J-pop fandom

Talking about jpop is something hard to show. I mean, JE (Johnny's Entertainment) don't let ANY of their artists videos around, ANYWHERE. They take everything out, I had 2 Youtube accounts canceled just because I uploaded some videos. And I'm not alone, I have some friends that had the same problem.
Then the only thing I can TRY to make is post a pic or two, and it's still a risk.
For other artists, a lot of those I listen/like are from AVEX. Well, they're just a LITTLE less annoying than JE. They have a Youtube channel, BUT, they only upload short versions/teasers. And I don't even know if the video stays there for a long time or not.
These said, let's talk about how it begun... XD

One night, I think it was Saturday/Sunday night, I was living in Japan, my brother were out for work, and I was alone at the apartment, doing some cleaning, with the TV on. Then the Japan Countdown started and I stopped to take a look. I was really curious about japanese music, as I was living there for like... 3 or 4 months, and really didn't know anything about their music yet.

They show a Top 50 or something like, with just a piece of the videos, but it's interesting if you just want to have a overall look. Well, two artists made me pay more attention and try to remember their names: Exile and Dragon Ash. That night, when I was at my brother's computer, I made a quick search about them, but it was really hard to find.
The songs were: Exile's "Real World"  and Dragon Ash's "Shade". It took me some weeks to find them in mp3 to listen the full songs. But I really loved them. Exile is a very unique group, at that time, they had 2 singers and 4 dancers. Now they are so many I don't have any idea... LOL. Over the years they added another dancer, changed one of the main vocals, and then united with the second generation of JSoul Brothers, and now they are releasing a single with the name Exile Tribe, with 2nd and 3rd JSoul Brother's groups and more people, in a total of 24 men... Oo.
Drangon Ash was something really similar to Incubus with that song, that's why I loved that so much. But their style changes a bit from single to single, but basically they are an alternative rock band.

But my real fandom thing started with the Shuuji to Akira fever that took Japan with the Nobuta wo Produce drama. "Seishun Amigo"  was the #1 selling song that year, and it was released just 2 months before the end of the year... LOL. The song was playing everywhere you could think about or go.
Shuuji to Akira is a unit, based on the drama characters. Out of the characters they are Kamenashi Kazuya from KAT-TUN and Yamashita Tomohisa formerly from NewS. AKA: Kame and YamaP.
Kame isn't my "classic"  style of boy, but YamaP was just an eyecandy and earcandy for me. It was love at first sight, watching the PV, and his voice was already my favorite while listening to the song before.
First step taken, I started searching for KAT-TUN and NewS things around the net at the holidays.
At that time, NewS was just debuted months before that, and come on, if you search for NEWS as a keyword you end up with tons of things, but none of them are what you're looking for... T_T.
KAT-TUN still didn't debut at that time, but they were really famous already.
 And I can still remember when I first saw KAT-TUN at TV, while watching Music Station Super Live. They performed "She said"  and "Kizuna". And the second I saw Ueda Tatsuya I fell in love with him. Really, there's no words to say how that little second made me search for him on the screen until the performance was gone. Right after the TV show ended I was at the computer searching for them like crazy... LOL.

After that, tons of other artists fulfilled my life, but when I talk about Japanese artists, my favorite one still is Ueda. No matter the hairstyle, blond, black, orange, shaved... XD. He's such an adorable faerie and I think he will be my love for a long time.

When I had to leave Japan, I had to stop following the artists closely like I did when I was living there. Japanese record companies are strict and they don't let things around for a long time. The opposite of the Korean record companies that learned to deal with digital media and all internet can offer. Plus, any single/album made for the japanese market is more expensive than those made for the worldwide market. Ok, they have limited editions, but even the normal versions are more expensive.

Today there are few of them I still try to keep updating releases and things like that. But even those ones I have to sadly say that I just don't feel the same enthusiasm as I had before. Maybe because listening to japanese songs reminds me my happy japanese days and how much I'm unhappy now... LOL.

I'm not in the mood to search for the pics now, then I'll do it later and then update the post... or not... LOL

That's all for today: a boring post with a monologue about my musical life... XDDD