Cibo Matto is a band formed in New York in 1995 by members Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda. Their music mostly consists of trip-hop and artpop, and I would personally consider them shibuya-kei as well. I discovered them when I found Birthday Cake on the soundtrack for Jet Set Radio Future and I thought it was kinda strange, but that's why I liked it. I ended up listening to some other songs and I really like their Stereo Type A album, especially Spoon. I also shortly discovered that Miho was chosen to be the singing voice of Noodle on some songs on Gorillaz's first album, and I'm kinda sad she didn't do more Noodle vocals.

The Prodigy is an electronic group formed in Braintree, Essex, with current members Liam Howlett and Maxim and former members Keith Flint and Leeroy Thornhill. I'm sure most people have heard some variation of The Prodigy in their life, since Firestarter and Breathe are quite popular songs. But I was quite surprised when I heard their earlier work because it's more rave-focused and I enjoy those songs so much more than most of their other material, to the point where I've listened to every b-side and single from their Experience era (as I like to call it) but most of their recent albums I don't care to listen to. If I had a time machine I would kill to go back to a Prodigy set in about 1992, the combination of the music, Maxim hyping the crowd up and watching Keith and Leeroy dancing just looks incredibly and I'm upset I'll never experience that. Oh, and The Prodigy came to my country a few years before I was born and I'm unrealistically upset that I wasn't alive yet.

Blur was formed in London in 1989 with members Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree. I remember quite vividly listening to their Parklife album and thinking "I dunno if I'm gonna enjoy this very British music..." Famous last words, I suppose. I keep Blur very close to me still cause their music evokes such emotion in me that every time I listen to them I feel hugged by the music, that's the best way I can describe it. I'm glad that I can listen to and enjoy just their music without needing to look at their faces, since that's how I ended up listening to them in the first place, I was like "wow they're hot" and the rest is history. I'm so glad I don't do that anymore.

Girls' Generation debuted in August of 2007 under SM Entertainment. The members are Taeyeon, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona and Seohyun and former member Jessica. Their other name is SNSD because it's their Korean name 'So Nyeo Si Dae'. I understand that kpop isn't the most niche thing in the world at the moment but good thing it's 2009 right now isn't it? ;) I don't what drew me to SNSD, especially because I've been listening to them ever since I got into kpop, actually their songs "I Got A Boy" and "Mr. Mr." were the first two kpop songs I ever downloaded onto my phone. Perhaps that's why I felt like I wanted to become a complete fan of them? But it still doesn't explain why I like their music so much above most kpop groups I listen to. Oh well, all I know is I really enjoy their songs, especially a lot of their Japanese songs.

I developed an affinity for first generation kpop a few years ago, which refers to kpop released between 1996 and 2003. But at the same time I started to listen to older Korean music, which is referred to as 'gayo'. I'm talking about music and artists from before the debut of H.O.T. (who are classified the first idol group/first group to be assembled and trained by a company) which was in 1996. It started with artists like Kim Wan Sun, Settorae, Sobangcha, Kang Susie and Lee Jiyeon who were releasing music inbetween 1987 and 1992, but now I've progressed to older artists like Kim Chu Ja, Min Hae Kyung and Kim Yon Ja, who were making music in 1980 and before. I really enjoy it and I wish there were more people who could listen to it and appreciate it like I do.

Italo Dance started to evolve around 1985 and the sound began to change into something more fast-paced and sound heavy, and that sound is now classified as Eurobeat today. Although I'm focusing more on Super Eurobeat, which is a Eurobeat compilation series released yearly/multiple times a year under avex trax in Japan, with music produced by (i'm not sure that these companies both entirely exist now) AbeatC and Delta. The popularisation of Eurobeat through the anime Initial D is both a blessing and a curse; I'm thankful that so many people can enjoy this genre more but I'm getting tired of "DORIFTO" type comments under all Eurobeat and Eurobeat remixes. Eurobeat remix of A Cruel Angel's Thesis? "when shinji dorifto". Any Disney Eurobeat song? "when mickey dorifto". SHUT UP-

Para Para is a style of dance referring to pre-choreographed routines assigned to specific songs, specifically Eurobeat, Techno (name techpara) and Trance (named trapara). I got infatuated with gyaru a while ago and I began to learn more about it which introduced my to Eurobeat (kinda, just new songs and helped me get into it more) and parapara. I enjoy it a lot cause I loved learning and doing kpop dances and dancing in general, and the concept of specifically learning a routine that you can go out and do with other people really appealed to me. Currently thinking of buying a Para Para Paradise controller so I can play the PS2 game.

Just Dance was first released in 2009 by Ubisoft, starting out exclusively for the Wii and eventually making its way to the Xbox and Playstation, where it could be played with camera controls instead of holding a Wiimote. I have been drooling over Just Dance ever since was small, I was so upset that I didn't have any game console to play it on, and my obsession with it strengthen when I got into kpop, because I thought that Just Dance could take advantage of putting kpop songs in their games (which they did) and I could play them. I got a Switch last year for my birthday and I was ecstatic, because I could finally play Just Dance. However, when I finally played it, my perspective on the game totally changed, cause I wasn't as interested in the kpop songs anymore and some of my favourite dances are not kpop songs. Not to mention I got really upset at Ubisoft cause right after I had just started playing the game and I spent a large sum of money on JD+ and 2025 Edition, they announced they weren't doing seasons anymore, and so I don't play Just Dance on my Switch anymore. (thank you youtube) Most unfortunately though, I still love playing Just Dance. :,)

Dance Dance Revolution was first released to arcades in 1998 by Konami and shortly made its way to home consoles. I don't exactly remember how I started playing DDR, I think it was because of a Caddicarus video, where he mentioned DDR Disney Mix and I was intrigued at the ridiculousness of "It's A Small World (Ducking Hardcore Mix)" and I found interest in DDR and eurobeat. I'm still quite happy at how when I started playing DDR I could barely play the easy versions of songs, and now I only play the extreme versions cause I've gotten so good at the game. I should probably also clarify I have never played DDR with my feet, I don't own any kind of dance mat, and I really enjoy playing it with my fingers instead (i use the keyboard). Under this paragraph are links to my ranking of every DDR song on the Playstation and my guide to playing DDR on PC.

Parappa the Rapper was released in 1996 for the Playstation. The music was done by Masaya Matsuura and the art was done by Rodney Greenblatt. Classified the first ever rhythm game, there haven't been many games replicating the gameplay of Parappa, where the music/lyrics stops/gets worse if you mess up. The only games I can think of that do this are Project Diva, Lego Rock Band and Trombone Champ, which are also rhythm games I enjoy. I also really like the absurdity of Parappa, like the silly plot and characters, and the situations faced in Parappa. In the first game Parappa learns how to make seafood cake from a chicken to impress a flower, eats too much of it and needs to take a shit real bad, making the flower girl go "wooow parappa's so manly". In the second game (I haven't played it) all the food is noodles and Parappa needs to fix it. Why Parappa? I dunno. I also like Um Jammer Lammy but it feels harder to me for some reason so I haven't played much of it. Also also the Parappa anime is pretty cool.

Jet Set Radio was first released in Japan in mid-2000, then ported to the US in late-2000 under the name Jet Grind Radio since the words "jet-set" were already copyright and they couldn't use it. The US/EU version had a revamped story, adding new levels and changing the storyline slightly, so a new Japanese version was released in early 2001 under the name De La Jet Set Radio. All of that was necessary to know because I got so infatuated with Jet Set Radio that I ended up playing all the different versions, even the Steam remaster (fuck you Sega for delisting those games) and the GBA port (don't play it it's shit). I know every song on the soundtrack across all versions and there are very few that I don't like. Despite all this, I cannot get into Jet Set Radio Future. I'm so used to having a small area to graffiti that I don't feel the open world of Future is necessary, plus overall it feels so much more void of colour and personality (aside from the soundtrack, I still like that). I don't really like the character redesigns or the character reduxes (mew became synth, etc.). I even tried playing some of Bomb Rush Cyberfunk but it just isn't what I liked about Jet Set Radio.

NieA_7 is an anime from 2001 with art by yoshitoshi ABe. It's about Mayuko living with NieA who is an alien with the class of Under Seven. Mayuko is extremely poor and trying to juggle jobs and cram school so she can attempt to get into college, and she helps out at the bathhouse, which she lives on top of. This was the first anime I ever watched and I really like still, I don't feel like I'm blinded by nostalgia when I say that. However as I've gotten older I noticed a main overlying theme in NieA, which is poverty, classism and xenophobia. Mayuko is deep-set in poverty, along with Kotomi, who runs the bathhouse. All throughout the anime, Kotomi is struggling to keep the bathhouse open because it barely gets any customers, and she frequently talks about having a job in Tokyo which also doesn't supply her with enough money to keep the bathhouse open, and this is also a problem for Mayuko, because if the place closes, she's without a home. The aliens that landed in Japan have been given classes; NieA is apparently in such a low class that she doesn't even exist/not registered as an alien in Japan. The aliens also seem to struggle with identity, as other aliens in the anime adopt different cultures/races with stereotypical traits, eg Chada is Indian and runs a convenience store, Karna is Chinese and has a superiority complex, bragging about how her high alien class means she's one of the best. It's so much more than it seems on the surface and I wish more people knew about it.

Age of Peace is a sci-fi movie from 2000 starring the members of kpop group H.O.T. where they have a soccer match against alien invaders in the future. There is also a princess which needs to be saved from a dinosaur at one point, and an evil lady whose evilness is not currently known. That's cause the "movie" is lost media (movie in quotes because it's 30 minutes long). I took interest in it cause it's a first gen kpop group and it's what got me into H.O.T. in the first place, and I really think shitty CGI and bad sci-fi are cool, so this movie that was made entirely with CGI and has a terrible plot really intrigued me. Unfortunately, because this movie is seen as dark history (a Korean word used to describe something someone did ages ago that was embarrassing) people would rather it stay lost, and I feel like I'm the only person actively searching for it. The person who wrote the Lost Media Wiki page for this movie doesn't seem very interested in searching for it, I've started a subreddit and people aren't posting to show things they've found while searching, and the only other person who has any connection to helping the search because they have the script isn't responding to anyone with any information about it or releasing the script to the public. This movie is my own personal holy grail and it devastates me that no one else cares enough about this piece of media to contribute any kind of searching. Not to mention outsiders probably don't give a shit about this movie because "kpop is gay". I will die looking for this movie.

Josie and the Pussycats is a satirical comedy movie released in 2001. It uses the characters from the Josie and the Pussycats comic to tell a story of The Pussycats being encountered by a record label and being signed, but they slowly realise that they are being torn apart and delivering subliminal messages to the masses through their music. The movie flopped in 2001 cause there were so many critics going around saying "this is a fallacy! it's a sell out! the story is shit!" when the message of the movie is flying right over their heads. Like DuJour in the first seen of the movie is shown all chummy and stuff but then when they get on the plane they're all fighting, like how pop groups are comprised of four/five people who have never seen each other before and now they have to perform like they're besties. And then Fiona is talking about how they use pop music to subliminally coerce teens to buy brands to make a profit when the movie is chock-full of product placement to a comical degree, cause wow, that's the point, I dunno if you realised. On a more superficial note, I really like the style of the movie because it came out in 2001, the fashion and the tech that's so blatant in the movie just makes me happy, like a nice big hug of 2000s. Also I could probably recite this movie in it's entirety cause I've watched it so many times.