How I discovered Morning Musume

Welcome to the very first post of my blog!

I know that giving it the title of "H!Phanatic" may predispose me to write exclusively about Morning Musume and Hello! Project, but that's not going to be the case. I intend to write about any and all things, but since my interests at the moment centre around H!P, you'll get a fair amount of posts related to the subject of the title of my blog.

So, without further ado, let's get at it.

I've been into JPop ever since I dated a Japanese girl about 4 years ago. In order to impress her, I did what I could to learn everything I could about contemporary Japanese society. I figured learning about samurai and all that stuff would just be what a "japanophile" would do. I wasn't a japanophile, but I really liked this girl. And one thing that kept coming up in my internet research was JPop.

So I started with borrowing her CDs; she had a lot of Ayumi Hamasaki and Hikaru Utada, which were good. But she also leant me one CD that I enjoyed more than all of the others and played over and over again: Morning Musume 4th Ikimasshoi!

Now, believe me when I tell you that there is nothing in this world that would have given you any clue whatsoever that I would like this sort of music. I mean I was always into electronic music. Not that fake dancey over-the-top eurobeat stuff, I'm talking fuckin' hardcore Detroit Techno with DJs such as Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin, Derrick May, Carl Craig among my favourite. A subset of the Detroit Techno sound was the music being played by Japanese Techno DJs such as Fumie Tanaka. My all time favourite CD to this day is Jeff Mills Live at the Liquid Room in Tokyo. But I digress, I'm just illustrating that there is nothing in my history of musical appreciation that would give the impression that I would like this Morning Musume CD as much as I did.

The CD that started it all for me!

Perhaps it was the flat out, in your face, cutesy and catchy bubblegum, or whatever Japanese metaphorical equivalent to bubblegum is, that made me like it so much. Perhaps it was the picture of the girls, the cutie-pie faced girls on the CD cover and liner-notes. Perhaps it was the hyper-happy, hook-filled, energetic song tracks. I don't know. I still don't know. All I know is that I liked it. I still do.

That girl and I lasted together for about 8 months. It seems like such a long time ago, but I forever owe her a debt of gratitude for introducing me to Morning Musume and their music.