Rahzel

Yeah,  exactly. I am realistic, I know things that you ignore may come back for you and being alone is sickening and not the best idea.  Still, I feel it's better than whatever the other options are. 

Yeah,  exactly. I am realistic, I know things that you ignore may come back for you and being alone is sickening and not the best idea.  Still, I feel it's better than whatever the other options are. 

Am in the same kind of boat there, not necessarily had failed relationships but have had a few "things" that have all gone a bit chaotic in recent years since I came out of my 7 1/2 year relationship. But also a key factor for me is that I have real trust issues which only seems to be getting stronger as time goes on. But yeah the more you invest in people emotionally the more you're setting yourself up to be hurt later so avoiding any such situation does seem better for yourself.

Let people figure out their own sexual identity for themselves, even if it means that they are wrong for a portion of their lives. You are robbing people of a chance at self-exploration because of your own personal beliefs, which is no different than high-minded religious zealots who try to rob the LGBT community of their chance at self-exploration because of their personal beliefs. This was a perfectly harmless topic about people sharing experiences and asking questions until you complicated it with your sectionalism. What others have to say or how others define sexuality outside of Monochrome Heaven is irrelevant to this point because no one here prompted you to take it to this extreme and no one appreciates it. And unless this topic is literally causing you to be unable to live with yourself, you'll survive avoiding this one topic on this forum.
 
I would now like for this topic to return to a place where people can ask questions and figure out what they are for themselves.

I highly believe I am asexual, but I would rather not label myself as anything other than myself — seeing as I bear no interest in sexual activity, I feel it's unneccesary to call myself anything –sexual at all or leap into any social construct regarding the matter. I am not sexually attracted to people, but more or less aesthethically. Surely, there are people I find immensely beautiful and alluring to look at, but I could never imagine myself sharing a bed with them for any other reason than actual sleeping. I grow uncomfortable when people touch me for extensive periods of time, and I had rather not even shake hands with people whom I have not known for at least a month or two. I do not know if these experiences are an extension of Asperger syndrome —they very well could be— as there are plenty of people on the autistic spectrum who have no problems with sexual activity and attraction whatsoever, or if they are two separate things altogether. I have had some boyfriends in the past, but I would always grow anxious the moment anything started to happen beyond kissing. Not wanting to have sex with these boys always lead to me being cheated on as I could not and did not want to please their physical needs. This has also lead me to not desire a relationship for myself, either. I do not know if I can ever see myself in a relationship. If I were to have sex at all in this life, I wouldn't have it before marriage. I need to be certain of the person, however it's always unclear whether you will be spending the rest of your life in the same relationship. This is conflicting and currently I am leaning toward not ever having sex at all, even in a potential marriage. Unfortunately it's difficult soloing life, especially with how darned expensive everything is nowadays. You can barely keep up a regular household with two individuals, let alone one.
 
I find anything pornographic extremely distasteful and I bear quite the aversion against the openness of the matter of sex in this age. It is everywhere, and it makes me very uncomfortable and dirty. I find the human anatomy very aesthetic and interesting, and to see it being tarnished by sex is —in my eyes— very sad and abasing. Perhaps this is ironic in that case, but I could never see a penis as anything more than an organ meant for urinating, for instance, yet I find it a very beautiful organ.
 
As for the view on Visual kei artists; as I said above, my attraction to some of them is purely based on aesthetic pleasure. Perhaps it is also why I am more or less attracted to so-called femine-looking men, with softer shapes and tones, that Visual kei is an attractive medium. I like pallidness, long limbs and extremities, and ethereal-looking creatures, I would say even androgynous. Anything that would seem to exceed humanity. 

The band  has a new look on their Twitter, but maybe this a look for Halloween , I don't know .Their last single Kakumei Kaika -Revolutionnary Blooming- is out. And a new DVD live for january 2020.
Shou create a new Twitter account , Youtube Channel and website for beauty for men, Yesterday. 
Currently the band is in tour.
 

This is really random considering that uh, the topic isn't really getting many updates aol lol but does anyone know anything about their new fashion brand? Iirc the members were supposed to release  a fashion brand called "LUXY by midnight galaxy" by October, but October is ending and I didn't see any news. I really liked Alice Nine back in the days too (and honestly I just like how bold A9 is too) but I am all for fashion nowadays so I was just curious but lol, my Japanese only goes so far, like, 100m far.

I came back to see if anyone was discussing the subject further and I realized a I got plenty of reactions, and am finding it kind of funny, so maybe I should explain my point a bit further because it all seemed like a big wall of text without a clear point. I really wasn't saying a lot though, I just ended up addressing different replies without quoting.  
 
All I really wanted to say is, from the point of view of someone who really liked j-rock and despised k-pop for the better part of their lives, you can't really deny that there's always (and by always I mean in the last 20-something years of course because K-pop didn't exist before nor had Korea been too influenced by the US) been some degree of cultural overlap or influencing because that's what pop culture worldwide always does, and it's not really fair to compare or put one against the other as if they're Polar Opposites In A War because it's quite out of context, it's just not how it works. I mean, media and cultural industries do run deeper than that.
 
So Japan started embracing Korea and Korean products because of dramas, AFAIK, and games and manhwa kind of found their way as counterparts (almost counterfeits, really) to whatever Japan had been doing ages before, before K-pop music emerged as one more kind of product. No real artistic appeal, but I did listen to Japanese music way back when BoA started becoming really popular. Japan was all over Namie Amuro or Ayumi Hamasaki and all of a sudden there were (the half-American) Utada Hikaru and BoA in the spotlight as well. And SME was pretty keen on exporting their artists since H.O.T. so after BoA kind of managed to Be It they made TVXQ debut alongside with her. And this is where the MV of Tri-Angle which I mentioned before kicks in. I'm no expert but I believe Japan had been exporting a lot of pop culture to SK for years and that was more a reply. Which was... quite a thing. And by thing I mean quite a cultural appropriation as the kids of nowadays would put. (Final Fantasy? Visual kei? You decide.)
 
 
And it worked, lol, because soon enough (the fandom of TVXQ which was quite hugeee in Japan) Cassiopeia was formed, SNSD and SuJu (and Big Bang, etc) were pretty popular overseas as well and that's when the whole Hallyu 2.0 thing kicked in. So basically SK was just trying to export stuff - really, trying hard, because being so closely dominated by US and Japan-originated products Probably Sucks - and that's how we ended up with the most seemingly random but not really mix of cultural influences in k-pop. Because it worked, it sold, and yeah. Cue seemingly out-of-place Pocky/Pepero game levels of fanservice, colorful hairstyles and clear imitations of whatever j-pop boy/girlgroups were doing. And because there's always been this kind of insurgence of j-rock in j-pop music as well, it's thrown in the mix somehow.
 
So when I did that video, it was more as a joke because I ... kind of started digging deeper for j-rock/visual kei music after years of just listening to ONE OK ROCK or whatever was "pop j-rock" at the time, and I was talking to a friend and we were like, oh, ok, it's definitely being influenced the other way around now. Understandably so, especially because since k-pop made successful breakthroughs into the US market and, with it being the biggest music (actually, general pop culture) market/export in the world, of course it's a huge influence to Japan as well. So we were kidding about how even visual kei PVs nowadays sometimes looked less like 2000s or 90s visual kei PVs and more like k-pop MVs, although they're still distinguishable to the non-casual viewer (but yeah, if you go solely by commonplace stereotypes like "k-pop artists don't create songs/play instruments", "k-pop has no Japanese language music", "k-pop has no foreigners", "K-pop is cuter", "but fanservice" "but makeup" etc... you're just prone to go wrong). As I was saying, pop cultures in general do overlap always, regardless of nationality. That's characteristic of, well, pop culture in a globalized world. But that's really as far as my enlightenment goes, lol.
 
And then you have the western fans of Asian music whose preferences seemed to change, not so much because it did change, much more so because of the shift in East Asian music market and accessibility (I remember it was super hard finding subbed Korean videos back in 2008 so I was much more a NEWS fan than a TVXQ one, although I listened to both - but nowadays it's harder to find Johnnys videos because they're all taken down LOL) and promotion, stuff like that.
 
What you subjectively make out of this is just what you make out of this, bro. I literally don't think I can delve any deeper than this.
 

I heard of melt these days and went back to old LTS times. Great times indeed ... 
 

Commenting a bit on what was discussed here. Just my two cents, aight. Or, uh, a lot of cents. Sorry I'm terrible at Explaining.

I don't know, I think the otaku/anime/manga fan crowd is actually quite keen on keeping up with Japan's youth, and Japan's youth has been listening a lot to K-pop too. I don't see a necessary overlap in fandom, but yes, there are people who like both. Although I think the cultural ties to these two as well as, say, AKB48 - idols, of course - sees reflexion in anime fandom as the plethora of idol anime/mobage products (started with Love Live and IM@S newer spinoffs, also UtaPri and now its Enstars, HypMic, Bandori, Dreaming!, Idolish7 ...), doesn't mean they enjoy the 3DPD idols of k-pop lol. Also, for international fans, k-pop is way more accessible than Japanese music nowadays. It's in every streaming platform, every twitter handle, every magazine, you don't even have to saerch. It's so easy to stumble into it so while back then people knew about K-pop because of Japanese music, now it's much more the other way around. I think most of the k-pop crowd - as part of it myself - is either like, 20%ish people on their 20s or maybe 30s who were formerly fans of Asian music in general (me!) and/or younger people who had incursions because of East Asian ancestry, and a majority of teens who are into k-pop because of YouTube and/or BTS or any overlap of these two. But yes, I definitely think that with k-pop being way more accessible - and presenting the same sort of "we are anime boys" fantasy that vk did a decade ago - it's not really surprising that some people who want to get a feel of East Asian culture are into it nowadays. Speaking of which, I grew up (in the 2000s) listening to a lot of Japanese music and watching anime and stuff, but even before BoA I've always been pretty immersed in SK culture as well because of MMOs so maybe this isn't even such a new trend. The media and pop cultures do overlap a lot at times. (*cough* do you know Tri-Angle *cough*)
 
I also realized a lot of people who were dragged into K-pop through East Asian music market in general had a few favorite songs/groups - or even one favorite in particular - but since Korean TV shows love to mix the groups they end up discovering other acts and becoming a fan as well - I know that is my case since I used to say I hate k-pop for a good 6 years from 2009 to 2015. Speaking of cultural interchanging I think the most extreme of k-pop fans - at least in my experience since I am always biting my own tail by saying I don't like rap and proceeding to be a fan of every group with 3+ rappers in the market but maybe that's because they actually do rap and not just digdigdoo their way through the annoyingly obligatory rap sequence  - actually end up listening to black music because that's what their idols are listening to, which I found so funny.
 
Lastly, I have to disagree that k-pop sounds like Western music. I think the Apop market specifically has been pretty weak since, uh, probably the decline of Lady Gaga and the crash of Disney stars and you don't see such bubblegummy pop songs so much anymore even among artists who excelled at it before (like, say, Katy Perry or Jessie J) ; people who still do it, like, say, Carly Rae Jepsen are pretty much adored, but it's somehow not the trend anymore I think? So back then I thought that Apop was in many ways superior to kpop, but I don't think so anymore, not to my tastes at least - sometimes I'm listening to the radio and I'm happy when BTS comes up because this is the bubblegummy happy song I want. And you know what I mean when I say all k-pop sounded like uh fantastic baby naega jail jam nagagagagaga. (Also, I was talking to an online friend who happened to go through the same ~stages of Asian music~ as myself and we did notice a trend of, sometimes girl groups doing better and sometimes boy groups doing better. I think it was definitely like, -06 for bgs, 07-10 for ggs, 11-14 for bgs, 15-17 for ggs and now we're having a bg era again, or something to that effect, and she agreed with me.)
 
But yeah, it's no metal nowadays either.
 
Also, to whoever asked about other genres of music in the Korean market, Korean music isn't just k-pop (surprisingly, not really, as the same applies to music in pretty much uh every country) and personally I listen to a lost of other artists, from Alice Vicious to Norazo to Guckkasten to Epik High. They're just, well, not k-pop which is a very specific market with very specific rules. Another important thing to note is that most times these idols are basically trained - not for cheap - by the companies behind them, and they don't always follow their careers so closely and teens are left on their own to produce stuff. Not saying this happens to the biggest of them, but smaller companies? Definitely. And sometimes they end up spewing dumb racist/homophobic bullshit thinking it's cool, but it's not happening so much nowadays.
 
I also think this shift from people from, say, Japanese music to k-pop has something to do with the decline of Being an emo kid is cool culture because, lol, music that actually hits your soul and makes you think about life? Pfft, let's go for the bubblegummy songs that promote sex exploitation, it's much better this way. I think it is just this global culture shift.  
 
So to me saying yes, VK and K-pop are similar because they're both music for fans of music, and it happens to be East Asian music! is the same as saying yeah, if you like Jay Z you'll probably like Billie Eilish because they're both American and seeking fans!, which is kind of... no. In many ways it's not similar. I think the shift is because of cultural changes and accessibility much more than because humans all of a sudden can't distinguish intricate music from pop music anymore.
 
But yes, of course the "we look like anime boys with our perfect makeup and cool blue hair, please love us" aesthetic of k-pop is a thing that drags young people into it into k-pop, but I guess the same could be said for, like, hip youtubers. You can't really avoid the aesthetic of things, I guess. Says the grown up woman who has a picture of candy floss-haired k-pop boy on her profile picture. But take me as you will really. Funnily, I can say I am much more appreciative of vk for the aesthetics it presents - not just "oh, ok, it's hot boys and I can ship them!" but I mean the actual aesthetic in the sense of the culture/semiology it expresses - than I am of k-pop for these reasons. I swear I do not care for 17 year old girls being kawaii ( but man, I love some of the songs they have! Very Very Very is Astounding! Lipstick is Excellent! Likey is Quintessential! Russian Roulette is Classic! Bboom Bboom is Amazing! ) nor am I particularly interested in 20 year old boys flexing their excessively worked out abs - I honestly think of how bad their health must be before I can even try to appreciate the abs - but still I love some of the music they have. (FYI, my favorites don't fall into either, for the most part. I'm always with the kawaii boys crowd or the WAHRGAH ANGRY boys crowd lol.) 
 
I recently had my first few experiences actually being to k-pop concerts and ... suffice to say I had such a blast I'm actually considering to do research on it now. I'm a psychologist and happen to study cultural industries and workers health, and was precisely seeking a topic for my masters and I'm really considering dropping everything I had planned to do in order to delve into this phenomenon which I find to be the prime example of pop Asian music market being a lot more about visuals and the boyfriend experience than music lol. ("Are you trying to find an excuse to go to concerts more often?" Precisely.)

Tl;dr: woman tried to enjoy k-pop but failed miserably in  her teens, now is a graduated and practicing psychologist, sees all the problems with the industry but still can't help but be supportive of her fav k-pop boys, still unsure if it does more good or harm to them.
 
As a footnote ... I did this thing a while back but never posted so here it is. It's just for fun but it really makes you think of what has become of the remnants of the VK scene and how cultures just overlap.
 
 

Commenting a bit on what was discussed here. Just my two cents, aight. Or, uh, a lot of cents. Sorry I'm terrible at Explaining.

I don't know, I think the otaku/anime/manga fan crowd is actually quite keen on keeping up with Japan's youth, and Japan's youth has been listening a lot to K-pop too. I don't see a necessary overlap in fandom, but yes, there are people who like both. Although I think the cultural ties to these two as well as, say, AKB48 - idols, of course - sees reflexion in anime fandom as the plethora of idol anime/mobage products (started with Love Live and IM@S newer spinoffs, also UtaPri and now its Enstars, HypMic, Bandori, Dreaming!, Idolish7 ...), doesn't mean they enjoy the 3DPD idols of k-pop lol. Also, for international fans, k-pop is way more accessible than Japanese music nowadays. It's in every streaming platform, every twitter handle, every magazine, you don't even have to saerch. It's so easy to stumble into it so while back then people knew about K-pop because of Japanese music, now it's much more the other way around. I think most of the k-pop crowd - as part of it myself - is either like, 20%ish people on their 20s or maybe 30s who were formerly fans of Asian music in general (me!) and/or younger people who had incursions because of East Asian ancestry, and a majority of teens who are into k-pop because of YouTube and/or BTS or any overlap of these two. But yes, I definitely think that with k-pop being way more accessible - and presenting the same sort of "we are anime boys" fantasy that vk did a decade ago - it's not really surprising that some people who want to get a feel of East Asian culture are into it nowadays. Speaking of which, I grew up (in the 2000s) listening to a lot of Japanese music and watching anime and stuff, but even before BoA I've always been pretty immersed in SK culture as well because of MMOs so maybe this isn't even such a new trend. The media and pop cultures do overlap a lot at times. (*cough* do you know Tri-Angle *cough*)
 
I also realized a lot of people who were dragged into K-pop through East Asian music market in general had a few favorite songs/groups - or even one favorite in particular - but since Korean TV shows love to mix the groups they end up discovering other acts and becoming a fan as well - I know that is my case since I used to say I hate k-pop for a good 6 years from 2009 to 2015. Speaking of cultural interchanging I think the most extreme of k-pop fans - at least in my experience since I am always biting my own tail by saying I don't like rap and proceeding to be a fan of every group with 3+ rappers in the market but maybe that's because they actually do rap and not just digdigdoo their way through the annoyingly obligatory rap sequence  - actually end up listening to black music because that's what their idols are listening to, which I found so funny.
 
Lastly, I have to disagree that k-pop sounds like Western music. I think the Apop market specifically has been pretty weak since, uh, probably the decline of Lady Gaga and the crash of Disney stars and you don't see such bubblegummy pop songs so much anymore even among artists who excelled at it before (like, say, Katy Perry or Jessie J) ; people who still do it, like, say, Carly Rae Jepsen are pretty much adored, but it's somehow not the trend anymore I think? So back then I thought that Apop was in many ways superior to kpop, but I don't think so anymore, not to my tastes at least - sometimes I'm listening to the radio and I'm happy when BTS comes up because this is the bubblegummy happy song I want. And you know what I mean when I say all k-pop sounded like uh fantastic baby naega jail jam nagagagagaga. (Also, I was talking to an online friend who happened to go through the same ~stages of Asian music~ as myself and we did notice a trend of, sometimes girl groups doing better and sometimes boy groups doing better. I think it was definitely like, -06 for bgs, 07-10 for ggs, 11-14 for bgs, 15-17 for ggs and now we're having a bg era again, or something to that effect, and she agreed with me.)
 
But yeah, it's no metal nowadays either.
 
Also, to whoever asked about other genres of music in the Korean market, Korean music isn't just k-pop (surprisingly, not really, as the same applies to music in pretty much uh every country) and personally I listen to a lost of other artists, from Alice Vicious to Norazo to Guckkasten to Epik High. They're just, well, not k-pop which is a very specific market with very specific rules. Another important thing to note is that most times these idols are basically trained - not for cheap - by the companies behind them, and they don't always follow their careers so closely and teens are left on their own to produce stuff. Not saying this happens to the biggest of them, but smaller companies? Definitely. And sometimes they end up spewing dumb racist/homophobic bullshit thinking it's cool, but it's not happening so much nowadays.
 
I also think this shift from people from, say, Japanese music to k-pop has something to do with the decline of Being an emo kid is cool culture because, lol, music that actually hits your soul and makes you think about life? Pfft, let's go for the bubblegummy songs that promote sex exploitation, it's much better this way. I think it is just this global culture shift.  
 
So to me saying yes, VK and K-pop are similar because they're both music for fans of music, and it happens to be East Asian music! is the same as saying yeah, if you like Jay Z you'll probably like Billie Eilish because they're both American and seeking fans!, which is kind of... no. In many ways it's not similar. I think the shift is because of cultural changes and accessibility much more than because humans all of a sudden can't distinguish intricate music from pop music anymore.
 
But yes, of course the "we look like anime boys with our perfect makeup and cool blue hair, please love us" aesthetic of k-pop is a thing that drags young people into it into k-pop, but I guess the same could be said for, like, hip youtubers. You can't really avoid the aesthetic of things, I guess. Says the grown up woman who has a picture of candy floss-haired k-pop boy on her profile picture. But take me as you will really. Funnily, I can say I am much more appreciative of vk for the aesthetics it presents - not just "oh, ok, it's hot boys and I can ship them!" but I mean the actual aesthetic in the sense of the culture/semiology it expresses - than I am of k-pop for these reasons. I swear I do not care for 17 year old girls being kawaii ( but man, I love some of the songs they have! Very Very Very is Astounding! Lipstick is Excellent! Likey is Quintessential! Russian Roulette is Classic! Bboom Bboom is Amazing! ) nor am I particularly interested in 20 year old boys flexing their excessively worked out abs - I honestly think of how bad their health must be before I can even try to appreciate the abs - but still I love some of the music they have. (FYI, my favorites don't fall into either, for the most part. I'm always with the kawaii boys crowd or the WAHRGAH ANGRY boys crowd lol.) 
 
I recently had my first few experiences actually being to k-pop concerts and ... suffice to say I had such a blast I'm actually considering to do research on it now. I'm a psychologist and happen to study cultural industries and workers health, and was precisely seeking a topic for my masters and I'm really considering dropping everything I had planned to do in order to delve into this phenomenon which I find to be the prime example of pop Asian music market being a lot more about visuals and the boyfriend experience than music lol. ("Are you trying to find an excuse to go to concerts more often?" Precisely.)

Tl;dr: woman tried to enjoy k-pop but failed miserably in  her teens, now is a graduated and practicing psychologist, sees all the problems with the industry but still can't help but be supportive of her fav k-pop boys, still unsure if it does more good or harm to them.
 
As a footnote ... I did this thing a while back but never posted so here it is. It's just for fun but it really makes you think of what has become of the remnants of the VK scene and how cultures just overlap.
 
 

Commenting a bit on what was discussed here. Just my two cents, aight. Or, uh, a lot of cents. Sorry I'm terrible at Explaining.

I don't know, I think the otaku/anime/manga fan crowd is actually quite keen on keeping up with Japan's youth, and Japan's youth has been listening a lot to K-pop too. I don't see a necessary overlap in fandom, but yes, there are people who like both. Although I think the cultural ties to these two as well as, say, AKB48 - idols, of course - sees reflexion in anime fandom as the plethora of idol anime/mobage products (started with Love Live and IM@S newer spinoffs, also UtaPri and now its Enstars, HypMic, Bandori, Dreaming!, Idolish7 ...), doesn't mean they enjoy the 3DPD idols of k-pop lol. Also, for international fans, k-pop is way more accessible than Japanese music nowadays. It's in every streaming platform, every twitter handle, every magazine, you don't even have to saerch. It's so easy to stumble into it so while back then people knew about K-pop because of Japanese music, now it's much more the other way around. I think most of the k-pop crowd - as part of it myself - is either like, 20%ish people on their 20s or maybe 30s who were formerly fans of Asian music in general (me!) and/or younger people who had incursions because of East Asian ancestry, and a majority of teens who are into k-pop because of YouTube and/or BTS or any overlap of these two. But yes, I definitely think that with k-pop being way more accessible - and presenting the same sort of "we are anime boys" fantasy that vk did a decade ago - it's not really surprising that some people who want to get a feel of East Asian culture are into it nowadays. Speaking of which, I grew up (in the 2000s) listening to a lot of Japanese music and watching anime and stuff, but even before BoA I've always been pretty immersed in SK culture as well because of MMOs so maybe this isn't even such a new trend. The media and pop cultures do overlap a lot at times. (*cough* do you know Tri-Angle *cough*)
 
I also realized a lot of people who were dragged into K-pop through East Asian music market in general had a few favorite songs/groups - or even one favorite in particular - but since Korean TV shows love to mix the groups they end up discovering other acts and becoming a fan as well - I know that is my case since I used to say I hate k-pop for a good 6 years from 2009 to 2015. Speaking of cultural interchanging I think the most extreme of k-pop fans - at least in my experience since I am always biting my own tail by saying I don't like rap and proceeding to be a fan of every group with 3+ rappers in the market but maybe that's because they actually do rap and not just digdigdoo their way through the annoyingly obligatory rap sequence  - actually end up listening to black music because that's what their idols are listening to, which I found so funny.
 
Lastly, I have to disagree that k-pop sounds like Western music. I think the Apop market specifically has been pretty weak since, uh, probably the decline of Lady Gaga and the crash of Disney stars and you don't see such bubblegummy pop songs so much anymore even among artists who excelled at it before (like, say, Katy Perry or Jessie J) ; people who still do it, like, say, Carly Rae Jepsen are pretty much adored, but it's somehow not the trend anymore I think? So back then I thought that Apop was in many ways superior to kpop, but I don't think so anymore, not to my tastes at least - sometimes I'm listening to the radio and I'm happy when BTS comes up because this is the bubblegummy happy song I want. And you know what I mean when I say all k-pop sounded like uh fantastic baby naega jail jam nagagagagaga. (Also, I was talking to an online friend who happened to go through the same ~stages of Asian music~ as myself and we did notice a trend of, sometimes girl groups doing better and sometimes boy groups doing better. I think it was definitely like, -06 for bgs, 07-10 for ggs, 11-14 for bgs, 15-17 for ggs and now we're having a bg era again, or something to that effect, and she agreed with me.)
 
But yeah, it's no metal nowadays either.
 
Also, to whoever asked about other genres of music in the Korean market, Korean music isn't just k-pop (surprisingly, not really, as the same applies to music in pretty much uh every country) and personally I listen to a lost of other artists, from Alice Vicious to Norazo to Guckkasten to Epik High. They're just, well, not k-pop which is a very specific market with very specific rules. Another important thing to note is that most times these idols are basically trained - not for cheap - by the companies behind them, and they don't always follow their careers so closely and teens are left on their own to produce stuff. Not saying this happens to the biggest of them, but smaller companies? Definitely. And sometimes they end up spewing dumb racist/homophobic bullshit thinking it's cool, but it's not happening so much nowadays.
 
I also think this shift from people from, say, Japanese music to k-pop has something to do with the decline of Being an emo kid is cool culture because, lol, music that actually hits your soul and makes you think about life? Pfft, let's go for the bubblegummy songs that promote sex exploitation, it's much better this way. I think it is just this global culture shift.  
 
So to me saying yes, VK and K-pop are similar because they're both music for fans of music, and it happens to be East Asian music! is the same as saying yeah, if you like Jay Z you'll probably like Billie Eilish because they're both American and seeking fans!, which is kind of... no. In many ways it's not similar. I think the shift is because of cultural changes and accessibility much more than because humans all of a sudden can't distinguish intricate music from pop music anymore.
 
But yes, of course the "we look like anime boys with our perfect makeup and cool blue hair, please love us" aesthetic of k-pop is a thing that drags young people into it into k-pop, but I guess the same could be said for, like, hip youtubers. You can't really avoid the aesthetic of things, I guess. Says the grown up woman who has a picture of candy floss-haired k-pop boy on her profile picture. But take me as you will really. Funnily, I can say I am much more appreciative of vk for the aesthetics it presents - not just "oh, ok, it's hot boys and I can ship them!" but I mean the actual aesthetic in the sense of the culture/semiology it expresses - than I am of k-pop for these reasons. I swear I do not care for 17 year old girls being kawaii ( but man, I love some of the songs they have! Very Very Very is Astounding! Lipstick is Excellent! Likey is Quintessential! Russian Roulette is Classic! Bboom Bboom is Amazing! ) nor am I particularly interested in 20 year old boys flexing their excessively worked out abs - I honestly think of how bad their health must be before I can even try to appreciate the abs - but still I love some of the music they have. (FYI, my favorites don't fall into either, for the most part. I'm always with the kawaii boys crowd or the WAHRGAH ANGRY boys crowd lol.) 
 
I recently had my first few experiences actually being to k-pop concerts and ... suffice to say I had such a blast I'm actually considering to do research on it now. I'm a psychologist and happen to study cultural industries and workers health, and was precisely seeking a topic for my masters and I'm really considering dropping everything I had planned to do in order to delve into this phenomenon which I find to be the prime example of pop Asian music market being a lot more about visuals and the boyfriend experience than music lol. ("Are you trying to find an excuse to go to concerts more often?" Precisely.)

Tl;dr: woman tried to enjoy k-pop but failed miserably in  her teens, now is a graduated and practicing psychologist, sees all the problems with the industry but still can't help but be supportive of her fav k-pop boys, still unsure if it does more good or harm to them.
 
As a footnote ... I did this thing a while back but never posted so here it is. It's just for fun but it really makes you think of what has become of the remnants of the VK scene and how cultures just overlap.
 
 

VK in a nutshell.

Some of your opinions remind me of this meme 

It’s literally pop music. I like it. When I was in high school I used to look up every idol I saw in mvs and try to read about them, but that’s literally what we all did at one point when we liked a celebrity. It’s just music that happens to be good for my ears sung by people who my eyes appreciate.

You're not wrong, but I do think that there's something to be said about Kpop being "different" and "special", but the difference doesn't lie in the music, it lies in the culture.
 
The reason that VK fans can so easily transition to Kpop is that the fan cultures surrounding them are so very similar, despite the music being so different. On the inverse - take "Black" American pop music for example: Musically, "Black" American pop/r&b/rap is like the mother of Kpop, as it directly inspires Kpop and sets the trends and standards for a lot of Kpop, yet you don't see a gang of Kpop fans praising too many "black" artists. Now the music from these two scenes are VERY similar, so you'd think that Kpop fans would also be naturally interested in both (and to be fair, some are, but i don't see this to be the case in general). But the cultures surrounding both scenes are so different that you don't really see a lot of cross pollination between the fanbases, despite the music being so similar.
 
So I do think that kpop fans genuinely enjoy the music, it's just that the music comes secondary to the culture. I think it's the culture that attracts most ppl first, and then the music is something people actually find enjoyable after. But not often the other way around. Now obviously there are ppl who are open-minded enough not to give a fuck about the cultures and will listen to anything that they like, but the impact of culture can actually be pretty profound, because culture often gives a context in which to perceive the music. And you'd be surprised how much context can influence one's taste.
 
I've experienced this personally many times. It was like this for me when I got into J-rock. I grew up in "black" culture where rock music was mostly considered a "white" thing, and so we didn't fuck with it like that. I didn't really listen to rock music until after I got into J-rock. Because J-rock offered a different cultural path to rock music than the stereotypical American White culture that I associated it with at the time. But after developing a true affinity for rock, I was able to go back and appreciate the rock music that I previously avoided due to cultural boundaries/ignorance.
 
So yeah, that's my thoughts on that. Culture affects our perception of things more than we realize. They say culture is to humans as water is to fish - so we can't always see what cultural perspective that we're operating from until after we've experienced other cultures, or until after we've swam in other waters, if you will.
 
-
 
But with that said, I personally think Kpop is a lot of fun. I don't listen to it or seek it out on my own, but whenever i'm exposed to it, it's always a joy. The visuals, the dances, the production - the general pomp of it all - it's all pretty exciting. So I see how ppl can enjoy it. For me, KPOP is like eating sweets tho. Like yeah, I enjoy them for sure, but too much and I'll get sick.

1.神様に言ってやろ(Kami-sama ni itteyaro)
 
2.共犯者 (Kyouhan-sha)
 
3.暴動(Boudou)
 
4.天使でいたかった(Tenshi de itakatta)
 
 

Siim! Eu fazia parte dos dois lados, hahaha!

Era, e também Alice Nine, L'Arc, Gazette, Miyavi e etc. E ae do outro lado da força tinha as viúva do MM e X ... 

Heyy 
 
Man ... I should make a blog thing for the weird outfits I create
 

Me again, this time featuring a hat.
 
 
Images may be somewhat mahoosive as they're the first ones I've uploaded here that were taken with my fancy-ass camera, so I put them in a cut.

Heyy 
 
Man ... I should make a blog thing for the weird outfits I create
 

Heyy 
 
Man ... I should make a blog thing for the weird outfits I create
 

Ok I'm starting this topic mainly because I am less than 48 hours away from seeing my favorite kpop boys live so I'm in SWOON mode and in order to calm my tits I am doing the other thing I like, namely, write about j-fashion
 
So irl I am one of those big jfashion hos fans who probably owns more japanese brand clothes than in-house brands and so I decided to search for what's going on in fashion in vk fandom nowadays. I remember around a decade ago the whole vk scene still smelled of Mana doing MMM, full of lolita and esp. gothic lolita enthusiasts (NANA character Reira comes to mind too) and a lot of artists doing their fashion design brands usually after clothing designs for the band or something, but nowadays I don't really see lolita/ouji/aristocratic fashion as a big thing in Japan in general - which mayhaps has to do with the decline of vk as well - and so I wonder what do vk fans in Japan dress nowadays basically.
 
Out of curiosity I started searching for random bangyas self-posting pics on Twitter just to see how they attended lives (This sounds like insightful research but I actually simply typed Vrzel in Twitter search and started digging lolll) the only ... pattern ... I am actually seeing there is they all do Big Anime Eyes makeup and love that creppy ass SNOW filter for making eyes big ...? Anyways, that's about it. But I wanted to see insighters' opinions as well, esp. from people who actually attend vk lives in Japan. Do people even dress in any particular style nowadays? Also, do rokku gyaru actually exist irl or is it internet fiction? Do people ACTUALLY dress up like that for rock lives in 2010s? Being this gaijin gyaru from day one I was simply curious and can def see how gyaru and agejo fashion/hostess lives/nightlife and visual rock scene might kind of overlap (ahem, sujimori hair) but generally I am also curious in knowing what other fashion trends might be here.
 
Anyways, thank you ~