Day 12 AMVs! Another way to be Creative and Finding New Music

 James Kaposztas

A name that should be remembered for years.

If you ever watched an anime you know that music is plays a crucial part in its success. Just thinking back to the opening of a beloved series and you are guaranteed to get hyped up for a new episode. 

Now, imagine combining your favorite anime show with your favorite song and you got the basic recipe for an basic or an awesome art of early otaku fandom!

While some elements and the concept of AMVs can be overwhelming, it is defined in its simplest form as a fan-made music video using a popular song and pairing it with anime clips.

Now your wondering why I brought up James in the first place, well it's because he was the first man to create AMVs. 

The origin of the very first AMV was WAY back as far as 1982, when the curious otaku Jim Kaposztas was still loving Anime (or Japanimation, as it was known at that time) and watching many Music Videos on MTV he had an idea of pairing the stories what he saw, with music he liked, so he decided tô set random yet graphic violent scenes from "Starblazers" a.k.a. Space Battleship Yamato to "All You Need is Love" by the beatles for a dark comedic effect. He created the video with nothing but two VCRs and no kind of editing controller. With effort and time it took patience to be made.  Unfortunately the original video was damaged so he did a redo in 1984 which is online on YouTube (for now...), but the audio was muted due to copyright issues. 

But before the internet the only way to share your creations were screenings, either in private or at conventions. This is why fan video competitions are still enjoying huge popularity at some expos.

From Old Anime like Macross, Evangelion, Gundam and sailor moon 

To the Mid 2000s Anime like death note, Naruto,  Bleach, and One Piece  

And Now Today AMVs are still a part of the anime community but play a significantly 50/50 role than a couple of years ago, since other more time saving and interactive trends like live streaming have taken over. Investing countless hours on a short 3 minute clip that uses copyrighted material isnt working in favor of the YouTube algorithm anymore. Another emerging problem is the new development that japanese license holders are starting to take actions against foreign channels forcing YouTube to delete (almost) the entire catalog with years worth of content from established AniTubers, despite the fact that they should be protected by the western regulations 'of fair use of transformative mediums. 

This also explains why AMVs are a very western phenomenon, because Japanese copyright laws are extremely strict and very unforgiving.(By the way the Japanese AMVs are Called MADs they can go from AMVs, japanese Youtube poops and hand drawn  videos or parodies) Instead the legacy of visual remies and mashups lives on in a shorter form like  Instagram and TikTok.

And for this special moment here's My Top 13 Favorite AMVs of all time (For Me!💕)

13. The Original Eva Bohemian Rhapsody Video

12.Excel Pop-up Video

11.Super Gals! Supermodel

10.Naruto - Seizure of Power

9.The Race

8.Scooter... Always Hardcore

7. E-nomine: AMV

6. Sail On

5.Hold Me (Håll Om Mig)

4.Into The Labyrinth

3.AMV - Nostromo - Auriga

2.Euphoria - Must be Dreaming

1.Steel Fenders

Hope you like me taste in Music and Anime choices, and if you don't... tell me you're Top Favorite, but as of right now; 

Choose your all time Favorite Music, Download, slice and edit to your liking, and Stay Golden 💛

 

Day 11: when's there's Anime, there's Music

 

During my years of growing up from a curious little girl to conscience adult I was always find a way to listen to music. Listening on my stero while at home, at school with my cd player, on the road and listen to the radio or my burn cds, anything! And when it comes categories, I will listen to anything that sounds good to me; case in point: J-Music 

Back in 2003, I went driving with my dad to do some stuff during the weekend and he went to his Glove compartment to get a plank cd with writing that said:"Music Playlist-Anime", and once he put it in player in his car the first song was the first opening of ghost in the shell stand alone complex: Inner Universe by Origa and completely blew me away, from from this Russian singer and futuristic instruments playing in the background, it changed my life; once that was over it hit after hit: 

It's gonna rain! by Bonnie Pink

Heart of Sword -Yoakemae-by T.M.Revolution

HIT IN THE USA by BEAT CRUSADERS

Ride on Shooting Star by The Pillows

Blurry Eyes by L'Arc-en-Ciel

key of the twilight by Yuki Kajiura 

Obsession by See-Saw 

Stray by Steve Conte

Cloud Age Symphony by Shuntaro Okino

And ending it with The Light Before We Land by The Delgado

It was just breathtaking.

From around 2004 it was trying to find some more music to on my own  burned cd or trying to find the songs on my dad burned cd and put it on my own, it was rough. 

Until on 2005 I decided to go to YouTube and find more Japanese music and this time I hit the jackpot!

From finding the Princess, Queens of pop singers/bands like

Crystal Kay: Ex-boyfriend, Girl's night, Gonna ni chi kakumei de, Nice and Slow 

Namie Amuro: Mister U.S.A/ Body feels exit/ Something 'bout the kiss and Love 2000

Ayumi Hamasaki: Boys & Girls, Duty, Monochrome, Evolution and "M"

Koda Kumi: Real emotion, Promise, Crazy4 U, Star, The meaning of peace ft BoA and Cutie Honey 

Mika Nakashima: Stars, Crescent moon, Will, Seven, yuki no hana and Heaven On Earth 

MISIA:Tsutsumikomu..,Chiisana koi, Into the Light, Sweetness, Believe, and Everything 

Double:"U", Who's that girl, Strange things and Shake

BoA: NO.1, My Sweetie, Tragic, Milky Way, My name and key of heart

Utada Hikaru: Automatic, First love, Wait & see, Can you keep a secret?, Sakura drops, Traveling, Deep river, Final distance, Hikari-Simple and Clean and Sanctuary 

Sheena Ringo+Tokyo Jihen: Marunouchi Sadistic, Honnou -Instinct, Stem, Gamble, Religion/ Sounan -A Distress- and Shuraba -The Rat's-Nest

To finding iconic male bands/singers like 

L'Arc-en-Ciel: Floods of tears, Vivid Colors, flower, Lies and Truth, The Fourth Avenue Cafe, Niji, Pieces, Driver's High, Honey, Kasou, Love Flies, Neo Universe, Stay Away, Finale, Spirit Dreams Inside, Ready Steady Go and Hitomi no Juunin

Unchain: Light your shadow, Make it glow, Movin' my soul, Let Me Be The One, Precious, Across The Sky, Brighter Days, Stillness in the wind

M-flo: Come back to me L.O.T (Love or Truth), Been so Long, Rewind!, The love Bug, Now or Never Ft. Chemistry, Tripod baby 

Malice Mizer: Gekka no Yasoukyoku, APRES MIDI ～, Gardenia, Ma cherie, Au Revoir, Let Ciel, Verte Aile+Bel-air, Kyomu no naka de yuugi

Gackt: Mizerable, Fragrance, Vanilla, Oasis, Tsuki no Uta, Redemption, Mind Forest, Marmalade, Missing, Another World 

Hyde: Evergreen, Unexpected, The cape of Stroms, White Song, Hello, Horizon, Shining over you

Miyavi: Coo Quack Cluck, Selfish Love, What a Wonderful World, Ashita, Genki ni naare

Mr.children: Kimi ga ita natsu, Innocent World,  Love Connection, Tomorrow never knows, Theme of ES, I'll Be, kuchibue, Youthful Days, Kimi ga Suki, Any, Hero, Tenohira(palm), Future, And I love you, Worlds End, Fake, GIFT, Esora

Buck Tick: Gessekai, Dress, jupiter, just one more kiss, Die, Love Me, Gensou no Hana, kagerou, and ROMANCE

Luna Sea: Believe, Rosier, True Blue, End of Sorrow, Mother, In Silence, Storm, Shine, Breath, Providence, I for You, Tonight, Gravity 

B'z: Love Phantom, Love me'I love you, Bad Communication, Alone, Easy come' Easy Go!, Lady Navigation, Motel, Ulta Soul, It's Show time! 

Chemistry: Aishi Sugite, PIECES OF A DREAM, Point of No Return, You Go Your Way, now or never ft. Mflo 

Bump of Chicken: Tentaikansoku, Snow, Sailing Days, Sharin no Uta, Planetarium, Karma, RIP, Happy 

Kirinji: Don't look down on the rain, Good day Goodbye, Kuruma To Onna, Siren No Uta, Juuyoku No Kagerou, Arcadia

I was stuffed with Japanese music , ive also found some really good girl groups too; which was weird, I was going through a "I'm not like other girls" phase because I saw other" fans" not liking the girl pop idols and was listening to "real" music (whatever that means) but to my surprise, ive found a good amount of iconic girl groups that captured my liking; even from Korea like:

Morning Musume: LOVE Machine, I WISH, Ren'ai Revolution 21, Morning Coffee, Lonely days

Speed: White Love, ALL MY TRUE LOVE, STEADY, My Graduation 

Girls Generation: Into the New World, Perfect for You and Gee

Wonder Girls: So Hot, Tell me, and Nobody

Perfume: Polyrhythm, Chocolate Disco, GAME, Baby Cruising Love, Macaroni, Butterfly, NIGHT FLIGHT, Love the World, Speed Of Sound, and The Best Thing

And even though with all these great artists I've found online and some Anime magazines, it was torture!, cause you had to be lucky to find a non-low or high pitched, no Auto-Tune, no cover, no remix, music box, or even a piano cover of the songs; these were very hard to find.

But right now some of the artists I've drop down now re-released these songs on YouTube to see the music videos for the whole world to see.

Now Anime soundtracks are another beast; some are either stuck in the "copyright" jail or also hard to find OR if your lucky found a whole playlist of the series soundtrack, and I found my all time favorites during the 2000s:

Rahxephon

Ghost in the shell series 

Rozen Maiden

Fate/Stay Night

Code Geass 

Bleach 

Keroro gunso + Movies 

One Piece 

Garden of Sinners 

Gurren Lagann 

Clannad

Macross Frontier 

Soul Eater 

Redline

Summer Wars

Fullmetal Alchemist + Brotherhood 

Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva

Bakemonogatari series 

Spirited Away 

And Neon Genesis Evangelion + Movies All Three

And as of right now listening to more new jpop, jrock, kpop, krock, Anime soundtracks plus Anime openings and Endings to this day! 

So as of right now: listen what you like, keep on Jam'in and Stay Golden 💛

 

Updated

 Sorry for slow posting, I'm busy with my work and life,but maybe this week or next I will post my next chapter.

And the next topic I will discuss is: Music! 🎶