I actually just recently stop listening to Jpop as much as I used to. For the past year or so, my love for it has subsided into a feeling of, "It's nice every so often." Jpop (or Japanese pop) was just one of the many ways I got into my favorite anime. I learned the lyrics to some of the songs, and some of them had dances that I learned; a few of which I still know mostly.
I started listening to Jpop around when my friend was trying to get me into Inuyasha (as mentioned in this shameless promo). I got into the theme songs more than the show. I remember being able to sing "My Will" by Dream and "Every Heart" by BoA by heart. I even knew one of the theme songs for an anime I barely knew anything about, Bleach. "Life is a Boat" by Rie fu was one of my favorite songs all the way through high school.
I really got into Jpop when I found the Vocaloids, a Jpop group composed completely of anime characters. Their voices were made by sampling people speaking, and using it to make the characters’ sound right and sing songs. My favorite was Len Kagamine (again, see the shameless promo), and for the longest time his songs took up a large amount of space on my phone. It was only about four or five months ago that I realized I don't really listen to his music anymore, and deleted all of it. My song count went from about 398 to 261, of that only about ten were other Jpop songs. I mostly just deleted them to make room on my phone (because my phone is shitty and has almost no space on it for anything). However, even though I know I can fit more music, and I still find myself really liking the theme music for some of the anime I’m watching currently, I just don’t feel the need to download and listen to it constantly like I used to.
All of the foreign music I once had on my phone, including Jpop, Kpop (Korean Pop), Chinese Pop, and Greek pop, has been completely deleted, and I don’t see myself downloading any more of it in the near future. I don't know why, but I've just lost interest in listening to songs in other languages. I used to love them so much, but I guess these days I just prefer things I can learn easily, and sing along with.
It’s not that I don’t like and appreciate foreign music because I do still like listening to it on occasion. I just don’t feel like the connection I once had with it is there anymore. It’s gotten to the point where I have the English version of a CD by a Japanese band in my car. I bought the English instead of the Japanese because I just felt a strong connection to it. (That, and I got it at a concert where only the English version was available to buy; but even if the Japanese version was available, I probably would have gone for the English one.) I think I just realized that music is so much better when you know what the artists are saying, and understand the meaning behind the music…
…Or maybe this just means I’ve finally grown out of the “Trashy Weeaboo Scum” phase of being an anime fan. Who knows.
