And I just feel like reposting my story here.
All emos stay because I copied them from the BBS. Aren't they cute?
Decided to write my essay (blame it on you guys).
So it all started in the summer of 2005. I dropped by a friend's house after school with some other girls as usual; and then my friend said her sister had just downloaded some songs which were quite nice. She played them then; several were fan-made videos, others were genuine PVs, and one of them was Shiki. I was immediately hooked in the song ("it's so beautiful and the PV is nice with sepia colours and WHO IS THAT YOUNG BOY WITH BLACK LONG HAIR
) and asked to play it again; I remember looping Shiki for a few times
before a girl asked me to stop. She told me exactly this: "Hey this song
is really nice and I understand you love it but I can't stand listening
to it 10 times in a row! 
"Then the other girl copied several w-inds. songs she found online for me; some of them were Milky Way, Mabataki no yume... Most of Japanese songs I listened to at that time were anime theme songs, and w-inds. was among a very few artists not related to anime which I liked back then.
For a few years after that, I didn't have internet connection at home (we had a computer very soon after it became popular in Vietnam in 2000 but my parents were afraid internet might distract me from studying
)
so I used to spend 1-2 hours a week at an public internet store near my
school. I went pass many videos and forums about w-inds. but didn't
really watch/read any of them due to the lack of time :( so only
listened to some old songs my friend gave me. Still, I remember looking
for a few photos of Ryuichi and made them the desktop wallpaper at home
After I got into high school in 2007, we (finally) had internet at home; but it was still very restricted cos my mother registered to the basic service that we had to pay for every byte we used
and she complained everytime the bill increased a bit I hardly downloaded anything and NEVER dared to watch anything on YouTube (yes no YouTube before 2010.. 
). Two of my close friends got into Arashi in high school and started
trying to lure more ppl into the fandom; but I said NO immediately 
because they were quite crazy into idolship, I started trying to
neglect it at all cost and even thought that being fancy about some real
people was really stupid. Still I was so excited knowing that w-inds.
is coming to Vietnam in 2008 (and blamed it totally on my stupid self to
think it was an invitation-only event that I didn't even try to seek
for a ticket; also wasn't member of any J-forum in Vietnam which means I
hardly got any news). So that day I was all alone watching them at home
in TV; they looked so good and they sang my favorite song Shiki, but
that was all. Thanks to the terrible live streaming quality (and I had
never watched their lives before that - no YouTube, remember?) I was so
disappointed that Ryuichi hardly sang and that their lives were kinda
bad compared to studio record
accompanied with the anti-fandom thingy that grew on me, I drifted away
from them just like that after 2008 summer. Still, I downloaded Ame Ato
because it's really a nice song and looped it and Shiki for a long
time.My story with w-inds. would have stopped there if it was not for a summer day 2 years later that I happened to see VMAJ introduction on MTV Asia and w-inds. was in it. I was so shocked to see them on TV after 2 years (plus MTV Asia hardly showed any Japanese music),and decided to watch the program. I remembered missing the first 10 minutes and didn't really pay attention when Vanness was speaking thinking I must have missed w-inds. at the beginning. And yes I watched New World WITHOUT KNOWING IT'S W-INDS. AT ALL (they didn't have the small tag with artist and song name at the corner
). My train of thoughts:- K-pop? oh okay.
- wait this song is very catchy
- wow nice vocal. probably the best Korean live vocal I've seen
- umm is it really Korean?
- I think it's Japanese... right? But never really seen a Japanese group in dance genre. So cool!!!!
- hey that curly-haired guy is really cute. He looks like MJ somehow. Is that why I think he is familiar...
- Awesome dance. I'm all hyped up! What is this song's name????
I'm sorry I didn't recognize Keita - blame his blondeness!!!! I'm weak to recognize ppl when they change hairstyles
Then they performed Rain Is Fallin'. I watched the show until the end, still thinking w-inds. must have performed in the 10 minutes I missed. But I got so excited about New World that I ran to my computer right after that, searched for the group that performed a collab with G-Dragon in VMAJ... imagine my major shock when I saw w-inds. name.
And that's the beginning to a New World!!
Everything else happened in a short time after that: I stayed up until 2AM watching the last repeat of VMAJ knowing my parents would killed me if they knew; immediately signed up to the Vietnamese forum thinking I MUST UPDATE EVERYTHING HAPPENED IN THE PAST 2 YEARS; joined Twitter to follow the boys; downloaded Another World and decided this was the best thing I'd ever listened to, which led to having my first debit card and placed my first online order with YesAsia (Another World album ofc); checking Feel The Fate everyday since it was (probably) the only place for foreign fans back then. Shortly after that we changed ISP and had unlimited internet; I watched all w-inds. worldwide videos feeling like I had known nothing about w-inds. in the past 5 years. Then one day Sary made that post on Live Journal which was the start of w-inds. worldwide facebook group, and my story with www started there.
Because I really treasure special moments in my life, I even remember the 1st time I talked to Ash on Twitter (didn't dare to follow you guys thinking it was too stalker-ish - you and Melissa were my idols back then!
), the first time I talked to Junchan and many other things. I'm so
glad that now I'm here; knowing w-inds. must be one of the best things
that happened in my life
0 comments:
Post a Comment