qotka

Yes! I also almost feel frowned upon when I try to communicate with people by adding comments when I reblog or adding my own thoughts on content I post. It's ridiculous how shallow the communication there can get.
 
I can totally relate to this. VK for me was a nostalgia until I went to Visual Japan Summit a couple of months ago and everything just resurfaced. Damn was it glorious.
 
-----
 
I'm really glad I've read this thread even though I don't have much of substance to add. My friends who were into VK back in the day think I'm going to some weird mid-life crisis (I'm not old enough for that!) and keep slagging me off and asking where I got machine to go back to 2005. I totally understand them though, for many it was a fad and something we did as edgy teenagers who loved the aesthetics and wanted to feel speshul.
 
But it's a great scene and I'm glad to be back. Granted, about 95% is crud, but there are too many gems out there for me to give up.
 
Also IDK if dead or not -- I think that really depends on where you're looking. I've seen enough indie bands (not just v-kei) that barely have an audience of 10 (and sometimes you realise most of the people sitting around you at the club are the other bands playing that night), but then again you still have bands like MUCC who have almost sold out their current zenkoku tour and are doing two Budokan days this June (I'll have to wait for the general sale to see if they manage to sell it out though, though I bet they will). They're the only 'major' band I'm closely following at the moment but I'm sure there are more examples to this. Sure, the underground is where you wanna look for the future of a scene/genre,  but as long as bands keep forming and bangya keep... doing their thing, I'm not worried.
 
PS. @desparejo86 LEAVE YOSHIKI ALONE he's just a human being and it's OK to express yourself through taking 100 selfies a day!!1111 Also the new X album is totally happening. (sadface)
 
 
 

LOL I think I've watched the version someone uploaded on YouTube like a hundred times!
Do you play twister... I mean use twitter?
 
I also think the Yokubou no Uta video is the best tribute to v-kei anyone has ever done, and their performance at VJS knocked me off my feet. Have you seen it?  

Thanks for the warm welcome!  And wow, a fellow GB fan! <3 
Ah, Dakishimete Schwarz is one of my favs too and they need to reveal the truth more often LOL!

Hello and welcome!
I had no idea Kyan sometimes actually plays the guitar for real, that's cool. I love Golden Bomber, they are hilarious and Dakishimete Schwarz is my favorite karaoke jam.

What was once cool and new is destined to become uncool and old.
 
ANY movement is going to peak and then decline at some point.
 
It went from a huge movement/style down to a small niche thing in Japan. And like how there are still sleaze and hairmetal bands forming in Hollywood and playing the Whisky on Tuesday nights, just because there are new bands and an audience for it to a degree doesn't mean it isn't a dead genre. It said what it had to say.
 
Fans in the west were 5-10 years behind the times. We discovered Visual at the turn on the century, and spent the decade not only getting into the bands that were around, but all the cool VK bands from the previous two decades. Needless to say, there was a TON of great shit to discover.
 
But, eventually, the well ran dry. 
 
For most people I've met that were into the genre, VK was like Kiss: a gateway drug into music in general but for weaboo/nerdy kids. Some people got into goth stuff (guilty!), some got into screamo and numetal, some got into prog rock, whatever. But the common thread is that 99% of them left that shit (visual kei/kiss) behind once they discovered more music and refind their tastes.
 
What's left is us: the creepy Kiss fans still painting our faces and shit to come out and see Gene Simmon and Paul Stanley phone it in for the millionth time at our local casinos. Arguing about weather Kiss would have been better off to keep Ace around, speculating as to the whereabouts of Vinny Vincent, and debating what is truly the worst track on 'Hot in the Shade.' It's  the way things go. If you don't believe me, pop on over to the MetalSludge.TV message board and see old 80s rocker guys, now in their 50s, doing the same thing we're doing here.
 
I'm here because Visual Kei changed my fucking life, man. Defined who I was, what music I listen to (I own David Sylvian's Weatherbox FFS), how I dressed and wore my hair. Every smoking hot girlfriend, every cross country tour, damn near every good thing that happened to me can more or less be traced back to getting some shitty .asf and .rm files of Luna Sea, L'arc, and Malice Mizer music videos  back in 99 or 00. 
 
Look, we were there for it. Love it, accept it, talk about it, listen to the old albums that meant so much to you, maybe even find a cool new band or two (I like Xaa-Xaa), etc. but there is nothing sad about that graph. This thing, it was our thing. 
 
 
And that's all I have to say. Gotta get back to making fun of Yoshiki.
 

tbh, VK has already hit that all time low in the 90s. It's popularity in Japan is debatable. As many others have noted, VK isn't totally obscure there (though I guess it has a bad rep, so many people wouldn't ever admit to like it) but not really as popular as it was. And no, I don't think Visual kei was always as niche as it is now in Japan. Back in the old times when VK wasn't such a widely used label bands of that caliber used to fill stadiums and had regular TV and radio exposure. There's a reason why some describe the early 90s as the band explosion era, particularity in regards to the Nagoya rock music scene.
 
But yeah, those days are long gone. hell, most of us gaijin folks have no real clue about it, since the time we got introduced to Vk it was already old hat in Japan. You had to be there for yourself in the early 90s to really see and feel it – but how many foreigners, save for a few, had the privilege and luck? When bands like Luna Sea started to kick off and Malice Mizer rose to fame I was in friggin' kindergarten. Sure, I like to diss the modern scene a lot (because I simply don't like the type of music the bands are playing now), but even I know that I am not a special snowflake and a "trvuer" fan.
 
But to get back to the core of the thread: it's true that in the west VK has lost attention and Fans. people in this thread have offered enough explanations and hypotheses for it's fade in popularity. I am just here to give my two cents on the extinction of the local VK scene in my country (if you can even call it that way):
 
As with others, it all started in the early 00s with the Manga and Anime boom. I really doubt any one in Austria and Germany could have known about VK without either moving to Japan, getting introduced to it via websites and communities specializing in Glam- or Japanese rock or Anime/Manga. Most of us peeps were too young and too poor to go to Japan and most of us had no internet at home. So that leaves us with Manga and Anime. I remember I used to buy these Anime magazines of which there were plenty on the market and many of these papers tried to market japanese culture to us impressionable youths. So they had lots of articles about japanese food, society and of course music. 
 
And some might also remember that Neo Tokyo's (a japanese Manga store in Germany) founded their music publishing label (?) Gan-Shin, which brought to us some of Dir en grey's discography. Only shortly after (or before? I don't remember that well) they started playing in Germany. And as stated before in this thread, due to the Anime fad being so closely related to the J-Pop and VK boom many Manga/Anime Conventions went a great deal to get some bands, including bloody the Gazette, to play at their conventions. And it was a self fullfilling cycle that simply worked: people got to japanese music via Anime and Japan culture based media, they participated in local communities; these were lured to leave their money at the conventions and these in turn invited bands to play to bring in the fans.
 
Then there were online communities like Animexx, where we weebs gathered en masse and talked about our bandomen all day and night, spent all our time drawing and writing shitty slash fanfics and Mangas. It was like paradise. But yeah, around 2009 the German and Austrian scene started to crumble like an old ruin. Suddenly all the people crazy about Moi dix Mois (of which there were MANY here. They even called it a "Manamania") switched from VK to JPop and what they deemed "more sophisticated" music. They also sold all their previously well treasured Moi-Même-Moitié dresses and Sexpot Revenge clothes to go either "normie" or "gyaru". I noticed weblogs of people who loved VK previously popping up with lamentations about how stupid they were for liking it, that it was just a phase and that VK is actually really dumb and shitty.
 
And of course there was also the huge amount of people bickering about how the post 2009s scene wasn't as good. Tbh I can kinda related to it, because in that timespan I also stopped giving shit about newer bands. But I still like to listen to my oldies. Many others for whom it was really just a short fad, stopped caring about it entirely. 
 
Indeed, Social media and the way we consume media and music today, compared to ten years ago, factor in this as well. But the once really big German-speaking scenes, which were infamous enough to be featured regularly in sensationalist  TV formats and press, already died before all these changes could have affected the decline of interest in VK. The truth is simply that liking Visual kei was a fad and it's success in the western world a short-lived hype. Most people have since moved on or hopped on the newest trendwagon.
 
And if I am honest: I do not miss it. I think it's just fine if VK stays obscure. I have moved on and no longer care about old skewl VK being dead. As already said, many music scenes have died and never came back, and that's a fate you have to accept . Though I disagree with the notion that the current goth revival is so bad. It's not the same as the 80s, sure, but it has some fun and redeeming qualities and it's not mainstream. So, if it comes back, it will probably never reach it's former glory. And that's okay too.  A friend of mine also once said that certain eras of VK needed a certain Zeitgeist. And that Zeitgeist is just strongly tied to that specific era. If that era is over than the atmosphere that made it special in the first place is gone too. Hence some of those old music styles no longer work outside the context of so called retromania. Of course, VK has the benefit of being a patchwork genre, it can and has to adapt to survive and it will probably carry on existing in some way (or will influence something else that exists in the future). But it will never be the VK we used to fall in love when we discovered it (and that counts for all eras).
 
I also do not think I ever want the local VK scene being as big again, because I remember that it was mostly a large collection of the most immature, hysterical and downright creepy individuals I have ever seen. Some of these self-called "Visus" looked cool, but were really uncomfortable to surround you with.

I've been following this thread for quite a while and many things came up in my head while reading through it. Many people already mentioned things I wanted to say or made valid points, but I'd still like to share a few things from my own point of view and experiences. (and sorry if i repeat some things already stated because i read kinda fast and have a short memory...)

To me, LJ played a huge role in the VK international fanbase and was what really made it feel alive (especially for people who lived too far to attend lives and such and could only rely on the net for the experience). It was very interactive and people shared the shit out of things. Jrock scans was one of the best LJ communities ever and I must've spent hours browsing through their directory just trying to save scans of all my favorite bands. I still have them in my hard drive today and my only regret is that I didn't spend more time on it because all the links from there are dead now (lol). I was one of those people who made a shit ton of graphics and icons so scans were pretty important for me yeah...For a movement that's all about the visuals though the idea of making pretty graphics felt interconnected and made the fandom more fun as a whole. Now that it's practically not a thing anymore the whole appeal of the visuals feels more boring? Another thing I liked about LJ was that you could read your friends' journal entries and learn about their favorite bands, other than the ones you already share. People wrote about their favorite bands all their time, posted PVs and pics, and shared live reports, which I found very fun to read because they were very casual. Around the time LJ died out was around the time everybody's favorite bands started disbanding and a lot of people just left. With the transition to tumblr, like most people mentioned already, it's only reblogs and it feels a lot less interactive, making it hard to find/talk to new friends. (thankfully there's still MH though :>)

Seeing that all my vk friends were leaving even I was feeling the pull of leaving vk forever. I even left my fav band Plastic Tree for a while (probably sometime after their ammonite album released). How dare I, I know. But in between those times I was out of vk I still found myself checking back in the scene once in a while out of curiosity, and found interest in a few newer bands. I just wasn't as crazy active as I was during LJ times. It wasn't until I went to Japan when I attended my very first vk live, which was AvelCain, that I regained all that vk-ness back in me. After seeing such an amazing and fun performance I realized how much I still loved vk, and that was pretty much how I woke up (and here I am now). It's probably different for everyone, but I feel like those who say that it was a fad might just a need a little something to make it all come back again, as it did for me.

Also, I feel like the attitudes of fans might also play a role in the decline. You see a lot of people complaining about the low quality of music these days and that vk is not the same anymore, which I KNOW is very true in many cases and I do this too, but at the same time it puts too much negativity into the fandom and makes everything seem less attractive, and so people leave. The sharing aspect also feels increasingly dead--music sharing wise the reasons are pretty obvious, but even just the talk and spread of vk feels increasingly dead. Again, this can probably lead back to how tumblr is all about the reblogs, not much interaction or discussion. That's why I'm very glad that MH still does what it does today (the monthly recommended tracks, reviews, and great threads like these and the awesome recent oshare and nu-metal kei threads, etc. where we can really discuss and share about vk), because maaaan the vk fandom feels so dead everywhere else.

With the changes in mainstream culture, and Kpop still a thing, I don't see how the newer generation will grow into vk. The only way they'll ever get into it is probably by the influence of a friend. So with that said, keep spreading the vk love people, as cheesy as it sounds lol.

I think it's been a good 10 years since I last posted on a BBS, but I've been looking for a J-rock/V-kei community for a while now and I was glad to find this one (figured that if I can't shut up about the music I love listening to I should probably join!).
 
I'm really into MUCC these days (can't wait for their new album! Just a couple more days!), and really love the big classic geezers (X Japan, Luna Sea, Buck-Tick, Kuroyume). I also love going to gigs and finding new bands to listen to. Thought the scene was dead until a year ago, but nope, still alive and kicking. DEZERT are currently my favorite fairly-new v-kei act. They're unpolished (sometimes in a good way) but give good vibes and have an interesting interaction with their audience.
 
I'm here to learn (so many bands I've never heard of just from skimming through the site, yay!) and meet new people. So, um, hi!

I think it's been a good 10 years since I last posted on a BBS, but I've been looking for a J-rock/V-kei community for a while now and I was glad to find this one (figured that if I can't shut up about the music I love listening to I should probably join!).
 
I'm really into MUCC these days (can't wait for their new album! Just a couple more days!), and really love the big classic geezers (X Japan, Luna Sea, Buck-Tick, Kuroyume). I also love going to gigs and finding new bands to listen to. Thought the scene was dead until a year ago, but nope, still alive and kicking. DEZERT are currently my favorite fairly-new v-kei act. They're unpolished (sometimes in a good way) but give good vibes and have an interesting interaction with their audience.
 
I'm here to learn (so many bands I've never heard of just from skimming through the site, yay!) and meet new people. So, um, hi!

@fitear1590 thank you for mentioning Ailiph Doepa! This is some hilarious (and good) stuff!

Greetings, Monochrome-Heaven! Welcome to our first installment of Recommended Tracks for the year 2017! Things are already off to a great start and we've got a wonderful selection of new songs to recommend! So let's get straight to it!  
 
(We apologize if some videos aren't available due to region restrictions!)
 
  @fitear1590's Picks
 
"A Little Picture" by ユナイト
"A Little Picture" by UNiTE.

2016 was a fairly slow year for UNiTE., with only a maxi-single and three digitally released tracks. Although a bit over-produced, "A Little Picture" is a joyous return for the band. While I haven't gotten my hands on a physical copy to check the liner notes yet, I'd bet that the guest saxophone is by RUPPA. For those who are looking forward to listening to the entire release, head on over to streaming services like Spotify! The single's PV is simple, but delightful, featuring some of the best production value for the band's videos so far. Filtered through a soft pastel aesthetic, we get to see the members frolic around in a paint studio. #literallyartkei  
"偽りへの招待" by テマネキ 
"itsuwari e no shoutai" by temaneki

I've also gotta keep an eye on the little guys! As far as I know, temaneki are a trio of newbies in the scene and, boy, are they rough around the edges. Their look is lacking some serious polish and their production is out of whack. And yet, I'm drawn to their first single! Clunky synth arrangements aside, I am loving their melodies. The chorus has the kind of dramatic edge that I live for in VK. I'm curious to see where temaneki will go from here!  
"Shimokitazawa" by Ailiph Doepa

Now this is my kind of random discovery. As far as I can tell, no one has posted about Ailiph Doepa on MH yet, but I'm sure they would be up a lot of people's alleys. They've got the quirky, spastic touch of bands like The Blood Brothers or early バックドロップシンデレラ (Backdrop Cinderella), but with the djent savvy to pull off some bursts of truly heavy stuff. Plus, the band seem to have a great sense of humor, with stage names like Eyegargoyle (vocals) and Donaldy Ketchup (drums). I am going back to check out the rest of their discography, stat!  
"透過幕" by Soanプロジェクトwith芥
"toukamaku" by Soan Project with Akuta

Collaborative 'projects' aren't uncommon in VK: HIZAKI grace project, Kisaki Project, ～Lily Project～, and so on. Well, Soan Project happens to be the latest, most notably featuring Moran drummer and composer Soan, with vocalist Akuta (Chanty, ex-Administrator). I hadn't been following the Soundcloud samples prior to the release, so when I heard the mini, I was going in 'blind.' It doesn't sound like Moran x Chanty by any means, but I'm still impressed--it's cool to hear these musicians work in a new style! This particular track is angsty with gorgeous backing piano and an epic guitar solo. Next month, Soan's collaboration with Temari (ex-Amber gris) comes out!  
@beni's Picks
 
"ケルベロス" by 相対性理論
"Cerberus" by Soutaiseiriron

Sotaiseiriron have been around since 2006. While the band tend to keep to themselves, as shown by their lack of appearances in promotional pictures and music videos, Sotaiseiriron have a massive fanbase. For those who have never heard of them or have yet to try them, don't leave that experience waiting any longer! Trust me. Those who already know and like singers like Bonjour Suzuki and DAOKO will have a field day with Sōtaiseiriron too because of the similar vocal work. Yakushimaru Etsuko's whimsical yet cute voice against the rocking music and repeated strings and chords make for a funky, sweet tune. That chorus is undeniably adorable and won't be leaving your head any time soon. And how could I not bring up the music video? An Okami-like animated sequence of a baby Cerberus can only mean one thing: cuteness overload.  
"Bitter" by 緑黄色社会
"Bitter" by ryokushaka

This newly debuting band (yes band, don't let the music video fool you too into thinking it's a solo artist!) are instantly showing a lot of potential. Thanks to the bright music video, the tune takes me back to acts like Sugar's Campaign and Awesome City Club. While the video is simple at best, it's still a pleasure. I can't be the only one finding myself joining in with their singer Haruko Nagaya's random hand dancing in the chorus! For those interested, their first mini album Nice To Meet You?? dropped earlier this month!  
 
"成仏できない" by メランコリック写楽
"joubutsu dekinai" by melacholic-sharaku

If there's a band I'm sure JPopsuki and AramaJapan! will jump on sooner or later, it's melancholic-sharaku. The Seiko Oomori like vocals are becoming a real trend with some breaking indie acts recently, and these guys are no different. But what I love about them is the insanely catchy pop chorus. By the first chorus on my first listen, I was sold. Nothing more can be said for these guys other than I hope they stick to this path. For those who like a good time and want something new, goofy (just check out that MV) and obscure for now, melancholic-sharaku are your order.  
 
"after that" by ぼくのりりっくのぼうよみ
"after that" by Boku no Lyric no Boyomi

I was recommended by @CAT5 to try this guy's second album release Noah's Arc. It's a great 2017 album and chock-full of brilliant songs, one of them being "after that". For such a young artist, at the age of 18, bokuriri is already proving to be a star. The composition reminds me of other musical geniuses I've been impressed with such as Nakashima Koh. bokuriri has quite the distinctive voice and his lyrical delivery even changes from singing to rap. It's no surprise then that he came from the Utaite scene, going under the name of Shigaisen before he became the professional artist we see today. This is a masterpiece of a track that I hope encourages you to give the full length album a go!  
"Hit It Up" by Omoinotake

"Hit It Up"? More like Groove Me Up! While the vocals could leave something to be desired, the sheer music quality of this smooth, swinging track doesn't disappoint. The tune gets progressively more involved, with the climax being solos of everything involved, from the piano, to the trumpet and vocals! This feelgood track gets better with each and every listen. I'm sure glad I stumbled on these boys!  
@emmny's Picks
 
"FIVEFOLD ENVY" by VRZEL

VRZEL helped us ring in the new year with "FIVEFOLD ENVY" in all its divine ratchetness, and for that we'll be blessed in 2017 with a whole lot more messy, guilty pleasure Gazetteisms. The brainchild of vocalist Cion, VRZEL have been active for far too long and refused to die even after a bunch of lineup changes. Within all that time, they've courted a flock of high school girls as fans, which is a pretty decent outcome for a guy who sounds like post-2010 Ruki trying to make his best impression of a post-2010 Gazette song. This is all so wrong yet so, so right; until we're called up to explain our sins...enjoy this *wink*.  
"with you" by ラミエル 
"with you" by Ramiel

Ramiel were the most pleasant surprise of 2016 for me, a totally cute pop-rock band with the concept of "love" signed onto Satanic Shimizuya records, a label known for producing Avelcain, Lycaon and Sibilebashir. They're a breath of fresh air with a sound recalling older oshare acts, and "with you" is a love letter to the genre. Melodic lead lines, nasal vocals, crack-like chorus, lovely engrish, crap production and just overall loveliness make up the song. They're lovely, in case you didn't get how lovely this already was from listening. Very lovely, super lovely...all my love to Ramiel.  
"君を殺して僕も死ぬ(嘘)" by SCAPEGOAT
"Kimi wo koroshite boku mo shinu (uso)" by SCAPEGOAT

SCAPEGOAT come back hot off the heels of their killer string of 2016 releases with their best song so far, and a strong contender for song of the year for 2017...all before 2017 even started. "Kimi wo..." is an odd, chaotic mishmash of elements yet incredibly sharp and catchy, SCAPEGOAT's signature. A lover's suicide gone wrong, the frantic chorus is broken up by wedding organs and glockenspiel throughout. Whereas a lot of bands try to play crazy, SCAPEGOAT do it for real; moving through eerily saccharine verses, building up the tension before Haru whispers the track title and all hell breaks loose.  
 
@CAT5's Picks
 
"North Park" by PENS+

PENS+ is a young, talented, and lively emo/math-rock band that plays with technical proficiency, but writes songs as catchy as they come. Arai Ryo, leader and vocalist/guitarist, lists bands like cinema staff, the cabs, and malegoat as his favorites - all of which have played a clear role in influencing PENS+. They just dropped a new split CD with American band Leer, and it's a fantastic, international pairing of quality math-rock. On "North Park", PENS+ speedily traverse the fret board while keeping your ears hooked with their bright and infectious melodies. The entire split is great, though. If you like what you hear, be sure to pick it up on bandcamp for SUPER cheap!  
"SNOOZE" by Suchmos

I'm generally pretty critical of Japanese bands that incorporate traditionally 'black' music styles, as more often than not, I feel they sound like parodies instead of authentic interpretations of the genres. Suchmos, however, has done a fairly convincing job so far. They've been riding the city-pop wave that's been trending lately, but their sound emphasizes smooth funk and soul grooves - perhaps most similar to UNCHAIN. Their new album THE KIDS just dropped, and "SNOOZE" was easily the standout track for me. It's got a bit of a gritty hip-hop feel to it mixed with some hard-driving funk-rock, yet it's entirely soulful throughout. You'll be bopping along in no time to this one!  
"close2u" by G.RINA

Speaking of city-pop, G.RINA is back with her new album LIVE & LEARN - her second foray into the style following 2015's Lotta Love. The album's a great set of catchy pop that draws heavily from 80's funk and R&B, and it's the most confident and assured that I've ever heard her. "close2u", the second track on the album, is an instant jam and G.RINA sings (and raps!) with the coolest conviction. It's a great, feel-good tune to get the year started with.  
Thanks for checking out our recommendations this month! If you have any thoughts on our list or recommendations of your own, please feel free to comment below! If you're interested in being a guest contributor, contact either @CAT5 

I think I'm going slightly off-topic here, so I apologize for that, but this seems like a good time to mention this anyway.
 
I've always found it a little perplexing that people often tend to consider electronic software, turntables, and other things associated with electronic music to somehow not be instruments. I mean the literal definition of an instrument is "a tool or implement, especially one for precision work". In a musical context that essentially just means a tool that you feed inputs to to generate music. A voice, a flute, an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar, and musical software are all instruments; they're just tools you feed inputs to generate a desired sound. The only thing that changes between them is how 'artificial' they are in the sense that some are entirely driven by natural means (the voice), some are a fusion of natural and artificial elements (an electric guitar), and some are primarily artificial (musicial software), but all of them still need a good talented musician feeding them inputs to create truly good music.
 
I think by arguing that, due to the increasing prevalence of electronic software and the like, musicians are
is a bit of a dangerous train of thought. Mainstream pop music has been doing this for quite a while now, long before electronic software became as extensive as it is today. The fact that mainstream pop is incorporating more and more electronic elements shouldn't be conflated with the mistaken belief that all music made with electronic instruments follows this approach of making music. The truth is that great musicians will produce great music no matter what tools they use, and if anything the only thing determining their choice of instruments should be the aural qualities of the music they're trying to make. There are plenty of really talented musicians making really brilliant, primarily electronic music. At the same time there are plenty of musicians making music with more traditional instruments that, as @Zeus said, is utter garbage.
 
Basically I think we should pull away from assuming that the development of electronic music is one of the main contributors to the decline of VKs popularity; at least not in the sense that music created with these sorts of tools is inherently more simple, catchy, and poppy than music created with more traditional instruments - that just feels snobby to me. It could have contributed in the sense that musical fads have transitioned from the emo/scene music of the mid 2000s to the DJ/Club music of today, but implying that this transition is the result of some sort of inherent flaw in electronic instruments versus traditional instruments feels wrong to me.

i have a pet theory about why foreign fandom shrank.

1) like @TheStoic, i think the death of scene/emo has a lot to do with it. like it or not the primary audience for visual kei is girls of about 15-23,  and that was probably also the same demographic for My Chemical Romance, Panic at the Disco!, FOB, etc. alternative in a girl-friendly package was all the rage. i probably wouldn't have found out about vk if there wasn't stuff like Sum 41 and co.'s pop punk and Linkin Park on the radio -- rock bands were cool at the time. they're not cool right now.

2) fragmentation of fan communities -- @nekkichibrought this up well but i'll run my mouth off about it too. lj in particular was centralized, filled to the brim with the primary fan demographic, and the structure was very conducive to roping fans in and keeping them not only interested but wanting to establish themselves as BNF. myspace groups may have been similar but idk i wasn't a myspace girl. there was incentive to make fan content even as simple as journal icons or fanfics and positive feedback would spur people to keep contributing. even something more controversial like roleplay communities served as fan labor. this promotion was invaluable even if it was prone to being derided by people who wanted a bigger focus on the actual music. resources, legal and less so, were available in huge one-stop shops, not just as mp3 sharing communities but things like jrock_scans (which has 23,661(!) members for reference). the craze for fanlistings and their older cousin, webrings, also connected people who posted about multiple bandoms and facilitated cross-pollination.
 
twitter was/is insufficient for a multi-media experience and doesn't allow for collaboration, and tumblr has the problem of lack of community building and cross-pollination (while on lj, kyosamaluvr666 could post actively in dir_en_grey, customers_suck, lotr-fanfiction, garagesalejapan and mention all of these topics on their personal journal to their 400 friends from all of these places). forum culture differs too much from these dedicated fan communities, and forums are kind of a dead meme on top of that anyway.  we no longer have BNFs/influencers that bring in teenage girls. 
 
 
tl;dr visual kei fandom died because teenage girls, the demo that propels pop culture trends, aren't being drawn in. we lost our beatlemaniacs, our MCR-my, our directioners.

I'm surprised that 2009 was the peak. It was already around that time I was complainin' how there's no good shows to attend lol. With that said, those shows that we did have sold very well and a few bands could even venture to have gigs in the second largest city of the country as well. 
I reckon the pop culture peak of visual kei in Finland was in 2007-2008 when the odd few bands made the telly and got gifted some magazine space. Shows were packed, the fashion was wild, no koreans gnawing in on the real estate, events that were associated with visual kei could actually be held at relatively low risk.
 
 
What's up for debate though, is how the new fanbase of the peak years wasn't able to recover from the crucial wave of hiatus', disbandments and stylistic changes that the most popular bands went through around the turn of the 2010's. Everyone should recall how often one heard people lamenting on the state of the scene with ambiguous claims of a lack of X, Y and Z, setting the scene for the gradual petering out either to the clutches of the koreans or just general normalcy. This is the way of the flesh for a fad certainly, and nobody is able to sustain creative output nor popularity for an extended period of time, but that's not all that there is to it. I suppose among great many other things, it's not unjust to consider public merely as fickle if their visual kei habit was dependent on the existence of Dio and Unsraw. Visual kei on the internet had good enough infrastructure to allow these people to discover new and old bands with relative ease, but one should still never underestimate the stupidity and the incapability of the rank and file to utilize such tools perfectly well in their disposal. There are still people who'll waltz into a conversation, feigning willful ignorance, saying "OH THESE BANDS OF TODAY AREN'T LIKE THE GIRUGAMESH OF YORE. SO WHAT HAPPENED WITH THAT VISUAL KEI?". This means that relative interest is there; they haven't forgotten about it, so what gives? 
 
A certain contributing factor that I don't think gets brought up enough is the bush league organising and the sheer ineptitude of the promoters. The fad really blew its wad during the two years it was at its peak, and it wasn't sustainable. Absurdly dumb, dead certainly set for failure, shows got booked even as late as 2015: and anyone with a lick of sense ought to know that in the long term a no-show is always better than a small-shit show. When you're flopping the proper course of action is never to keep on flopping until you can flop no more, but to change the approach. Rest assured a lot of money and contacts have been squandered by idiots already one foot out the door. Unsraw's European tour is a classic example, and Merry's a more recent one. If you're not able to project that there's no demand, and that by booking this there'll be no demand in the future, then you're simply not helping.  
 
The networking on the local level wasn't great and at its worst there were even open divisions between the fanbase of privileged rich blogger cunts and those who took the train to shows from their shit provincial towns who could barely afford the mcdonald's and second hand converse ( I confess my dislike of the former, but I'm not merely projecting it. I heard many other people voice it also, completely unprovoked by yours truly. ) When enough shows and events are abjectly booked to fail with a lack of camaraderie to match, the rot is aggravated to spread into the brain, and eventually even the life support in form of a Gazette european tour won't do you no good. Their 2016 show in Helsinki did not sell out. That's equal to the sky falling out in visual kei terms.
 
A curious example of grassroots level organising seemingly done correct: take a look at the pictures of SANA's recent solo tour from from the backarse of eastern europe. Going through all those pictures you'll notice that while the central and western European crowds are only a handful at best, the Russian and Ukrainian shows pull a kind of a crowd that man of SANA's stature has no right of pulling. I'm terribly interested to find out how they've managed to do this. The only reason I can manage to come up with by speculation alone is that the fans of "Japanese stuff" are so organised, if not rabid, that when something is organised, enough effort is done that it'll pull enough solidarity to maintain the scene's health. I swear to God one of those Sana crowds has equal heads to what EAT YOU ALIVE or heidi had here in the past three years. It can't be that there's more fans of this shit there than in here just by sheer chance, luck and coincidence. 

Noticed something interesting when I was exploring worldwide trends for the search term "visual kei" on google - that tiny spike earlier this year just happened to be when youtubers react to visual kei came out:

 
So visual kei is dead. And at the rate it is going now, will be even dead-er; A scene stagnating on the same looks and sounds, rarely venturing out musically if at all. But it wasn't always that way. Although it would be  appropriate to refer to the 90s golden era of vk to remind us of how opulent the scene once was, I want to bring back memories of 2009.
 
In October 2008, Kerrang ran a feature on jrock, publishing an article predicting jrock to go big in Europe in 2009.
And sure enough, google trends highlighted the correlation clearly, confirming that the search terms "j-rock" and "visual kei" did indeed peak between January and March 2009.
 
However, following vk's brief global success was a period of near-exponential decline - to what we see now as the lowest point of popularity vk has ever experienced in a 12 year time-span. Even that spike in August wasn't enough to break above 2004's lowest point.
 
Personally, I'd been a passive fan of visual kei for many years prior to 2009, but it wasn't until 2009 that I became fully engaged. One prominent catalyst was Japanese blogging platform Ameba launching its virtual community ‘Pigg’ that year, becoming a game changer in the way fans and bands could interact. Popular musicians were also given accounts powered by ameba, a la twitter's verified personalities.
 
I remember 2009 as a year that several vk bands were going major and gaining international recognition. It was no surprise that vk reached its global height by being much more accessible through social media and other digital channels. This momentum seemed to be gaining quickly until 2010 brought a sharp turn of unfortunate events within the scene and the emergence of kpop poached a large part of the international vk audience.
 
However, the situation in Japan is a bit different, as vk has been pretty steady since it had already declined by the turn of the century. The search term "ヴィジュアル系" on google trends says as much.
 
A few years ago, major labels published all those visual kei cover albums probably in an attempt to raise the relevance of visual kei, but the hype had pretty much died by then. The drought of talent and variety meant that each band was no better than the other, and was enough for many people to lose interest. Stricter piracy laws also meant that music had become less accessible, with people being reluctant to pay the exorbitant prices of some CDs. Not to mention the discontinuation of many vk magazines as an indication of the scene's current degradation. Marketing and business models that worked in the 90s and early 00s struggle to find significance in the present day, yet management has not evolved to adapt to current trends (or have done so poorly).
 
Now that the last of the influential underground vk labels is defunct, vk doesn't have the backing and budget as it once did. X Japan and Luna Sea are like the only lifeline left for vk - there can't even be a vk festival without either X Japan or Luna Sea in the lineup.
 
I remember reading an interview where Yohio mentioned that he kinda killed western interest in vk, but I don't particularly attribute that to those western vk acts damaging the reputation of this uniquely japanese scene. Bands such as D'espairsRay, girugamesh, the Underneath, Rentrer en Soi, Dio, UnsraW and Black:List etc who laid the groundwork for vk to make its mark in the west are no longer around. I'm surprised lynch. didn't carry the torch.
 
I don't want this thread to sound too much like #resurrectvk, but instead I want ignite a discussion (and maybe create a dialog) - how did the vk boom of '09 affect you in your country, what could've been done differently, or the best things to come out of  that little modern renaissance of vk history.
 
 

MERRY - Zetsubou, Zero, and Happy Life
 

 
And the entirety of Megaromania's "Artistical Glint" :///

Hi and welcome!
I'm new myself, joined a couple of weeks back and pretty much in the same situation - never really had online pals from the VK community and trying to reach out to people with the same interests.
Hope you have a great time here!

Hi everyone. I say "thanks for existing" because it's really neat for me to see so many people together who share my interests. It's totally out of my comfort zone to go about and do this as I am a "suffer in silence" type, but I thought it was about time I try to reach out and get more involved in this music scene, maybe make a friend or two with similar interests. But if not it's okay, I just like reading what you all have to say anyway. I am from a tiny town in the South of the US, so I haven't gotten the chance to see  many bands live or meet people who even like this kind of music. I've been listening for about 10 years, though I stopped a few years ago after Vidoll disbanded (my favorite band back in 2011, though now I see it was just because my teen self was infatuated with Jui, lol.  still am tho)  and I have been listening again since last April when I saw The GazettE live. I've never tried to socialize online with other VK fans until now, I don't really know why. But here I am! I like everything from oldies like Luna Sea, Buck-Tick, Malice Mizer, Aliene Ma'riage, Baiser, to bands like DaizyStripper, Matnerou Opera, etc!  ! Ive recently gotten back into the scene and I'm discovering the potential of newer bands like Arlequin, xaa-xaa, Jiluka, HOLLOWGRAM, and beyond. If you have any recommendations I'd love them as well. Well thanks for reading and I'll try to make my voice heard here! Nice to meet you all. 

Hello welcome. You and I have very similar taste.

Nokubura are fun! But I also like shitty emo/screamo, metalcore and nu-metal that totally kills my hipster-indie cred.
 
But yeah, I think it's a mixture of not having listened to enough music in general and some sort of superiority/inferiority (depends on how you look at it) complex with your own culture. Coming from a non English-speaking country, I had the same approach towards western music as a kid, thinking everything in my native language sucked and American/British bands were superior even though they did exactly the same genres as the bands I was refusing to listen to.

I think it's been a good 10 years since I last posted on a BBS, but I've been looking for a J-rock/V-kei community for a while now and I was glad to find this one (figured that if I can't shut up about the music I love listening to I should probably join!).
 
I'm really into MUCC these days (can't wait for their new album! Just a couple more days!), and really love the big classic geezers (X Japan, Luna Sea, Buck-Tick, Kuroyume). I also love going to gigs and finding new bands to listen to. Thought the scene was dead until a year ago, but nope, still alive and kicking. DEZERT are currently my favorite fairly-new v-kei act. They're unpolished (sometimes in a good way) but give good vibes and have an interesting interaction with their audience.
 
I'm here to learn (so many bands I've never heard of just from skimming through the site, yay!) and meet new people. So, um, hi!

So it's the feeling of sellout and dropping the dark imagery. Ok I get that. It happens a lot, and occasionally turns the band from a cult band to a monster success, like Journey, Genesis, Fleetwood Mac, and Chicago.
 
I also had a WTF reaction to World Maker, but they pulled back a little with This is Now and I think it was quite good.  But I don't see them as generic J Rock. Jyou is too distinctive a vocalist, she and Miko do great two-part harmonies (like Ginger) and Mally is one of the best drummers around.

Hi there, welcome. I'm sure you'll find people (and topics) to endlessly talk about the music you like

I'm a big fan of Luna  Sea and Buck-Tick as well. Welcome!

Welcome! I'm sure you'll enjoy your time here