Getting to Know "New" Music

Before attending high school, I really did not know music outside of English ones. Unless you want to count singing one foreign language song in middle school as being one song and watching the movie The Prince of Egypt to know. But the thing is is that the song was required and I obviously did not know what was being said in the movie.

In my sophomore year of high school, a classmate of mine whom I grew up with since sixth grade suggested me watching some shows of Japanese anime. I watched some of them and I began to know Japanese music. For one of the shows, I did not start watching until I saw a couple of music videos made by fans about a few of the characters. A Japanese song by Utada Hikaru was used. My love for foreign music kept growing. On YouTube, I would watch videos on characters and there would be some with Japanese or other languages' songs.

Taking choir in high school threw more languages into my list. Add African, French, Italian, Latin, Russian and Spanish to my ever-growing list of Japanese songs. One Japanese anime led me to a Taiwanese drama and more music, this time Chinese. That drama led to a South Korean drama version of it. I do not think I need to say that the drama started my Korean list. Some fan-made videos on YouTube made a collaboration of several different shows, thus I began watching more and more dramas, including Japanese and Taiwanese.

Not only have I gotten music from watching TV shows or singing in choir but I also learned a new song from attending the Irish play Translations at my college. When attending my sophomore year in college, a class of mine had us listen to a Middle Eastern soundtrack as part of our homework. Through that, I learned an Arabic song. In another class this past school year, I watched a Hindi animated movie, though not required. I enjoyed the ending song to it. In a fan-made video I watched, the song used was also Hindi and I enjoyed it.

This past month, on the 21st of May, I went onto YouTube so I could watch fan-made videos. At the top of the page, it said that MBC and YouTube would stream live a Korean concert that would start soon. I thought, Why not? They might have Girls' Generation. I clicked to watch it and just in time. It had just started and they were showing different groups who would be performing. Girls' Generation was one of them. I watched the entire concert, discovering eight "new" artists to add to my Korean list of songs and artists. In order, performances were made by KARA with one song, MBLAQ, SISTAR, f(x), KARA with two more songs, Beast, Girls' Generation, Wonder Girls, Super Junior and TVXQ.

I enjoyed the concert because I was able to discover more songs and artists. In the end, I'm glad I took choir, watched the anime that had been suggested because it led me to dramas and also to the concert I watched on YouTube.