How I Discovered Japanese Music

The majority of this post concerns JPOP, though it's named about Japanese music. Here is a chance for me to share how I got into mostly Japanese pop. It is a brief blog post that lets you in on how I eventually got into Japanese music. Two online sources helped me. One of them, though, kept me into the genre of music more than the other source. Read on to find out how I got into Japanese music!

Discovering Japanese Pop.

There was a time very early in 2002 or so when I was in an AOL chat room called "Japan and Japanese. Once, I was interested so much in Japanese music that I started looking around for stuff online to listen to. I was still on a dialup connection of about 56K then. I started to listen to that crappy Live365 stuff. Connecting and trying to remain connected was crappy. It was at one point I decided to look elsewhere to listen to Japanese pop. Then one day, I discovered a SHOUTcast station online called Japan-a-Radio. Japan-a-Radio was my gateway to Japanese pop music. For many of us, the music was fairly old compared to some of the newer music at the time. But still, it was not only Japanese pop, but also anime songs as well. It was a little of everything Japanese and everything awesome. This is where I first started learning of the many names past and present in Japanese music. Namie Amuro. Ayumi Hamasaki. The Gospellers. MISIA. Utada Hikaru (who will turn 28 on the 19th of this month. My 28th birthday is on the 15th). Chemistry. Exile. Morning Musume. Every Litle Thing. You go on from there...

I started hearing their music and learning more about their songs. Since then, I mostly owe it all to Japan-a-Radio for introducing me to Japanese pop even I was frustrated with Live365. Live365 helped me to listen to Japanese pop, but it was Japan-a-Radio that kept my interest in JPOP alive and well.

Discovering Japanese Rock.

Kind of on my own, I even learned of most J-Rock bands. These are groups like Malice Mizer, Hyde, Gackt, L'Arc-en-Ciel, Bump of Chicken, Spitz (my favorite songs of theirs is "Sora Mo Toberuhazu"), and WANDS (my true favorite of theirs is "Sekai ga Owaru Made Wa," which was the title song for the Manga series, Slam Dunk).

What is Japan-a-Radio?

Japan-a-Radio is a live streaming Internet radio station playing Japanese pop and Anime music 24/7. There are certain shows devoted to certain kinds of music even including mix sessions and Anime shows. They've been online since 2001. I've kind of moved on from listening to Japan-a-Radio, but I still love the great job they do streaming Japanese pop and anime.

To learn more about Japan-a-Radio or to hear their music online, please visit Japan-a-Radio's website at www.japanaradio.com.

(If Anyone from Japan-a-Radio is Reading This...)

Keep up the great work with your music! You all do a great job.


Many of the different artists and groups I've mentioned have been in past blog posts. Be sure to check out my "Japan and Japanese" blog topics to find various Japanese music artists and groups that I've posted blogs on. Now you know how I got into Japanese music!

I want to do a blog post on someone whom I've recently come across on YouTube. I want to profile and talk about a certain YouTube channel whom has some great covers of Japanese songs and anime songs. So stay tuned!





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