It is not unusual to see almost exact replicas of Utada and the members of J-girl band Speed walking around Siam Square. She started listening to Japanese bands in early 1999. They use different and varying rhythms and melodies, while Thai groups often sound very similar. On the other hand, Western rock is too aggressive and harsh. If you are not used to it, you will find it noisy.
Japanese rock is more balanced with some heavy songs and some ballads.
At first, Orawan listened to Japanese songs on the radio, then she started buying tapes and CDs of both local releases and imports available from specialist Japanese music shops. It is perhaps not unusual that after a while she wanted to be able to sing along and understand her favorite songs. My friends and I use Japanese dictionaries to translate the songs so that we can understand what they are about. Like any fashion phenomena, the current fascination of Thailand's teenagers with Japanese pop culture will grow and then slowly fade, but no one can predict when that will be.