8 Asian Songs That Changed My Life

In a variety of different ways. They are kind of in order but also kind of not because I'm adding a couple more to the end and I've already re-arranged this list and re-numbered things like five times. I can't be bothered at this point.

#8 Now We're Getting Complicated
"Super Lover" - MissTER
So, I've certainly never found girls repulsive or anything drastic like that. I'm still not really sure where I stand on the sliding scale of sexuality, and part of that is because of this music video. When I first started to come to terms with the fact that I was attracted to men I told everyone, as many others do at first, that I was bisexual. I had dated several girls before after all, so it made sense. Then at some point I decided boobs were weird and if I dated a girl she would probably expect me to touch them so I switched out my label for a "gay" one. Then everything kind of fell apart when I stopped identifying as a boy and then this music video came along and jumped into the mess.
I still can't really say that I find females outright attractive, but when I saw Jin (the one with the mohawk) I kind of freaked out a little and declared that someday she would be my wife.

#7 Srs Bsns
"Betrayal" - Baby V.O.X
Two confessions. 1 - When I first heard this song, I had no idea what language it was in. 2 - When I saw the video, I didn't realize the singers were Asian at all.
I had heard one Korean song prior to watching this video ("Tragic" by BoA) but since I had no idea that song was Korean, that was my first "aware" exposure to K-pop. I loved the colours in their hair, I loved their voices, I loved the song. I went and learned the names of all the members. When I heard this song, I became a K-pop fan immediately. I remember the day I discovered them a friend of mine was coming over, and I spent like two hours loading music videos on my crappy dial-up connection for us to watch together.
I'm still very much a fan of the group. I've been following Kan Mi Youn's (pink/purple hair) solo career, and I have Shim Eun Jin's (orange hair) solo album as well.
Also, I'm totally pinning my ongoing obsession with Korean rappers on Kim EZ. She just makes it sound so damn good.

#6 Don't Cry, Don't Cry, Don't Cry, ffffffffuuuuuuuuu-
"Fate" - Lee Sun Hee
Just kidding! I don't cry, ever. That's not an "acting tough" thing, I'm just like... physically incapable of doing it. Seriously. My face is broken. But regardless, this song really messes me up emotionally, but in a really great way. The translation is a bit stiff in some parts, but just listening to her sing would be enough to give me chills even if I had no clue what she was saying. I have never really been a fan of ballads, but Lee Sun Hee completely blows me away every time. The downside is that now I have a really high standard for ballads.

#5 Multi-Purpose Role Model
"Reaction" - Harisu
A few summers ago I was living with a friend of mine who had just very recently come out to me as transgendered. I wasn't super experienced with the idea of transgender-ness at this point, though I'd had one other trans friend before. One day I was curious about it so I was looking up transgender singers, and that's when I found Harisu. She is a female singer/model/actress from South Korea who was born a man.
Seeing her music videos and also reading about how she was able to be happily married in a country that is well know for being relatively strict and conservative was really inspiring for me. And of course pretty soon I started to realize that a big part of the reason I was fascinated by her was that she was many things I wished I could be (mostly a female). She hasn't really been active in the music scene the past several years, by the time I discovered her she was already on hiatus on account of her marriage and such. But I still really admire her a lot.

#4 I Must Dance
"Ambassador" - Elva Hsiao
I must admit that there are very few Chinese artists that I actively follow compared to Korean ones. Though, I really only follow a couple Japanese artists as well. But this song is one of the first C-pop ones I ever fell in love with. Elva Hsiao is gorgeous and this is no doubt my all-time favourite song of hers. I cannot hear it without dancing a little and making horrible attempts to sing along to the Chinese lyrics. I have no idea what this song is about. I've never encountered an English translation. But holy crap is it catchy. It will get stuck in my head for WEEKS, just completely out of the blue, and then I have to listen to it like a hundred times and I am still not sick of it.

#3 Welcome To The Sexy World
"Rising Sun" - DBSK 
I'm sure the men in that music video would be absolutely horrified to know this, but fortunately they're never going to find out! The fact that I liked boys was already defined by the time I started to get into Asian pop music. I'd had an online relationship with a boy that lasted about a year. And I was certainly attracted to that boy, but... well, I'm going to skip the long introduction. Basically what I'm getting at here is that watching this music video was the first time I had really found a specific guy sexy without knowing him personally. It was a strong defining moment in the gay part of my life :P
Don't get me wrong, I was a huge fan of theirs for years, for reasons beyond the sex appeal. Junsu (guy with the drums), Jaejoong (the really pretty one with black hair) and Yunho (the guy with kind of light brown, short spikey hair in a white shirt) are all really attractive to me, and the guys can sing really well. But I've discovered lots of singers who are good at what they do. What really made them special to me, at least at first, was the new way in which they caught my attention.

#2 Lasting Impression
"Realize" - Nami Tamaki 
 While not the first Asian pop song I ever heard (I think it was the second) this one is definitely what catapulted me into the state of "omg this stuff is amazing." I had never seen anybody dance the way Nami Tamaki does. After this I listened to "Believe", "Reason", "Prayer" and half a dozen others. I was just convinced that this girl (though she's a woman now) was the most AMAZING person in the whole world. I grew up mostly listened to rock from my parents' time, or country, the only pop stuff I really heard was on the radio. The only singers I had ever seen dance were the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys, and they didn't exactly leave me in awe. But Nami was amazing. She changed the way I would listen to, relate to, and FEEL music for the rest of my life. 

#1 All Your Fault
"Dive" - BeForU
This song and this group are the entire reason I got into Asian pop music at all. It all happened because a friend of mine talked me into playing DDR with her, and at some point this song popped up and I was like HEY. THAT'S NOT ENGLISH. So I looked into it, and then everything kind of exploded. This song literally changed my life in huge ways. I've met friends through Asian pop music that I am so grateful to have. I can't even imagine what things would be like if I had never heard it. Definitely one of the best things that has ever happened to me.