In the sixth installment of "Letters from the JaME Editors," get to know anna.
Well, it’s time for another installment of "Letters from the JaME Editors!" My name is anna, and I’ve been with JaME for about five years now. I started off doing mostly reviews and proofreading, but I’ve branched out a bit and have done a few interviews and live reports. Luckily, I’ve lived in places that give me pretty decent access to Japanese music: namely Taiwan and Los Angeles, California. I started off listening to rock and was very intensely into visual kei, but I will admit that J-pop works its way into my head sometimes. Lately, I’ve been dipping into Korean pop as well, but that’s really a guilty pleasure!
My first brush with Japanese music came with anime, as I imagine it does for many in my generation. Does anyone remember TWO MIX? They did some of the ending songs for “Gundam Wing” and I still remember being incredibly amused by the random English sprinkled throughout the lyrics. Little did I know that this was pretty much a standard in Japanese music. “Rurouni Kenshin” got me interested in T.M. Revolution and L'Arc~en~Ciel, and HYDE took me down the path to meet GACKT. And as we all know, GACKT isn’t someone to be ignored. He remains one of my favorite artists to this day – although I’m not completely enthralled by his current release – and I will always support him, even though I still maintain that he can’t dance.
I got into visual kei with Alice Nine, and yes, I am one of "those" fans that misses their old sound. It’s really hard to become popular without becoming mainstream, though, and of course bands evolve over the years. But as it is with all memories of youth, I am nostalgic for the days when their music was rougher and wilder. I still have a soft spot for them though, I consider them my gateway band (or drug).
Even at the height of my obsession, I was only really focused on a few other bands: SID, MIYAVI and Vidoll. I knew of most other visual kei bands and listened to some of their music, but I’m not the kind of person who can multi-task when it comes to obsession. It’s always one TV show, one band, one album at a time. If you’re one of those people who can obsess over multiple things at once, please tell me how you do it! There just aren’t enough hours in the day for me.
Over the last year or so, I’ve become a bit more distanced from Japanese music. Part of it is laziness; real life often gets in the way of fandom as you get older. I still try to keep up with the occasional release, though. Japanese music played such a huge part of my life throughout high school and college that I could never just give it up. And, yes, it makes me feel special and different when I listen to foreign music. Shallowness, thy name is anna.
If you were at all amused, or perhaps affronted at getting to know anna, please leave a message and tell her so. If you feel that you want to know more about her, please do not leave a message as you will never be able to shut her up!
