reminiscing2004

I've heard these exact same things from my male metalhead friends.
It probably has to be a XX/XY chromosome thing or something lol

I found this thread really interesting to read through and see everyone's take on this topic. I'm replying to these quotes because it spotlights just how different the desires in a live concert experience are from male and female fans. Despite what some people (like the above quoted) consider to be normal and expect everyone would want from a concert, I'm here to say that the things Inertia and Komo mentioned as being bad are exactly what I want from a great live experience.
 
Not all male fans are like this, but I think this is a really common mindset for men. It's why a bunch of dudes who have never met each other can pile up in a cramped hot space and push the shit out of each other for a couple hours and leave with a big smile on their face, excited for the next time. I can't tell you how many times I've like shook someone's hand after a show or shared some acknowledging eye contact and nod with someone while leaving a venue after a night of moshing. The bond you have with those people is absurdly strong after the night. And why? It sounds silly, but its because you all got crushed, hit, pushed, soaked in sweat (if not yours, from someone else), and gave every ounce of energy you had while listening to some of your favorite music. It's simply cathartic.
 
It's not really a matter of lacking courtesy (or atleast not intentionally). The rough nature of a lot of predominantly male lives is because there's an unspoken agreement that most people WANT that kind of atmosphere (though obviously a lot of female fans want something different). I can guarantee you I'm always the skinniest/lightest dude in the pit. It's hilarious how little control I have and how far I will fly when pushed, but I wouldn't have it any other way. The best concert experiences for me always end sweaty, bruised, unable to speak, and feeling like I've just ran a marathon. When you find a show where everyone is on this same level, prepared to use up all of their spirit to making this experience count, you have something crazy magical. And a strong sense of unity comes from having been through that together with other people who were looking for the same thing. 

I found this thread really interesting to read through and see everyone's take on this topic. I'm replying to these quotes because it spotlights just how different the desires in a live concert experience are from male and female fans. Despite what some people (like the above quoted) consider to be normal and expect everyone would want from a concert, I'm here to say that the things Inertia and Komo mentioned as being bad are exactly what I want from a great live experience.
 
Not all male fans are like this, but I think this is a really common mindset for men. It's why a bunch of dudes who have never met each other can pile up in a cramped hot space and push the shit out of each other for a couple hours and leave with a big smile on their face, excited for the next time. I can't tell you how many times I've like shook someone's hand after a show or shared some acknowledging eye contact and nod with someone while leaving a venue after a night of moshing. The bond you have with those people is absurdly strong after the night. And why? It sounds silly, but its because you all got crushed, hit, pushed, soaked in sweat (if not yours, from someone else), and gave every ounce of energy you had while listening to some of your favorite music. It's simply cathartic.
 
It's not really a matter of lacking courtesy (or atleast not intentionally). The rough nature of a lot of predominantly male lives is because there's an unspoken agreement that most people WANT that kind of atmosphere (though obviously a lot of female fans want something different). I can guarantee you I'm always the skinniest/lightest dude in the pit. It's hilarious how little control I have and how far I will fly when pushed, but I wouldn't have it any other way. The best concert experiences for me always end sweaty, bruised, unable to speak, and feeling like I've just ran a marathon. When you find a show where everyone is on this same level, prepared to use up all of their spirit to making this experience count, you have something crazy magical. And a strong sense of unity comes from having been through that together with other people who were looking for the same thing. 

I think that this situation sort of showcases the discrepancy between the western and Japanese fandom, in some ways. We in the west have sort of built up our own subculture surrounding VK that isn't the same as it is in Japan. In Japan, attending VK lives can have connotations that a lot of guys would want to avoid, the informal rules surrounding the lives can also make the shows less enjoyable to men too, as in the whole staying put in your spot, allowing time and space for the girls to fix their hair between each headbang and stuff like that. The western VK fandom treats it more like any other alternative subculture whereas I feel like in Japan it has unhealthy connections with the host ideals. 
 
I went to a VK bar in Tokyo and talked to the bartender and he said that the regular girls scared away other customers on the weekends by refusing to let him serve others, since they "paid for his company" by buying drinks, and they would demand from him to play only the one band they listen to the entire night.
I think for a lot of guys who are into VK, most Japanese men who are into VK are CD-only by the way, as in they don't attend the shows but just buy the music from stores and might occasionally show up to onemans and stand in the back, this doesn't create a fun atmosphere since they would prefer to just hang about and talk shit about music and listen to a dozen different bands. 
 
I realize that the bangya culture is what keeps the bands afloat, but I think it's also this culture that sort of kills the fun for a lot of guys who enjoy the music and enjoy the scene aesthetically but isn't just invested in one band and wants to enjoy some host fantasy with them. And this is why guys have a larger part in the western fandom because ours really isn't connected much to the Japanese one beyond listening to the same bands.
 
To be fair though, quite a few bands try to remedy this by doing those male only shows, and I think that's an awesome thing, although I wish it weren't necessary.
 

my friends don't feed into the ignorant gay comments, LOL save it for another thread because we all know the answer to why that is a stupid argument
 
as for why some band throw men only lives, it because the atmosphere for some bands is radically different between their male and female fans. i think this applies a lot for bands who are on the cusp of visual, so women's only lives might have more people engaging in certain furitsuke with a more "respectful" atmosphere whereas the mens lives are probably set up to be more wild, unhinged, "western style" live experiences. This is pretty similar to how gender is portrayed in the scene, with gyao tending to be more there to have fun rather than closely following typical gya conventions (worrying about how pretty their dresses are for their fav guitarist at kamite to see them from 4th row). On the flipside, some bands with male fans (check any DEG live report) can grind female fans (and even some dudes) the wrong way.
 
 

this. i've spoken to enough gya who would notice any minute change in a song arrangement and analyze lyrics/the meaning behind something artistic (or "artistic") a band has put out.
 
but sure, some of them are in it for the fantasy, and that's awesome too. don't see much of a difference between dudes who don't know a lot about music and flail over cool guitar solos/how badass this and that musician is and gya who react pretty much the same about pretty bandoman.
 
 

ahhh, man

let's be honest.

The idea of visual-kei is to sell a perfect image of somebody that doesn't exist.
Same with all of the pop-idols. This is an industry, first of all, music comes secondary. We have a target audience of 18-year old Japanese girls, most likely obsessed with androgynous male image and who read a lot of josei and shojo manga.. They are not gonna buy music in general - they don't give a shit about that. What you can sell to them is an image.
 
as it was once put:
"No, they’re sexy, but they don’t exist in the same universe as the fans. They don’t have chlamidya, they don’t worry about child support payments, they don’t have girlfriends or baby-mamas. They don’t have a stinky van. The fans don’t want to think about that! They want a dream, (not a man or a woman), they want a higher being, a look out of a fairy-tale. That’s why we do all the makeup and hair. It’s not about the guitars or playing A-flat in a Lydian mode."

In case you didn't notice - it's the same thing with anime. It will always cater to the male audience, because we tend/are willing to spend whatever money we have on our obsession - be it motorbykes or fuck-pillows. And if you take socially awkward males who had no success with women and life in general, and sell them over-sexualized image and play on their instincts - oh boy, you get a really good chunk of revenue. So you can see the similarities with the visual-kei approach here.
 
So, the visual-kei's target audience just does the same - spending whatever they have on their obsession. The difference is that visual-kei found its small (really small) niche of fans who are ready to do that. If we take population in general - it will not work. But it just takes whatever mental image/ideal the fans have, wrap it in a nice way, add a little bit of consumer psychology/evolutionary psychology and neurobiology (yes, it's the thing, I highly recommend reading material on how the last two infuence what we buy and how much we are willing to spend) - and you get your revenue =)
 
Hence, we have a situation, that mostly females go to visual-kei gigs (because it was created for them), mostly (hungry/semi-virgin) males go for female pop-idols' gigs (because it was created for them), and etc. Which is fine.
It's all about money, not the art.

This. I went to see exist trace  recently and 90% of the fans were male
 
In Chile i'd say it's about 70% female 30% male for VK bands with cute members (this depends a lot on the band though), a more even ratio for bands with heavier music/90's and early 2000's bands and probably 60% male and 40% female for non-visual rock bands.
I conducted a very informal survey and while women tend to prefer bands with male members, guys listen to both girl bands (exist trace, Scandal, Band Maid etc) and male-bands evenly.
Also, the amount of gay male fans isn't really outstanding compared to other genres, most male fans I know and hang out with have girlfriends.
 
This is a topic/social phenomenon that actually interests me a lot.

Got myself for my birthday Nightmare - Animalism Tour DVD and kpop merch I owe myself (Happy Pledis 2012, Block B Welcome to the Block Repackage and signed New Kids On The Block) 
 
 Swore I wouldn't be spending again so quickly but if I found Shounenki or any of my flopped kfavs stuff itd be the end of my savings 
 

Just like the title says this is an attempt to bring back the m-h jrock awards for the year 2017 which last took place way back in 2012 and apparently ended do to lack of participation. Awards were given for best album, single, new band, etc. And all of this was decided by user votes.
 
So I asked about reviving this and here's what @Zeussaid, 
Judging by all of the yearly best album/single reviews I would hope there's still some interest in something like this. So if you want to see the "Monochrome heaven J-Rock Awards 2017" then help me get this topic 50 likes and/or 50 comments by the end of the month.

My skit starts at 29:40, I hope you enjoy even though I sucked ass!

I think it's the pose where you're on your knees in front of another guy. Very popular in the VK bandoman circles.

As a heterosexual male, I can confirm this is hott 🔥🔥🔥

My gf and I are fueling each other's Jiluka obession up to dangerous levels.
 
send help

We came to a time where a collab between miyavi and Hyde is just some random half-assed electronic shit instead of something like a dream team making music. Talk about crushed expectations

Hey everyone!
I'm Miyuki (pen pal name) and I'm new to these forums, but not so new to VK. It's been SO LONG since I listened to it, but it was basically my entire childhood.  I am now 20 years old and it's been (what) 5 (?) years since I actively stopped listening to it (worst mistake ever, lol). Now I tuned back to my old bands and the overwhleming happiness I am getting is beyond unreal. Since I was out of community for so long I wish to find new people to connect with on here and to find new bands to listen to. Right now I'm enjoying Aicle, Spiv States, SuG, Kiryuu, DaizyStripper ( <3 ), Plastic Tree,  DOG in the PWO, LM.C, basically all the 'old' cheerful bands. If anyone wishes to meet someone as eager to listen to happy japanese rock (and obviously admiring and fangirling over band members) as you are here I am! ^__^ 
Have a great day!!

So @emmnywrote the definitive Kagerou piece about their best era.... but the timeframe discussed there left out one of my fave Kagerou songs! (And I wanted to talk about what Kagerou meant to me a little bit...)

Hey there everyone!
 
I'm pretty new to the forum sorta, I've lurked for years (lots of years haha) just keeping up to date with reviews for some of my favourite bands. 
I don't have the most uppity of tastes (SCREW used to be my favourite band haha) but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate quality.
I'm currently hugely into bands like abstracts and (Yo can I get a shout out for Ryouga and RAZOR tho) the djent scene, though I do appreciate a lot of metalcore. 
I also listen to J-Rap but KOHH mostly so please introduce me to some more. I took a year of Japanese during my Biochem Degree and pretty much use podcasts/music to try and learn more and more. 
I'm not a huge manga reader but I read the mainstream ones (hence Kuki Urie profile pic). 
I lived in Hiroshima for a month as an exchange student and am planning on making use of the Japan-Canada holiday work visa to go see some shows next year.
(All my favourite bands keep disbanding eg. HaKu, BORN, 7Years To Midnight, Story of Hope #fml)
I recently discovered I have bipolar disorder so if anyone ever wants to chat about mental health, I'm definitely down for a convo. 
I play guitar, some covers might find their way on to Youtube, but I think that's all I've got for now. 
If anyone can point me in the direction of the 外国人 currently living in Japan part of the forum I have a few questions there, mainly where's the best place to be situated if I wanna go to metal shows every weekend while I'm there haha. 
Stoked to be part of this forum. 
Ciao. 

P.S if there's a how to guide on how to create an image or gif signature someone pls tell me. thx

It looks like the DELUHI thread died in 2011
Opinions on FED here are divided, but at least there should be a topic for them, even if Leda's always busy doing other projects and they're not that active altogether.
 

 

 
2015/04/18~
 
Vo.Keita [twitter / instagram]
→ CodeRebirth → (KISSBULLET) → Far East Dizain

Gt.Leda [twitter / instagram]
→ 沙耶 → Crimson Head → Amulet* (Gt.有羽人) → Galneryus (Ba.YU-TO)、GRAVE SEED (Gt.) → DELUHI (Gt.LEDA) → UNDIVIDE (Leda) → Far East Dizain

Ba.Яyu [twitter / instagram]
→ VOID → TweiT → Far East Dizain

Dr.Sujk [twitter / instagram]
→ DELUHI → solo → solo, UNDIVIDE, Sel’m (support) → LOKA (support) → Far East Dizain
 
website | Twitter | Youtube | Ameblo | iTunes
 
 

lorelei: the third chapter
LES GO, hash tag make vk great again, hash tag make vk budget kei again

JILUKA has done very well to maintain my interest this year, as well as Matenrou Opera since their switch to heavy metal.
Kamijo's experiments have not gone unnoticed either, as Mademoiselle is very reminiscent of the days of Malice Mizer.
 
I am curious to see what FUKI's Unlucky Morpheus has in store, if any, towards the end of this year/beginning of 2018.
Their EP Black Pentagram was just too perfect, as I feel that the project they are working on this time is the best representation of the band thus far.

I just wrote a status complaining about 2017 VK before I saw your post, lol
 
Checking the 2017 Music Ratings thread is pretty telling. very few people with VK releases on the top of their list. I haven't listened one release that blew my mind yet, and most of what I consider really good this year has been compilations/best of, so...
 
But all is not lost, I still believe Develop One's Faculties is the best thing that happened to VK in the decade, ACME and ORCALADE both are great newcomers, MORRIGAN usually does not disappoint, FAR EAST DIZAIN can be good, ZERO MIND INFINITY is a real promise... there's still hope

Great review zeus, what do you think of the older albums.