Not really sure how y'all could enjoy tracks like Rijin and Vanitas but somehow hate this. Sure they're emphasising the mathy elements more while downplaying the heavier side somewhat, but it's hardly a complete 180 from their last couple of releases or anything.
Anyway I'm basically a math slut so I'll let this song have its way with me. All hail visual math kei etcetc.
hate to buy into retsu's mid 20s crisis, but i like the song and the samples sound good to me lmao
still think they've messed up beyond repair image-wise, but i'm gonna be jamming to the album
also 'before it's too late' sounds like it'd fit right into gackt's discography tbh
It might sound weird from a western perspective, but visual kei is like the straightest and most homophobic music scene in Japan. We tend to look at visual kei with western eyes and mix its cultural aspects with things that belong to the western culture. Fanservice and provocations used for shock value put aside, the androgynous aesthetics of visual kei band rarely expressed anything related to gender identity and especially sexual orientation.
After all, it started with people like X Japan who admittedly were inspired by glam rock bands and way of life, which I would find hard to connect to sexual orientation. Visual kei early bandomen were mostly chinpiras, bosozokus (bikers) and the likes. They really incarnated the somewhat glamrock aesthetic of riding bikes getting drunk, banging girls, etc. Of course X had their own decadent/romantic taste that made them different, and a lot of influences changed the scene over time. However, visual kei is still remains 99% driven by social outcasts looking for pussy and very rarely by something else.
In Japan we also have onnagatas, who are kabuki actors specialized in female roles that are again 99% straight. Bandoman with feminine looks call themselves onnagata, not josou (crossdresser), implying that the cultural source behind their looks is not connected with crossdressing but just playing a female role in a band, but again this something that might be hard to completely understand it taken outside of Japanese culture. For example Izam, the king of all onnagatas, married more than once and has more tha one child, and outside of his role in Shazna he rarely did anything ambiguous, just like the kabuki onnagatas out of stage. Both media and fans are everything but respectful of privacy, but I've rarely seen Japanese articles or message board questioning bandomen sexual orientation. That's because the number 1 reason people do visual kei is because the girls like it (well, liked it, I am not sure this is the trend with young girls anymore).
Soft Ballet/Ken Morioka are closer to Soft Cell/Marc Almond so I would not even count them as visual kei even though they had some influence on it. And of course, there are exceptions as you mentioned. The chinpira bandomen of the 90's almost extincted and younger generations bandomans are usually anime/game otakus. They grew up with different influences and values, and it would make sense if the current incarnation of visual kei instinctively appealed to more people with sexual orientation/gender identity concerns, especially after Japan started talking about these issues in a less obsolete viewpoint.
saishuu got a reaction from Peace Heavy mk II in i.D.A started to sell their music digitally.
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saishuu got a reaction from suji in deadman to hold a oneman live in September 2019
saishuu got a reaction from meat in Plastic Tree new album "十色定理" (Juusshoku Teiri) release
saishuu got a reaction from Jigsaw9 in deadman to hold a oneman live in September 2019
saishuu got a reaction from chemicalpictures in Plastic Tree new album "十色定理" (Juusshoku Teiri) release
saishuu got a reaction from evenor in Plastic Tree new album "十色定理" (Juusshoku Teiri) release
saishuu got a reaction from emmny in ex-Vexent Vo. マコ (Mako) new band "KAKUMAY" has formed