More classic canto-pop/J-Pop

Youtube is a great source finding old songs. I found this old Leon Lai's song, 我愛 Ichi Ban.

Yeah, Leon Lai can't dance. Leon, only moving your arms is not dancing.
Anyway, obviously from the title, this is a Japanese song originally. Well, thanks to youtube, I found the original Japanese song, 世界で一番近くにいて.

LOL. Sounds really old isn't it compared to today's J-Pop. LOL.

This one is Jacky Cheung's 愛、火、花.

Yeah, Jacky Cheung can dance. Not bad. :)
And the original Japanese song, Bomber Girl by 近藤房之助 & 織田哲郎

LOL

The Evolution of Music

Click to play

Click the Play button above to start playback.
The evolution and highlights of music that I experienced and enjoyed from my childhood through the end of 2008.
Track list:
1. Candy Candy Anime OP
2. Goshogun 発進せよ by Fujii Ken
3. Dai Sentai Goggle V
My first exposure to music that has a significant memory to me was actually from anime. No, not Sesame Street, Barney, or Mr. Rodgers, it's shoujo/mecha anime and tokusatsu for me. YEAH! LOL.

4. Born Free by Andy Williams
5. Bye Bye Love by The Everly Brothers
My next exposure to music were actually music from the 50s and 60s, simply because these were the music that my dad listen to. Ironically, I didn't even know/hear about the Beatles.

6. Step by Step by New Kids on the Block
7. Someone Loves You by Takayuki Miyauchi
8. Cover Girl by New Kids on the Block
9. Can't Stop This Thing We Started by Bryan Adams
Yeah, I hardly know any music from the 70s. Next thing I knew, it's NKOTB. Of course, I still watch tokusatsu, mainly Kamen Rider Black and Black RX. I started to listen to western songs, NKOTB, Vanilla Ice, Bryan Adams, Phil Collins, etc.

10. 對你愛不完 by 郭富城
11. 追風少年 by 吳奇隆
12. 吻別 by 張學友
13. 100樣可能 by 黎明
1991 was one of the turning point for me. 對你愛不完 by Aaron Kwok is probably the first mandarin pop song that I listen to, and hooked me into Chinese/Canto-pop for years, especially during the "Rave/Techno" era of Canto-pop. Thus my music collection mainly consisted of Aaron Kwok, Jacky Cheung, Leon Lai, Eric Suen, and various Hong Kong/Taiwan artists. I hardly listen to western songs anymore, if ever, around this time.

14. Music for The People by V6
15. Everything (It's you) by Mr.Children
16. 眼睛想旅行 by 黎明
1995 was another turning point for me. I watched the music video of V6's Music for The People, and I was amazed. It was so awesome that I was hooked into V6 and J-Pop, not realizing the true genre of that particular music. My music collection started to grow with more JPop and JRock music in addition to mandarin/canto-pop.

17. Love Forever by Sechskies
18. Shuffle by 奥井雅美
19. GOOD DAYS by Zone
20. Cosmic Rescue by V6
A blip in my music experience was Korean pop, introduced by my sister. HOT, Turbo, Sechskies, NRG, Cool, the list goes on. However, I'm not really hooked into the genre that much, referring back to JPop with artists like V6, Zone, Masami Okui, dream, Mr.Children, Folder, Tokio, W-inds, T.M.Revolution, etc. Watching a lot of anime also drawn me further into JPop, until I found THE true genre of the music that I love.

21. Space Boy by Dave Rodgers
22. Spacelove by Fastway
23. I Know What You Like by Karen
24. Get the Dark Side Into My Brain by CY-RO
25. Blood On Fire by Go2 & Christine
26. Caramelldansen (Speedy mix) by Caramell
27. Please Don't Leave Me by Go2 feat. Andrea Martongelli
Yeah, Eurobeat. I finally found my kind of music. Remember V6's Music for the People music video that I saw back in 1995? What amazed me was not JPop. It was Eurobeat. I didn't know nor realize that back then, thinking it's JPop, and even mistakenly thought it was Eurodance. Even funnier, Eurobeat is actually from Italy, not Japan. Thanks to the internet, I finally figured out Eurobeat, later found out the genre is used extensively in Initial D. Now, Eurobeat is the main staple of my music collection. Dave Rodgers, Niko, D.Essex, Fastway, Ace, Go2, Nuage, Domino, Go Go Girls, Manuel, etc. I still listen to various JPop, but not as much as before. As for Chinese pop, I hardly listen to them anymore. Most of the current songs are pretty much ballads or Chinese hip-hop anyway, not my cup of tea. Caramelldansen is not really Eurobeat, but the speed mix version is very catchy and popular that I had to include it here.

There you go. My musical journey to the discovery of the music genre that fits with me so well that I never get bored with it, Eurobeat. Other musical trends pop up and die off, but Eurobeat is still going strong.

Kanpai Je t'aime

I was browsing youtube for Kamen Rider videos, and found this Pure Boys PV.

2 casts from Kamen Rider Kiva are members of the group {Nago Keisuke (Kamen Rider IXA) and Otoya (Wataru's father/IXA/Dark Kiva)}. It's a PV of one of Pure Boys music, Kanpai Je t'aime. It's actually their first album in 2007.

Well, hmmm, I was thinking. This song sounds so familiar, and I don't think it was Japanese. Hmmm, I think it was... Korean. Yup, this is actually a cover of a Korean song from, guess when, 1999! The original song is "Com' Back" by Sechskies.

Hey, I like J-Pop, but c'mon, covering a Korean song from 8 years ago? And the dance? You think the Pure Boys' dance is good? I don't think they could handle the way Sechskies did it. Here's Sechskies from 1999:

Yeah, a bit more energetic, no? LOL.

BTW, you can get the Pure Boys song "Kanpai Je t'aime" from iTunes, amazing.

Update: Updated the Sechskies video youtube link. the old one was gone.

Scandal on iTunes!

Yeah, awesome! Scandal is a new indy Japanese bandol from Osaka. Heard of Zone or Boystyle? Similar idea. They did a live concert at Sakura-con 2008. Their first single "Space Ranger" was on sale, but the main song shown on the anime MV before the concert was their 2nd single "Koi Moyo," which are not available in the US, until now, thanks to iTunes. Search for "Koi Moyo" to find it right away. Searching for Scandal will give you other results. Alas, it's not iTunes Plus, meaning it's 128kbps DRMed AAC, but 99cent is definitely better than trying to import the CD from Japan. I'm glad that more and more Japanese music are available via iTunes.