First bands?

[wonderword]

I had an idea for a thread like this on the bus ride home. Hopefully nobody already made one!

Every time I meet a new j-rock fan, the first thing I always ask them is "what band got you into j-rock?" So I thought I'd ask Tonberry the same question. When did you start listening to j-rock, what bands got you guys into it, and why?

I started listening to it back when I was in seventh or eighth grade. One of my ridiculously nerdy friends who was in the lol animu club with me at school brought me a burned CD with all sorts of assorted Japanese music on it. It was pretty mainstream stuff - Gackt, Ayumi Hamasaki, that kind of thing. Even as an uneducated young'un, j-pop and Gackt made me throw up a little in my mouth, but one band on the CD stuck out - Luna Sea.

I don't know how songs from their Mother era got onto this CD, packed awkwardly between Gackt's warbling vibrato and Hamasaki's harpy-like screech, but I'm glad that they did. As a white kid living in South Texas, in the middle of the ghetto, surrounded by gangster rap and Tejano music, hearing Rosier for the first time was a completely new experience for me. I didn't even care that I couldn't understand a word of the language (and still can't). It just sounded so damn cool I couldn't help but listen to it.

I was a hardcore Luna Sea fan for the better part of that year. Through stuff like Kazaa and Napster I managed to scrape together the entirety of Mother, Style and Eden. The first two got much more play time than the last one, since Eden sounds like it was recorded on Saran wrap. But that isn't important.

From there it branched outward. I got into more of the older bands. X-Japan, Kuroyume, Buck-Tick, et cetera. Then the new wave of bands hit around the early/mid 2000's and my interest shifted to them. And now I find myself wishing I had more of the older stuff, since it's still some how more interesting to my ears. I could listen to any pre-Lunacy Luna Sea forever and never get tired of it. Lately, I get bored of VK singles within a week. But this isn't important either.

Sorry for the length, I tend to get carried away when I start threads, because I have a narcissistic streak the size of the San Andreas Fault. I also probably hit the Return key too much.

What about YOU guys? If I wanted to make a thread in which I talked to myself, I would've just... made a thread in which It alked to myself. What were YOUR first bands? Who made you start listening and who kept you listening?

[new.age.hide]

My first girlfriend really got me kicking. I had listened to Japanese music before but it was only from anime and such. Then my girlfriend, Rae-Rae, in sixth grade sent me my first ever Jrock song, Illuminati by Malice Mizer. To say the least this boy was hooked from that moment on. She began to send me large messes of stuff, mainly old school Dir en grey and some Malice Mizer. Now remember I'm only in 6th grade and I am blaring songs like Illuminati, Umbrella and so on. I of course liked Gackt back then (what a dumbass I was), Miyavi and all the mainstream. It wasn't until I had met the original poster on this thread did I get into indies stuff. However, I don't remember how it started but for a time I had fallen away from Jrock but soon returned when I had my first taste of Plastic Tree. To say the least this band is near and dear to my heart and always will be. While they were not the first, they were one of them and they revived me into my love of music when everything had seemed so hopeless before. However, Dir en grey is still dear to my heart for having started me on my way but that is their older stuff, not their most recent (rather shitty) music. Every time I hear Illuminati my heart and mind still trip up in my memories of when I had first heard it. It was NOTHING like what I had listened to before which was mainly the poppy shit you hear as anime openings and closings. While I have slightly fallen from the mainstream I still won't forget what the bands who started me on my way.

[Culo]

First bands were the typical: X, Glay, L'Arc... I knew about X since 1998, but at the time I wasn't into japanese music, I just thought "these japanese punks sure are crazy".
In 2001 I sarted listening to X more gradually, Glay aswell andmaking some research about them found about the term "visual kei". At this time I also got into Janne Da Arc.
In late 2001 I started listening to indies bands visual bands and by this time I was hooked. My favorite indies band at that time was Lamiel.
Then I got into Malice Mizer and Dir en grey, innevitable. I was also trying a lot of different indies bands in early 2002, one of them were Aioria which is one of my favorite bands nowdays.
After listening to many bands I realized a LOT of visual bands sucked, but I kept listening to the ones I liked anyway, just I stopped blindly listening to everything visual.
I followed the ex-Malice Mizer members' works (well, mostly Kozi and Mana). Then I found many other great bands like Amadeus, Raphael... I like bands with classical influence.
Around 2003 I discovered Da'vid/shito:aL, and I remembered one of the members there was in another bands I liked, Aioria... then I became a Misa fan and to this day he's my favorite musician and one of the main reasons I still listen to VK.

ps: i could never get much into Luna Sea... except for a few songs like Rosier or Tonight, I never found them fascinating. But I respect them for being one of the most important bands on the early days.

[wonderword]

Just an addendum: you guys don't have to limit yourselves to visual kei. While I may not like every genre of Japanese music, if you got into the scene through j-hip-hop or j-indie or whatever, feel free to post about it.

[Do As Eternity 6]

i started when me was 11/12 ish and back then it was jpop...i believe the first song was Dream - my will ...back when they were just 3 members..one of my anime friends gave it to me because i had just  watched inuyasha and the theme was stuck inn my head...heard the full song and hated it ....seriously it was terrible xD...then it was v6 gah they made me want to shoot myself...then i heard ayumi hamasaki ... hated it right away when she does that horrible thing with her voice that sounds like a dying chipmunk .... then gackt ...hate from the start once again...then next was morning musume -dies- with all this hate i wonder why i kept trying haha xD...it wasn't until finally i heard the beautiful sounds of Do As infinity and the brilliant green that i thought OMG this is amazing i'm so totally into azn music now look at mez!!! yay! so from then on i got into the azn music thingy mostly by watching shows like revolution and pop japan t.v. on the azn network (formally the international channel) and blindly buying Cds from artists i figured i liked based of those things until i discovered nanokiero and the world of illegal downloads and forums and what not...

so from there i stayed  into like j-pop/ hip-hop and rnb and like normal J-rock, for the most part i kinda shied away from the visual stuff till i turned 15/16 ish and i didn't think it was so freaky anymore ...my first band at that time was dir en grey (although i guess technically they were no longer Visu at the time...) which is strange cuz they kinda have everything i don't like in bands (ie. excessive screaming) and yet i love them and kyo's excessive scream (it's newer > older for me though both are great) ...me honestly don't know why  but it is =_=... from there more vk stuffs (like my current 2nd favs alice nine...because Do As is always number 1 xD)  and i guess I'm still discovering more stuff in the indie vk section...although i still listen to all the old stuffs too i just love my music too much and often times i still prefer my good ol' school tracks dawg ^^

[Champ213]

First actual j-rock band I heard: Phi, one of Issay's previous projects.
Band that made me finally fall in love with j-rock: Luna Sea

That was about 6 years ago, and I moved on from there. Won't bore you with all the details. 

[Tsunetako]

The first japanese artist I ever liked was Ayumi Hamasaki.. Then from there I got into Gackt, Malice Mizer, etc.. I loved them, but it was Lareine that got me into visual kei and inspired a love for the art. Lareine is still my favorite 

Before that, I didn't listen to any music at all. I was arond 11/12 at the time, and before that I would always tell people I hated music(it was true. heh) and they'd stare at me like I was crazy. I was an odd kid.

[signal to noise]

i've honestly only been really into jrock for a year. maybe a little more, but basically a year.

the first things i heard were just stuff in anime from quite a few years ago, like Two-Mixx in Gundam Wing, and TM Revolution and L'arc en Ciel in Rurouni Kenshin. i also really digged all the songs by The Pillows in FLCL, they really blew my mind. but i didnt really get into jrock until maybe a little more than a year ago when my friend had me listen to Dir en grey. it was mostly stuff from Withering to Death, and it really amazed the shit out of me (yes, i LOVE withering to death). the first band that i could really really enjoy and not care about the language barrier (i know very very little japanese). then my friends also got me into Gazette, High and Mighty Color, and Alice Nine, whom none of which at the time i liked as much as Dir en grey, but i started to get more into other jrock bands. i really ended up loving HandMC a whole lot, i loved Ichirin no Hana and a bunch of their other heavy songs, they were like my number two band to Diru. then i started to get more into Gazette songs, since i really liked their diversity in music (the first songs i heard were Ruder and Cassis... quite different songs..). but i didnt really get crazy into them until i heard NIL and then Filth in the beauty later on (hey like i said im a newbie). and along the way i heard a bunch of other bands too, some that didnt really have much affect. but yeah now i still am crazily into Dir en grey and Gazette, and i also love MUCC and Girugamesh and D'espairsRay and a bunch of others. thats basically the story. theres not much to it haha.

[非難GO-GO > バクチク]

my first band was loudness . Not to far by dead end. My father got me into rock , and he happened to really like Pink Floyd and Loudness alot. =0 I've been listening to J-music since the late 80s

My first vk band was dead end and Seikima II. =p ( I'm sure alot of people would say "OMG B-T was visual. Since they are like an early and top favorite of mine , but alas , they were only visual for a few album , stopped and brought it back with 13th floor , either way , B-T is one of the few JP bands that are beyond being put into a genre. )

My current favs include Fujifabric , Mr.Children , Creature Creature , Kimeru ( I HIGHLY doubt anyone here has heard of him , since I just wrote/uploaded and did his page on last.fm ) and last but not least Sparta Locals.

[klavierbarrette]

hide and dir en grey, and a bunch of jpop.

jpop came first, i think i listened to a lot of ayu and utada.

[marky]

I listened almost the same bands than now, why should I leave them anyway, they still rulz  (X, Kuroyume, Luna Sea, Gackt, Rouage, L'arc en ciel, MYV, DLQ, Malice Mizer, and all the new indie movement  )  the difference, I was never listened J-pop before, only rock, I thought JPOP was crap, now that I'm more open to all kind of sounds and styles I can proudly say "I really like J-MUSIC"  rock, visualrock, rock-pop, just pop.... I was kind of stupid  then, Japan Pop really rocks, isn't like american shitty artist like Britney Spears and all the others, people shouldn't be afraid of try to listen pop sometimes...

[snickety]

Kimeru

Eh? Not that pop guy?


Anyway, I got into Japanese music via anime, like so many others. I guess the "rock"est band I liked at first was Porno Graffitti. (I still like them, but their recent stuff has been a bit unsatisfying.) I think it was about 6 years ago or so. I can't really remember how it went, but I'm pretty sure it grew the most from this yahoo group I used to be in. Of course there was the typical anime-opening-song type generic pop, but I didn't like much of it. Again like many others, Gackt led me to Malice Mizer, which of course led me to the visual-kei. Somewhere I got disinterested and moved to the regular rock. Also somewhere in the sequence came techno/dance/electronic or whatever, and shibuya-kei. Now I listen to a lot of 'indie' or whatever the hell they're called, rock with electronic stuff, and an embarrassing amount of boyband music. I've been into jazz a lot too, but it's sometimes hard to find stuff that I like 'cause I'm terrible at putting music into genres. Then there's the ones I have a weakness for in any language: R&B, hip-hop, rap. I like almost anything, really. It's hard on my bank account. :\

[snickety]

haha, sorry to double-post, but my p-o-r-n-o got censored? XD

[Do As Eternity 6]

lol yup yup i noticed that too when i was saying something about por-no graffiti in some other thread awhile back.

and is there some other kimeru? ...cuz i know of a kimeru... i don't like him but i know him.

[lovetrick]

MALICE MIZER

I was a cool kid.