Have you ever successfully converted someone to Japanese music?

[lichtlune 915]

I thought this would be a cool topic,

 

have you ever made a fan out of a friend or family member into liking Japanese music/visual kei?

 

 

[Dark Kinma 960]

Yes, when i'm starting to linstening Visual-kei, in the same period i meet a girl, I has give her song from Dir en Grey and she became a fan of this band and of visual kei (Yes DeG of 2000's was V-kei xD)

I try with my best friend, many time and time with different band, but nothing to do, he can't like this style XD

[Thedane 176]

Both my brothers have been converted, not exactly die hard fans, but they've picked a few bands they like.

 

Then I'd say... 4 of my friends, 1 of which have been converted 100%.

 

None of them have been into the same bands like me, it's mostly mucc that gets them, then they wander off on their own.

[violetchain 912]

A friend of mine ended up liking HITT after I suggested we check out his free concert at Anime North. Then again, HITT's show was hilarious and filled with moments like this:

so I think it was more for the theatrics than anything.

 

She liked Jake stone garage enough to buy a CD when she came with me to Japan Nite, though, so it seems like the door is at least open for more.

[nullmoon 784]

I introduced my girlfriend to it and now she loves bands like Versailles and A as she was all about K-pop beforehand I think I deserve bonus points

[Original Saku 1593]

No. most people where I live can't get pass the language barrier and are too narrow minded... not to mention they're all into this radio rap/pop bullshit that's popular here for some reason, so I doubt they even appreciate good music to begin with.

 

I however have successfully converted quite a few friends into watching subbed anime over dubbed xD

[Champ213 1858]

I made a friend a massive Psycho le Cemu fan years ago. She now has quite the impressive collection of PLC CDs, DVDs and merchandise, including the best bit of band merchandise ever, the

! XD

[seikun 317]

Well, kind of...

One of my friends I met in 2007 is a die-hard fan of progressive rock and he used to speak against Visual Kei in those days. We used to share our music with each other. He had many prejudices against Visual Kei. However as time went by he started to like some songs, maybe not specific bands, but a considerable ammount of songs from Visual Kei bands.

 

One of the songs he likes is Mezame No Toki ~Kakusei Sareta Mou Hitori No~ by La féerie (KEY PARTY band)

[Ro plz 1290]

I actually got one of my best friends into the GazettE and DIR EN GREY first then OZ, and a few other bands. The language barrier wasn't much of an issue. Its just finding actual music that actually resonated with him. 

[Augie1995 325]

Ever since my first introduction by watching BLEACH, I got my mom to watch that as well. I got into HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR and UVERworld, and then my mom got into UVERworld. Now she's a fan of UVERworld, The GazettE, Alice Nine (and she has a schoolgirl crush on Tora), Versailles, and DELUHI ( i have no ideahow I got her into them)

 

I also got my cousin into the music but I don't know if he is fully converted or if he can just bare through them because I have a huge influence in him as one of his more respectable older cousins

[Bear 1817]

No, I don't think so. Everyone I have ever known since I got into Japanese music myself have been into Japanese music. I've introduced people to visual kei, but those have already known at least a handful of Japanese bands.

[Tokage 5930]

I've managed to turn some people who weren't really hardcore into japanese music into casual fans of FLOPPY at some point in the past. That was pretty weird.

[rebelstrik 111]

i guess not. actually i dont feel comfortable when others hear what i listen, its my own world where i dont wanna let others in. i am enjoying being weirdo. and i cant get along with other jrock/visual kei fans. mostly they all are idiots. or maybe i am the idiot?

[paradoxal 2948]

i guess not. actually i dont feel comfortable when others hear what i listen, its my own world where i dont wanna let others in. i am enjoying being weirdo. and i cant get along with other jrock/visual kei fans. mostly they all are idiots. or maybe i am the idiot?

 

I have a friend who started liking VK because of me, but he also likes KISS and AC/DC because of some other friend, so he basically listens to what his friends do I'm pretty positive that he's the only one I've even partially converted.

 

But nowadays I feel somehow extremely uncomfortable trying to "share" my songs if the person isn't already into VK. There are a few songs that are so personal and emotional to me that if a non-VK friend listened to them and ended up hating them, it would really feel bad. I do listen to VK sometimes when I'm with my non-VK friends, but I always end up choosing a band which isn't among my favorites. Somehow revealing my favorite songs would be way too personal for me or something.

[rebelstrik 111]

my bro likes some songs of mucc cuz i listen them and he thinks merry and maximum the hormone is ok too. i was going with him to jupiter show in warsaw and he asked how many of the members are girls

sometimes i am going to my dads house and listening loud jrock there. once when i was listening deluhi or sujk, he said those instrumental intros are nice. i guess he didnt liked the singing. and another time when i was listening to malize mizer (klaha era), about one of the songs he said it reminds him 60s russian patriotics songs which he hates

those jrockers i know, usualy listen gazette or something from new vkei like d.i.d or mejibray. i cant get along with them. same situation is with non jrock/vkei fans.

[Pretsy 1343]

I got my close friend pretty fast into some of L'arc's repertoire after him getting quite warmed with "Driver's High" (GTO anime OP). Also, my mom has some BT/L'arc albums in her mp4 player (I didn't acknowledge it until at some point when I was jamming to DTD and Heavenly), but that's what you call "unintentional conversion", haha.

 

Also: it's quite easy to get pop diva/Daft Punk-appreciating people into Yasutaka Nakata's music (Perfume, Capsule, Meg...and prolly some of Kyary), due to certain similarities .

 

Also, I have converted many school buddies of mine into DEG fans in the past too (quite easy as well)

[lichtlune 915]

I tried to get an ex acquaintance who was into deathcore stuff back in high school into dir en grey and unsraw and he just said its weird or something. I think some people simply can't accept or get past the language barrier.. Unless its like Rammstein or something but then again they will only know "Du Hast" and that's it.

 

My family usually asks me to turn off my music if i try to play it around them or in the car or something.

 

Surprised some of you have been able to convert your family members so easily maybe my family is just closed minded. Its not like i only listen to one genre of music. 

 

I do recall my dad liking a song by "Dio - Distraught Overlord" though.

[GoreWhore 33]

not so much "converted" as I got people into particular bands that lined up with their genre preferences, it's been all over the place over these past 14 years, from Dir en grey, Lareine, Lucifer Luscious Violenoue, and Luna Sea back in the late 90s/early noughts, to deadman, metronome, mucc, etc in throughout the mid noughts, and stuff like anonymous confederate ensemble, 9goats, and versailles in recent years.

 

However I do host a radio program where the goal is to introduce asian music to a western audience and we've gotten a few messages here and there saying we played a band or genre someone hadn't heard of before, so that always lights up my day

[Guest mitsu the indie girl]

Yes. When I was in high school, I converted many of my friends, who were into anime and manga, to visual kei.

[Flame-X 441]

Converted a couple of folks back in high school but I'm not in speaking terms with them anymore.

[Lestat 2167]

No. For me it's the opposite, pretty much. As soon as I started listening to VK, my friends dropped me because they thought it was ridiculous and started judging me solely on my music tastes.

[Mihenno 4194]

My friend and I got into VK bands in like 2007/2008 and It's been all I've listened to since then. I just can't get into what's popular with everyone else and what's played on the radio. In 2010, my friend totally fell off from the scene and I don't know why. I think he said "It's dead." and I was like "Oh. Same." This kinda affected our friendship because a majority of the time that we'd talk, it would be sharing music with each other. Maybe he was never really into it  as much as I thought he was? 

 

In regards to my parents, they don't say anything. It's constantly playing throughout the house and in my car and my dad actually taps his foot to the beat of some songs. For awhile though, I was scared to let them know that I listen to Japanese music, but over time I was like "fuck it, Y0LO" because why should you have to hide what you like from your parents? My dad actually told me that he liked the song Zero Crysis by DaizyStripper. LOL

 

I'm in the process of converting 2 others right now. One friend who listens to VK bands occasionally and one friend who pretty much only listens to anime OSTs and knows about the songs because they're anime OP/EDs. Maybe in time they'll join me....

[beni 2149]

The only one person I've managed to do and having said that in the random thoughts thread is my college friend Joshua. I showed him a couple artists like FEMM and TK but when I showed him AKB48 out of everyone, he fell for them only. X'D

[doombox 4421]

I haven't gotten any friends "into" Japanese music, per se. But I have friends that are open minded and will like a band or 2 when I play them and follow those bands. But they have not really dived into the ocean of Japanese music farther than that. At least, they aren't like me combing over every new release I can find lol.

[evilcoconut 109]

I think I got one friend at least partially into Japanese music, mostly big VK bands. I don't really go out of my way to "convert" people lol