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i swear..yes i know this has been a defiently overused topic but seriously for as long as I can remember people always freak out when they see anything j-rock, at first it bugged me when people were rude but now I just laugh...you can share past experiences or whatever ^^

i know what you mean, some people are so not openminded they think that no other country produces good music

Everybody freaks out at my locker. I have JRock pictures all over it. Of course they all think they're girls. (All of them are guys)
If you stand near my locker and just secretly watch people walk by you'll see expressions like: disgusted, scared, shock, "Um...WTF?" and I even had some people say Kyo (from Ain't Afraid to Die video) was sexy. xd Actually 3 people have said he's sexy. Very amusing when they find out he's a guy.
I had someone spaz at my locker because they found out everyone was a guy..."That is a girl I tell you! A girl! I don't care what the hell you say, that is a girl! You hear me?!! scream "

And then I freaked out my teacher with pictures of Gackt and Kyo. xd

@ Kaidan: That happens to me too, all the time. They think just because it's Japanese it's all classical Japanese music that you hear in Chinese action movies. (Or that meditating stuff) I hate people who stereotype. stressed

I just feel like putting my two cents worth and that is Blah. Blah. xp

Recently I met a girl at a party and we got to talking about music. I mentioned that I mostly listened to Japanese stuff.

She says, "Oh, that must be really relaxing."

"Um... yeah," I say, not really understanding what she means. Then, "Oh, not traditional Japanese music. Mostly hard and alternative rock-type stuff."

I thought that was really funny-- I'd never heard that one before!

Actually, iTunes DOES stock some Japanese music. Good stuff at that...and some crappop. There have been a few Japanese songs played on the radio overseas. Pizzicato 5 and Cornelius, for example, have actually played on tv. P5 with some Gap/Old Navy/Whatever commercials and Cornelius on some VH1 show. Speaking of radio again, though, Sakamoto Kyu's song "Ue wo Muite Aruko" was a big hit back in the 60's renamed as "Sukiyaki." Elliot also had a split album with Drum:kan a few years back leading to a Drum:kan video to be played randomly on MTV2. These are just a handful of examples. There are always quite a few more.

It's not that it's farfetched, it's just that people don't pay attention to what they're hearing.

On the topic of visual kei, though...why bother with such superficial nonsense. The bands aren't in it for the music...they'll even admit it to their fans and in interviews. All they want is a little poontang. It's pure retardation that fans overseas take it so seriously when they don't even know the truth of it. And how is there not enough of it on this side of the ocean? If anything, there is too much. Overseas fans have basically equated "jrock" to visual kei. There is a LOT more to Japanese rock music than men in frilly outfits and bad make-up, and thanks to people like you, that good music gets smothered by the foul stench of trannies over here.

omg I luuuv when I freak people out! I think the best was with my poor mother, I have been obsessed with everything j-rock for not even a year now (I'm not sure exactly how long but oh well) but I have spent hours at a time just down loading pics and most of them of mana. Now I showed my mom some pics of him and she's like "she's adorable" and "I'm like that's not a she" and my mother was clearly off in her own little world is like "the outfits really cute though" and so I just assumed she underdstood that he was a guy. and so like months later I'm showing her cotumes I would like to dress up as at the anime convention, and I showed her mana in gardenia and my mom is like how cute and my sis comes over and goes "you wouldn't think that's cute if you knew he was a guuuy" and my mom is like "what?" lol she didn't care but she's like "well now that's just creepy" lol her face was soo priceless! hee hee and she couldn't do anything cuz I told her before lol

nobody laugh at me... they just started to slowluy move away from me lol specialle when I started to dress in a J-rock cosplay-ish way