evilcoconut

My quick thoughts.... (mostly on vocals because that's my primary area of expertise lol)
 
 
Believe it or not, Hyde's vocals were the absolute best of anyone here.  At times he sounded EXACTLY like Morrie from back then.  The chick on Serafine was awwwwwful with a capital A.  Bad bad idea.  She has no range and no passion or insistence.  Sugizo was the only thing making that listenable. (Barely tho)  Ryuichi, as much as I love him, can't cover Morrie. Period.  Two completely different voices and styles.  Tetsu from Nil and Yasu also did a good job on their songs.  Though, Tetsu gets the edge because Yasu's song was way simple, almost no way he could have ruined it. Unless he was Kiyoharu. ;p
 
For the most part, based on this thing alone, only Hyde has any business covering Morrie more than once.  And I really hate to admit that, believe me.

Hah, this is much harder than the visual one.  To the charts!
 
SPYAIR UVERworld FoZZtone Flumpool B'z The Sketchbook Straightener DOES Base Ball Bear NICO Touches the Walls Honorable mentions for bands that have a vaguely VK history but don't seem to be now? Idk lol
GLAY L'arc SID The god and death stars

As someone else touched on and I'm not positive it's unpopular, but it might be... I don't consider "illegal downloading" theft.  Theft is the deprivation of something from its original owner with no intent to return it.  IN this case, nothing is being stolen because someone bought the item in the first place and is simply sharing it with others...albeit a lot of others.
 
Downloading music on the internet is exactly the same concept (just a lot easier) as going to the library, checking out a CD and then ripping it and keeping it or re-burning it.  Or, back in the day, using a double cassette recorder to copy one cassette to a blank one.  The only difference now is it's a LOT easier to do this type of copying, sharing, etc.  
 
It's a giant myth perpetuated by governments and record labels, stepping on our rights and no one should be buying into it.  If I buy something, pay MY hard-earned money for it, no one, NO ONE, should be able to tell me what to do with it.  If I want to share it with one person or dozens of persons, that's my right dammit.

As someone else touched on and I'm not positive it's unpopular, but it might be... I don't consider "illegal downloading" theft.  Theft is the deprivation of something from its original owner with no intent to return it.  IN this case, nothing is being stolen because someone bought the item in the first place and is simply sharing it with others...albeit a lot of others.
 
Downloading music on the internet is exactly the same concept (just a lot easier) as going to the library, checking out a CD and then ripping it and keeping it or re-burning it.  Or, back in the day, using a double cassette recorder to copy one cassette to a blank one.  The only difference now is it's a LOT easier to do this type of copying, sharing, etc.  
 
It's a giant myth perpetuated by governments and record labels, stepping on our rights and no one should be buying into it.  If I buy something, pay MY hard-earned money for it, no one, NO ONE, should be able to tell me what to do with it.  If I want to share it with one person or dozens of persons, that's my right dammit.

As someone else touched on and I'm not positive it's unpopular, but it might be... I don't consider "illegal downloading" theft.  Theft is the deprivation of something from its original owner with no intent to return it.  IN this case, nothing is being stolen because someone bought the item in the first place and is simply sharing it with others...albeit a lot of others.
 
Downloading music on the internet is exactly the same concept (just a lot easier) as going to the library, checking out a CD and then ripping it and keeping it or re-burning it.  Or, back in the day, using a double cassette recorder to copy one cassette to a blank one.  The only difference now is it's a LOT easier to do this type of copying, sharing, etc.  
 
It's a giant myth perpetuated by governments and record labels, stepping on our rights and no one should be buying into it.  If I buy something, pay MY hard-earned money for it, no one, NO ONE, should be able to tell me what to do with it.  If I want to share it with one person or dozens of persons, that's my right dammit.

Supernova, the only way one can 'steal' music is when they either steal a physical copy of a cd or vinyl record OR when they claim a certain composition as their own creation when it's in fact someone else's. The first could be discribed as plain old theft of physical goods and the second as plagiarism. Downloading (thus only copying) music is NEITHER of those.
 
An artist should be glad that people are enjoying his creations. The internet is the greatest medium in the history of mankind that allows the sharing of art and knowledge. Let's just use it to the fullest and stop worrying about money so much. When art is liked, the artist is bound to get money anyway. It's a natural process. People are willing to give money to those who make things they enjoy.
 
Even if we assume that an artist loses out on money due to free downloads (this will always remain impossible to measure, because the free publicity might be worth a lot more to them), then it's still no use for that artist to start complaining about that because that'll not only mean the loss of money, but also the loss of their artistic value (which could in turn backfire and lead to the loss of even more money!).
 
Also, try to use paragraphs to prevent a so-called "wall of text".

I don't care about the visuals in VK:  I say this is an unpopular opinion because I've been told countless times that it's impossible not to care about the visuals and anyone that says that is lying and on and on.  But I don't and I never have. I have some kind of sick attraction to the music itself, but I don't give a flying fuck about the band's appearance and would prefer they didn't look so ridiculous if I had a choice, just so it'd be less embarrassing to point them out to people.

I don't care about the visuals in VK:  I say this is an unpopular opinion because I've been told countless times that it's impossible not to care about the visuals and anyone that says that is lying and on and on.  But I don't and I never have. I have some kind of sick attraction to the music itself, but I don't give a flying fuck about the band's appearance and would prefer they didn't look so ridiculous if I had a choice, just so it'd be less embarrassing to point them out to people.

"A band's first album isn't automatically their best, in fact, it probably sucks compared to the rest of their disco."
 
Unpopular because about 75% of the time I meet fans of bands I like, they always say their first albums were the best, like it's just an automatic, understood thing.
 
Now, this is not exclusive to the J-fandom, I've observed it loads in Western music before I ever got into Japanese stuff.  But I've never gotten it.  Why does everyone parrot that the first album is omg the best ever and then they totally sold out desu desu one one.  I can name so many examples: D'espairsRay, MUCC, 12012, Gazette, Meth (for them it was actually their first single or something really stupid), L'arc (lmao) and on and on.  Me personally, I very rarely find any band's debut to be their best.  In fact, far from it.  Kinda like a writer's first novel is usually shit personified.  I don't mean first published, I mean actual FIRST.  Bands grow, bands get better at what they do and the same generally goes for every art form.  Some of them DO have uncommonly good debuts, but that is the EXCEPTION, not the norm.
 
You are not extra edgy or indie for liking their first album THE BEST, thereby providing some kind of unsaid proof that you've liked them since ~forever~

it's all my fault guys. i made a list of vk bands i like and slowly but surely everyone on it is breaking up. two down, eight more to go.

Lmao, yes, I totally agree with this one too.  There aren't any more crap bands now than there were then.  People just tend to always be nostalgic for the ~old days~

"There is objectively bad music (in a sense)" - I believe this to be a fairly controversial point to make, but only because people tend to miss the point I'm making, that there are factors that could label music as objectively bad from a composition point of view - it might be that they only rehash a certain chord progression to death, that they copy other bands in a manner that's so blatant and obvious that it makes it impossible to enjoy the music, simply put, the music they make doesn't bring anything even remotely fresh or innovative to the table. I believe that several of bands I consider to be good has some or several of these qualities though, so it doesn't neccessarily make them a bad band in someones opinion, just like I know of several bands with highly innovative and interesting styles that I personally find uninteresting because the music doesn't grab me, there's factors like personal preference in vocals etc. that can't be taken into account since there's no accurate way of measuring such things. Feel free to disagree with me if you want.

"Old-school/90's VK wasn't really much better" With so many people parading around old-school superiority, I'd say I'm in the minority with this opinion. As someone who has been in VK for ~10 years and collects tons of old-school stuff, I can certainly say without a bit of doubt that there were a TON of really shitty bands back then. Anyone who would say otherwise is looking through some pretty rose-tinted glasses. That being said, I certainly do miss some of sub-scenes in VK that no longer exist(soft visual/white-kei/proto-oshare) and don't exactly like all of the "sounds" that bands tend to get grouped into nowadays, but I definitely can't say that one era was better or worse than the other as they all have their ups and downs.

I don't care about the visuals in VK:  I say this is an unpopular opinion because I've been told countless times that it's impossible not to care about the visuals and anyone that says that is lying and on and on.  But I don't and I never have. I have some kind of sick attraction to the music itself, but I don't give a flying fuck about the band's appearance and would prefer they didn't look so ridiculous if I had a choice, just so it'd be less embarrassing to point them out to people.

Yeah, my story is kinda similar. I was a nu-metal head back when it was ~cool~ and then the scene kinda died and I basically found the sound again in VK.  I've branched out since then, but the majority of VK I liked when I first got into it was all the nu-metal-aping shit.

I agree with evilcoconut; I wanted to find heavy music and most of the Western stuff I found was so samey. I was attracted to VK because for the most part it's a unique form of rock/metal. I've honestly never really cared about the look of the bands I like

I totally agree with your "Dir en grey is still VK" opinion lol.  I kinda can't help rolling my eyes when I run into fans who try to act like Diru is completely disconnected from VK and shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence.  Like you said, their sound is so rooted in VK that I can't separate the two. Bands in the same "sound profile" who were never VK sound different.

I don't care about the visuals in VK:  I say this is an unpopular opinion because I've been told countless times that it's impossible not to care about the visuals and anyone that says that is lying and on and on.  But I don't and I never have. I have some kind of sick attraction to the music itself, but I don't give a flying fuck about the band's appearance and would prefer they didn't look so ridiculous if I had a choice, just so it'd be less embarrassing to point them out to people.

↑ Would go for the TBH song on your list....which was CATS before someone else posted lol.  9GBO - Nocturne for the list directly above mine.
 
01.Binecks - Desert Rose
02.クロウズ - 悲時雨
03.Hossam Ramzy & Rafa El Tachuela - Rafaga de Viento (Gust of Wind)
04.RAU DEF - Day One [feat. Vito (Squash Squad)]
05.WEAVER - 2次元銀河
06.風味堂 - Your Story
07.ダウト - 中距離恋愛
08.The Real Tuesday Weld - It's Time
09.轮回 - 只让爱你的人流眼泪
10.CHAGE & ASKA - 今日は・・・こんなに元気です
 
Hot damn this was a good shuffle.  Haven't listened to Binecks in forever, that Crows song has sick bass, RAU DEF!, great D=OUT song, etc.  Gonna go with RAU DEF however.

I think nearly everyone missed the point of this thread lol.  It's not about what describes your taste in music or what you look for in "good" music, it's about how would you tell someone else exactly why you like a band or a song without going, oh it's catchy electro-dance pop and that's my jam man.  It's not even necessarily about telling someone why a band should be considered good, but why YOU enjoy listening to them.
 
Good article, to sum up. 

DEATH POINT is still my favorite song from them. It's also the best PV I've seen in general.

I think nearly everyone missed the point of this thread lol.  It's not about what describes your taste in music or what you look for in "good" music, it's about how would you tell someone else exactly why you like a band or a song without going, oh it's catchy electro-dance pop and that's my jam man.  It's not even necessarily about telling someone why a band should be considered good, but why YOU enjoy listening to them.
 
Good article, to sum up. 

I like how only half read the OP's post. XD

Ugh damn you people, you're so organized.  I try to make some kind of list every year, but then it gets so long and I have the urge to make it complicated and I usually quit after a few months. D:
 
AWESOME
 
- Keytalk - ONE SHOT
- PIA single
- Page - Expect
- TEAM H - I just wanna have fun
- KAT-TUN - Expose
- Boom Boom Satellites - Embrace
 
 
GOOD
 
- Koda Kumi's cover album
- [Champagne] - starrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
- UNISON SQUARE GARDEN - Cider Road
- Spyair - sakurasmth
- Hemenway single
- The Sketchbook single
- Base Ball Bear - Perfect Blue
- Flumpool - Experience
- caroline rocks ep
- UNCHAIN - love and groove
- MWAM - Emotions
- Moran - jenga
 
BAD
 
- the Merry single 8D
- probably deathgaze too idek why i listen to them
 
MEH
 
- Kalafina - consolation
- Pi single
- Perfume single
- Lynch - ballad
- Sonar Pocket album
- Hilcrhyme single
 
This probably isn't everything, but it's the best I can do without having kept a list.