Axius

RESULTS!
 
On to the Results!
______________________________________________________________
 
Best Overall Artist/Band
 
Best Album
 
 
Best Single/Maxi-Single/EP
 
Best Cover Art
 
 
Best Look
 
Best Newcomer
 
Best Veteran
 
Best PV
 
Saddest Disbandment
 
Most Overhyped Band
 
Most Overhyped Release
 
Most Underhyped Band
 
Most Anticipated Release
 
Band that Changed their Sound for the Best
 
Band that Changed their Sound for the Worse
 
Band that you spent most of your money on in 2019
 
What the hell were they thinking!? Award
 
Best Revival/Returns 
 
 
Now I know what you're thinking: 2019 sucked for VK 😅.
I agree lol but thank you to those who voted this year!
 
Let's hope this new decade will be a return to form for the scene!

It's not for general vk bands,  but for specific label/band stuff both glamscure and Starwave Records have webshop thatll ship internationally. They basically have everything here, cds, shirts, cheki, etc
https://starwave.official.ec
https://glamscure.stores.jp

I didn't know where to fit this topic because wether it should be a suggestion or not. I just wanted to see if a list can be created of Japanese sites of where to buy visual kei/ Japanese CD's, DVD's, Band merch, Clothes, pictures of band members, posters and other related things as like general information for others. There also might be other sites not known to others. Maybe this could be pinned to the downloads section or somewhere on the forum. Maybe?
 
In a way mostly band merch and v-kei clothes, thier brands, personally for me anyway. Ive found it more hard to find band merch compared to CD's because of how limited all that stuff is. 
 
I comprised a small list of official sites people already generally know and i know already. Maybe others might have sites not known Feel free to add to this list if anyone wants to
 
https://puresound.co.jp
https://www.cdjapan.co.jp
https://tower.jp
https://www.hmv.co.jp
www.amazon.co.jp
https://www.me-shop.net/cds.html
https://mysound.jp
https://crosscat.shop-pro.jp
http://ktai.la-edison.com/pc
https://shop.littlehearts.jp
https://shopping.yahoo.co.jp/?sc_e=ytc
https://shopping.dmkt-sp.jp
www.mercari.com 
https://www.closetchild-cd.jp
https://www.suruga-ya.jp
 

Thinking about this thread again because I tried to find 蟻‘s (Ari) singles on Cdjapan and it returned only Ariana Grande in my search, confirming that she really is the one responsible for vkei being unpopular 

looks like a teaser for GazettE in Beat Saber

Okayyy >.< im laughing at this post 
 
Im adding a couple more:
DONALD FUCK
Living+Body+Experiment
BLUE chocolate
×≠batsu
TRNTY D;CODE <-- Surprised this wasnt mentioned
li'll
Glam grammer
Delcola hopping
Axesscory
van9ish
Tra Tra Tra 
 nil delete heads 
CRACK ADDICT
dr.tarantula
 Chocolat☆
@LGOS.
ORTH†ёЯGE 
Ryoukitanteisha MACARONI
 xJIHADx 
SPICY DRY HOT MUSTARD

omfg they literally sound like megaromania without an experienced sound designer 

Best film director EVER

Omg, i wish you are right !!

There are a lot of hidden talents in V-kei. Some yes do suck but its more opinion based just like how every type of music out there internationally.
 
To be honest most people i have showed this genera to i always find one thing in common and that is, a reaction like you just got hit by ton of bricks or relate it to anime openings. Also have stated that "Why am i going to listen to a band i do not understand". (I'll get more to that below ). I live in new york and in a region where a lot of pop/rap music flourishes. I have rarely found fans maybe might be looking in the wrong places some days but have lived here most my life and even when i have found fans they dont know as much as i thought they would have known. Honestly people can say V-kei some of is bad but select few have a ear for this type of genera and surprisingly it has grown ever so slightly now of days. Even fans of the genera ive have met don't have an ear for some bands that are visual kei. Remember when Mejibray music videos had only like about 50k even 100k now its like a million or half a million closer to those number ranges. This is just a base example. Or even now deviloof's MV for ONI has now 1m views and they did that in a couple months. I would have to say that's pretty impressive. Yes many have fans in japan that watch these videos but my based point is this: There are a couple of under lying reasons why its not popular or main stream and these are some of the barriers to my knowledge. If anything is incorrect please let me know ill be happy to change this.  : 1. Expensive import costs for Music/Availability. I get it you if people have to buy music overseas but Shipping costs are pretty up there. Some releases i bought that are exclusively on cd can cost anywhere from 10-20 dollars on just shipping alone. Mostly for the ones not on CDjapan.  Not to mention the limited lives >.>.  Im glad some music has been being sold on official amazon. com which gives free shipping. There has been digital support some people like the hard copy. (Spotify has helped in some availability issues) 2. Translation support/Band recognition. I think the language barrier can cause some issues with trying to love your band that you do not understand. This turns some people off from the genera. Major aspects of music changing and constant line-up changes are something people aren't use to this can deter people away some some bands.  There are also bands that don't really put themselves out there internationally all that much. This leads right into the final point. 3. Disbandment. Due to the nature of the genera there are constant disbandment, reforming and other extra terms that can be confusing to a person. This can also be hard for a band to even get to be known if a band isn't functioning to its full capability which in turn doesn't make them popular/ lack of ability to go international.
 
 
Overall what generally people like is things simple rather confusing and also talented music. Visual kei is only one of those things, half the time because of the nature of the genera and how one band can change so much or disband and reform. This is also the beauty of the genera as well. Case in point to much going on for one thing. 
 
Side note: The V-kei disbandment rate has been unchanged for the past 20 years so i honestly dont think visual kei will die anytime soon but it will remain a float as that one underground scene that not many people pay attention to. As long as there are still fans of the genera that support bands to make music there will always be new member awaiting in the back stage you have never seen before. But visual kei is at a all time low as of recent... 😕  Hopefully 2020 changes that. 
 
Last thing, this is a far off distant wish of mine i would love to see a nice chart that displays popularity of visual kei bands from 1980 - 2010 or 15 in this style. Im quite interested. What are peoples thoughts?

This is alot of music ill give my suggestions but i reccomend to check this channel out. This person gives a pretty good compilations of music that bands released from those years. Even tho they are smaples of the music. You can always look up the ones you are interested in  :
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd4f5XD6drcflTcyGvQLkdw/videos
 
Im not doing bands that were already together previously for a long period of time. Only the ones that were together or hiked in popularity for a time. Most of these bands disbanded already or just recently formed. Theres a lot music that came out between these years and good ones i want to put on. Most of that youll find in the channel. Any bands you dont recognize you can always look them up here. https://vk.gy/artists/&letter=a . It helps to trace back where bands come from i even myself get confused as well >.< 
Recommendations: 
2016:
 
Fixer
 
Vrzel:
 
 
balalaika:
 
Ribelio:
 
LACK CO.
 
Razor:
 
2017:
 
Diealo:
 
Yusai: 
 
 
Kizu
 
CHOKE
 
ACME: 
 
Mamireta
 
2018
 
rands
 
DIMLIM
 
Jigsaw:
 
The thirteen
 
 
Sarigia
 
verxina
 
2019
 
Frantic emiry
 
悪者 
 
nurié 
 
gulu gulu
 
Nazare
 
Nicolas
 

Before people mentioned it here I had totally forgotten that not even that long ago they were using pretty much none of the social media platforms used in other countries. 
 
The Japanese are just not interested in investing time in figuring out how the market here works and then investing money in those foreign markets if it doesn’t work out practically by itself like when manga and anime did the heavy lifting for them, and that’s it. I doubt most of these labels have any business savvy other than the yakuza school of street entrepeneurship that was beaten into them. They’re about as clueless as to how things work here as most of us are about how it works there. You can’t really blame them for that when things are lucrative enough domestically, and everything else is a great unknown with big risk and mediocre reward at best.
 

The lack of translations is insane.  I can read/understand Japanese but even I sometimes just don't feel like dealing with having to look up a word(s) I might not know.  In the past translations for stuff was easier found but now, either you better know enough Japanese yourself or know someone who can translate for you even if it's a rough translation. Heaven help you if you are fan of bands that don't have a fandom with some translators. 

Visual kei is a great genre if you think about it. It's so expressive, there are almost no rules of how the music is supposed to sound, what the artists should look like etc.
 
People who likes metal will like some visual kei bands, people who like pop rock will like other bands. The music is usually a mix of different genres which could make the music very unique. It's a cool style, it's very artistic and it's fun to watch live performances because of that.
 
If you, as a fan, dress up in visual kei you will feel like a part of a community, which people enjoy!
 
Visual kei is brilliant, it could be huge and successful if we just made the comminty more interesting. Visual Kei isn't as extreme as the gothic subculture if you think about it. It's easier to enjoy the music, the clothes aren't that different to mainstream clothes. I mean, put on a regular outfit using a blazer and regular jeans, some jewelry and then just focus on the hair and makeup and you will look visual kei. It's pretty simple actually. No need for lolita dresses or goth makeup to look visual kei. It is very stylish and formal kind of. People love cool hairstyles, most people enjoy pop rock. Visual kei could be a huge thing! We just need to spread it more.
 
No one wants it to die it's an fantastic genre, it's fun and cool!

There are a lot of hidden talents in V-kei. Some yes do suck but its more opinion based just like how every type of music out there internationally.
 
To be honest most people i have showed this genera to i always find one thing in common and that is, a reaction like you just got hit by ton of bricks or relate it to anime openings. Also have stated that "Why am i going to listen to a band i do not understand". (I'll get more to that below ). I live in new york and in a region where a lot of pop/rap music flourishes. I have rarely found fans maybe might be looking in the wrong places some days but have lived here most my life and even when i have found fans they dont know as much as i thought they would have known. Honestly people can say V-kei some of is bad but select few have a ear for this type of genera and surprisingly it has grown ever so slightly now of days. Even fans of the genera ive have met don't have an ear for some bands that are visual kei. Remember when Mejibray music videos had only like about 50k even 100k now its like a million or half a million closer to those number ranges. This is just a base example. Or even now deviloof's MV for ONI has now 1m views and they did that in a couple months. I would have to say that's pretty impressive. Yes many have fans in japan that watch these videos but my based point is this: There are a couple of under lying reasons why its not popular or main stream and these are some of the barriers to my knowledge. If anything is incorrect please let me know ill be happy to change this.  : 1. Expensive import costs for Music/Availability. I get it you if people have to buy music overseas but Shipping costs are pretty up there. Some releases i bought that are exclusively on cd can cost anywhere from 10-20 dollars on just shipping alone. Mostly for the ones not on CDjapan.  Not to mention the limited lives >.>.  Im glad some music has been being sold on official amazon. com which gives free shipping. There has been digital support some people like the hard copy. (Spotify has helped in some availability issues) 2. Translation support/Band recognition. I think the language barrier can cause some issues with trying to love your band that you do not understand. This turns some people off from the genera. Major aspects of music changing and constant line-up changes are something people aren't use to this can deter people away some some bands.  There are also bands that don't really put themselves out there internationally all that much. This leads right into the final point. 3. Disbandment. Due to the nature of the genera there are constant disbandment, reforming and other extra terms that can be confusing to a person. This can also be hard for a band to even get to be known if a band isn't functioning to its full capability which in turn doesn't make them popular/ lack of ability to go international.
 
 
Overall what generally people like is things simple rather confusing and also talented music. Visual kei is only one of those things, half the time because of the nature of the genera and how one band can change so much or disband and reform. This is also the beauty of the genera as well. Case in point to much going on for one thing. 
 
Side note: The V-kei disbandment rate has been unchanged for the past 20 years so i honestly dont think visual kei will die anytime soon but it will remain a float as that one underground scene that not many people pay attention to. As long as there are still fans of the genera that support bands to make music there will always be new member awaiting in the back stage you have never seen before. But visual kei is at a all time low as of recent... 😕  Hopefully 2020 changes that. 
 
Last thing, this is a far off distant wish of mine i would love to see a nice chart that displays popularity of visual kei bands from 1980 - 2010 or 15 in this style. Im quite interested. What are peoples thoughts?

There are a lot of hidden talents in V-kei. Some yes do suck but its more opinion based just like how every type of music out there internationally.
 
To be honest most people i have showed this genera to i always find one thing in common and that is, a reaction like you just got hit by ton of bricks or relate it to anime openings. Also have stated that "Why am i going to listen to a band i do not understand". (I'll get more to that below ). I live in new york and in a region where a lot of pop/rap music flourishes. I have rarely found fans maybe might be looking in the wrong places some days but have lived here most my life and even when i have found fans they dont know as much as i thought they would have known. Honestly people can say V-kei some of is bad but select few have a ear for this type of genera and surprisingly it has grown ever so slightly now of days. Even fans of the genera ive have met don't have an ear for some bands that are visual kei. Remember when Mejibray music videos had only like about 50k even 100k now its like a million or half a million closer to those number ranges. This is just a base example. Or even now deviloof's MV for ONI has now 1m views and they did that in a couple months. I would have to say that's pretty impressive. Yes many have fans in japan that watch these videos but my based point is this: There are a couple of under lying reasons why its not popular or main stream and these are some of the barriers to my knowledge. If anything is incorrect please let me know ill be happy to change this.  : 1. Expensive import costs for Music/Availability. I get it you if people have to buy music overseas but Shipping costs are pretty up there. Some releases i bought that are exclusively on cd can cost anywhere from 10-20 dollars on just shipping alone. Mostly for the ones not on CDjapan.  Not to mention the limited lives >.>.  Im glad some music has been being sold on official amazon. com which gives free shipping. There has been digital support some people like the hard copy. (Spotify has helped in some availability issues) 2. Translation support/Band recognition. I think the language barrier can cause some issues with trying to love your band that you do not understand. This turns some people off from the genera. Major aspects of music changing and constant line-up changes are something people aren't use to this can deter people away some some bands.  There are also bands that don't really put themselves out there internationally all that much. This leads right into the final point. 3. Disbandment. Due to the nature of the genera there are constant disbandment, reforming and other extra terms that can be confusing to a person. This can also be hard for a band to even get to be known if a band isn't functioning to its full capability which in turn doesn't make them popular/ lack of ability to go international.
 
 
Overall what generally people like is things simple rather confusing and also talented music. Visual kei is only one of those things, half the time because of the nature of the genera and how one band can change so much or disband and reform. This is also the beauty of the genera as well. Case in point to much going on for one thing. 
 
Side note: The V-kei disbandment rate has been unchanged for the past 20 years so i honestly dont think visual kei will die anytime soon but it will remain a float as that one underground scene that not many people pay attention to. As long as there are still fans of the genera that support bands to make music there will always be new member awaiting in the back stage you have never seen before. But visual kei is at a all time low as of recent... 😕  Hopefully 2020 changes that. 
 
Last thing, this is a far off distant wish of mine i would love to see a nice chart that displays popularity of visual kei bands from 1980 - 2010 or 15 in this style. Im quite interested. What are peoples thoughts?

There are a lot of hidden talents in V-kei. Some yes do suck but its more opinion based just like how every type of music out there internationally.
 
To be honest most people i have showed this genera to i always find one thing in common and that is, a reaction like you just got hit by ton of bricks or relate it to anime openings. Also have stated that "Why am i going to listen to a band i do not understand". (I'll get more to that below ). I live in new york and in a region where a lot of pop/rap music flourishes. I have rarely found fans maybe might be looking in the wrong places some days but have lived here most my life and even when i have found fans they dont know as much as i thought they would have known. Honestly people can say V-kei some of is bad but select few have a ear for this type of genera and surprisingly it has grown ever so slightly now of days. Even fans of the genera ive have met don't have an ear for some bands that are visual kei. Remember when Mejibray music videos had only like about 50k even 100k now its like a million or half a million closer to those number ranges. This is just a base example. Or even now deviloof's MV for ONI has now 1m views and they did that in a couple months. I would have to say that's pretty impressive. Yes many have fans in japan that watch these videos but my based point is this: There are a couple of under lying reasons why its not popular or main stream and these are some of the barriers to my knowledge. If anything is incorrect please let me know ill be happy to change this.  : 1. Expensive import costs for Music/Availability. I get it you if people have to buy music overseas but Shipping costs are pretty up there. Some releases i bought that are exclusively on cd can cost anywhere from 10-20 dollars on just shipping alone. Mostly for the ones not on CDjapan.  Not to mention the limited lives >.>.  Im glad some music has been being sold on official amazon. com which gives free shipping. There has been digital support some people like the hard copy. (Spotify has helped in some availability issues) 2. Translation support/Band recognition. I think the language barrier can cause some issues with trying to love your band that you do not understand. This turns some people off from the genera. Major aspects of music changing and constant line-up changes are something people aren't use to this can deter people away some some bands.  There are also bands that don't really put themselves out there internationally all that much. This leads right into the final point. 3. Disbandment. Due to the nature of the genera there are constant disbandment, reforming and other extra terms that can be confusing to a person. This can also be hard for a band to even get to be known if a band isn't functioning to its full capability which in turn doesn't make them popular/ lack of ability to go international.
 
 
Overall what generally people like is things simple rather confusing and also talented music. Visual kei is only one of those things, half the time because of the nature of the genera and how one band can change so much or disband and reform. This is also the beauty of the genera as well. Case in point to much going on for one thing. 
 
Side note: The V-kei disbandment rate has been unchanged for the past 20 years so i honestly dont think visual kei will die anytime soon but it will remain a float as that one underground scene that not many people pay attention to. As long as there are still fans of the genera that support bands to make music there will always be new member awaiting in the back stage you have never seen before. But visual kei is at a all time low as of recent... 😕  Hopefully 2020 changes that. 
 
Last thing, this is a far off distant wish of mine i would love to see a nice chart that displays popularity of visual kei bands from 1980 - 2010 or 15 in this style. Im quite interested. What are peoples thoughts?

There are a lot of hidden talents in V-kei. Some yes do suck but its more opinion based just like how every type of music out there internationally.
 
To be honest most people i have showed this genera to i always find one thing in common and that is, a reaction like you just got hit by ton of bricks or relate it to anime openings. Also have stated that "Why am i going to listen to a band i do not understand". (I'll get more to that below ). I live in new york and in a region where a lot of pop/rap music flourishes. I have rarely found fans maybe might be looking in the wrong places some days but have lived here most my life and even when i have found fans they dont know as much as i thought they would have known. Honestly people can say V-kei some of is bad but select few have a ear for this type of genera and surprisingly it has grown ever so slightly now of days. Even fans of the genera ive have met don't have an ear for some bands that are visual kei. Remember when Mejibray music videos had only like about 50k even 100k now its like a million or half a million closer to those number ranges. This is just a base example. Or even now deviloof's MV for ONI has now 1m views and they did that in a couple months. I would have to say that's pretty impressive. Yes many have fans in japan that watch these videos but my based point is this: There are a couple of under lying reasons why its not popular or main stream and these are some of the barriers to my knowledge. If anything is incorrect please let me know ill be happy to change this.  : 1. Expensive import costs for Music/Availability. I get it you if people have to buy music overseas but Shipping costs are pretty up there. Some releases i bought that are exclusively on cd can cost anywhere from 10-20 dollars on just shipping alone. Mostly for the ones not on CDjapan.  Not to mention the limited lives >.>.  Im glad some music has been being sold on official amazon. com which gives free shipping. There has been digital support some people like the hard copy. (Spotify has helped in some availability issues) 2. Translation support/Band recognition. I think the language barrier can cause some issues with trying to love your band that you do not understand. This turns some people off from the genera. Major aspects of music changing and constant line-up changes are something people aren't use to this can deter people away some some bands.  There are also bands that don't really put themselves out there internationally all that much. This leads right into the final point. 3. Disbandment. Due to the nature of the genera there are constant disbandment, reforming and other extra terms that can be confusing to a person. This can also be hard for a band to even get to be known if a band isn't functioning to its full capability which in turn doesn't make them popular/ lack of ability to go international.
 
 
Overall what generally people like is things simple rather confusing and also talented music. Visual kei is only one of those things, half the time because of the nature of the genera and how one band can change so much or disband and reform. This is also the beauty of the genera as well. Case in point to much going on for one thing. 
 
Side note: The V-kei disbandment rate has been unchanged for the past 20 years so i honestly dont think visual kei will die anytime soon but it will remain a float as that one underground scene that not many people pay attention to. As long as there are still fans of the genera that support bands to make music there will always be new member awaiting in the back stage you have never seen before. But visual kei is at a all time low as of recent... 😕  Hopefully 2020 changes that. 
 
Last thing, this is a far off distant wish of mine i would love to see a nice chart that displays popularity of visual kei bands from 1980 - 2010 or 15 in this style. Im quite interested. What are peoples thoughts?

I love this list its surpising to always see how old some bands are.My god i didnt expect OZ on this list at all i remember listening to them in High school lol same for vivid 69-II was like my second vk song its so good.  Lol DIM - i honestly liked only every other song in this album it was pretty good tho. A couple of note worthy albums i thought should have made this list. 
 
MUCC - Kyuutai
D - Genetic World
And~Eccentric Agent~ -  - & - (I agree with NICKT here)
NEGA - Grave Of The Sacrifice
 
 

I love this list its surpising to always see how old some bands are.My god i didnt expect OZ on this list at all i remember listening to them in High school lol same for vivid 69-II was like my second vk song its so good.  Lol DIM - i honestly liked only every other song in this album it was pretty good tho. A couple of note worthy albums i thought should have made this list. 
 
MUCC - Kyuutai
D - Genetic World
And~Eccentric Agent~ -  - & - (I agree with NICKT here)
NEGA - Grave Of The Sacrifice
 
 

How many bands are going to use that riff around 2:40 lol

Translation plsssssssss