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Many people view music as "just entertainment" rather than as an artform and therefore not anything serious or life defining so they have no issues with listening to something that goes completely against their beliefs.

Let's see, the music that I'm listening to often follows along with whatever I'm watching at the moment, and by the time I've found a new track to play I've usually ridden the old ones so far into the ground that I'm really happy for anything new.^_^' Recently I have been watching- and loving- Bleach, and I have a couple of their songs on my playlist- "Life," by Yui, and the third ending theme for which I don't know the name. Uchuu no Stellvia's opening theme "Brilliant Road" is fantastic, and I've been looking for a couple of their closing themes- but again I don't know the names, and so far I haven't been fortunate enough to come across them.^_^' I like Scrapped Princess' theme "Little Wing," which is perhaps a bit sappy but I just can't help myself- it's just so cheerful. I love a lot of Initial D's music, even though I've never seen the series- it's got that techno/pop/dance beat to it. I also love Chobits, both the music and the series- I get the beginning of the original opening theme stuck in my head often, the part where the vocals first start with their "Yeah... yeah..."^_^' I used to play a lot of Rurouni Kenshin- especially "Heart of Sword"- but I overdid it, and now am pretty much sick of it.^_^' I still love .hack//SIGN's "Key of the Twilight," it reminds me of Sarah McLachlan's style.^_^ I also have quite a bit from Noir- the instrumental background music is good for unwinding on the way home from work, or pondering random things.^_~ I have the Sailor Moon theme from Germany, which is a riot. I have music from Fushigi Yuugi, my favorites are "Tokimeki no Doukasen" and Miaka's romantic theme. I like "Tooi Kono Machi de" from Card Captor Sakura.^_^ I have some Magic Knights Rayearth stuff too- I'm kind of spread out all over the place. My music program says that I have 858 songs, but a lot of it is random stuff which a friend of mine gave me- soundtracks for Final Fantasy and stuff like that. It looks like I regularly listen to under 100 of those tracks.^_^'

For J-pop I also love Gackt- he has such a sexy voice! Did you know that he used to have another band, Malice Mizer, which played a much darker kind of music than the current band? I like a lot of Hitomi Furuya's music (Ele pop and KISS are good tracks). I've heard some of Ayumi's songs before, and liked some of them, but just was never enthusiastic enough to look up her albums. I also like Chihiro Onitsuka for a slower, richer melody, particularly "Tiger in my love"- and she has one song which is entirely Engrish, it's hilarious. It's called "Not Your God" if you can find the mp3- it's not a happy song, but it's probably the only one you'll ever hear where the singer solemnly and soulfully declares that she is not Twinkle Princess. xd

I still pay attention to song lyrics whenever I have them, whether English or Japanese. In fact, I guess I've gone to the other extreme- I've become so accustomed to having subtitles when watching videos that I usually opt for them even when the movie I'm watching is an English one.^_^' I find them helpful for whispered or indistinct parts. But I'm wandering off the subject of music...

Really? That's so awesome- I'm going to have to go Google some images. I am totally not goth and could never pull it off as a style (clothing or music), but I enjoy the look and like to see it artfully done on other people.^_~ I've only seen pictures of Gackt all decked out in black with the giant black angel wings and the reeeeally long nails, and only a few of those have other band members in them. Actually, I've a lot of very nice images of him- but I think they're on the other computer, which isn't connected to the 'net, or I'd share them with you.^_^' I got most of them from this Gackt fangirl from Germany whom I randomly met over an mp3 exchange server- that was one of those, "how cool is this?!" moments, when I realized that I was chatting with someone halfway around the world on our mutual favorite Japanese pop singer.^_^ I even managed to use an online translater to "speak" in German a little bit.



Yeah. I'm not sure if it's the fact that it's a foreign language and a different cultural setting which makes it seem more natural for those anime characters to speak the way that they do when you keep the original voice actors, or if American voice actors really are just that sucky, but the dubs are usually painfully awful in my experience.



I think it could be a useful ritual and devotional tool, absolutely! Hymns were one thing I really enjoyed in my old church days, and I still greatly enjoy singing as an expression of spirituality. As you mentioned, it can contain such an exquisite sense of joy that it makes even people like you and me want to jump around like crazy.^_^ That's a powerful emotion, and I bet that short simple or building song-chants could even be used to harness energy for magical projects. But I usually sing to entertain myself on the way home from work, in the car- I love to sing, and I really enjoy singing along with my anime music, but I never sing in public unless I am safely disguised among many other voices! So I usually only sing when I'm alone in the car- and I need more songs! Last February I went to a convention where I met up with some other people of my religion, and they actually taught me a couple of songs in a reconstruction of the Middle Egyptian language! It was so cool, I was humming those to myself for days.^_^

i wouldn't know most of the stuf i listen to is loud or funny, it reflects me more then my religon