23ji no ongaku

Somewhere between the years 1999 and 2000, I discovered Japanese music. When I had my first laugh at Hironobu Kageyama and the silliness of his Dragonball Z music, or sighed the first sigh at Orikasa Ai’s soothing ballads, I don’t think I realized just how important those moments would be, further on in my life. At the age of thirteen, I don’t think I could have ever perceived that these first encounters with foreign music would later become so crucial to how my life developed.

A lot has changed in the ten years that I’ve spent listening to Japanese music. To cover the obvious changes: I’ve gone from a very lonely pre-teen to a fairly well-adjusted adult; I started out by scratching out Sailormoon stores in a little notebook, and have now made a career out of my writing skills and interest in social media. (I guess I could also write an article called “Ten Years of Fanfiction,” since I can at least partially contribute my writing skills to my love of fanfics, but let’s only cover one socially awkward topic at a time, shall we?) But, musically speaking, so much has changed that I’m not even sure where to begin. In ten years, I’ve broadened my horizons, listened to hundreds upon thousands of songs, and done some unremarkable things (like interviewing musicians)… and all because of the music. All because I created unchained, something that started out as a casually written blog about jpop.

On that note, I guess this could also lead to an article called “Four Years of Blogging,” but I have a feeling I would get to the point–”you can do anything you put your mind to”–almost immediately, and would just spend the rest of the time talking about how cool BECCA is in person and how cute Wakeshima Kanon’s laugh is. So we’ll skip that for now.

Ten years is a long time. I started with Hironobu Kageyama, Orikasa Ai, and a couple other miscellaneous singers. I was led to artists like move, Hamasaki Ayumi, X JAPAN, and Morning Musume by a good friend (who no longer even listens to jmusic). I found things I liked through Napster, then WinMX, then by searching the internet. I started to learn Japanese, and started to be able to read more information than before. At the halfway point, I started to write entries in my LiveJournal about what I enjoyed. In July of 2006, after reading blogs I liked for a little while, I created a blog on Vox on my lunch break. That blog was unchained, and the rest is history. I met my friends, I found more music, I wrote a lot, and I listened more.

There are so many important memories from these last ten years that I’m not sure if I can list them all, and do any justice to them. But I’ll try, because that’s what this post is all about.

I remember listening to Orikasa Ai for the first time, and being stunned by her voice. I remember dancing to Morning Musume in my friend AJ’s basement (“Koi no Dance Site,” complete with the fist-punches and “hoo! haa!”). I remember listening to Hamasaki Ayumi’s “Love ~Destiny~” in my father’s computer room, and starting to cry despite not knowing the lyrics, or anything about the song. I remember Shimokawa Mikuni’s “Karenai Hana” and “Arekara” comforting me after a high school breakup. I remember CHARCOAL FILTER and the brilliant green on sunny afternoons after school in my mother’s kitchen. I remember listening to Tsuchiya Anna for the first time. I remember discovering Korean music and somehow getting away with writing a paper on Cherry Filter’s “Snow Man.” I remember watching “Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari” and recognizing a single member of Morning Musume (Mari never changed). I remember too much, too many things, between 2006 and 2008 to list all of them, because I met so many people, wrote so many things, listened to so many songs…

I remember sitting on my bed in October 2008 listening to the band apart, and then sharing headphones with wu-san as we listened to Rie Fu on the train ride back from New York. I remember listening to THYME on the plane ride back to Oklahoma and crying. I remember standing outside at midnight, looking at the stars, and singing Otsuka Ai’s “Kurage, Nagareboshi” as if it would change things, make my life better. I remember crying my eyes out to THYME, again, only three months later. I was listening to Buono! when Tim and I started talking regularly again in March 2009. I remember playing C-ute songs over and over in Audiosurf when I was supposed to be working. I remember listening to Spin Aqua as I drove across the country, from Oklahoma to Pennsylvania, in May. I remember so much more, so many other things… Like driving alone and singing JYONGRI’s “Possession.” I remember a thunderstorm and school food punishment, sunshine and BENNIE K.

Little things now–things that don’t seem to mean so much to me–might be important moments in another ten years. When I’m 33, I might look back and say “I remember trying so hard to memorize HALCALI songs so I could rap along to them while I drived,” or “I remember playing Nishino Kana’s first album so much that it wore itself out” (not yet, but it’s close). These moments may not seem so significant, but they are important parts of my memories, my life, of who I am. I wouldn’t be the same person if these things hadn’t happened. I wouldn’t be the same if I hadn’t listened to those songs.

It’s been a great ten years of Japanese music, for me. And from this point on, things can only get better. So here’s to the past, and to the present… and to the future. New decade: bring it on!