Ghostwriting isn't "stealing from the bands you idolize," so I'm not on board with the Vexent example for how it was framed. For example, it has also been rumored that Grieva had ghost writers, even though 80% of their early works were Diru covers. However, the suspicion didn't rise from what was being written, so much as how much was. They churned out basically an album-a-year's worth of material, and 2 out of 3 full lengths featured no singles or rerecordings. The same more or less went for Gossip, except theirs did feature old songs; however, they also released 3 albums, 4 singles, and a mini-album in 2 years (plus went on a 107-stop tour(!) ). Riddle me how the fuck someone has time to compose 30~45 songs while also being in a different city every night.
The rumor mill surrounding ghost writers has been a lingering specter ever since that "ex-vkei record executive SLAMS Dynamite Tommy in the gooch" interview surfaced in 2008~2010 (it's a fun read). At one point he or she states that record labels like Matina would ghost-write all of their lesser bands' material in an effort to keep their branding consistent and because the bandmen themselves are actually dimwits who can't make music and just want to be a rockstar for 3 years, then ""retire"" to become a hedge fund manager.
Aside from #thatArticle, I have not personally seen actual proof of this practice, but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of cases ended up being true. Tell-tale signs from me include too much material too fast, or if their sound dramatically changes (read: improves) once they get signed.
For the rest of the questions:
2- I'm not entirely sure what this means. In the past, I've referred to groups like Shounenki and the like as "host-kei" because of the emphasis on tame, yet androgynous pretty boy aesthetic, but I'm not sure if this counts as "idol-kei."
3- December 25th, 0
4- Music is a lot better if you don't get too caught up in the marketability of it. If it's good, it's good. If it's not, it's not.
5- Considering nothing sells (re: 3 major vkei-focused music brands closing and Oricon summing up yearly sales for 2018 with most top-20 releases not even breaking 3,000 sales (and one (1) item breaking 10k sales), I'm hoping that it's popular enough to keep the scene afloat.
6-If I like something, I tend to always like it. The scene still has stuff in it that I enjoy, and a lot of stuff that seemed lost to time spring up now and again, so there are even new things from ~the good ole days~ if you know where to look.
