Nyasagi

Can we all acknowledge that flying out to Japan to see Mejibray live in order to give a "credible" opinion is rather absurd?
 
"I don't like this band."
 
"But you didn't see them live."
 
"OF COURSE I DIDNT! THEY PLAY IN VENUES THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY FROM WHERE I LIVE! WTF?!"

lmao you're literally sitting here implying people's opinions aren't credible because they aren't ~part of the scene~ and you don't seem to understand why they're getting salty with you?
 
Here's the thing YOU seem confused about. You seem to be confusing "your consumption and interaction with the band are financially irrelevant" to "your opinion is irrelevant and no one should care about it." Let's, for a moment, humor whoever it was in this thread who said vk is "art." Here's the thing about art - once it's produced and released into the world, in whatever form it may be in, it's out of the artists' hands, and it becomes a matter of opinion and interpretation for whoever is consuming it in whatever manner they see fit. You don't get to sit here and tell people the ~correct~ way to consume it (i.e. attending lives in Japan) and you don't get to sit here and tell them their opinions are invalid because they're not consuming it in the way it was "intended" or in the way that is most financially profitable for the band. If Miley Cyrus owns literally thousands of hip hop CDs then I imagine she has her reasons for having her opinions, and while obviously no one is obligated to take her opinion seriously, that doesn't mean it's baseless. In fact, let's rework that last sentence in the context of this thread and see what happens:

"It's kind of like [a foreign visual kei fan] wanting people to care about her opinion on [visual kei]. She's free to do so, but nobody's going to giving it much weight, irrelevant of how much she may or may not be a fan of [visual kei], how many CDs she owns, etc. because it's not based on anything credible."

 

EVERYONE?! Bullshit. I'm a girl and I HATE kids, HATE them a lot! They're loud and they're the most expensive toys which exist. Yes, TOYS, because many people want to have a baby just because or because my family wants me to have kids, etc and then these babies grow up being miserable.
Same with me. No marriage, no kids, more money and happiness

They used to be my favorite band, but I've been gradually losing interest in them during the last... 2-3 years? The start was good, then they became to sound the same, and also weren't present online as much as they used to, stopped releasing funny making of videos, etc. For a foreign fan it's a huge difference, because it's not just the music that's important when you can't experience anything else about the band. I also think that there are better bands in the vk scene, but I just liked them anyway... until they started losing unity in their image (each member began to look way too different than each other, and it was a mistake, in my opinion), and ran out of new ideas for the music.

Some people are just weeaboos. Enough said.

can't help but feel that this whole debate is much ado about nothing 
 
if you're living in japan and regularly go to lives then you're entitled to give your opinion on their lives. if you're an international fan who voraciously gobbles up all their releases (legally or not) then you're entitled to evaluate the quality of their recorded music. the problem only arises when this discussion bleeds into the neighboring terrain of 'how does one objectively judge a band's quality?' or 'what's the proper way of enjoying a band?'--which never fails to generate 5 pages of same old thing that impresses no one in particular...
 
then there's the question of how much instrumental value you are actually of to the band, which is related but entirely separable from the first. it's def true that the actual impact of someone ordering a 3000 yen album from CDJapan on the band is probably a lot less than they think, but that doesn't reduce the weight of their opinion on the band's recorded music. critics all over the world are paid to do exactly that: to give their opinions while remaining pretty much monetarily irrelevant.

well as a useless baka gaijin I guess I'd better quit listening to vk and following vk bands and buying vk bands' CDs and merch and just giving a shit about vk at all then, if I can't go to lives ever, even though this is 2017 we're living in and everything gets consumed internationally these days through this magical invention called the Internet

They used to be my favorite band, but I've been gradually losing interest in them during the last... 2-3 years? The start was good, then they became to sound the same, and also weren't present online as much as they used to, stopped releasing funny making of videos, etc. For a foreign fan it's a huge difference, because it's not just the music that's important when you can't experience anything else about the band. I also think that there are better bands in the vk scene, but I just liked them anyway... until they started losing unity in their image (each member began to look way too different than each other, and it was a mistake, in my opinion), and ran out of new ideas for the music.

I'm happy Mejibray is taking a break. I really agree with the fact that they haven't really put out anything too great for awhile now and it could do their music wonders. Think about the Gazette. Whether you hated or love their Dogma project, it was a HUGE refreshment from what they were putting out prior. That almost 2 year gap between releases helped them tremendously. 
 
 
----- that's all I have to say  opinion wise on the matter. If you want to continue reading after this, I just jumped into the most recent debate for a quick spell. Nothing serious. ----
 
To say that the opinion of a fan who buys their products, but doesn't see their lives is unimportant is wrong though. Whether buying their ticket and seeing them live or buying their stuff, that money IS what keeps the band going.  I don't think the band really would care if 5 people didn't show up to a show, but 5 people bought their DVD, CDs, posters, etc. at the same value as the ticket.  Also, some people aren't able to make it out to a show (small venue, tickes sold out. Work schedule conflicts, etc, etc) or can't even get to be in Japan to see these bands. Their opinion might not matter to you, but it does matter. But I'm sure you've seen EVERY band live before you decided to criticize them or like them, right?
 
 
I agree with this statement, except the studio album part. With the technology available to sound engineers, you can take someone who sounds as nasally and flat as Sakito (ex. Duel e Quartz) and make him sound as godly as Asagi from D. You can take anything from the "CRAPPY songs to cure people from rare indies bands obsession" thread and make it sound like L'arc en CIel or Dir en Grey gold. It has no indicate of the skill.
 
In conclusion, all of your opinions are valid to a degree because that is what keeps the band alive. Buying tickets, buying products, and SPREADING THE WORD about the band whether good or band KEEPS THE BAND ALIVE because it all leads to monetary value for the band to continue.
 
Sorry to go on and on and on. lol.
 

Tumblr is just full of fangirls whining as if they were going to disband. Also, hardly anyone in this fandom does anything for the fans and it's been like that for years, so don't count on the fanbase to translate anything at all. They prefer to spam the social media of band members and tumblr with riddiculous comments.

Am I the only one, who's not surprised? They've been releasing way too much, their music just sounds the same all the time, it feels like they're out of new ideas. A break will be good for them, because they've been too busy with shit. I highly doubt they would announce a hiatus if they were going to disband, stop being such drama queens.

when people confuse elitism with actually having taste, oops

yes because mh is full of whites. nothing but whites. this forum's color should be white instead of black.
 
Fucking idiot, living up to both his name and the band's name (Bataar, more like Pataar, amirite).
 

Tumblr is just full of fangirls whining as if they were going to disband. Also, hardly anyone in this fandom does anything for the fans and it's been like that for years, so don't count on the fanbase to translate anything at all. They prefer to spam the social media of band members and tumblr with riddiculous comments.

They used to be my favorite band, but I've been gradually losing interest in them during the last... 2-3 years? The start was good, then they became to sound the same, and also weren't present online as much as they used to, stopped releasing funny making of videos, etc. For a foreign fan it's a huge difference, because it's not just the music that's important when you can't experience anything else about the band. I also think that there are better bands in the vk scene, but I just liked them anyway... until they started losing unity in their image (each member began to look way too different than each other, and it was a mistake, in my opinion), and ran out of new ideas for the music.

Seriously, this mejibray hiatus has made the VK sphere the most exciting it's been in years. 
 
That or I just like to watch the world burn 

Trying to hire an hitman in the dark webz and accidentally hiring Yomi as Chiba thrusting his crotch against every vulunerable part of the victim's body while Izumi from Shibilebashir seduces him/her 
o m g 
The true power of those hookers is finally revealed!

Okay, I've been reading a lot of people here saying they were one of the most successful and popular bands out of this latest generation and my question is: were they?
 
I've always felt they are far more successful among the western fanbase than in Japan, which honestly means absolutely nothing to determine their status in the scene. They don't seem to sell that well, the biggest place they held an oneman was Zepp Tokyo (in 2014; other than that they seem to have reached a plateau at Akasaka BLITZ, meaning they've been stagnated for years now) and it doesn't look like they're leaving much of an impact within the scene (if any at all).

I'm saying just because you haven't see a band perform live, it doesn't mean you can't criticize them. Studio albums are indicative of an artist's musical skill and songwriting capabilities. If a band has five albums and I only like one of them, I think it's fair to say that I don't like the band's music. Seeing them live won't change anything. 

Even live DVDs don't fully capture a live performance, especially since those end up being edited and polished just like anything else. 
 
I fully understand the idea of some bands being better live than on record, but it's silly to imply that you can't judge a band until you see them live when they don't perform internationally. 

Yeah I agree on that, but if the band release songs we shall be able to judge these songs on how it sounds on CD, the person above say that if we haven't seen them live we can't judge the quality of them and that's pretty stupid to me 

Lmao that is a pretty stupid argument, if these songs are created for live performance don't release it on CD then

Usually you see 無期限 or some variation for "indefinite hiatus" announcements. IMHO it sounds like a temporary hiatus, but who knows what could happen in between that time, lol.
 
I've translated the announcement, since posters above complained that none of MEJIBRAY's fans have done it.
 
"MEJIBRAY would like to give their sincerest thanks for your continued support. We have a very important message for everyone. MEJIBRAY has decided to pause their activities following 2017. To all our fans that have supported us, and to all related staff, we understand that this announcement is a sudden one, and we deeply apologize for any worry and inconvenience this decision may cause, though we hope you can understand. Nothing has been decided about next year's schedule or if we will resume activities again next year. Though only a short period of time is left, we would like to put everything we have into our remaining activities. We humbly ask for your support. May 10, 2017"
 
 
 
 
 

Sure, but it's not like seeing Mejibray live is just a matter of buying tickets and driving to a local venue for anyone outside Japan. 

VK fans in general don't seem to understand how... anything works.