How essential is anisong to your anime experience?

I'm in a similar boat, perseii---I found anisong/J-pop annoying and grating during my impressionable, formative years, when I wasn't engaging with anime very much at all. Even now, decades later, I still find the music mildly distasteful. Just not my thing.

As I've gotten more familiar with anime, though, I do occasionally find an OP or ED song really fun. I'm frequently surprised by how much I can enjoy them, maybe not on an emotional level but on a sort of vibes-matching, craftsmanship appreciation for how an anisong contributes to the overall work of an anime.

I'm like that too, and that's a great way to put it. Especially the visuals, they almost become part of the song and I can't separate the two.

I wouldn't've batted an eye if I first came across most of these songs on some playlist or radio. It's how the song enhances the anime (and vice versa) that gets me interested and excited. Bonus points if the song goes out of its way to incorporate uncommon genres and sounds to make the anime stand out. Dandadan OP1 was so weird and alien when I first heard it, but it definitely stuck in my memory and I've grown to like it over the season.