This thread is meant to be much like the Korean music and Spanish music threads where people can discuss more in depth and share their favorites in a more focused space. Also I would love for this to be a catalyst to introduce people who would otherwise not listen to Japanese music normally, there are so many immensely talented artists in Japan that otherwise don’t get the attention they deserve due to the language barrier or being written off.
I have been meaning to make this topic for a long while now but various circumstances have prevented me from doing so. The main deterrent has been the fact that I’ve been perpetually behind in music for years now, at the worst point I was over 18 months behind in releases. Currently I’m happy to say that I’m only 3 months behind in releases and catching up at quite a pace now, so I should be back up to date in the coming months. This is a problem in several ways for me, one being that I didn’t want to make this thread if I couldn’t dedicate myself and keep up with current music in a timely manner. Another problem being I just don’t feel motivated to write anything if I’m that far behind current music because I could be using that time to catch up instead 
I personally plan to use this thread for more long form and short form written impressions on various albums and pieces of music, I have a huge love of discussing music, that in recent years has taken a back seat to gear discussion instead. Once upon a time I used to write album reviews on a different forum, I don’t quite think I want to slip back into that but definitely would like to stretch those muscles a bit again. For other people who want to contribute to this thread don’t feel obligated that you have to write a whole bunch, if you want to just treat this place similar to the “share the music you’re currently into” thread feel free, but I would love to hear what you think as well if you have the time 
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Since this is the opening post and I will presumably be posting here a bunch in the future I will go ahead and use this space to tell a little bit about myself and my history with Japanese music.
First of all I listen to exclusively Japanese music and have predominantly for the last 17 years or so, since around 2006. Before then I dabbled in other American music as well but if I was to put specifics on when I was introduced, it would of been around '01-'02 time frame. Around that time anime like FLCL introduced me to rock legends The Pillows and video games like Kingdom Hearts did the same for pop icon Utada Hikaru. It wasn’t until '05-'06 that I started to get really into the music due to me being afforded more internet freedom from my parents and the discovery of communities like myspace and live journal which made it easy to discover new music as well as my earliest memories of pirating hard to get Japanese music through file sharing clients like soulseek 
Around early '07 I joined my first forum community focusing on the Japanese music scene being one of the first members of that board and eventually I earned a staff member and moderator position there which I held until about 10 years into the forum. I finally made the decision to take a break, unfortunately I never returned and that forum does not exist anymore. At it’s height though I believe it was the biggest and most active Jmusic message board (in the west at least) eclipsing other popular forums from back then.
At first my taste was decidedly shit looking back on it now, I was only really into rock and metal as that is what I mostly focused on in western music. After a few years I started shifting my taste overall and became more open to other kinds of music. I owe a lot of that to my fellow forum members from way back when that were incredibly more diverse than me, I was slowly introduced to many types of artists and now today enjoy a rather varied genre library makeup. I also stopped listening to shitty Visual Kei acts recorded on what sounded like dollar store microphones with more cringe to shake a stick at haha oh boy I really don’t want to remember those days 
On the topic of me only listening to this kind of music, every once in a while I will get recommended something western or listen to local radio but I only really seek out Jmusic. I find most western artists to be very “played out” and unoriginal, an amalgamation of generic trends that get regurgitated endlessly for the sake of the almighty dollar and the corrupt music labels, not to say this doesn’t happen in Japan as well because it does, but not to the same extent as our industry. I also don’t want this to be interpreted as ‘all western music’ sucks or ‘no talent’ because that is not true either, there are very talented artists out here but I just don’t have the time, energy, or willingness to sift through the rest of the garbage to find them LOL Also after two decades of Japanese music I decisively prefer the song and lyrical writing that accompanies a different culture and language.
I feel like I’m about to fall down a rabbit hole soon with this artist lol
. I’m honestly quite smitten with this artist, I can’t believe I’ve not explored more of her music till now and even more shocked that she isn’t more popular and well known. I really enjoy this indie pop/rock sound that veers into noise pop and some shades of shoegaze at times. Her voice is the perfect cherry on top to a excellent instrumental backing band, so beautiful but also has a certain edge and strength to her vocalizations.
