2005 (mix CD of every year of my life series):
1. Paris (Epik High) Korea (unofficial upload)
2. Fire Eye'd Boy (Broken Social Scene) (unofficial upload)
3. Third Love (Chae Yeon) Korea (unofficial upload)
4. Soul Meets Body (Death Cab for Cutie)
5. 風颱心情 Typhoon Mood (Wu Bai & China Blue) Taiwan
6. 落日Rakujitsu (Tokyo Jihen) Japan
7. 彗星 Comet (Salyu) Japan
8. King Without a Crown (live) (Matisyahu)
9. Video (Aimee Mann) (unofficial upload)
10. Studying Stones (Ani DiFranco) (audio only)
11. Self (Cheer Chen) Taiwan
12. 桜色舞うころ Sakurairo Mau Koro (Nakashima Mika) Japan
13. Happiness (Gavy NJ) Korea
14. I'm Not Laughing (feat. ALI) (LeeSsang) Korea
15. WoWa (Amuro Namie) Japan
16. Honey (Cyndi Wang) Taiwan (unofficial upload)
17. Ladyflash (The Go! Team)
18. The Fuchsia Wall (50 Foot Wave) (audio only)
19. Rolling 1000 Toon (Maximum the Hormone) Japan
20. Modern Girl (Sleater-Kinney) (unofficial upload)

This was the ground zero start of K-pop for me. In 2006, I asked Korean classmate Hyun Ae, on whom I had a not-so-serious crush, to make me a mix CD of music she liked. The four Korean songs on this mix are all from the collection she gave me. It would still be several years of additional exposure to Korean entertainment with the growth of YouTube before the second Hallyu wave would explode in my life like a cartoon cigar in my face and change my life, long after Hyun Ae was out of it.

Perhaps paving the way towards accepting K-pop as a genre is the Taiwanese pure pop song included on this mix, to which I was exposed on MTV during my two month stay in Kaohsiung in 2005. It was to my horror and fear for my credibility that I found the song incredibly catchy and actually liking it! I've mentioned elsewhere that it turns out it was a re-make (not a cover) of a K-pop song. It made it onto the mix and I stand by it, but part of me is still a little embarrassed and ashamed of it. It is pure candy pop.

2004:
1. happiness!!! (Kimura Kaela) Japan
2. Equus (Blonde Redhead) (unofficial upload)
3. Portions for Foxes (Rilo Kiley) (unofficial upload)
4. 遭難 (Sounan - Distress) (Tokyo Jihen) Japan
5. Mushaboom (Feist)
6. Neighborhood #2 (Laika) (Arcade Fire)
7. The World At Large (Modest Mouse) (unofficial upload)
8. Girl Talk (Amuro Namie) Japan
9. Slither (Velvet Revolver)
10. Minoreba Rock (Maximum the Hormone) Japan
11. 건들지마 (여우) Do Not Touch Me (Lee Jung Hyun) Korea
12. My Last Fight (Love Psychedelico) Japan (official audio)
13. Étrange (Dobacaracol) Quebec
14. 旅行的意義 The Meaning of Travel (Cheer Chen) Taiwan
15. You'll Be the Death (Shannon Wright) (unofficial professionally filmed live upload)
16. Walking With a Ghost (Tegan and Sara)
17. Miss You (m-flo loves melody & 山本領平) Japan
18. Tag Team (Makihara Noriyuki) Japan
19. All These Things That I've Done (The Killers)

2003:
1. New Killer Star (David Bowie)
2. Crazy Beat (Blur)
3. Trouble (Pink)
4. Succexy (Metric)
5. Maps (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
6. 意識 Ishiki (Shiina Ringo) Japan
7. Dear Baby, Where's My Wing? (Tizzy Bac) Taiwan
8. So Crazy (Amuro Namie) Japan
9. Maybe Tomorrow (Stereophonics)
10. Monday Monday Monday (Tegan and Sara)
11. Canibal (Kinky) Mexico (unofficial upload)
12. Idol Fancy (capsule) Japan (unofficial upload)
13. Daughter in the House of Fools (Enon)
14. Ears Ring (Rainer Maria)
15. Portia (Throwing Muses) (audio only)
16. Uh Uh . . . (feat. AI) (Suite Chic) Japan
17. いつか風になる日 Itsuka Kaze ni Naru Hi (Chitose Hajime) Japan
18. Suspended From Class (Camera Obscura)
19. The Hardest Button to Button (The White Stripes)
20. ドッペルゲンガー Doppelganger (Shiina Ringo) Japan
21. Over the Sky (Hitomi) Japan (audio only)

2002:
1. No One Knows (Queens of the Stone Age)
2. Speakers Push the Air (Pretty Girls Make Graves)
3. Paint's Peeling (Rilo Kiley) (unofficial upload) (official audio)
4. Disposable Parts (Enon) (audio only)
5. 夏の宴 Natsu no Utage (Chitose Hajime) Japan
6. Pavlov's Bell (Aimee Mann) (unofficial upload)
7. Songbird (Engine Down)
8. Oceanbound (764-HERO) (audio only)
9. Broken World (The Black Heart Procession) (unofficial upload)
10. Katun no Sadame (Fate of Katun) (Ichiko Hashimoto) Japan (audio only)
11. Anthems For a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl (Broken Social Scene) (audio only)
12. Shine Like a New Pin (Camera Obscura) (audio only)
13. There She Is!!! (Witches) Korea (unofficial upload)
14. 미워요 (Miwoyo - Hate You) (Lee Jung Hyun) Korea (audio only)
15. Sambita (Kinky) Mexico (audio only)
16. Roland (Interpol) (audio only)
17. Natural Disasters (Enon) (audio only)
18. Grace (Supergrass)
19. Good Life (Suite Chic) Japan
20. Sky Blue (Peter Gabriel)

1998-2001