I knew I only had a few choices in choosing someone to interview because of my research paper topic: how does Japanese music affect the culture. The first person that came to mind was a good friend of mine, Alex, who knows quite a bit about Japanese music. When I first approached her to ask her if she wanted to be my interviewee she was all for it. There were some complications on how we were going to do it because she goes to school about two hours away. She ended up coming home for the weekend which gave us the perfect chance to meet. I explained to her what my research project was and since she happens to like Japanese music I thought she could give me her insight on the subject.
We began talking about Alex’s childhood and how she first got involved with the Japanese culture. When she was younger, she would watch Sailor Moon and Pokemon on television. At the time, she had no idea that these two shows would open up a whole new world for her. As she got older, she frequented the internet often and from there found the original Japanese songs for Sailor Moon and Pokemon. Alex said that her mother thought she was just going through a phase, but her sister believed it to not be a phase. Her sister ended up being right. Alex started to watch anime, Japanese animation, and became even more involved with the music. She watched this anime called Full Metal Alchemist and the theme song really struck her. She came across the song online and found that it was by a Japanese band called L’Arc~en~Ciel. This band would be her first extended experience listening to Japanese music.
Alex and I first met in seventh grade when she transferred from Cabrini to Divine Child. Freshman year of high school, I gave her two L’Arc~en~Ciel CDs. Alex reminisced about listening to those CDs on the way to her uncle’s funeral. She told me that her uncle was “awesome”, but we did not dwell on it very much. I did not want to make her uncomfortable so she continued telling me her story of how she got into Japanese music. We both had gone to a friends birthday party, and there I gave Alex another CD, this time of the vocalist of L’Arc~en~Ciel. With all of this exposure to this one Japanese band, they quickly became her favorite. Continuing on her journey, Alex then told me she started to find more Japanese music online using mainly youtube.com to find new bands. Sophomore year, Alex befriend a freshman who listened to Korean pop. He got her involved with yet another culture’s music. Alex now goes to Hillsdale College and continues her search for new Japanese and Korean music.
Japanese music has different genres as does most music. These genres range from boy bands to hard rock and more. I asked Alex about a particular style of music called ‘Visual Kei.’ I asked Alex what she thought ‘Visual Kei’ was all about and she replied that it is “anything with a genre of rock music, with extravagant costumes, and that focus on looks first.” She told me that when she sees a Visual Kei band before hearing their music, she is inclined to listen to their music, but if they are bad she will not stick with them just because of their looks even though some people will. She then continued saying that if she hears a band first and then sees what they look like and they are not ‘Visual Kei,’ she will still listen to them because their music is good.
Alex really does like any kind of music, so when I brought up Johnny’s Entertainment, she became very excited. Johnny’s Entertainment is the company who owns the most popular boy bands in Japan. To prove this, Alex found polls on the internet that magazines have printed and showed me that most people will choose someone from Johnny’s Entertainment over anyone else. Alex also told me that even if there is a scandal with anyone under Johnny’s Entertainment, people will be asked to not speak about it. After she gave me these little facts, I asked her why she likes these boy bands. Her response was that “they brighten up her day, have charismatic personalities, are cute and entertaining to watch.”
Alex gave me many new ideas for my research paper because of this interview. We both had fun talking about these ideas, and she seemed to be very glad that I asked her to be my interviewee.
This is Alex, my interviewee. She had found some information that I could use for my research paper so she was writing down the website for me.
This is where we held the interview. My nice and comfortable living room.
These are a few examples of some Japanese bands. The bottom two are Visual Kei and the top one is a boy band.
