Utada Hikaru

So, over the summer I've kinda picked up a strong liking towards the Japanese language. Partially because in Japanese, Pokemon is actually watchable. Here in the U.S. it's just kid's crap. But mostly it was because the high school I plan on going to pretty much has Spanish, French, Chinese, and Japanese. I struck Spanish and French down instantly, and Chinese was out as the class was going to be extremely boring review for me, not to mention I'm going to Chinese School every Saturday already. That left Japanese. I had been somewhat interested in it but this was the final factor in deciding which language to pursue in addition to English and Chinese.

Then my friend (we shall refer to her as 馬鹿ウサギ) referred me to Utada Hikaru. She's a J-Pop artist (she's Japanese, obviously). Since us Americans occupied Japan after WWII, many American influences trickled into Japanese culture, and J-pop is one such example. (After all, who listens to stuff besides American-influenced music? NO ONE!!! BAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! *arrogantAmerican*) Sure, I can only understand like two or three words in the lyrics, but like many J-pop artists she throws in English words.

But here's the difference between Utada and the others. She's American born, so she actually knows what she's doing with that. Not like some random "YEAH!" or "SHIT!" thrown in randomly, totally out of context, that I hear all the time if I ever listen to other J-Pop (it's even more prevalent in C-Pop). Anyways, I have to cut this post shorter than I planned because I have a large amount of homework to do. Damn bloody savages.

Add-on (9.26.07): Well, she also has an album entirely in English! Not to mention while singing in English I hear a large resemblance between her voice and Evanescence's singer, Amy Lee. :O

(P.S. She's hot too. Bonus!)