Nintendo Okie

J-pop and K-pop; Asian music.  I love that stuff.  I suppose that makes me a bit of an otaku.  For anyone that doesn’t know I am talking about Japanese pop and Korean pop music.  I have mentioned in past posts some bands you should check out if you are looking for new music and this week I have a double helping for you.  Plus, there is a story to go along with these.  First up is You Get Me by Kylee, a 17-year-old, Japanese-American singer.  Her career as a singer took off when she was eleven years old and sung the National Anthem at an NBA game.  Several of her songs have been used as theme songs for anime – a sign of quality if you ask me.

During my time in college, I found a SHOUTcast radio station called Kawaii-Radio.  Over the years I got in the habit of listening to it while I was sleeping.  One night, a little over a year ago, I heard Kylee’s You Get Me as I was half asleep.  Despite having one foot in dream land I could tell the song was great.  In a haze, I stumbled to the computer and looked at the song name.  It seemed easy to remember so I figured there was no need to write it down.  The next morning I went to YouTube and typed in the song title and artist I remembered; Kelly – You Got Me.  Obviously, I didn’t find what I was looking for.  I spent hours looking through lists of J-pop artists and trying every way possible to find the song.  Alas, no luck.  My only option was to wait for the song to be played again.  Two days later as I lay in bed, the song comes back on again.  I rush to the computer and see the title; Kylee – You Get Me.  I was so close!  Next time, I decided, I’m going to write it down.

Next up is a song I just discovered in the last few weeks.  This one is called Ugly by a Korean group OK PUNK!.  The band was started by a Korean actress who wanted to be a singer.  I heard this song several times while listening to XAMFM (Kawaii-Radio shut down ).  This song was playing as I was getting ready for work Wednesday morning.  As I was walking around, I considered seeing what the song was called and writing it down.  I didn’t.   As you can guess, that was a mistake.  All day, and I mean ALL DAY, the song was stuck in my head.  Worse than any song has ever been before.  Since I had no idea of the title or artist, I once again had to wait for the song to be played again.  I listened to the station for the entire night but it didn’t come up.  I searched through a list of common songs played on the station but no luck.  Finally out of desperation, I tuned into the station through my phone’s 3G while at work.  Wouldn’t you know it as the first thing I heard was the song’s chorus.  Funny how that works sometimes huh?