Biopanda

Instead of having a decent review thread, we are left to cope with degbox troll's views on how bad are "ojiisans" nowadays? Geez.
 
Either way, the release itself was okay - Aki's cover was kind of funny, considering that heavy metal guitars and his vocals don't really go well but SERAFINE, Blind Boy project, The Godsend and I Can Hear the Rain were quite cool.
 
We have a very good tribute album for a long time, finally

Holy shit uomth just get the fuck over yourself

How can someone be so smug and self-righteous about a bunch of old japanese men in makeup?

wuh oh we've got a self-important look at me I know everything manbaby, delivered fresh from the degbox

I tag things as VK because there's no ID3 field for "scene" and sometimes you just want to listen to some trannies, ya know?

I download hella shit. I buy hella shit. I share hella shit. The end.

I guess the best way to think of it would be that without any downloads there would be a total of like 5 international VK fans as the only ones who would ever know about it would be those who were in Japan and stumbled upon it. So even if 100 people download a CD from some tiny VK band where only 1-5 people actually bought the CD, that's still a net gain of 1-5 sales where there would be 0 otherwise. Especially for Japanese bands, I think downloading is an important tool to enable international touring. How many people would really be willing to throw down $30 for a ticket to go see a band they've never heard of in a music scene that they've never heard of?
 
Now that being said, I still support legal methods of getting music when and where you can, but some effort does need to be put in by the bands as well. I don't think it should really be expected of us as fans to have to jump through hoops just to be able to support our favorite artists, especially in today's world which is so global and digital. Yet there the bands are, sometimes outright denying international fans when they sell things through mail-order because Japanese people are apparently terrified of writing non-Japanese addresses and generally refuse to send things overseas.

I guess the best way to think of it would be that without any downloads there would be a total of like 5 international VK fans as the only ones who would ever know about it would be those who were in Japan and stumbled upon it. So even if 100 people download a CD from some tiny VK band where only 1-5 people actually bought the CD, that's still a net gain of 1-5 sales where there would be 0 otherwise. Especially for Japanese bands, I think downloading is an important tool to enable international touring. How many people would really be willing to throw down $30 for a ticket to go see a band they've never heard of in a music scene that they've never heard of?
 
Now that being said, I still support legal methods of getting music when and where you can, but some effort does need to be put in by the bands as well. I don't think it should really be expected of us as fans to have to jump through hoops just to be able to support our favorite artists, especially in today's world which is so global and digital. Yet there the bands are, sometimes outright denying international fans when they sell things through mail-order because Japanese people are apparently terrified of writing non-Japanese addresses and generally refuse to send things overseas.

No-name band joins no-name label. News at 11.

No-name band joins no-name label. News at 11.

http://torrentfreak.com/music-piracy-is-not-a-problem-its-an-excuse-120630/
 
This

I guess the best way to think of it would be that without any downloads there would be a total of like 5 international VK fans as the only ones who would ever know about it would be those who were in Japan and stumbled upon it. So even if 100 people download a CD from some tiny VK band where only 1-5 people actually bought the CD, that's still a net gain of 1-5 sales where there would be 0 otherwise. Especially for Japanese bands, I think downloading is an important tool to enable international touring. How many people would really be willing to throw down $30 for a ticket to go see a band they've never heard of in a music scene that they've never heard of?
 
Now that being said, I still support legal methods of getting music when and where you can, but some effort does need to be put in by the bands as well. I don't think it should really be expected of us as fans to have to jump through hoops just to be able to support our favorite artists, especially in today's world which is so global and digital. Yet there the bands are, sometimes outright denying international fans when they sell things through mail-order because Japanese people are apparently terrified of writing non-Japanese addresses and generally refuse to send things overseas.

I guess the best way to think of it would be that without any downloads there would be a total of like 5 international VK fans as the only ones who would ever know about it would be those who were in Japan and stumbled upon it. So even if 100 people download a CD from some tiny VK band where only 1-5 people actually bought the CD, that's still a net gain of 1-5 sales where there would be 0 otherwise. Especially for Japanese bands, I think downloading is an important tool to enable international touring. How many people would really be willing to throw down $30 for a ticket to go see a band they've never heard of in a music scene that they've never heard of?
 
Now that being said, I still support legal methods of getting music when and where you can, but some effort does need to be put in by the bands as well. I don't think it should really be expected of us as fans to have to jump through hoops just to be able to support our favorite artists, especially in today's world which is so global and digital. Yet there the bands are, sometimes outright denying international fans when they sell things through mail-order because Japanese people are apparently terrified of writing non-Japanese addresses and generally refuse to send things overseas.

I think a decent portion of that could be alleviated by them embracing the digital age though. With as prevalent as itunes and other digital music venues are, they are sorely underused by the Japanese market(especially VK bands), and when they do, they specifically lock out their foreign audience from giving them money most of the time. I think many western acts have already figured out that digital is the way to go(at least parallel with physical-media releases) just because that is how most people listen to their music nowadays. Of course it wouldn't get rid of downloading(nothing ever will, no matter what they try), they might as well at least try an capitalize on some of that. Personally, if a release I'm interested in is available on the US itunes store, then I don't mind tossing a few dollars their way even if it's already been uploaded here.
 
As for the main point of this thread, I think blogspots should be doing neither, honestly. I mean, 99% of VK blogspots serve absolutely NO purpose at all. I can make an exception for ones like Evil en Lucifer because they focused on posting old stuff and most, if not all, of their posts were original and not just reposts. The other blogs, however? All they do is steal possible users from here. There's absolutely nothing that people couldn't get just as easily by spending the 20 seconds and registering for an account here.

The "style" itself has existed long before baroque though, but I don't think it was ever called anything but just "visual kei". Take a look at 


 
or


 
Both of those bands(and many more like them) were active in the mid-to-late 90's and were they to have popped up later, there's no doubt in my mind that they would have been considered oshare.

What does it matter unless you're going to that concert? This is most likely just a one time thing for that live and they'll probably never release anything with that lineup.

Nah, MASTURBATION is too mainstream... everyone is doin' it nowadays. Come up with something like HIZAKI and the Dick Palmer Quartet.

Nah, MASTURBATION is too mainstream... everyone is doin' it nowadays. Come up with something like HIZAKI and the Dick Palmer Quartet.

^ I don't think that's so unpopular. :'D I think quite many of us love vocalists who have no idea about singing. The difference lies between them who admit it and them who don't.
 
I admit my favorite vocalist has fucking no idea what he's doing, and you can hear it. But he's having fun alright, and that's what affects me. I think it's cute as well. And it makes them unique. Like, half of the VK artists who can sing sound exactly like some other VK artist who can sing. But those who can't sing never fail quite the same way as some other person fails. :'D

Wasn't talking about myself.

Do you have pooh in your mouth? That's sick, bro.

Hmm... I don't think there's any particular "road", but I suppose there are a few different tiers. These only apply to VK bands in Tokyo, so I don't know how it'd be for others.
 
Tier 1:
This one is the lowest of the low and are where bands you've never heard of play at. This includes venues such as Urawa Narciss, Ikebukuro Cyber and Birth Shinjuku(formerly Holiday Shinjuku).
 
Tier 2:
Bands who play these venues generally(but not always) have a slightly bigger audience. Venues in this tier would be ones like the Ruido venues(K2, K3, K4), SHIBUYA-REX, Takadanobaba Area and Ikebukuro EDGE.
 
Tier 3:
Once bands have made it here, they are usually pulling in much larger audiences(these venues hold 500+ capacity). The big venues here would be Shibuya O-West, Shinjuku LOFT and Shinjuku BLAZE.
 
Tier 4:
There's probably a lot of mixing inbetween tier 3 and 4, but I'll consider tier 4 to be venues with 1000+ capacity. The livehouses here would be ones like Shibuya O-East(~1300), Akasaka Blitz(~1300), SHIBUYA-AX(~1500) and Zepp Tokyo(~2700).
 
Tier 5:
God-tier. If you've made it here, then you've pretty much made it as a band. This includes the biggest venues like Budokan(~14,000), Saitama Super Arena(~37,000) and Tokyo Dome(~56,000).
 
This is by no means a definitive guide, but should at least give you an idea on "how far" a band is along that road

Umm... It's おしゃれ and しゃ is commonly romanized as either sha or sya, but certainly never sa XD

Haha cute but you kind of are. Osare is a joke term for oshare so yeah Nyasagi is right. Oshare means someone who's really stylish, osare means someone who thinks they're really stylish, but in fact they're not.

Umm... It's おしゃれ and しゃ is commonly romanized as either sha or sya, but certainly never sa XD

Do you have pooh in your mouth? That's sick, bro.