Tracy-san, shoutai kurete wo doumo arigatou gozaimashita ne:)
(Tracy, thank you very much for your invitation to fangirlhaven.)Hello everyone, I am a friend of Tracy's and I LOVE the Japanese band L'Arc~en~Ciel. I have been a fan since about 2004, I think. I came accross their music by watching Pop Japan TV on the International Channel, which is now called AZN tv. The first songs I heard were
Ready Steady Go and
Hitomi no Juunin. Ready Steady Go caught my attention due to it's upbeat tempo and catchy melody. Listening to it, I began to think of action, and running. This song sounded akin to Nike's slogan, "Just do it".
Hitomi no Juunin is a love ballad. The song is a romantic one. I was amazed at how beautiful Hyde's voice (the lead singer's voice) was. His multi-octave range really shows in this one. The music was written by L'Arc~en~Ciel's founder, and bassist, Tetsu. The melody flows evenly over a string symphony. Very lovely song. I was even more smitten after I translated the lyrics. Totemo romanchikku. (very romantic)
After seeing the videos of Ready Steady Go and Hitomi no Juunin, I decided I wanted to buy their most recent album at that time called, "SMILE". After listening to it they became my favorite band ever.
Of course L'Arc~en~Ciel is a Japanese band. Therefore, their music is sung primarily in Japanese. Before becoming a fan of L'Arc~en~Ciel, I did not know any Japanese. So, I decided to learn the language. While it's true that you can frequently look up the translations online, listening to their music had set a spark within me to want to learn the words myself without looking them up.
I bought my first SMILE cd, as well as many other cds, at
http://us.yesasia.com/en/index.aspx