Ironic Clown

I’ve seen this circulating through a few of the J-Pop blogs and thought I would give it a go… ^^

What was the first Japanese song that you ever listened to?

Well I know that everyone says this, but my first Japanese song I ever listened to was Simple And Clean by Utada Hikaru. However unlike the majority of J-Pop fans who heard this song first from Kingdom Hearts, I actually didn’t! My friend was showing me a song that she thought I might like, and yeah I liked it… and then the snowball effect happened…

Did it inspire you to like that group/singer, or did it turn you away?

Definitely inspired me! At first I would ONLY listen to Utada Hiakru and then eventually I started to branch out into different Japanese artists until it became an obsession.

What is the one song that you have been listening to for the longest time?

Haha, well obviously Simple And Clean, but the song that has never ever gotten old for me and I have listened to it for years now without getting bored of it is Keep Tryin’ and Dareka no Negai ga Kanou Koro.

What group/singer have you liked the longest?

Utada Hikaru for sure~! I still adore her, but she needs to release stuff more frequently than she does. Having said this pretty much everything she does release is of exceptional quality.

What is the song with the most plays on your iTunes player?

Surprisingly it’s not a Japanese song. It’s actually a song that released not too long ago, it’s Lucky by Jason Mraz and Colbie Callait. Yeah I had an absolute obsession with it not long ago and left it on repeat for about a week!

Is that song your favorite?

Um, well I’m not really obsessed with it anymore, but I still love it because the lyrics are sweet.

If not, what is?

Well, at the moment I really like It’s All Love by Koda Kumi & misono, however I’ll eventually get over that, but for the time being it’s just so damn catchy!

Hmm for all time that’s a bit of a hard one. I absolutely love Rie fu’s Romantic because it’s just so unexpected and at the time I first listened to it I could relate to the lyrics a lot. Dramatic I know.

As far as English language music goes; Nicest Thing and Foundations by Kate Nash are two songs that I can listen for an eternity and never get over them

Is there any one group that you can listen to all/most of the songs by? If so, who?

I’ve got a confession to make… I don’t listen to any boy bands! Shocking I know. So I guess in answer to this I would have to say Perfume, because they are one of the only Japanese “groups” that I listen to… in short I prefer solo artists…

What is your favorite agency?

That’s a hard one mainly because an artist’s performance doesn’t usually have to depend on the label they have. For some reason I have this sneaking suspicion that Toshiba EMI isn’t a very good label because many people change labels when they are with Toshiba EMI

What is your favorite group/singer?

Again, that’s a tough one. I guess I would have to say my all time favourite Japanese singer would have to be Utada Hikaru, but I don’t listen to her that much. Some (not all) other Japanese artists I really like are; Rie fu, Faray, Chihiro Onitsuka, JYONGRI, KOKIA, MiChi, Miwako Okuda, melody., Perfume, Namie Amuro, Meisa, Eri Nobuchika, Koda Kumi, Yuna Ito, BoA, Thelma Aoyama… and yeah the list could pretty much go on forever…

My overall favourite English artist is Kate Nash, but I also love Regina Spektor, Adele, Jack’s Mannequin, Lily Allen, Beyoncé, Angus & Julia Stone, Flyleaf, Ela Soza, DeVotchKa, Gabriella Cilmi, The Hoosiers… once again this list could go on forever~!

In general I can listen to most artists if they have a good voice and interesting/catchy arrangements…