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This has already been kinda touched upon earlier ITT, but one thing I've noticed within the VK fandom more than within basically ANY of the other music spheres I've dipped my toes into is that a ton of people who get into VK seem to act as if the only bands that exist are the ones that are currently active, and any group that's disbanded/on hiatus/whatever just vanishes into oblivion as soon as the new looks and singles stop popping up. There's this tendency for people to basically treat the scene the same way tons of anime fans treat anime - "if it's not part of the current season then i pretend not to see it". Considering the ridiculous turnover rate that most VK bands themselves tend to have, this can easily lead to situations where people suddenly find themselves left without their faves even within the span of just months.

I think one of the reasons VK might have such a high turn over rate is that a lot of people who listen to VK seems to listen to VK only. That's not an healthy way to approach an "hobby", and one is bound to get tired of it. It's also hard to follow bands for a long time since the lifespan of a vk band is shorter than average, so that might be turn off for people after a while. Also the way VK is "marketed" is closer to idol music than it is to """normal""" music, and just like how people stop following idols at some point, the same happens with VK. I dont consider the visual kei > kpop passage to be moving from one thing to another, but moving to a different version of the same thing.

I think a lot of that feeling of people coming and going stems from the western boom years and like other people said, from the fact that it has somehow been hogtied into the same brain rot caravan with Kpop and therefore people tend to become aware of both simultaneously, allowing for lateral movement between the two. Then there's that other breed of us getting into our 30's finally coming to grips with mortality and that this is a very fruitless endeavor, so now there's also these existential crisis' going on with the older guard. This basically goes a long way to explain why everyone in this scene is so fucking stupid, you were either into a dumb fad when you got in or you were dumb enough to stay for too long. But like, about the psychology of people who come and go, being gya one day and rastafari the next — I never got that. I have, my entire life more or less, liked the same things and I never really dropped out of anything. There's some faux pas you'll find from the times when I was like exploring stuff like western metal when I was 16, but everyone goes through that one way or another when you build your frame of reference and refine your taste and ideas of what music should be about. The people who change every word in their bio on an yearly basis with only the words "I stan" remaining in place can't be counted on for anything. How do they even finish meals is beyond me let alone stick with something when everything they do is so dependent on if the weather is fair. They're the same people who'll abandon their folks into a home, but take a taxi from another city once the inheritance is on offer; just picking the carcass of cultural capital that other people worked for, that other people laboured to put out there. I'm in this shit for the long haul and this relationship will end only when one of us dies, either me or the scene. No matter how reprehensible I think the scene operates or what I think of the fucking people in it, it's still important to me.

I haven't seen anything about this here and it all seems to be pretty under-the-radar, but I thought I'd mention for those curious. Sivy has formed his new band サラ (SARAH) sometime in mid-2019, with their first (?) live on 2019/10/21 at Meguro LIVE STATION. Since then they only made a small handful of live appearances, the latest being today's CHOP livestream (coincidentally Sivy's birthday). It looks like so far they are mostly playing songs by DISH/dishes are scheming, but they already recorded their own track メルトメルナ (MELT MELUNA?) which they sold as a demo-CD at their live on 2020/03/25 at Ikebukuro CHOP. The lineup is similar to that of a big DISH session event from last summer (I assume that's when the idea for this new project sparked): - vocals & guitar: シビィ (Sivy) (dishes are scheming, ANGRAYSE) - guitar: 太三 (Taizo) (CYTOCHROME) - bass: マスハラカツヒコ (Masuhara Katsuhiko) (koldcake, Musu Bore) - drums: TELL (ex-AUTO-MOD, ex-MUNIMUNI, ex-emmurée, Musu Bore etc.)

As you get older you change and so do the things you like. Once upon a time I used to watch harem/ecchi anime and listen to the gazette after. Now there’s one of those things I wouldn’t touch if my life depended on it. So I think it’s only normal for people to let go of something they got into as teenagers. I also think that being unwillingly to explore other music will make you go off vk faster. In my later teen years I went off vk completely for about a year or two, I was just too busy to be involved with the scene, even after I came back to it I still had a year where I went in a deep search to expand my musical horizons. Now things have levelled off and I can move between western music, pop, Kpop, Vkei and everything in between. Another factor that makes people drop off: this scene requires time investment and the older you get the harder it is to make that investment. As your favourite bands die, the only way to keep interest going is by discovering new things in the scene, be it older bands you didn’t know or newer bands. Don’t forget, nowadays the average teen’s attention span is less than a goldfish’s so they’ll move to the next thing that makes them horny without a second thought and considering kpop merch is not only cheaper, but constantly being pumped out and more readily available than vk chekkis will ever be I can’t blame people for not sticking with vk for long. Kpop community is more active and widespread which does a lot to stimulate the senses. What keeps me coming back to vkei is the angst and artistic side of it all. You just can’t find it anywhere else, even if it is fake lol. I don’t know if I’ll ever let go of it completely, like Dispo said I’m in it for the long haul.

I'll suggest one of the many contributing factors for a high turnover rate is because VK is quite a 'gimmick' genre/subculture and generally gimmicks will only keep people entertained for so long, genre's like the new phase of emo music with groups like MCR and glam/hair metal had their time in the sun and spawned huge subcultures but died out as people grew up and got tired of it and I'd consider both of those as gimmick genre's where if you stripped back the clothing and tone of the groups, it wouldn't have had as much excitement around it. I think as people grow older things like the clothing and look of a band don't matter as much but they were certainly one of the elements that drew me in when I was younger and probably what draws in people nowadays. As well as people tiring of the gimmick of VK, I imagine people move over to K-pop because it's easier to find communities and like-minded people both online and in reality, I live in a very small city and work in a slightly larger town, I've maybe met three people that liked Dir En Grey but I've meant countless people that like BTS, Shinee, NCT etc.

I've been into VK for more than 15 years now and what I find most common when it comes to people loosing their interest in the scene stems from what has drawn them to it in the first place. From my experience, people that started "listening" to vk bands mainly for the looks and - supposedly - to feel "unique" simply grew out of it, adding up to your regular "it was just a phase" stereotype. On the other hand, the ones that, instead of drooling over bandomen pics, actually did focus on the music itself, listen to visual bands to this day. The other thing, that has already been mentioned, is that some people fix their taste on one particular type of music/scene, not willing to discover anything outside of this "bubble". This can often lead to getting fed up with it which later results in them trying to find an alternative stimulator... which they are most likely going to be tired of in a few years as well. As for me, I see no reason why I would ever stop enjoying the music and visuals that I used to in the past. When something is good, it's just... good, it's not going to magically change over the years.

Idk which mod/admin made my topic featured but thank you! It's an honour, really. I didn't think that the silly things that come out of my mouth were worth the designation lol

Depends on why you were drawn to certain bands in the first place. I was into indie rock, alt rock, and death/black metal before I was a vk fan, so that coloured my taste in bands (nagoya kei + DEG), once [most] of those bands became inactive, I went back to the indie and alt rock I liked before. I'm sure if someone got into the scene with DIV or some cute oshare shit, that Kpop wouldn't be too far off from that sound. Kinda depends on ideology too--if you're an oshare fan BUT you're a weeb--you'll stay into that; whereas if you were into vk for the cute boys, kpop is the next logical step lol.

RANA new limited EP "蛙の悪戯(Kaeru no Itazura)" will be released at 2020/06/24. (6songs) The first song shown is titled Tranquilio.

if you want a bit of perspective, people were getting bored of vk and moving onto kpop back when kpop was a niche scene (think 2007-ish), most of them never returned; newer fans came in. when @sleepy coffee noted that kpop stans started a cross-over to our underdog glam cumhouse genré I couldn't kinda believe it but times change; I was surprised that kamijo has new stans in their early 20s and they are men, so I guess VK does something right to bring in fresh blood. I tried branching out in the western metal a few years ago and the potential effort in finding decent sounding bands with somewhat not braindead online fanbases for the most part wasn't worth it.

What's the most amount of money you've spent on VK releases/goods in one sitting?

Strong record. The album feels so fresh..like they‘re in their 20s again lol First half is spectacular , 2nd is good; mostly filled with the standard MUCC-formula. *edit. I like the old Ameria single version more than the album version

My usual morning

Please play ピノキヲ's discography at my funeral

I agree that the rate is really high. I've had a lot of friends who turned away from vk and went into kpop or something else. Few eventually returned to vk while the rest didnt. I've wondered about this before too because its sad to see, but meh happens. As for myself, i personally dont like watching full live dvds alone and i've stopped reading interviews a few years ago. I've been a fan for... roughly 11 years now???? Anyway, i want to think i will always be a fan but theres probably??? going to be a time where i have to move on. But in a way i'm already doing that. I dont really bother with much in vk anymore, i only focus on two bands. I know OF a lot of bands but i either dont care or am too busy to bother with it. I feel like this happens in general with a lot of fans overseas and domestic? But just my opinion. I've pulled myself away from a lot of vk fans since i used to always know the drama or be involved in the drama. And imma say its been so damn NICE avoiding all that now and just sticking to a few people. I feel this and just the dark vibes in general might be apart of the turn over rate. While the kpop fandom is bad too, the music is at least more upbeat and if you dont understand korean then youre safe from the lyrics. A lot of good stuff has happened in my years and thankfully i never turned to something else fully. At some point i will have to prioritize vk less (i wanna settle down and have a family) but i'm (hopefully) still going to keep an eye on my two favorite bands.... if....they dont break up..... Usually I leave a certain band after 3-5 years but since I found vk and GazettE I've been stuck ever since. Hopefully i continue to stay even longer. Sorry if my post was hella messy and unorganized lmao

This reminded me that when I first got into Japanese music, I'd (we'd?) look up the defunct classic bands and see which members were involved with which band, then that band would get popular among the fanbase. Are upcoming og members training anyone anymore? Like I got into Joker/Screw and I'd open the pamphlet to make sure Thanks to Kagerou was on there. Baiser->Rentrer en Soi comes to mind as well. As for me, I was already into late night electronic & alt rock on the radio so it was very easy to transition to most VK bands in HS. I mellowed out a bit in college and I still like like my old homie bay area 106 kmel ghetto beats. Koop is too poppy and their alt rock is... too alt? But better than the kpop-- but I only listen to Korean music I associate with my stay there. In general, that stuffs not "dark" enough for me lol so I guess you have to already have a taste for it. I do question how someone could jump so easily from Older VK to Kpop but maybe we were listening to dif things or the new VK scene is just That boybandy. I don't think I'll phase out of VK until there stop being Connections. This is the only genre where for some reason I care what members are doing sometimes. I think it's silly but they made it easier with social media! Actually, maybe I'm already phased out. I don't know the new folks, Screw was the last one I think. Now I just surprise myself with oldies or an album from a band I used to listen to but never got around to X release. I can't justify geeking out about something bran spanking new on the music scene anymore. Or I'm lazy. Or I'm done dealing with new-er stuff. I'm just freaking old already, ok?

Tbh even tho they're really not vk anymore (although kyo's visuals are pretty much more impressive than 99% of anyone currently active in vk) I imagine I'll lose a huge chunk of interest in music in general especially japanese stuff whenever dir en grey/sukekiyo come to an end

Yohio is not just some dude like the guys from Emmuree or like Aie who do visual kei as a lifestyle for the love of the sport. He is a sunglasses-indoors-wearing blowhard who's portraying himself as a living legend hot shit CEO. For him to not reach a certain level he aspires to would be devastating. It's make it or break it for him to get there right now with the vision he had envisaged years ago with KEIOS, Desaiha, Lovelipop etc. And I actually have to disagree, I don't think he is that productive. Right now is the only time he has been consistent since the melodifestivalen hype when he put out two albums in short order, which ended after they forgot about him in Sweden and his second attempt at Eurovision flopped. His release schedule right now is making me so angry, like why does he put out single songs constantly without even really promoting them before he moves on to promoting the next one! The only good rollout he has done recently was for his previous solo track. It'd do better to have put out all the english DISREIGN tracks as a EP because they're already super mediocre so at least you could put 4 or 5 in one package with a PV and a ballad and promote it for weeks and not move on from one to the next without anyone caring. No one has a relationship with the English DISREIGN and I've seen even his fans being confused and unenthusiastic. Right now there's a new DISREIGN track coming up with almost no warning and he already has three DISREIGN releases in the bag without a PV, and those PVs are his most popular content. He should've put out the DISREIGN tracks as an EP as well that he really actually promoted, and done the legwork in Japan if possible. I just don't think he can stomach playing second fiddle at a multi-man event where only 3 people came to see him, because unlike what his socials would tell you I don't think he can even draw a decent crowd in Stockholm, let alone in Japan. My armchair booking for him would be releasing YOHIO solo tracks as stand-alone and build up for the album like he's doing, then DISREIGN and english DISREIGN tracks as either 2 track singles or minis with PVs. And it's better for him to put out one release a year that he'd promote right, instead of shitting out tracks without promoting any of them. Less is more etc. And while I'm sure he is busy playing CEO right now with dad's cash, he could even take a video of him recording something and post it as a daily Vlog because his ( small ) fanbase loves that. The way he abandoned his Patreon too just lowers the value of his brand and decreases the trust between him and the people dumb enough to pay for this trash. And this thread is great because after all, I think all this western stuff does deserve attention. For one, it's an outgrowth from vk culture so it is interesting in like a scholarly sense, and second the ones that are doing this are the ones who are brave and stupid enough to realise the dreams that more than a few members of this board have had myself included; and as an extension of that it's our duty to savagely tear down their hopes and dreams if necessary. If I was doing music I wouldn't have it any other way.

A new guitarist called トアル (Toaru) joined GLORIA on June 7th. Ame (vo.) Kukki (gt.) Toaru (gt.) + first oneman on July 27th at Shinjuku Club SCIENCE

Hello folks, I already have 3 band search profiles available for you guys which I published on JROCK'N'ROLL. Time to time, band search profiles also will appear on vkgy. so keep also an eye on that website. BAND SEARCH is something not written by myself, everything which you read has been written by the band/members themselves! So with BAND SEARCH they introduce themselves to you. - I'll update this post every time if there is a new band search available! 2$4 THIS VERY DAY MAGENTA OF AMBITIONS Sho Kotani prewords 極東ファロスキッカー LiQuid ButterFly 大人のSilver-Rose by vo. Visual Laboratory METALIC フルダヌキ ヒミツノコウドウ 花魁ロマネスク DOGMAS THE RICKY DRIVE SHOW The トリコロール by vo. Toru BEBOP 餃子大王 LOOSE RIDER EASTBAY ---------------- The first 3 bands I would like to introduce are all non-visual kei bands and more "mainstream" type of bands. 01: 2$4 2$4 formed in 2013. 2$4 continues to aim to create music that transcends genres, Incorporating elements of chords, emo, and hip-hop into the songs, as well we add digital sound effects to our songs. Learn more about them here: https://jrocknroll.wordpress.com/2020/05/11/jrnr-band-search-24/ 02: THIS VERY DAY THIS VERY DAY was formed in August 2019 and has appeared at Japanse TV in the show「踊る！さんま御殿」. They are a new generation rock band in the center of tokyo and thanks to “Prince (王子)” Yuchaso which is an SNS influencer the band received more than 100,000 followers! Learn more about them here: https://jrocknroll.wordpress.com/2020/05/26/band-search-this-very-day/ 03: MAGENTA OF AMBITIONS January 2019, MAGETA OF AMBITIONS formed as a band in Tokyo, in August 2019 the band went on a hiatus. On April 2020 the band released their 1st single “Another Story” via digital platforms. Learn more about them here: https://jrocknroll.wordpress.com/2020/06/09/jrnr-band-search-magenta-of-ambitions/

All these years I've been on here and I've never posted my art! I make comics, commissions, tutorial videos, and reference sheets. www.fraeofficial.com Here some of my artwork:

Maybe a reason why people shifted from VK to kpop is the fact that the ‚VK‘ idols have always been seeming to be unapproachable. Like, you see a member and think what they do is cool but you rarely find interviews or anything. That always frustrated me, never knowing a little bit of the person behind the music. I remember with Kpop laughing my ass off during reality shows, a lot of fangirl material asforth. Also, a great translation community on the net - anything gets translated. On the contrary, Dir en grey and the Gazette being the probably biggest VK-band, and still a lot of interviews on the net without translations. And yea, maybe the golden era of VK is over. Both musically and visually. I feel all the new bands lack originality in that sense.

their first track sounded like a malformed misbirth but they insisted on forcing the entire thing out???? we stan a conceptual artist....

🎶

what the Fuck

Mine arrives tomorrow and I will upload it in case anyone is interested

dishes are FINALLY scheming something

Surprisingly my copy already arrived today. Is there any talk about the title of the unlisted 17th track?

I grew up in the era of nu-metal, then through anime discovered J-Rock and through J-Rock happened upon J-Metal and VK. I was into VK for a good 5 years before the world of Japanese hip hop ensnared me and I stayed with that for probably 5 more years until I came back to VK. My musical tastes are cyclical, I'll listen to something for a while, then onto the next thing, but it's always Japanese, never American or Kpop or anything like that. These days I find myself into the goth and nuwave Japan has to offer and VK is the last thing on my mind as I've replaced the VK on my phone with the likes of Auto-Mod, Roses of Dead Essences, SPEECIES, XA-VAT, ZIZ, Etc. VK is in my blood however and all it will take is a band I care about to bring me back in and the cycle will start all over again. I've never understood the appeal of KPOP, and it's not a language barrier because I loved TRAX and I used to be a big fan of Se7en and Rain, but KPOP is just way too fucking popular, from what I've seen on Twitter it's a fan base of gen Z trolls and it's cringe as fuck and it seems to be based on pushing merch even more than VK and who the hell can keep up with all of these giant groups members anyway? That guy stole the blue hair idea from KOHH first as well. *Old man rant over*

Lots of great insights in this thread, I don't even think I have anything new to add... I would like to echo this so much though, my own experience is/was very much the same: I was one of those guys who dove head-first into vk once I discovered it, and would pretty much listen to it non-stop for years (leaving only veeeery little room for other stuff), and then I kinda burned out on it, but found my way back after a year or so with a cleared mind and more of a musical equilibrium. Although even when I wasn't listening to it I'd still keep visiting MH, lol. Now that I found this balance it's all good, I can enjoy whatever when the mood strikes. I think this "vk or nothing" mentality that's sparked by the discovery of something foreign and exciting might be one of the major factors that later lead people to "fill up" on vk to the point of wanting to move on to other things eventually (ofc there are those special die-hards who never leave thankfully).

Sivy (dishes are scheming) is doing some sort of birthday session live currently at CHOP:

As some people enjoyed our works and shared the album in the downloads as well, here are 2 tabs from the album in guitar pro format if you are interested. I do not use guitar pro for writing so these are just from the midi files and then guitar and bass written out. Cheers~ SEPIA NO IRO NO NAKA NI... http://www.mediafire.com/file/iswot92mxi3qbme/%7Bmid%EF%BC%9Anight%7D_-_SEPIA_NO_IRO_NO_NAKA_NI_.gp5/file IZANAI http://www.mediafire.com/file/hjo2ufhd2dqhcgd/%7Bmid%EF%BC%9Anight%7D_-_izanai.gp5/file

There is this one Lutena (Mahiro from Kiryu ex band) song that I pulled from Xiami, and it's a "live version", but the instrumentals sound studio, albeit lofi, and the vocals are the only thing that's live. Not only that but its incomplete. There are no drums, guitar or bass, but it sounds like there should be. Maybe I can upload it when I'm less sick and anyone who wants to make their own guitar and drum parts can do so lmao

Took two days, but I've finally managed to track down every Ishii release from cali≠gari including all of the numbers, ≠, both #'s and the latest two about hernias and rain. Phew 🥱

I really don't know about how many because I don't care about others. It's up to them what they like and if that changes I'm fine with it. For me I can't imagine to ever stop. I've been listening to almost VK bands exclusively for the past 14 years. Maybe it's because I've already been 25 when I got into VK. I've been going through a lot of stuff during my youth and that was pretty different. I've been evolving from mostly anything being on German charts in the mid 90s, moved through a three year long very addicitve time loving The Kelly Family (they've been very popular in China back then as far as I remember) and then moved on to rock music. Starting with bands like Silverchair, Bush, but also No Doubt, Alanis Morrissette, Foo Fighters and so on. I also got to Linkin Park and partly System of a down before I got to know MUCC as the first Japanese band, followed by Dir en grey and then lots more all the time (bands played in Germany and even Berlin a lot back then so I also had the chance to see quite some of them easily and I guess that also helped). I never felt like getting back. Not really. A bit like listening to stuff from "my past" every other year but I've always been getting back to VK bands very soon. I don't know what's to come some day but from how things have been throughout the past years I can't imagine to ever let go of this. I won't get into Kpop anyway I guess, I'm really not fond of pop music in general. There's not a single bit of interest in me to even try them out.

ALCYON is a Nagoya (名古屋) based visual kei band who formed in December 2017, and started activity in July 2018. They typically focus on heavy-toned music which contrasts beautifully against the high voice of vocalist Sera. They celebrate their second anniversary this July at Nagoya Fits ALL. Read on to learn about their two years of activity so far. It's a band who we somehow never really notice, however their music isn't bad at all and since last month we also can enjoy their music via digital platforms! So please check them out here! https://vk.gy/blog/an-interview-with-alcyon/

Hey! Per caso qualcuno qui era anche nel forum italiano Visual Noise tipo 10 anni fa?

AT LONG LAST I RECEIVED THEM! The Ghost inside of Me- photobook The Ghost inside of Me/Crucifixion-Behind the Masquerade I The Ghost inside of Me/Crucifixion-Behind the Masquerade II (autographed with dedication<3)

Grazie~ Siamo rimaste solo noi due o c'è anche altra gente italiana qui?

Yeah, I think I read something about video/audio sync issues, but good to hear they fixed it for the archive. Ao seems to be so hooked on Dr. Pepper lately, I'm wondering if this will be the next album cover:

I agree. Perhaps they tried to court everyone, but in the end failed to get them. Perhaps they withdrew behind Mana's artistic direction, and thus all MM less Gackt were dropped off Columbia; I can't imagine him, even Kozi or Yuuki playing pop, putting up 00s 64 bits softvi rockers aesthetics, surrounded by group of dancers, etc. They are artists, I think that's clear. Kozi, like Mana, even at the cost of losing their mainstream status (a thing that history has reserved to less than 10 bands in Japanese music history, even Dir or the Gazette never had the attention MM received from the media in the late 90s), decided to move on and run after a consistent artistic project within their own worldview. On the other hand, Gackt brought iconic moments to VK and J-rock (Mizerable, Vanilla, Redemption) but generally speaking he did the stuff that would attract masses.

Of course, how naive of me... Ao gotta get that lunch money to start working on his next BL manga collab probably.

I feel you 100% on this. As an African Descendant of Slavery, I've experienced similar situations. Who would be more qualified to speak on a culture than someone who's already fully immersed in it? I hate when I see these non-"black" SJW types parading around as "allies", when over half of these muhfukkas don't even truly fuck with "black" ppl like that. Most of these ppl don't even want to live around "black" folk, which tells you how they REALLY feel about us. And a lot of these SJW-types champion ideologies that are harmful and destructive to "black" ppl in general. But yeah, I wouldn't even sweat those people. They're more interested in policing the thoughts and actions of others than their own. They wanna change the world by changing other ppl instead of just being the change they want to see. It's ass-backwards...

Eijun from THE BACK HORN apparently made a separate Twitter account to practice speaking English. But he keeps accidentally mixing them up, which is pretty cute. 😅

Those albums were topped ages ago. You guys need to quit living in the past.

01 - Fukushuu wa Seigi Kanji: Romaji Gonna post the other lyrics next week xD