I don't think I've ever really discovered an artist or anything like that directly from an anime. I mean, I fall in love with the soundtracks of course, but I never end up looking into other things those artists have made. It does make me chuckle, though, that the composers for my two favorite animes (not counting FMA: Brotherhood), Michiru Oshima and Ko Otani, both composed music for games made by Fumito Ueda. (Oshima-san did FMA and ICO, and Otani-san did Haibane Renmei and Shadow of the Colossus.)
Anyway, I'm not sure this counts, but it's kind of indirectly related.... From watching FMA, I discovered, and became a fan of, Vic Mignogna (who voices the main character Edward Elric, for those who don't know). Possibly his second-most-popular role is Tamaki Suoh from Ouran High School Host Club. While I've never seen the anime and have no desire to change that, when I heard his English version of Tamaki's character song...I don't know. I blame it on Vic's amazing voice, but I really do like this silly song:
"Guilty Beauty Love"
Mostly, though, the music I discover via anime comes in the form of AMVs. A lot of AMVs don't do that, either because I already know the song or because I don't find the song that appealing apart from the visuals. But these are some songs I discovered by watching AMVs, and now listen to often (heheh, you asked for it
):
"This Is War" by 30 Seconds to Mars
"Hollow" by Submersed (This AMV actually introduced me to the band Submersed, which is very cool but unfortunately disbanded after only two albums. The two songs featured in this AMV are, in my opinion, their very best.)
"True Faith" by Anberlin
"We Are" by Ana Johnson
"Battlefield" by Blind Guardian (I can actually credit this AMV with making me a fan of heavy metal
Blind Guardian is still one of my favorites, though I like Theocracy a tad more....)
"A Modern Myth" by 30 Seconds to Mars
"I'll Attack" by 30 Seconds to Mars
"Gravity" by Sara Bareilles
"A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton
"Tomorrow" by SR-71
"Unforgiven II" by Metallica (the only Metallica song I've ever liked)
And, most recently, I found this awesome song:
"Dialysis" by It's Alive
So yeah. Hopefully I've introduced some good songs to someone with all this ^_^
You can find out things about the past that you never knew. And from what you've learned, you may see some things differently in the present. You're the one that changes. Not the past.
- Ellone, Final Fantasy VIII
"There's a difference between maliciously offending somebody - on purpose - and somebody being offended by...truth. If you're offended by the
truth, that's your problem. I have no obligation to not offend you if I'm speaking the truth. The truth is
supposed to offend you; that's how you know you don't got it."
- Brad Stine