5 Things I Like about VK (or J-music in general), in no particular order
1. The community
At least half of the friends I've made in the VK community are my friends for life. Kinda weird that some of your bestest friends would come from laughing about no1curr Japanese band and fan drama as you bond over a good release, but hey life is funny that way.
2. The concerts
Concerts in Japan are better, tbh. None of that crappy audience singing drowning out most of the artist's set you paid to hear, and nobody is standing there like a dumbass watching the whole thing through their phone, blocking your view with their phone in the process. I find Japanese concerts are generally more interactive, too, unless you're seeing some really bland or unknown act.
3. Release packaging/content
Sure VK releases may cost more than many Western releases, but the packaging is often way nicer. Most VK shoots and photo/lyric booklets put Western artists to shame.
4. The goods
With little exception, VK or Japanese artists in general have better goods than Western artists. I feel like overseas you get clothes, stickers, and notebooks, and that's about it, but in Japan the only limit is the band's imagination. Over the years I've seen flavored condoms, sex toy kits, house dishes, food/snack/drink collaborations, mobile battery chargers and other small electronics, car goods, etc.
5. The music
Last but not least, eh? When I first got into VK I was really thrilled by the way artists gave little to no flips about sticking to just one genre or style of music. There are some artists that try a little too hard to mesh sounds that don't agree, but for the most part I've always respected the experimental nature of the genre. I feel like indie music in the West is starting to catch up in that regard, but even now Western fans are still quick to call any artist that steps outside a certain established style or sound a sell out.
vistlip new album (title not yet finalized) will be released at 2018/11/28 (3 types)
Limited edition (3888yen) will include CD and DVD including "Rough the vistlip"
Vister edition (3888yen) will include CD and DVD including PV and making
Lipper edition (3240yen) will include CD only
Mejibray - Raven Sefa - The Judgement [Original Mix]
GJan Ft. Gizzle - Mountains
Sefa Ft- Dr. Peacock - This Life Is Lost [Original Mix] Sefa - Path To Madness [Original Mix]
Missa - Mammon
GJan - Do It
D.Holic - Color Me Rad The Slot/ Слот - 4 Шага Envious - Mrs.『』
Well... too much Songs I love lol
Can't decide between those 4. Love me some Frenchcore aswell as Slot/Envious haha
Since I can't stand the Mejibray/GazettE-stanning that's taken over this topic and has gotten away from the original intent, I'm bringing it back. I'm also giving you all something new to talk about since new unpopular opinions have ceased to surface over the last page or so.
Visual kei is not a genre or an aesthetic movement. It's a paradoxical manifestation of an anomaly against the negatives of Japanese culture.
This is closely related to the problem of "what is visual kei?".
Stolen shamelessly from Wikipedia, a genre is defined as
We can stop right here. Before you start processing the definition, ask yourself "what is visual kei"? We can have a ten page discussion about that in this topic right now and still not come to a consensus. Visual kei is an open-ended, ill-defined term exploited by both us and the bands in the scene to refer to whatever we please. We agree to disagree on what the term is supposed to mean and take it at face value when someone tells us that a band is or isn't visual kei anymore.
By definition, visual kei can't be a genre because we can only define it by what it is not, and very conservatively at that. The difference between newbies and veterans in the scene mostly comes down to context sensitivity determining band classification. What do I mean by this? Well, we can all look at a band or an idol group and very clearly say "this is not visual kei". But if we look at a visual kei band next to a band that uses theatrical make-up and aesthetic elements, we get into murky territory. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. Newbies lack the knowledge to make this distinction, and utilize only the looks to say whether or not a band is visual. Then, they get lashed upon by fans of that band who "don't want to associate this band with those bands" for getting it wrong, and they learn. Eventually they learn only to label a band as visual kei if they describe themselves as such or if someone else before them says it first. [1]
The thing is, the newbies have the right approach at first. They get into the scene, they hear that it's a genre, and seek to classify it. But before long they realize that over the span of twenty years, visual kei has birthed bands that sound very, very different. Going off of sound alone, all bands that were ever considered visual kei can't be connected short of a definition so vague it's useless. So then we turn to the costumes and theatrics and claim that as a large component of what makes a band visual. But even there, we can piece together different bands that don't look anything alike - some bands which don't look remotely visual at all - and claim they are all visual kei. Hell, lynch. has looked like a normal band for quite some time and there's still a heated debate to whether or not they're visual kei. On the first page of this very topic, one of the unpopular opinions was that "Dir en grey is still visual". Once again, you now have bands that have very little in common aesthetic wise and short of a very vague, useless definition we have nothing to go off of.
So I've basically run through this problem, haven't given a solution and haven't explained my point (or have I?). What gives?
Well as a fandom we tend to separate visual kei bands based on decades, so let's do that:
- The mysterious late 80's, which most of us like to pretend doesn't exist, full of bands that play some form of rock or metal. - The music of the 90's, which is usually thought of as bands inspired by Victorian and goth costumes playing...well, whatever they want. - The 00's, which was populated by lots of flashy costumes, usually subdivided into subkeis to better be able to classify and understand bands but still full of bands playing whatever they want. - The 10's, which seems to have a preponderance of electronic elements in the music but for the most part still full of plenty of different bands playing whatever they please.
And even here we tend to simplify this as to "80s HAIR METAL, 90'S GOFF MUZIK, 00'S KEI ON KEI ACTION/RAWRCORE, 10'S WUB-WUBCORE", which illustrates the points I made above. As a fan, you get to a point where you realize that the term can't be defined and thus you stop. The working definition is "If a band wants to be visual kei, they'll be visual kei. When they don't, they're no longer visual kei". [2] So doesn't this describe a movement, which brings together people just as different for a common cause? Let's go through all of the things that should make a movement and see if it lines up.
Well let's see:
- Coordinated group action. Well, visual kei isn't very rebellious or subversive, outside of the low barrier to entry being offensive to some people's ears and the costumes being offensive to some people's eyes. Unless there is this entire "point" they all share that we've missed for forever and a day, I believe that most bands focus on staying functional over staying Stallman-esque in their beliefs. [3] And frankly, I can't blame them. Pragmatism rules. [4]
- A common cause. But what is that cause and do all bands share it? As I said above, we really don't think of visual kei as something as much as we do as an entity against something. But even that "entity" changes over time, reflected by the different forms of visual kei. So do the bands of the late 80's and the bands of today share the same goal? Yes and no. [5]
- People from different walks of life. We can't say too much because we don't know the details of most musicians. Note however that on a macro scale most visual kei bands are Japanese and many tend to gravitate around a few cities on the mainland. We also can surmise that a lot of these musicians are poor or struggling. We also haven't seen the scene take root in any other countries with similar situations. In this sense, it represents a truly Japanese problem - disillusioned youth versus "The System". If it's a movement here, it's on a small scale.
Visual kei is too anti-classification to be a genre and too inconclusive to be a movement. So what is it?
My admittedly semantic description of visual kei is that of a paradoxical anomaly. It exists, full of people perpetuating it unaware of it's purpose, fighting against an issue that plagues the Japanese society whilst embodying almost every characteristic of that society. What is that issue? Well, I believe the issue lies in the extreme conformity and deference to authority found in the society, coupled with high expectations placed upon every member of that society, along with a thirty year recession that has stagnated the Japanese economy and makes it hard to achieve the life every Japanese person feels it is their duty to obtain.
A strictly Japanese problem. [6]
Visual kei exists as an antagonist to everything in that society, even definition, because it refuses to conform. It's piloted by people who know full they may never see success but toil anyway as a gigantic "FUCK YOU" to their society. It's also mostly populated by young people with the drive and ambition to change their surroundings but no means to achieve that change (and older people who exploit these young people for the cash they'll never see, bringing the entire scene into territory so meta it hurts). When those kids grow up and lose their drive, as after years of fighting against this nebulous problem they watch it shift into something new but no less harmful, they give up, slip into the routine, and become working salary men that can't be identified. It's an anomaly that just is, and that anomaly happens to make noise that we like to listen to.
To pigeonhole visual kei into anything else misses the political and cultural significance that caused it's birth.
tl;dr - Visual kei is the Japanese "hippie culture" of the 60's, with no Vietnam War in sight to bring it to an end. [7]
Notes:
Here I extrapolate on points that I wanted to make above and didn't because I didn't want to go on a tangent and not come back.
[1] This is my personal belief behind why revival bands like Grieva and Ru:natic will never see a resurgence. The forms that visual kei took in the 90's was in resistance to the culture and expectations of the 90's. The world is an irreversibly different place and thus visual kei must change along with it. This is also why I believe that visual kei is not an aesthetic - the fashion world moves in cycles much shorter than 30 years. Visual kei hasn't repeated a phase to date. That's why I believe it supersedes such a definition.
[2] Not only does this loose definition work but it reflects a lot of what I get into later in my argument. Most importantly, that it gives an element of control back to the band. I've read in multiple places that the Japanese populace don't feel like they have much choice - they must succeed in school, get into better schools, succeed there, get a good job, start a family, etc. - and then must face a wall of depression when they realize that most can't get to the head of the pack and they didn't. By sticking to this definition, bands can have a say in a core element which defines them.
[3] Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU Project. Read up on him to see what ideals unbounded by pragmatism really is. Hint: it sounds like crazy.
[4] When bands have no motivation or have run out of reasons to continue they sometimes disband for no reason. On the other side of that coin, some bands are so tight knit that they feel as if they can't function if a member leaves. But at the heart of it all, many bands don't put ideals and beliefs over success. Those that have them use them alongside the visuals and their music - and even then if it becomes too hard they quit or if they become successful they tone it down or cut it out completely. See, NoGoD.
[5] Even more interestingly, visual kei itself tends to conform in ways, which subverts the point of the whole thing. It's like a military group led by a dictator attacking a dictatorial government for its evils. This is why I refrain from calling it a movement, because it itself embodies the very principles it seeks to combat.
[6] Which is why "overseas visual kei" will never take off. The societal conditions are not right for it to spawn. YOHIO and Seremedy are second-order simulacra.
[7] After WWII, Japan isn't allowed to have a real standing army so it isn't in it's best interest to get into conflicts. I meant it literally. In another sense, you could say that the counterculture of the 60's was against "The System" but manifested itself through the War. Once the War ended, the culture had little reason to exist. Since visual kei doesn't have such a clear cut enemy, it will continue on for much longer. This is also why visual kei can't "die".
Ahh, I don't know any of those artists/songs to say anything 😅 But I listened to the song by Anderson .Paak and the song was quite nice to listen to!
Sadie - Rosario
Lilith - Black Hall
Megaromania - Raincarnation ~rin'ne kisou~
SCREW - Brainstorm
Wagakki Band - Senbonzakura
Doubt/D=OUT - Kimon
AND - Kyou
Kagrra - Manatsu no Yo no Yume
D'espairsRay - Yozora
Vidoll - D.J. "Hero"
This list had a lot of good songs, so it was hard to chose. But I narrowed it down to these two particular songs. Manatsu no Yo no Yume was on Kagrra's last album so it has a special spot in my music list. As for Wagakki Band, this was the first song I discovered by them and I really liked their usage of traditional Japanese instruments (especially after the Kagrra, void T_T)
This is worrisome. I smell disbandment on the horizon. Their first full-length album for a major, and it's a best-of? Even after they put a mini best-of on the tail end of that lame-ass mini-album they released earlier this year? I think they're in trouble. Victor chews bands up and spits them out. Look at And. Look at D.
I can't believe October is already here, and the event coming this Friday... I feel like just yesterday I was posting about the project lol.
I've got everything done now, I never posted the color of the above, also recently finished Carnage oil painting...felt very rushed because the deadline changed.
Think PS stuffed up the bg color I'll have to fix it.
Venom colored
I'm glad to be done but it's not very exciting since it's not personal work.
Daizystripper will be releasing an album titled 「This is DaizyStripper」on January 2019. The songs recorded will be determined by fans who can vote from a selection of 137 songs, ranging from various singles and albums.
Fans can vote for the songs on Daizystripper's LINE: https://line.me/R/ti/p/%40daizystripper. Voting already started from 20th September and will last until 22nd October.
A new voting poll opens (and closes) in a pattern of every two days for each album/single. There is no option to vote for songs on all albums/singles.
>be a bandman
>play shitty american cons for years
>no one cares about you in japan
>finally start to come up, band does well
>almost make it to your 20th anniversary
>vocalist gets a bunch of absolutely heinous vocal conditions
>forced to disband
>over two years later, he's finally better and you can keep doing what you love
>some guy on a forum calls you cringey for taking a cute photo with your bandmates
This! Kagrra has such great music, and their amazing music and Isshi's unique vocals really shine when played live (from the available live DVDs). I especially love those albums so I'm quite bummed there was never any DVD releases of those lives.
Kagrra, never released DVDs for the tours they made to promote three of their albums (雫, Core and 珠) and I really, really would've liked to have watched those concerts. They basically went 6 years without releasing any live footage whatsoever and it sucks nobody ever got to watch those (in the West, at least) and we had to settle for some hard-to-find, fanclub-only digest footage.
yeah, the mother has my sympathy in so far as she is purportedly an abuse victim, but i have very few good things to say about any of the adults involved in the situation. i kind of feel like no one has been putting the child first.
I caught Kenzo's drumstick and got a poster signed by all of the members of Ayabie(in 2008 when they were 彩冷える and still decent). This isn't too big of a deal, but I have the worst luck with that sort of thing and they were one of my favorite bands at the time, so it was special to me.
monkeybanana4 got a reaction from asagaos in ジッパー(Zip.er) one-day revival
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