devoted to studying bugs that feed on tree bark. (I once knew the name for such a profession, but now I don't ... >__<;;) She came to visit us last year. ^^;; And ... it's actually more like J-Folk? (Made-up genre XD) :? Well, at the very least, it was one of my first experiences with Japanese music. :D

[Hyde_is_my_anti-drug]

I still think that's unbelievably cool

[-rika- shinya`]

it all began when i bought my first Japanese fashion magazine, there was a few pages of Gackt's pictures, and his concert at the time, Requiem et reminiscence. one particular picture of his eyes resembled Squall so damn much,and i thought to myself, there's a real-life Squall! (i was a hopeless FFVIII fanatic at that time :p ) so i googled gackt(becoz 'gackt' was the only english word in that few pages) and found out all sorts of....interesting things(MM, ghost encounter,aged 400++,etc..:okashii: :relief: )

my 1st j-rock album was Rebirth which was just out at that time, and i bought it wanting to know how it sounds,..naturally 4th played, and the 1st time, i was sort of freaked by the...singing, but then secret garden came on, and i was hooked on his voice since :-) Gackt brought me to the whole J-Rock world,and Malice Mizer too..!! i shall forever be thankful to that 'particular' Gackt pic :D *FANGIRLSM nostalgia.. :giggle:

[Nana007]

I came the anime way. I listened to anime music, and through a friend was introduced to J-Rock. But I only listened to those bands she first showed me (L'arc~en~Ciel, Malice Mizer, Dir en Grey (who I didn't like at the time)) It wasn't until around a year and a half ago, that I started to venture off, and listen to new bands. Then after really getting into it, about 6 months ago, I decided to give Dir en Grey another chance.

[Yami_no_Hikari]

Well I'd always been exposed to Jrock through anime.. But I never thought much of it.. Then I sort-of got into TMR, through Gundam SEED..

Then I was browsing through myspace profiles, and I see this picture of a person. Who's a guy. :relief: I was amazed. :lol: So I didn't think much of it but I went back to their profile again later and found out the name of this guy.. And did a google search. And then I found out Reita was in a band called Gazette, which became my favorite band. :D And slowly I branched out (I'm still trying to get used to Dir En Grey >>;; ) and found more Jrock and that good stuff. :lol:

Actually, when I was first browsing pictures of Gazette I couldn't decide whether or not Uruha-san was a girl. My friend and I debated on it for a while until I actually got around to reading ABOUT the band, not just looking at the wonderful pictures of them. :lol:

[elanor]

I came across a site that had a Fra-Foa song on it. The description from the webmistress insisted that no one she knew who had listened to this song said it was bad.

I thought to myself, 'Hmph, I don't like pop songs who try to sell themselves as rock no matter what language it's in'.

... So I downloaded the song just to prove I disliked it and, yes, like the webmistress predicted, I actually liked it. :eek:

Thus, I was introduced to and hooked on J-Rock.

[Aiiro-Bara]

I've actually always listened to it, I just never quite realized that it was called J-rock. I just called it my dad's music. :blush: I had gotten into it about a year ago, somewhat passively though, and I looked for cd's at the library and found several from Gackt and anime soundtracks, but nothing too much. Recently I was in the car with him and he had L'Arc~en~Ciel (Tierra) playing while we were on a road trip. I liked it and ended up taking the cd for the rest of the trip. When we got back home he let me use the rest of his cd's (L'Arc~en~Ciel's Arc, Luna Sea's Shine and several others) which got me looking for more J-rock online. Discovered Miyavi and through searches for Miyavi songs, found X-Japan, Dir en Grey, and D'espairs Ray. Eventually I found Gazette and Kagrra, and fell in love with them all. :-)

Or something like that. :blush:

[daemonette]

my myspace friend has "hyde-hello" on her pro and i thought it was an okay song.. but he didnt impress me at all,
then one of my really good friends started attacking me with mana from malice mizer O.o i thought he was super pretty, then i heard the songs and was like :okashii: ...
but it grew on me and i started searching for other bands and got dir en grey,and gazette(wich i thought where dir en grey at first because im a big idiot :dance: )
:cool:

[advigilo]

:-) it seems that a lot of people came across it by accident (trough anime, or the internet) or kinda got forced into it *grins*
but either way we are all hooked on it :-)

[-Lucifer-]

i got into jrock about two years ago, thanks to my brother. He was listening X Japan and i aksed whats the name of the band that he was listening then. He borrowed some of his CDs for me so i could listen more of their music(i just havent gave those CDs back yet still that he keeps asking...:relief: ) after that i just started listening jrock and now i keep at least one jrock CD and my CD player with me:p

[R e i - R e i]

LONGSTORYNOTSHORT.xDDDDD

Well,Since I moved to a different town[Right next to my old one]I started watching DBZ,And Then one of My bro's New friends intoduced us to anime.
The Same friend sent us all the theme songs to the shows we were watching,So I started listening to J pop alot.
Then,In grade 8,I made Friends with this Girl who was very into Japanese music,Like me.,
She let me listen to some Diru song,Child prey,I think,And it Scared the heck outta me,I was like"WTFFFF"
But When it was time to do a french project,I asked her for a name of that song she lemme listen to.
So,I downloaded Childprey,And listened to it tons and tons.
She also gave me pop is dead,but I thought it was weird and dismissed it completely.
Then,I got more into Dir en grey,And started watching videos,Which she would tell me about,on the way to Church[Our stupid school made us walk to Church]Since I enjoy blood and Gore,When she described Obscure to me,I fell in love.
Then,At the Beginning of the Summer,I tried pop is Dead by Miyavi again,
And I lstened to it nonstop.All Last Summer,My Obsession with Miyavi grew to Every song,PV,And picture I could find,Clearing out Every site on yahoo and Google,And Albums on Photobucket.
Well,The rest is like 3months of Grade 9 up until now,So not much has Changed.
xD

[diru_luver]

I was introduced to Diru through my roommate when I started college. She also introduced me too Malic Mizer. It seems most people start with those bands. XD In anycase.. I loved them so much I started looking up other bands...like La~arc'eb ciel and Psycho le cemu and Pierrot. I like to role play, so I started asking my chat buddies, and my Japanese friends about bands, and they introduced me to some more as well. Since I am now obsessed with Jrock, I joined some Jrock role play and they introduced me to even more bands! So Im never bored. ^__^ Im going to look up some of the above mentioned bands since I have never heard of some of them. :bluush: Thanks! :-) :cool:

[neostereo]

Umm, first this whole world of amazing music was brought up by one guy that I don't even know so well - he's not even a friend of mine anymore, and he's completely one of those goth-heavy-death-black-metal-men, so I don't quite understand how he came up with J-rock o-O. He started a conversation in messenger, asking me if I had ever listened to J-rock. At that point, I was like "duh, no, what is that?" and he explained shortly and gave a link to a Finnish J-rock-site. I downloaded some songs, I don't even remember what, and I didn't like it back then. Some months later I found those songs again, and ... Well, this is what happened :D

[PsychoSadisticFreak]

A friend sent me a song from Malice Mizer (Beast of Blood, and I didn't like it... -_-). Then she started to download the PV too, and she told me how hot the singer was! So I decided to download the PV, and I slowly but surely liked the song. suddenly I really really liked Kozi. I searched info and such and pictured ofcourse and I discouvered that... mana wasn't a girl. I was in shock but... I liked it ! I started to download more songs, and I started to know Gackt. Also, Moi Dix Mois, Kozi, Eve of destiny,... From al that searching I found a lot of Dir en Grey too, and one day I downloaded a song from them but I didn't like it and tried 'Obscure', which I did like. I wanted to 'see them in action', you know ^^ and I downloaded... Raison d'etre. I was shocked. But I liked them. And now, they are my favorite band ;)

[blossom]

I was watching tv one day when a L'arc~en~ciel video came on. After then I was hooked because the music is good, and Jrockers always keep it interesting!

[Hide My Heart]

Through anime if you can belive it!

lol

I had an upper classman who wanted some Angel Sanctuary manga so I loaned her my collection. As a way of saying thanks she burned me a huge amount of JRock cd's. I was hooked! That's what really got my foot in the door.

[JoRuDeNnA]

I didnt notice this thread until now hahaha:relief:
Well I got into Jrock also through anime it was like a year ago or so I was searching some pics from X and came across X-Japan, I read some stuff about them and found it quite interesting so i started downloading songs, and I was totally in love with their musci so I started searching for more Jrock and found about Gackt, l'arc en ciel, Miyavi, etc......... and now I must carry at leats one cd in my car.:blush:

[boobiebutt]

i think it was my sister+my cousins or it was my best friend....i think it was my cousins and sister first because they watched x the anime and my sister got a bunch of x japan cd's and my first impression at the age of like.....8 or something was ewwwwwww they sound like girls?!?!? toshi with his super high pitch voice T_T and then i think my best friend send me some x or dir songs and from that moment i got hooked......and i asked him to send me more but he got annoyed at my massive amount of requests with me having 56k T_T so i ventured into the world of jrock on my own from that moment and jrock is one of the few things that keeps my heart beating right now...