jaymee

I dunno, quite a few (foreign) audience members tried it at the Years & Years live, and eventually Olly had to make a passive remark to shush them so he could, y'know, actually sing and be heard. Maybe some artists like it, but I don't get that vibe from what I see on YouTube. It often looks like the artist is just tolerating it. Also, like... singing along loudly with the band seems to be a pretty recent thing, like within the past 10 years. (At least in the U.S..) When I was going to concerts in high school people may have moshed, danced, crowd surfed, or mouthed along/sang in a low voice, but they didn't actually drown out the singer with their off key voices. It's just another one of those selfish "me, me, me" things people do now without any consideration to the other people around them. In any case, recording is generally prohibited in Japan, but live houses will usually give it a pass if it's a non-Japanese artist playing. It's also in poor taste to sing along when not cued. I've seen more live houses overseas looking like a funeral than in Japan tbh, but I have been to bigger concerts like Lady Gaga in Japan where most of the people just came just to come, and weren't actually that familiar with the artist or their songs so the crowd was pretty dead. As far as VK goes, you do furi for songs that have it, headbang/gyakudai/whatev for the harder songs, and for ballads it's polite to just listen, really soak in the atmosphere, and then applaud after.

I can't really see PLC doing "SADISTIC EMOTION" tbh, but something like "Darlin" would really fit their sound/Daishi's vocal style. Maybe... Dir en grey - "La Vie en Rose" or "Incarnation of Eroticism" Angelo - "Moon and the Memories" ...I really hope someone does a cover of "I Can't Live Without You". <3 I think Tatsurou's or Kiyoharu's voice would really do well on it. Also, sorry@Kiyoharu is God, I didn't mean to double post! It looks like I was typing it out as you posted the news. D:

Artists participating: ACID ANDROID, INORAN (LUNA SEA), Kiyoharu, TERU x HISASHI (GLAY), HYDE (VAMPS / L'Arc-en-Ciel), Angelo, Psycho le Cému, Justy-Nasty, THE SLUT BANKS, DIR EN GREY, DEZERT, MUCC, MERRY, lynch., and Rayflower They'll also do a tribute live event September 15th (D'ERLANGER, Angelo, DEZERT, and D'ERLANGER feat. HYDE) & 16th (D'ERLANGER, lynch., Psycho le Cému, and D'ERLANGER feat. Kiyoharu) at the EX-Theater Roppongi in Tokyo. Source (Japanese): https://www.barks.jp/news/?id=1000144071#utm_source=tw_BARKS_VISUAL&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tw_auto

This! I traveled to see Years & Years in Osaka and mostly ended up watching the whole show through two bitches' phones. We weren't even near the front so the quality they were getting was absolute garbage, and in no way justifiable for ruining the concert experience of everyone around them. Whenever I see concert footage from overseas, the audience is singing so loud and off key it's like why bother going? I'm not sure when concerts became karaoke duet timez with the band, but it's rude af. Or maybe Western artists should do like Japanese artists and specify certain verses of certain songs that are okay to have the audience sing. I generally frown on recording during lives, but if it's unnoticeable and for your personal enjoyment only, then hey you do you.

Went out drinking last night and found out one of the other regulars at an izakaya I frequent used to be a big X/BUCK-TICK/L'Arc fan and lots of drunken VK karaoke ensued, which got me thinking... Which songs do you like to karaoke or feel pretty confident about? I think compared to J-pop, VK can be pretty hard to do justice to sometimes, but I'm pretty good at smashing in the park when it comes to: Kuroyume - "Yasashii Higeki" Cascade - "Sexy Sexy" / "Strawberry Moon" Gackt - "Mizerable" Golden Bomber - "Memeshikute" L'Arc~en~Ciel - "Niji" and "Blurry Eyes" Psycho le Cemu - "Michi no Sora" Dir en grey - "Akuro no Oka" Janne Da Arc - "Rainy ~Ai no Shirabe~" BUCK-TICK - "Just One More Kiss" Siam Shade - "1/3 no Junjou na Kanjou" Curious to see what you guys are good at singing / love to sing.

"Dress" is such a good song and one I listen to often. I've never seen the anime tho. D:

Would love to see reposts of the Sakito and Yukari ones!

To quote a friend: '"Yura-sama's smile is brighter than my entire future tbh."] ... For some reason AYA is my favorite derp tho I swear his smile looks like this like 99% of the time tho D: I also really like seeing more "elusive" smiles from like Kirito, Mana, etc. Someone should make a"sexiest" smile thread, too.

While that wouldn't be unfathomable, especially after so many took their lives after hide died, I can't find anything to support this in Japanese. Only semi-related thing I found to the band was gossip that apparently one of Gackt's ex-girlfriends tried to commit suicide. Both sound like Tanuki rumors TBH. I've heard a number of times that Yu~ki was having back problems and other health issues, which is one of the reasons he never seemed to be involved in the scene after Malice Mizer disbanded. I feel like if it were just Mana and Kozi to reunite... What's the point? They don't even seem to talk that much any more except for random reunions and visiting Kami's grave. Mana seems like a difficult person to work with, but I also think Gackt and Mana wanted different things. Obviously from the direction Gackt's solo career took, he wanted to become more famous/mainstream, where as it seemed Mana and Kozi just wanted to pursue their own "art", regardless of how popular it would be with fans. I imagine they clashed not only with each other, but with Nippon Columbia, the major label they were signed to. After Gackt went solo he retained his major contract status with Nippon Crown, a separate entity of Nippon Columbia, which further leads me to believe label motives/pressures were also a factor behind what transpired. Despite there not being much of a concept of "selling out" in Japan, Gackt still has a ton of haters in that vein. Probably no one will ever know except the members themselves, their label, and any personal friends or tsunagari at the time.

Love this! Hope you'll get more responses in time.

Nooo, I can't just pick one. Someone posted "Yasashii Higeki" already, though, so... But if I had to settle on two, it'd probably have to be "Love Song" and "Kuchizuke". D: "Love Song" is probably my absolute favorite Kuroyume song, but all the song/live clip videos of it have been deleted from YouTube. :/ Other top favorites are "feminism", "Miss Moonlight", "Shiro to Kuro", and "Nite & Day".

Thanks for posting! This graphic has been making the rounds on Japanese Twitter, and I feel like it's a good way to see how overseas fans' images of what is/was popular in Japan and what is/was actually popular in Japan may differ. As for Matsumoto's list, honestly I'd kinda doubt his credibility if he picked anything more recent (i.e. 00s and beyond). It'd be like picking Nickelback and Linking Park over The Beatles as an all-time favorite, lolol. TBH I was surprised he even chose a more "recent" band like Dir en grey and only had one band from the 80s. Although I don't disagree... Dir en grey was basically the epitome of what bands were trying and wanted to be during their Gauze period, not only in sound but in looks. So many bands were doing or trying to do the same thing around the same time. Well, L'Arc~en~Ciel and Gackt aren't VK anymore, and certainly weren't by the 00s when Matsumoto started working at Likea. Also L'Luvia ("jubia" in Japanese) was a popular, really poppy VK band. Randomly, I swear L'Luvia either copied this intro from some band or some band around the same time ripped it from them. Maybe someone can help out and post to the copy/paste thread lol.

#20 was pretty good. A few sounded like stuff that would have been released in the early-late 00s. (Generally not my cup of tea in VK either, though.) Golden Bomber's Malice Mizer, Dir en grey, etc. parody last year was everything. I find it awesome that although their entire career is parody/satire of the whole VK concept, they've managed to become the best-selling VK band of their time. What's sad, though, is a lot of girls don't entirely realize they're a parody/satire band (outside of stuff like this) and they're able to sell on face value alone without being able to play any instruments well (with exception to Sho). When they had that drummer named Toriaezu Riku, I about died laughing at the blatant shade being thrown at VK dudes who would change their names like 3-5 times in their career depending on how many times they wanted to ~re-invent themselves~. As someone said, most of the music is made to appeal to ~edgy~ middle/high school/university chicks. This person seems to have particularly bad taste overall, but I imagine if you delve into more indie stuff there's variety. Personally I'm pretty content with listening to and discovering more older bands whose music I didn't have access to when I was really into the scene. I think as older fans we're lucky because we didn't have to delve quite though so much crap to find good stuff. I mean there was SO MUCH CRAP back then to be sure (I used to own so many shitty indies band flyers and demo tapes/CDs), but other foreigners in Japan or avid in the scene had already filtered most of it for us by posting their favorite picks on their websites. Now with YouTube and streaming being a more popular way to consume music, you get a deluge of everything in the scene, crap and all.

Hmm... I generally consume music in three ways: iTunes/Bandcamp/etc. Since moving to Japan, I've stopped buying physical copies of most things. The reason? Lack of space. So I prefer to "own" things digitally if they are made available and are priced fairly. iTunes Japan sometimes costs as much as physical copy, though, which leads me to my second option... Rental CDs You can usually rent CDs at Tsutaya for like 5 for 1,000 yen. That's about 200 yen a CD, which is the same price as buying one song off of iTunes Japan. So for many older/major releases, I will buy and rip the CDs. Tsutaya usually holds off renting new releases for about 1-2 months after the release date. Buy the physical copy I do this when it's an album I REALLY love and like most/all of the content of the album, or in rare instances, there is some special bonus that makes it worth buying the CD over downloading it or waiting for Tsutaya to carry it. I feel like most artists nowadays release a CD with maybe one or two good songs, and the rest is filler. But if you only buy a few songs off iTunes, the price can be almost as much as buying the whole release. Although I sympathize with artists, I feel like if record labels weren't so greedy about making a profit and selling something palatable to largest audience at an ever-increasing price, the quality of music would improve, the market wouldn't be as oversaturated, and it would re-ignite a passion in consumers to buy. I personally only use streaming services to discover new indie music, keep up with recent releases, and listen to music I already own in some format. (Quicker to type a song name into YouTube than search my iTunes library.) If I don't like it, I'm not likely to listen to it again, and if I do, I'll buy or rent the release. Most of what I buy is indie stuff not available in Japan, so I have no choice but to buy it digitally. I agree with the sentiments of the article overall, but I also believe that music companies shouldn't blame consumers for not purchasing most of the crap they offer up and call music. It's a two-way street. It's been said many times, but the overseas J-music fandom wouldn't be what it is without online streaming and downloading. Nobody is going to pay $30-$40 for an album on a whim.

@NagisaThere are! Or... at least there were when I had my wedding there 5+ years ago! Pretty sure we went to Karaoke Q Studio and I think it's still open. There are a few others if you look on Yelp! They're pretty much all going to be north of the Strip in China/Koreatown. Private rooms, and a pretty decent selection of J-pop (probably not a lot of indies VK) for the U.S. I remember paying way less than I expected for a couple of hours in one of their larger rooms with a good amount of booze for a large party.

@Yukii_NishimuraKinda late, but in case anyone else wanted a translation of this: Hentai, hentai! Suddenly we’re in the minority now Hentai, hentai! That’s right, you’re also in the minority now Hentai, hentai! Suddenly we’re in the minority now Hentai, hentai! Sooner or later you’ll be in the minority, too Not letting anyone break me down, without getting hurt, nobody can save me from the future where I’ll sing it out Even if it feels like people are walking over me, or that they think I’d be better off dead, I’ll keep on surviving It’s the only true way It’s okay if it’s all a lie, right now I’ll shout it out, “Hentai!” Hentai, hentai! Suddenly we’re in the minority now Hentai, hentai! That’s right, you’re also in the minority now Hentai, hentai! Sooner or later you’ll be in the minority, too So no one can break you down, so you don’t get hurt, I want to protect you Are you still standing there, not moving forward any? You should say it, like this, and do whatever you want until you die It’s the only true way It’s okay if you’re lying, just like this, shout it out, “Hentai!” Even if it’s a lie that spreads across the whole world, I won’t let it phase me, and stand up on this stage Even if they’re spewing enough venom to want to kill me, I’ll forgive them, and stand up on this stage Where’s that long shot of a miracle? I won’t accept anything less I’d rather suffer many times more Look, here it comes again, the sound of those pointless promotions Are you going to keep dancing in filth like that? Without letting them break you down, without getting hurt, in order to protect yourselves you ought to give them a piece of your mind You should say something, just like this, and do whatever you want until you die It’s the only true way A liar like you should embrace this anthem for liars, just like this So all of us liars out there, come on, and dare to shout it out, “Hentai! Hentai, hentai! Suddenly we’re in the minority now Hentai, hentai! Sooner or later you’ll be in the minority, too Notes: I took a few poetic liberties with this song which I thought would capture the feel of it better. This included leaving "hentai" as is. Although most people probably know that often this word means "(sexually) perverted", it can also mean mental perversion, which I feel like the song is likely getting at instead. Especially in (but not limited to) Japan where often any idea or opinion that differs from the group mentality can get you bullied, pushed away, seen as strange, etc. people may have their own opinions that would put them in the minority if spoken aloud, so they might lie to themselves and everyone else to maintain the status quo. I think that what this song is getting at is that, in reality, they're already in the minority just for having these unspoken opinions, so they might as well be true to themselves and embrace their "mental perversion".

No problem! Glad I could help~

SPRING Plastic Tree - "Harusaki Sentimental" I love this song mostly for the lyrics, as the melody can get a bit repetitive and the video isn't much. The way Ryutaro sings the line "Under this tree, I'll bury everything I held dear." gets me right in the feels every time. Janne Da Arc - "Sakura" This one also hits me right in the feels. Also "Furimukeba..." is another spring song of theirs. Raphael - "Sakura" BUCK-TICK - "Sakura" Noticing a theme here? cali≠gari - "Haru no Hi" They also have other songs for summer and winter. L'Arc~en~Ciel - "Flower" Pretty mainstream spring song, not only exclusive to the VK genre. SINCREA - "Sakura ga Maichiru Kisetsu ni Kimi ga Yume Mita Koto" Others include GLAY's "Haru no Aisuru Hito", DaizyStripper's "Harumeku Bokura", Kagrra's "Shigatsu Tsuitachi", irokui's "Sakura Seven", etc. SUMMER BUCK-TICK - "Gessekai" June is the month of hydrangeas in bloom, so this BUCK-TICK song that starts off "Red, yellow sunflowers; orange, ultramarine hydrangeas" is one I like to listen to on summer late-night drives. BUCK-TICK "Kagerou" Lots of summer imagery in the lyrics and PV, especially the first line that begins, "smeared lipstick, a midsummer's night dream, may flies take flight, yearning for love". Like cherry blossoms, mayflies' short lives represent the transience of the summer seasons and a passionate love affair. Janne Da Arc's "DOLLS" Lots of beach imagery/summer break-up imagery. Seems like their label took the original PV down, so I'm posting this live version. (I was at this concert, too, so this live version of brings back old memories. :D) "Seed" and "Ueta Taiyou" are other summer songs of theirs that are really good. SEX-ANDROID - "Natsuiro Sadistic" This one is popular with quite a few Japanese VK fans. SID - "Natsukoi" The title "Summer Love" pretty much says it all. La Cryma Christi - "Tsuki no Mabuta" Summer drive, summer love, the beach, etc. Dir en grey - "Taiyou no Ao" Pretty much a Japanese summer VK staple. An Cafe - "SUMMER DIVE" Either this one or "Natsukoi☆Natsu". This is getting long again so others... MUCC's "Hanabi" or PIERROT's "Shinkei ni Wareru Atsui Yoru". Personally I like to listen to L'Arc~en~Ciel's "Driver's High" and Malice Mizer's "Ma Cherie" (shooting star imagery and melody reminds me of summer/Tanabata).

Welcome to the forum! I've only seen Metronome a couple of times, but they always put on a great show! And I really wanted to go to their upcoming Crush of Mode live with PLC in July but they announced the date after I'd already decided to go to/bought tickets for Fuji Rock. D:

@TheZigzagoon Here you go. Nightmare – “Self-Harm (Male Terrorist)” Dear ~* There’s another “me” sleeping inside of me, a terrorist version of myself I can’t control it But in the name of the moon I’ll be able to punish* those elite-thinking fascists who are always, always, always, always, always crushing my passive self (growling: AU AU AU AU AU) My sexual sadist self* turned you, who I met online, into a tool I spit out all my stress onto you I love you, I love you, I can’t love you I hate you, I hate you, I can’t hate you I want to open a 4 cm hole in your heart Jesus deep sin I’m meticulous about making my necrophilia lair A heart the color of ash* When I’m in God Mode I don’t need any copycats Even when you can feel the end is near Your screams won’t reach anyone’s ears For our last dinner I’ll turn you into my “meal” Notes: 1. "shonen" is usually translated as "boy", but I think "male" is more fitting in this context. 2. This is the "Dear ~" at the opening of a letter. 2. In Japanese, Sailor Moon’s “In the name of the moon, I’ll punish you!” line goes “Tsuki ni kawatte, oshioki yo!” This seems to be kind of a play on this, plus the hidden/dark side of oneself imagery present in this first verse. 2. Actually written as “sadism”, but it doesn’t make much sense in English like that so I changed it to “sadist”. 3. Contextually there’s nothing to stop someone from interpreting this as “my heart”, “your heart”, or “our hearts”, but as to not make any assumptions, I left it as “a heart”. I did this pretty quickly, so if anyone wants to polish it up, go for it...

Just a rough translation (since some parts lack context), but... If I became a king and could take anything I wanted, I would reap your favor Sitting on the throne As if shouting your name As if leaning back As if never sleeping You murder voices in silence and continue to babble on Living without acknowledging me is like an act deserving of death United States Where you can go anywhere United States As long as you are alone I’m building a blue house Isn’t it grand? On top of a steep hill What do you think of the view? United States Only I will kill my own or let them die United States I won’t let anyone interfere and tell me how to live

I can't imagine it, but then I also can't imagine Kishidan covering them either.

@AimiGen7I definitely agree that idols are marketed for their purity, and in visual kei that's not usually the case. And yes, I feel like these lyrics very much embody the idea that idols (or if we're honest, women in the traditional sense, not just in Japan) should be "pure" enough to refuse the advances of other men/fans, yet not pure enough to refuse the (potential) advances of the man (or men) that want to have her. It's a big Catch-22. As a vague background, I am somewhat connected to the idol scene through work, but my personal preference is the VK scene... And at times it definitely seems like the two are mirror opposites of the same marketing scheme. (Gonna cut this for length.) I personally find the similarities really interesting. I'm sure Kagerou's song was aimed specifically at the idol industry, but you could replace a few words here and there and suddenly it would't be so clear any more. Also, thanks! You should go for it! I think this lyric/PV analysis thing would definitely benefit from more contributors who listen to bands that are currently popular. I can translate, but I'm more familiar/more inclined to analyze older VK work, which doesn't seem to attract as many people to participate/comment. D:

Nobody's posted another analysis yet, so I decided to put another one up. Hope that's okay! Japanese (Credit to 匂宮’s diary) English It doesn’t seem to me that the PV has a whole lot to do with the song itself, besides some idol pictures on the wall and Daisuke acting out writing letters to the idol, but Daisuke’s expressions and gestures are poignant and I feel like you can get the general image of some guy(s) being mentally disturbed. However, maybe I've missed something! Although the song is rather straightforward, I guess the part that really intrigues me is that how much overlap there seems to be between the idol and visual kei industry, especially in the way dating and information about bands are handled, promotion, etc. So I’ve often wondered if this song was also a tongue-in-cheek way of also talking about the way some gya think and behave. Besides the different slang both fan bases use, the main difference seems to be that idols generally like to promote the “girl next door” image, while visual kei usually goes for the “handsome prince” or “bad boy” image. In either case, however, they’re selling their fans a certain kind of fantasy. How would you analyze your interest in visual kei? What are your thoughts on the whole idol and/or visual kei concept? Do you think a certain kind person is more attracted to either or both scenes?

I'm not normally a fan of tributes but omg that's an awesome line-up. I'll have to keep up with this one.