What was your first Japanese album, song, etc?

[Mycernius]

Simple really, what was the first album or single that you bought, or song your heard that got you into Japanese music? It need not be contempory music. Taiko drumming, Enka, traditional music, soundtrack could have been your first introduction into the music of Japan.
As for myself I had heard Taiko drumming, but coming on this forum started to peak my interets in the music scene in general, but my first one was bopught in the aerly 90s and was the soundtrack for Akira.

[-Rudel-]

Guess I'll be the first.

I just arrived on island back in December 2002. I couldn't wait get out in town to a music store to get a taste of music. I had no clue of any artists. When I arrive at the store, I saw a huge poster of a female sitting with a light blue background and a rainbow.

Who could this be? Ayumi Hamasaki - Rainbow......from then on, all kinds of artists after using google, and word of mouth, and Japanese MTV etc etc.

[Nina007]

my first japanese song i heard was crucify my love from the last x japan live. i just saw a link on youtube and clicked it, i thought the band seemed interesting so i checked out a few more songs from the same live.. the concert was so sad and touching, it made me cry even tho i didnt knew who those guys were.

after that i fell in love with them, and found out about hide, gazette, dir en grey, and so on. im glad i got into this beautiful music, these bands make every day of my life better

[vetroxrosa]

My first, like most of the people in my area, was Gackt. He spread like wildfire through my high school and it all started with a picture. The "traditional" first song for all of my aquaintances has invariably been Vanilla. Gackt remains my favorite artist.

[Red5]

Actually the first I heard .........

Yui's songs this singer I love her so much

tomorrow's way .... I remember you ...

and other songs

[Syra]

hm...my friend online said to watch a YouTube vid of this guy she thought was really hot XDDDD
It was a live of Mizerable by Gackt and I ended up liking the violin part of the song so much that I went and looked a lot more of Gackt's stuff up and the next song I heard after that first was "Orenji no Taiyou"--- which promptly got me into HYDE's stuff-- "The Cape of Storms" being the first song that I heard- and then L'arc~en~Ciel
Laruku is my fav band now with a few others coming as runners-up

[RevengeBabyYeah]

Was into anime alot as a child, and liked the theme tunes but didn't know anything about the artists.
But my love of 'jrock' started when I was 9. I was on a Final Fantasy message board when I saw people talking about Gackt. The pictures intrigued me so I searched for his songs. First one I found was 'Illuminati' by Malice Mizer, and soon I downloaded MM's entire Merveilles album (on dial-up, ouch).

[Davey]

One of the first Japanese songs I heard was Love love love from Dreams come true:

[Shalimar_Doyle]

L'Arc~en~Ciel - Daybreak's Bell is the first jrock song i ever listen...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRJoWhdLtP8

[Seon-a Kim]

First Love by Utada Hikaru

Well what else can I say...that's just that

[nikid]

well, don't quite remeber....I think the first time I heard j-music was on some anime...

the first I bought, I think it was some UVERworld album

[ceneash]

I think it was Rurouni Kenshin soundtrack. But I get really interested in j-music after few songs by hide and HYDE.

[MiyaviKitten]

My parents have always been noticable of my growing obsession for Japan, starting out with anime when I was 3 and now growing into a obsession for it, like collecting Japanese erasers...but the moment came when I discovered JRock.
June 24, 2009.
It started out a couple days before this, when I typed in pink hairstyles, and hide showed up. Then I found more and more about him and X Japan. I put it aside for 2 days then my mom came home with Saw 4. As always, I go straight to the special features, and there it was. "I.V by X Japan music video" Once I watched it, I took the DVD and watched the video over and over.
I was in love with Yoshiki-Sama...he looked soooo hot in that vid
Toshi-San looked like a serial killer with that drench coat on
Pata-san looked...looked...
Heath-Kun looked...delishous.
Then after that, "my love for X Japan grew is just another unstoppable phase that all teenagers have, until you get sick of it and move on as always." as my mom puts it in. No. Phase isn't the right word for it. There is NO WORD that is capable of naming my obsession of Japan and everything about it.
JRock is here to STAY.

[mishimon]

My first song was "Fire after Fire" by Seikima-II and it was 2001 (they had just broken up the year before) that's all it took and I was hooked. You never forget your first... *sigh*

[eglukas]

hmm. I guess it was Miyavi - Sefish love... or maybe The Gazette... hard to remember;D

[AJBryant]

The first song in Japanese I learned was "Jinsei, aa" -- the theme of "Mito Komon." The second, the first "real" song, was "Honoo no otoko" by Kitajima Saburo.

[MaryaChan]

Rinne Ronda and the first Vampire Knight opening by ON OFF. Both of them have very haunting lyrics and music.

Also, Vampire Knight was the first anime I watched, and I fell in love with them both.

[myvalicious]

Punky Heart by LM.C was my first Jrock song

[AJBryant]

The first record I bought in Japan was an all-woman taiko group, the Masakado-Daiko. Great stuff. The first real Japanese song I learned was "Honô no Otoko" (Man of Fire") by Kitajima Saburo. Love that song.

[justin]

First Love by utada hikaru

Well, even after all these years its still my favorite Japanese album. Utada Hikaru really opened my eyes to modern Japanese music.

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Love Machine by Morning Musume in 2004/2005.

I was really into all sorts of traditional Japanese stuff at the time and was looking at videos of kimono dancing on Youtube when i stumbled across a concert vid of MM- they were wearing kimono's and traditional wigs while singing their hit single Love Machine, and while the song was completely modern jpop and not traditional in the slightest, i was totally hooked from the start. I then looked up more MM songs, then came across Hello! Project and then got into all sorts of other H!P groups and now i'm getting into Avex groups a lot too these days ^_^v .

I had been into anime a long time before that so had heard jpop before Love Machine but i consider Love Machine by Morning Musume my first true jpop single . I do like some jrock but i'm definitely mostly a jpop fan ^_^v .

[Skogkatt]

My first japanese album I heard was House of Flying Daggers Soundtrack by Shigeru Umebayashi, but I became really interested in japanese music when I fell in love with a song of Akiko Shikata's. It was Navigatoria. I have currently a great fondness for the output of Akiko.

[ewww]

When I was young, there were several covers of Japanese songs, like "Koi No Vacance".
Later, in 80x, there were very popular Wink and Aman; and YMO, kinda Kraftwerk
I like mostly all japanese music from 80x.

I like Otomo Yoshihide in most of his experimental projects, especilly New Jazz Ensemble,
of course album "Dreams". My fa'vorite 'japanese' song is 'Preach" from that album :

ONJE - Preach - YouTube
戸�� Preach - YouTube

BTW, I am old admirer of Seiji Ozawa, best interpreter of Stravinsky, very impressive how deeply russian he is.