Of course, the first time I heard Scandal was Bleach's newest opening at that time which was Shoujo S, I liked the song and even searched for the MV, but that didn't spark anything yet for me to listen to their songs. While Bleach had released the final chapter  I decided to listen to all the openings while reading it, then got me thinking what the Scandal sounds like live then I searched and saw them perform Shojou S live on the Perfect World tour with their awesome solos that got me hooked. 
.clap.

I discovered SCANDAL just listening to videos on YouTube. One day, their video LOVE SURVIVE appeared into my recommended videos and from that moment I felt in love with their music. 
And a lot later, I started investigating about the members of SCANDAL, and from that moment I felt in love again but this time with Mami.  .love.
And that's how I met this amazing band. xD

ChrisFTW wrote:Let's see,while watching tv a commercial for Windows 8 came up.I thought the song was pretty catchy so I searched for it.Search results came up and it's titled Satisfaction by "Scandal"

Omg I remember this commercial in the PH, also remember thinking the song was catchy only realized now that was SCANDAL .omg.

Windows 8 commercial - Satisfaction was the first song I heard from them and since them I like most of thier songs. Still I think the old songs were better, since helo world they went more pop than rok.

I am not an anime fan.  I don't dislike anime, just none have ever really grabbed me.  I'm not that into Japanese culture and have never been very interested in speaking or reading Japanese.  Again, not because I dislike anything about Japan, just that my interests have always been elsewhere.  Consequently I have never paid much attention to Japanese music because, well, I didn't understand the lyrics.  Something changed for me a little over a year ago.

For some reason I still don't understand, I clicked on a YouTube link for LADYBABY's Nippon Manju.  Like most, my reaction was "WTF Japan?"  In the suggestions was a video for a group called BABYMETAL.  Again, for some reason I was drawn to click that link.  The video was "Gimme Chocolate", that lead to "Road of Resistance" and so on.  I can't explain it but the spirit and talent that shines through BABYMETAL's music and performance grabbed me and honestly still hasn't let me go.

Inexplicably, the language barrier that kept me from enjoying Japanese music didn't matter anymore.  I began to seek out more Japanese artists and quickly became overwhelmed with the volume of great music to chooses from.  I decided to take things slow and focus on one at a time and only chase out connections and suggestions when they grab me right from the beginning.  I started with the group most closely associated with BABYMETAL, Sakura Gakuin.  I spent months learning about the world of idols and honestly still don't quite get it.  A lot of the music is great but the culture surrounding idols baffles me.  I love much of what Sakura Gakuin does but at the end of the day my western upbringing makes this 46 year old man with a wife and children a little uncomfortable trying to explain my joy of watching young girls singing and dancing.

Somewhere in there I discovered the non-idol part of Japan which lead to Doll$boxx and Gacharic Spin.  Then I found BAND-MAID.  These bands represent more mature themes and sound that are far more easy for me to explain to uninitiated friends and family.  I still respect and adore BABYMETAL and Sakura Gakuin and, even though much of their music has a maturity beyond their age, my soul desires more adult content.

About a month ago I saw SCANDAL's 10th Anniversary Festival on YouTube.  I had seen a video or two of theirs a few months ago but my attention wasn't grabbed at the time.  The 10th Anniversary concert really got to me.  These women are so talented and hard working but are so down to earth and obviously love what they do.  Their spirit shone through the the brutal heat and fatigue they were fighting that day and they delivered a beautiful performance.  The past few weeks have been all SCANDAL all the time for me.  I have a lot of catching up to do but I know my journey with them is just beginning.  I look forward to many more years of SCANDAL.

By the way, I just bought the "YELLOW" CD.  My understanding is that this is the first album of theirs that is 100% written and composed by the girls.  How proud they must be because it is a fantastic album!
.cool.

I think I came across a video of AKB48 and I liked a lot of their songs but other Japanese bands seemed the same then I saw a video for Harukaze and I thought WOW!!! who are these girls. They were beautiful, their songs were so melodic with incredible changes and great riffs by Mami. I just fell in love with them. I also learned that they liked a band called Zone, who I like too. I thank Scandal for just being who they are, because they make me happy and also for making me crazy for Japanese bands and singers like, Zone, One ok Rock, Babymetal, Spyair, Aoi Eir, Kana Nishino, and AKB48.

I think the start would be same for a lot of people, I found them through Bleach, back when Shojo S was the opening of Bleach. Back in 2009, being young, and having absolutely no interest in music, I did not really go crazy and started digging into their stuff, rather I just didn't pay much attention and just focused on the show. But unlike any other songs featured as the theme songs of Bleach, Shojo S was the only one that I did not forget even though I did not listen to it for years, and it wasn't just the song but the title was stuck in my head too. After 8 years since it was used as Bleach's opening, I somehow saw a music video on youtube with the title "Shojo S", and I instantly recalled that song that had been in me as a memory for long and clicked on it. It wasn't same as I remembered it to be because it had been so long since I listened to it and I had only listened to the shortened version used for opening, but it was still great, actually it was better than how I thought it was, however not good enough for me to check out every other song they had. Right after that I saw a live version of it, someone ripped the Perfect World live and Shojo S of that show and uploaded to youtube, and that's what really got me into them, the song is great and the solos there just drove me crazy. And that's how I got to really know about Scandal. 


Sorry if it was long and boring, I'm really bad at taking out useless parts when writing stuff.

@peachclub

No that was not boring at all


@Topic

I have said before how I came across SCANDAL but I will say it again for the new members, I saw a tiny advert for "Doll" in my daughter's 'Anime News' and I thought they were a live action version of K-On, I have been buying their CD's since then

Started on December 23rd, 2016
In a discord chat group I was discussing with some friends about girls hair, if it's better long or short. I was on the long side, but one of them posted a youtube video (STANDARD from perfect world dvd) and I fell in love with Mami instantly, and started watching every video (I hated Tomomi for a couple of weeks lol)
I'm watching and listening them everyday since then, which is somewhat weird, I never was a fan of any group, before them I only listened to videogame OST or anime openings

I've always loved Shonen Knife. While watching a video of some TV show that had S.K. and a bunch of other girl bands, I notice some cute girls in and thought, I'll check this out. First song I clicked on was SL Magic and I was hooked after that.

My first exposure to Scandal was when I was incredibly lucky to be in Tower Records Osaka in 2009. Best Scandal was being played in the store. But not having yet accepted how much more expensive CD's were in Japan I didn't buy it (I am so stupid). So alas, I was forced to wait until a year later when my mother and sister-in-law came to visit. I love omiyage:) FYI this is my first post and I'm really happy to have finally registered on Scandal Heaven. I can't wait to see Scandal at HOB in September! (please feel free to critique this post. I am anxious to learn as I don't really have much forum experience)

planet3r wrote:My first exposure to Scandal was when I was incredibly lucky to be in Tower Records Osaka in 2009. Best Scandal was being played in the store. But not having yet accepted how much more expensive CD's were in Japan I didn't buy it (I am so stupid). So alas, I was forced to wait until a year later when my mother and sister-in-law came to visit. I love omiyage:) FYI this is my first post and I'm really happy to have finally registered on Scandal Heaven. I can't wait to see Scandal at HOB in September! (please feel free to critique this post. I am anxious to learn as I don't really have much forum experience)

Welcome to SH! Yeah, CDs are so expensive in Japan. They cost like 2-3 times than in other countries plus they come in multiple versions. Takes a toll on the wallet. Lol.

Back on topic:
My first experience with SCANDAL is same as most people Shoujo S, plus START from Star Ocean on the PSP. I wasn't really into music enough to bother looking for MVs or researching about bands so SCANDAL's songs really just ended up on my anime playlist. I just liked them enough that I downloaded whatever anime songs they had. They were kind of on the same level as FLOW and UVERworld to me in that I always liked whatever stuff they put out for anime, but I really knew zero about the band itself. Fast forward to earlier this year, I saw the Honey tour announcement on Facebook suggestions on my newsfeed. I was like "Hey! I know this band!" So I started looking them up: wiki pages, MVs, interviews, etc. Just binged on whatever I could find. The more I got to know about them, the more I was interested in the band itself. Their origin story, their funny interviews, the change of their sound thru the years, I was amazed by all of it. Aaaaand now I'm here. .love.

planet3r wrote:My first exposure to Scandal was when I was incredibly lucky to be in Tower Records Osaka in 2009. Best Scandal was being played in the store. But not having yet accepted how much more expensive CD's were in Japan I didn't buy it (I am so stupid). So alas, I was forced to wait until a year later when my mother and sister-in-law came to visit. I love omiyage:) FYI this is my first post and I'm really happy to have finally registered on Scandal Heaven. I can't wait to see Scandal at HOB in September! (please feel free to critique this post. I am anxious to learn as I don't really have much forum experience)

Hi planet3r! Welcome to SCANDAL Heaven! Congrats on the first post!
.clap.
I also heard that CDs at Japan are TERRIBLY EXPENSIVE so don't be too hard to yourself.  Although that's kinda of a wasted opportunity indeed. Haha.
Nothing to critique on your post, be assured. I'm a relatively new member here and also a relatively neophyte at forums too. Just keep on visiting this forum and you'll get the hang of it. 

shunyi wrote:

planet3r wrote:My first exposure to Scandal was when I was incredibly lucky to be in Tower Records Osaka in 2009. Best Scandal was being played in the store. But not having yet accepted how much more expensive CD's were in Japan I didn't buy it (I am so stupid). So alas, I was forced to wait until a year later when my mother and sister-in-law came to visit. I love omiyage:) FYI this is my first post and I'm really happy to have finally registered on Scandal Heaven. I can't wait to see Scandal at HOB in September! (please feel free to critique this post. I am anxious to learn as I don't really have much forum experience)

Welcome to SH! Yeah, CDs are so expensive in Japan. They cost like 2-3 times than in other countries plus they come in multiple versions. Takes a toll on the wallet. Lol.

Back on topic:
My first experience with SCANDAL is same as most people Shoujo S, plus START from Star Ocean on the PSP. I wasn't really into music enough to bother looking for MVs or researching about bands so SCANDAL's songs really just ended up on my anime playlist. I just liked them enough that I downloaded whatever anime songs they had. They were kind of on the same level as FLOW and UVERworld to me in that I always liked whatever stuff they put out for anime, but I really knew zero about the band itself. Fast forward to earlier this year, I saw the Honey tour announcement on Facebook suggestions on my newsfeed. I was like "Hey! I know this band!" So I started looking them up: wiki pages, MVs, interviews, etc. Just binged on whatever I could find. The more I got to know about them, the more I was interested in the band itself. Their origin story, their funny interviews, the change of their sound thru the years, I was amazed by all of it. Aaaaand now I'm here. .love.

Wow, there are lots of us who was introduced to SCANDAL via the Shoujo S way! So you also become a full-fledged fan this year, eh?

HI ALL!

I am new to this Forum in addition to being a new SCANDAL fan!

Below is how I discovered Scandal. It was copy & pasted from my introduction on the "Say Hello" thread.


"Hi Everyone! I'm a brand new Scandal fan! I discovered them accidentally via YouTube. We all know how YouTube can suggest the crap out of things to you and end up on it for hours.

This is how it happened:

Yoshizawa Hitomi DUI incident --> Morning Musume --> Michishige Sayumi --> Mami Scandal Sayumi Idol video below"

I don't remember if I told the story in this forum or only when talking with people in person at the concert line. 

I was always a fan of Fullmetal Alchemist, so after rewatching Brotherhood for the second or third time, I was on YouTube listening to a video with all the full versions of the OPs and EDs of the show. I didn't pay much attention to the names of the songs or artists, just listened to them in order. For some reason I went to the comments and saw a lot of people saying things like "Shunkan Sentimental is the best!" "SCANDAL is the best!", etc, so I was like "well which one is this?", listened to it and said, "well, yeah it really is the best one... let's see if I can see a live version or an MV". I searched for them and saw the MV, I was like "oh it's an all-female band, how cool is that! Let's see if they have more cool stuff or if it's somehow a one-hit wonder". I was pleasantly surprised that all of their stuff was great   

I saw them listed on a SXSW flyer back in 2008 in the run up to the annual festival.  Much as I do today, I was just hunting out new bands.  Finding new bands is surely a lot easier now!

I first learned about SCANDAL while browsing TVTropes, maybe in 2013. But I didn't start listening to them back then yet. I was put off by the fact, that they didn't write their own music, and also I thought I wouldn't like their songs anyway. Maybe I tried to listen to some songs, but I just didn't like it back then. Over time, I kind of forgot about SCANDAL.

Then, this crunchyroll article reminded me of them and I decided to give them a try. I was going slowly, album by album. My first thoughts were: "I guess this is good.", but it wasn't until Sono Toki Sekai wa Kimi Darake no Rain, that I was able to think: "I love it!".

And that's how I became a fan.

So, mine might be a bit of a unique story. There's this band, Goose House, yeah? I was listening to their cover of the song One Night Carnival, and I looked up the original song by Kishidan. I found a live version of it that had the girls there as well, and my first reaction as a gay teenager was "woah those girls are pretty." After a bit of digging in the comments, I found out the name of the band was SCANDAL, so I looked them up. At that time, their newest song was Fuzzy, so I listened to that, loved it, and then didn't listen to anything else they had up until early May of this year, since I have a hard time getting into bands. When I started listening to their other songs, it was really quickly decided that this was going to be my favorite band for at least a few years. So yeah, doubt anyone else has that story.

I'm not sure if it was in late 2011 or early 2012.

I was preparing for a jog on the wee hours of Saturday morning when I discovered Scandal on Animax. If I'm not mistaken, the first three music videos I saw were Shunkan Sentimental, Scandal Nanka Buttobase, and Doll. 

I fell in love with them instantly especially to Haruna who looked like my favorite actress Angel Locsin back then! I fell in love even more when I saw their live performances on Youtube.

As far as I remember on Youtube, somewhere in 2018, I went from

The Las Ketchup song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0PisGe66mY

To the Japanese cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viOFWaMstkg

To Kirsten Dunst covering Talking Japanese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viOFWaMstkg

To Stereopony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYV-XJdzupY
Which I really liked a lot.

Then there were loads of Japanese bands in my recommendations, most of which I already knew, like Band-Maid, Babymetal, but didn't particularly like, due to being a bit too heavy for my taste. So I didn't bother to check out the other recommandations. Until I read someone's comment that they liked the cooperation of Stereopony with Scandal, and decided to give them a go.

The first two videos of them I watched were Taiyou Scandalous and Pinheel Surfer, and I liked those even more than Stereopony, so I watched more videos and started buying their albums. Honey was just about to be released. I first got Yellow, Honey, the 2 CD compilation and the Greatest Hits Europese collection.

And later I bought (most of the) rest.

Taiyou Scandalous and Pinheel Surfer are still among my favourites.

mprime1216 wrote:So, mine might be a bit of a unique story. There's this band, Goose House, yeah? 

^love Goose House too! Plus, their cover of Scandal's Shoujo S (you can find on YouTube) is so good


Back to topic. I first saw Scandal in a TV interview aired in my country almost 10 years ago (based on their outfits, it was from their Baby Action days). 

Had no idea who they were and honestly I wasn't very interested to know, until the interviewer asked a (silly) question like "when do you all want to get married?". Haruna replied sth like "I guess 30 because that's normal for Japanese women". But Rina immediately started talking about how there's a famous female drummer in Japan who continued making music even after giving birth, and she believes that their careers will not end just because they get married. I was very impressed with Rina at the time because she was so young but yet so articulate and mature. However, I didn't go check out the band.

Many years later, I happened to hear one of the songs from Yellow (think it was Stamp!) and got into them. As I started learning more about the members, imagine my surprise when discovering that these are the girls from that TV interview all grown up into mature, confident women! And of course, Rina is now my bias, she's still so serious and thoughtful when talking about things she's passionate about.

It was either in 2014 or 2015, I don't remember exactly. I listened BABYMETAL and BAND-MAID and just searched something similar. So I found SCANDAL.

For me, it was when I was teaching in Saitaima. One my students was playing their music during the break time. She was also an Osaka girl and was a huge fan of their music. So I spent the entire day with Shunkan Sentimental stuck in my head. After work, I went to Tower Records and asked the assistant to help me find the song. I bought it, and the rest is history.

I watched the MV that evening and I fell even more in love with them. Here are these four girls dressed in school uniforms, rocking out like badasses, and they were nothing like AKB48, my other love at the time. I loved their attitude and their lyrics, but Tomomi...she was and has always been my favourite. I remember seeing her on that Fender Precision and I thought, "My, my that bass player is adorable."

Several teaching jobs, a decade and a failed marriage later I'm still a huge SCANDAL fan. Thank you for getting me through the dark days of life girls, thank you Tomomi for being my muse and showing me new ways to play my Yamaha bass. Lastly, thanks to Natusmi, wherever you are, for playing Shunkan Sentimental in my English class, even though I had told her not to...

I will repeat how I meet them as many new people have joined since I last posted here.
I saw a tiny advert for them in my daughter's Anime News and I thought they were a 'live' action version of K-On and was surprised to find they were a real band.

Luckily I had friends in Japan who found their records for me as they were of course unknown in the UK way back then.

Being a bass player like Sensai Steve I also watched Tomomi first and adored her chipmunk voice, although my son said it made him want to tear his ears off

Back in the 'Space Ranger' days I was a better bass player than Tomomi and I also had a fender Jazz Bass, but now she is far better than me !

I am always eager to see what they do next and I dont see that changing

Thought I'd re-write my story, since the one I wrote 7 years ago pretty much sucks lol.

I really do owe it to anime, in particular, BLEACH. I was lurking on Youtube, looking up some anime openings and then searching for the original artists. That was the time when I came across Harukaze Live at AnimaX. Instantly fell in love with Haruna. I enjoyed the song a lot but quickly forgot about it. I didn't even pay attention to the band's name. Then, after some time, I've reached the point in BLEACH series when Shoujo S came as an Opening theme. I really enjoyed the look of it, especially Rukia, Orihime and Rangiku dancing, so I thought I had to look the artist up and to my surprise, I found SCANDAL again. I fount out that Harukaze also belonged to them and it made me extremely happy. In a sense, it kind of feels like a fate ngl lol

Since then, I've been a fan and it's crazy to think that it has already been 7 years! SCANDAL is really the only band that I've sticked to for so many years, my love for them and their music is the same as those seven years ago and I will continue to support them no matter.  .smile.