Favorite Music

Like many, I'm a lifelong music lover! Below is a shrine to, and record of, the music that has shaped me.

Early Influences:

My mom, who is also a huge music lover and is especially fond of Rock and Pop. Some of my earliest memories of music are her playing MTV in the house, and playing cassette tapes and CDs in our car on the way to school. We still share a lot of music today.

My grandparents, playing Classic Rock, Psychadelic Rock and New Age Electronic CDs on our roadtrips up the California Coast and on their big stereo in the diinig room. I learned the lyrics to my first song in this way- Free Falling by Tom Petty.

My Chromesthesia and Auditory-Tactile Synesthesia, which I have experienced since childhood, and the role it plays in the genres I am interested in, along with my preference of certain songs despite the lyrics not being entirely to my taste, lol.

The internet, of course, giving me access to so many genres of music I never would have found otherwise thanks to online friends, fandom influences, forums, torrent websites, and eventually streaming. I discovered Happy Hardcore, other European Dance music, and all Japanese Music this way, which has had a huge influence on my life in the years since.

Being gay! lmao

Genres

I'm generally of the opinion that a good song is good regardless of genre; I'm not really much of a genre purist and I try to stay open minded! That being said, there are certain generes that I tend to gravitate towards, most of which fall into the Pop and Electronic categories:

Pop

Art Pop
Chamber Pop
Dance Pop
Electropop
Europop
Indie Pop
J-pop
Synthpop

Electronic

Brostep
Bubblegum Dance
Dancefloor Drum and Bass
Freeform Hardcore
Future Bass
Happy Hardcore
Indietronica
Italo Dance
J-core
Kawaii Future Bass
Melodic Dubstep
UK Hardcore
Uplifting Trance
Vocal Trance

Other Stuff

Alternative R&B
Celtic Folk
Indie Rock
J-Rock
Pop Punk
Pop Rock
Progressive Bluegrass


Artists

I love many, many artists, and it's pretty hard to pick "favorites". That being said, some do stand out to me, either due to the fact that they are responsible for core musical memories in my life, and/or because they have followed me as I've aged and grown. I'm going to list them in chrological order of personal discovery.



Eiffel 65
Yes, the "Blue Da Ba Dee" guys! They were my intro to all electronic music. I listened to all of their albums through the years, in English and Italian. Their sound is my youth, crystalized!

Non e Per Sempre, Voglia di Dance All Night, Now Is Forever, many more.





Do As Infinity
While not the first Japanese music I'd ever heard, I associate DAI with a close friend who made me one of my first mix CDs. I fell in love with Tomiko Van's voice right away.

Raven, Fukai Mori, Wings,
Honjitsu wa Seiten Nari





Daft Punk
Like many people, Daft Punk expanded my mind and my tastes in electronic music from the word go. Interstella 5555 helped a whole lot, too!

Aerodynamic, Around the World, Derezzed





Scott Brown
The Bonkers compilations my life-changing intro to Happy Hardcore in the early 00s. It's hard to choose one producer to represent this, but Scott's euphoric tracks are still my favorites of the bunch.

Elysium Plus, Definition of a Bad Boy





Toy-Box
Aqua was my first Bubblegum Dance group, but Toy-Box was the gateway to hours of research into the entire genre. Fun, bizarre, and energizing, they got me through a lot of school days!

Best Friend, Russian Lullaby,
www.girl





Ashley Tisdale
Ashley was my Disney Channel crush in High School. I loved her teen pop albums... and could not have predicted that her new music would help me through a deep depression a decade later. Life is wild, ha ha.

Voices in My Head, Love Me & Let Me Go, Headstrong





Pendulum
I mean, it's Pendulum. Not much needs to be said, ha ha. They were also one of the first groups I heard at actual live parties as I got older, which hold their own set of memories for me.

Hold Your Color, Propane Nightmares, The Island, Pt. I (Dawn)





Imogen Heap
As someone who listens to a lot of music, I can't describe the unique way Imogen Heap gets to the Root Of Me, and has done for years. Also? Maybe the best live performance I've ever seen. She's so, so cool.

Headlock, The Walk, Canvas





Tegan and Sara
One of my top 5 current favorites! They have been there for me for every heartache at every stage of life, plain and simple. They also speak often on growing up in the industry in a way that is so cool to read about.

Take Me Anywhere, I Was A Fool, I Can't Grow Up





Death Cab for Cutie
Another band that has really helped me hurt and heal, many times in life. Truly, listening to them makes me think "this is what music is for".

Northern Lights, Here to Forever, We Looked Like Giants





3OH!3
On the flip side... listen, the hard truth is that sometimes I just really, really love stupid party music, and they keep making GREAT stupid party music, as horrible as the lyrics may be. I'm not sorry lmfao

Hung Over, Deja Vu, Double Vision





Ellie Goulding
I'd say, consistently, Ellie is my favorite pop singer. Not only do I love her voice, but every album goes. All of them. That's a rarity for me, lol

Starry Eyed, Midnight Dreams, Something In The Way You Move





CY8ER
As someone who was into Idols for a long time and had become disillusioned, CY8ER was rejuvinating; I loved supporting a self-run group of women in their 20s and 30s. I am so glad I got to be a fan while they were active!

Remixstart, GOOD LUCK, My Life, HANNARI





YUC'e
Along with CY8ER, YUC'e was my intro into Future Bass, and just makes killer tracks in general. Plus, again, ladies making music is always appreciated in this house.

MUDPIE, Future Candy, Sengoku Hop





The Wombats
I missed out on the Wombats for a long time, and only got into them in 2019, but they came in with quite a bang and have stayed rooted at the top of my favorites list ever since! Extremely my speed, great for driving, and nourishing on bad brain days.

Turn, Lemon to a Knife Fight, Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves)





DJ Noriken
As I dive more into Hardcore Tano*C and J-core in general, I just find myself gravitating hard toward Noriken's sound. I hope I get the chance to see him perform live someday!

Natsunohate, Comet Coaster, Enjoy This Time



Other Top Favorite Artists

(Because if I listed every one out in detail, this page would never load in lol)

4s4ki 5 Seconds of Summer AJR AKB48 Aly & AJ Aqua Aurora BLOXX Bambee Blackbear Blumchen BPM15Q Broods Bump of Chicken Camellia Cash Cash Ch!pz Charlie XCX Cobra Starship Coldplay Coyote Kisses Crywolf Darci Darren Styles Echosmith Eclipse Ellegarden Fall Out Boy Ferry Corsten Fleetwood Mac Florence + The Machine Fox Stevenson GABUISLOST Gammer Glass Animals GOJII Grum Halsey Hamasaki Ayumi Hayley Kiyoko Hello! Project Hixxy HoneyComeBear Janelle Monae KOTONOHOUSE Kim Petras Kors k Lady Gaga Lemaitre Lil Nas X M-flo Matt & Kim Meisa Kuroki Metric, Minus the Bear Neon Trees Nickel Creek NMB48 Of Monsters and Men Orange Range Paps'n'Skar Passion Pit Phoebe Ryan Porter Robinson Quickdrop Ra Ra Riot Regina Spektor Ryu☆ REDALiCE Scooter S3RL Saint Mesa Savage Garden SKE48 Stand Atlantic Stars The Midnight The Pillows UVERworld Ultrabeat Up Up Girls (Kakko Kari) Utada Hikaru Yunomi

Songs



This is a chronological list of my favorite songs from childhood through to the present! Click on the icon to visit the complete playlist, which is much longer than 100 songs, ha ha. Also, since not everything is on Spotify, I made a supplementary Youtube playlist to include a few important ones that are missing.