whats good and whats bad?

[lady hoshi]

it seems like there are tons of good japanese artists
and i have no clue where to start
i definitely want to find some jpop to listen to
but how can i tell what is good and what is bad?
is it based on what types of american music you like
does that have some bearing over who you would most likely listen to???
all advice is welcome, thanx

[babbito2k]

it seems like there are tons of good japanese artists
and i have no clue where to start
i definitely want to find some jpop to listen to
but how can i tell what is good and what is bad?
is it based on what types of american music you like
does that have some bearing over who you would most likely listen to???
all advice is welcome, thanx
Jpop is derived from popular music sounds past and present. Personal tastes will always have some bearing.

A very good place to start would be getting to know about the OP and ED songs for anime titles you have seen. OPs and EDs for series like Detective Conan and Inu-Yasha are performed by jpop or jrock artists.

Another place to start is with American-released CDs. Fantastic Plastic Machine, Puffy (AmiYumi) and Pizzicato 5 have released CDs in the US. They will be much cheaper to come by than imports. I have seen P5 albums in used CD stores.

If you get to know some names you can go usually get some song samples from the official websites. Check out Supercar (http://www.supercar-net.com/) or Do As Infinity (http://www.d-a-i.com/) for example. Go to the discography link and under each album will be a couple of songs with links for short song samples in Realmedia or Windows media.

It would also be a good idea to edit your post to mention what types of music you yourself are interested in and give some examples.