- Emma Watson
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I realize that I have strange likes about music, and by strange I mean different from many people usually do ('strange' itself for me means music that totally has no melody, no soul whatsoever). Honestly I listen to lots of genres, from pop to rock, classical to some very modern hits, etc. From all, I would say that my favorite genre is rock, especially Japanese rock. To me who have been listening to Japanese music since I was a kid, their music feels different. More passionate, more feeling put into each note and each breath of vocals from the singer. I never fully understand what they're singing about, but I can feel the spirit. Isn't that what music supposed to do, which is to talk through the heart of its listeners?
Because of my strange likes, I'm really used to people raising half their eyebrows when they know I listen to L'Arc~en~Ciel, or ONE OK ROCK, or Acid Black Cherry, or R指定 (R-Shitei / Rated-R), or many other bands that only some very 'freak' Japanese lovers who spend half of their time around the Internet would know. After that, usually some very mean and hateful comments will follow, such as "Ew, disgusting!" or "Are they ladyboys?" or "Why are you even listening to this kind of music?". Like seriously, those who know me for a long time already usually just ignore me, but those who just knew me will say those things.
For me, sometimes it hurts hearing my favorite musicians being called gays, ladyboys, or pussies because I totally know that they are NOT, but mostly it's just hillarious and I find their reactions amusing, actually... hahahha...
The only thing that bothers me is, people who judge my music taste usually don't even try to understand or listen to the song first, not even once. They usually listen to it for like some 30 first seconds of the songs and decide that they don't like it. Or worse, sometimes, even from hearing that they are Japanese bands, they won't give it a chance at all.
It's such a pity.
This world is so huge. Why just listen to Billboard Top 100 US? There are so many unknown yet great musicians, no matter what countries they're from or what language they use in the song. Kids nowadays will swallow any songs that they listen too many times from the radio (repeated exposure), or any songs from a very famous artist, no matter it's good or not (for me, a very good example is Taylor Swift's Bad Blood or Katy Perry's Dark Horse), so they're like "Oh, Katy Perry's new song! Must be good! Oh YEAHHH it's sooo good!!". Usually I just smile wearily to this kind of people when it happens (reallyyyy?). Anyway, don't get me wrong, because I also listen to some very recent pop songs (in fact, there were just too many great hits during late 2014. I particularly love Sam Smith's and singles like Boom Clap, Royals, Take Me To Church, Radioactive, etc), but besides the mainstream music, I also enjoy the others. When I'm bored with my songs, I usually let myself lose in YouTube sidebar, or I try to find some other music from web. This resulting in my finding BOY (really like their song Drive Darling), Birdy, Asgeir, etc etc.. I also listen to some Korean songs which I find good (although I'm not much of a fan of Korean pop culture). Because of the limitations to the sources, I haven't really explored music from the other countries. But the point is, you've gotta give it a try first! I don't mind if people judge L'Arc~en~Ciel after they listen to the whole song, but not after only the first 30 seconds, or even from the country of origin ("Ew, Japanese songs.. no thanks"). Not only it's annoying, but they'll miss lots of wonderful music if they keep doing that.
So in the end, do not limit yourself. Broaden your horizon, especially if you admit that you love music.
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