A History: Part One

Who am I? Apart from what I have already mentioned in my introductory (and other) post(s), your constructed image of me will be nothing more than a bunch of text and a thoroughly unconvincing user avatar of a girl, of which I am not one (of course, unless you have actually met me personally or unlucky enough to see my face uploaded onto the Internet through various means). Millions of pages could be written about my personal life, my value systems, things and people I liked and didn't like. But no, that's boring and I wish to keep (most) of my highly specific personal life details private, as most sensible people would on the Internet. Rather, I want to share with you my life experiences and history as it pertains to how I got into this wild beast of a fandom called AKB48.

Part One - Formation

2000~: The Early Days of Music

To fully understand where my tastes come from, you must first go back in time to my youth (okay, childhood) and my first exposure to music. Music never really entered into my life (as a form of pleasure and entertainment, not religious worship to keep things short) until I first struck a key on the piano when I was a little kid, like most Asian parents would want their kids to. Slowly, hesitantly at first (and some might even argue until today), my foundations in classical piano developed right up until a competent level of technical ability and consequently, my bedrock appreciation in classical music. And no, I don't like Bach and Baroque music - give me the romanticists Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky any day. 

Quite a common sight in the morning.

The latter years of my primary school education was, perhaps, my first exposure to a thing called "popular music". That, and access to MTV - back when it actually was "Music Television", not the entertainment filth of today. Back in those days, it was all about Eminem (Without Me), Backstreet Boys, Ricky Martin (Livin' La Vida Loca), Shakira (Whenever, Wherever) and Kylie Minogue (Love At First Sight), to name a few. Not to mention the time when Australian Idol first started and people like Guy Sebastian or Holly Valance made all the headlines, and the period when Australia was obsessed with all things Eurodance (DJ Sammy and Scooter, for example). And, lo and behold, I had my first celebrity crush in the form of Sophie Ellis Bextor (see below video clip). For a small while. Scary, huh. Yes, contemporary Top 40s Western pop formed a substantial part of my first grips with popular music.

But there was another, far more important development going on in parallel...

2001-2002: Animating

Notable songs: Justice (Kudou Aki); Just Communication (Two-Mix) - see below; Taiyou no Hana (Okui Masami) 

Boys like us cherished the morning TV cartoon blocks and, if you're lucky enough to have access to it, Cartoon Network. Sure, Pikachu & friends and the persistent episode-long Super Saiyan power-ups dominated many a television screen and primary school conversation back then, but some of you might remember Toonami (on Cartoon Network), back when it actually aired decent anime series. Thus, shows like Gundam Wing (with the original Japanese OP intact), Zoids and Cardcaptor(s/ Sakura) (unfortunately with the American dub) kickstarted my whole adventure into anime. That was only part of the story, however. 

It was during a usual trip back to my home country (i.e. Asia) where I discovered, at the place I was staying, a little channel treasure-to-be called AXN. Home, at that time, to a couple of influential series like Ayashi no Ceres, Shin Hakkenden and (Groove Adventure) Rave. Their melodical Japanese OP themes reverberated with me; even 'till today, it's nostalgia to my ears. And of course, being Asia, free-to-air TV also aired anime: the primary suspects at the time being Cyber Team in Akihabara and Saber Marionette J to X. Alas, none of these shows individually got me across the line into the world of otaku - all of them in tandem did. But one in particular struck out with its flashy, oh-so-futuristic mecha and likeable (eye candy-wise) characters - Vandread. Yes, back when GONZO actually made great quality series. Needless to say, after watching an ep or two of that, I was hooked. No one back in Australia could understand my newfound interests (granted, this was still during primary school and we are talking about niche anime series that were pretty far off the standard Pokemon and Dragonball Z set). I didn't care. I was sold, like (literally) kids to candy.

2003-2005: Beginner's Dabblings in Japanese Entertainment... and House Muzak

Notable songs: kanariya (Power Mix) (Hamasaki Ayumi); YOU (YURIA); Make Luv (Room 5 feat. Oliver Cheatham); Call on Me (Eric Prydz) (NSFW link); Push Up (Freestylers) (see below)

Hate to say it in public domain, but if it wasn't for P2P stalwarts like Kazaa or WinMX, I would never have discovered Japanese popular music. During the very latter stages of my primary school education, and continuing right into (junior) high school, having gained a fresh new interest in anime, I was excited about exploring this whole new world. 

Let's start off with anime first, beginning with a little-known (and now defunct) free Dutch web service called animeTV. Here, I discovered the venerable Martian Successor Nadesico, Gundam SEED and, admittedly, the darker side of anime in the form of a (fairly banal) ecchi rom-com called Green Green. Moving a few years of technology forward, my tastes evolved in tandem. High school had an anime club back then, where I was subtly introduced to the world of DivX .avi anime and fansubs. And then, whilst all the nerdy guys got hooked on Full Metal Panic!,  there was Shuffle! - yes, that ecchi anime-cum-H game that only someone like Airin would have the brevity to love (come to think of it, I regret that my anime choices suddenly turned all ecchi - I was only 13/14 dammit!). Debate raged between which character was hotter - I was a Sia person. In the midst of all this character and plot talk, I began to gain interest in appreciating anison in its most basic form: OPs and EDs.

Japanese music wasn't all confined to anison, of course. I used WinAmp back then, with its internet radio feature coming in quite handily. There, I discovered miss Hamasaki Ayumi - not for her usual slow, ballad-y type songs, but for her more hardcore, remixed Eurobeat/Cybertrance stuff. I was sold, and thus formed a key principle underlying my music tastes: hard bass beats, synth-heavy, dance-type stuff. Not only Ayu, but also Konami too, with Dance Dance Revolution megamixes catching my attention. It was everything my ears (at that time) loved: fast-tempo synths, incredibly cheesy melodies and sickeningly sweet vocals. 

When I started high school, my friend introduced me to a new form of music - dance music, proper. Not like the Japanese Eurobeat schlock I mentioned before. I'm talking specifically of the music coming from the Ministry of Sound label. Before the current (now much despised by yours truly) electro-house movement tack, to quote a well-known phrase, "It's all about house music". And such it was - days were spent anticipating the next The Annual album series (in both UK and Australian label editions, no less) and subsequently diving head-long to get them both in digital form. Not just The Annual, but every other interesting House/Ibiza album series I could get my grubby digital hands on. Those groovy, oft-fast beat lines grabbed me by the ears and I never looked back. 

See a pattern? Beats. Synths. Beautiful melodic structures. This was, indeed, the cornerstone technicality of my musical tastes. Thus emerged two disparate, yet parallel, interests in music - one born and bred out of the anime movement, the other found in clubs and Saturday evening dance music shows on Top 40 FM radio stations. And it all started with my first baby finger-steps on a Yamaha piano.

Part 2 continues here.