Number Girl

Most visual kei vocalists are terrible. Apparently, that's also an unpopular opinion. I am aware of the fact, that not all visual kei singers are bad. But most really are. Especially in the indie vk sector you will find terrible vocalists who ruin the actually decent or good music. I am one of those people who like "crappy" old indie vk bands. Of course I also enjoy the "better" bands of the era, such as Luna Sea, Rouage, Laputa, Pierrot and Co. and I'd say that their vocalists are not terrible but still an aquired taste. What I like about visual rock the most are not directly the vocals (as they are often craptastic) or lyrics (as I can't understand them), but the music and overall concept and the overall atmosphere a band creates.
Though I admit that a lot bands actually get their interesting and unique sound because of their singers. I couldn't imagine Madeth gray'll being as awesome and dark as they are if Hisui would hit every note.
 
What puts me off of modern visual bands are the Metalcore influences. I have already mentioned this in the biggest crimes of japanese music thread, that I find it unbearable to listen to visual kei singers trying to growl when they have totally no clue how it's properly done. It fucking hurts to listen to and it does not make me wonder why visual kei singers suffer so often from problems with their voice or vocal chords. I know vocal training lessons are expensive and take time... but vk bands should really invest more into it if they don't want to risk their vocalits to damage their voice for ever.
Also I don't like the way most of these bands (including Mejibray) sing. I am more found of clear singing or the way old vk bands have screamed. So it's more personal taste than anything. But I agree that Tsusuku's voice isn't that well and he sounds like any other neo visual kei singer trying to growl or scream. Maybe I am not good at hearing, but for me D.I.D, Mejibray and Co. sound exactly the same (especially style-wise).

Sai I agree with you. Tsuzuku's voice is weak (has redeeming quality) but I DONT FUCKING KNOW how people can say they love Meji for the vocals and that Mejibray is better than GazettE. LOL NO, STOP. Arithmetica was right in saying that people publicly love Mejibray because they don't want to be seen liking GazettE.
 
So many people think it's so cool to hate them bc their fans, their style changes, their label, whatever reason. The GazettE is a great band. A lot of people will disregard me bc I am a huge fan and everyone apparently hates GazeFans but it's so hypocritical to say you completely hate the GazettE after practically sobbing in joy and pissing yourself when one of their wannabes releases something new. Everyone can say that they hate what the GazettE is now and blah blah blah but do you REALLY EXPECT THEM TO STAY THE SAME? Look at Deathgaze. I love them but their sound is repetitive, they're safe since no one will hate what they produce but they will never move past the point they're at now unless they try newer things.
 
The point of music is not to produce shit that everyone likes, it's to challenge the norm and do what you want and that is especially the point in VK. And you also have to produce your music with the mindset that people are buying it and if you want to actually sell and continue making music, it has to be what people will like.
 
Idk what people expect to gain from hating on GazettE and their music as if they give a flying shit about your sorry asses. Everyone spends too much time hating on them to the point where it becomes some stupid obsession. If you don't like them fine. Dafuq you you need to let the world know for. Just go listen to your music. JFC.
 
I like Mejibray but they would never compare to GazettE for me. They aren't even in my top 5 anymore. The GazettE are just better. There's a reason they're one of the most popular bands. There's nothing wrong with loving a popular band.
 
And people in general hate on PSC bands too much. I don't like the company any more than anyone else does but sometimes people just need to shut up and leave them alone. They make good music, although  a couple of indie PSC's vo's are questionable.
 
Imo this whole "I hate that because it's so mainstream" is becoming very mainstream right now.
 
In the end though, I think that most bands will grow out of VK eventually. It's fun to start out as Visual kei but as your music improves and you reach new horizon's you'll want to change how you appear to others to become more marketable, it's all in the name of business. It's kind of sad seeing a VK band move out from vk into a more conservative style but as long as the music doesn't change to some Brittney Spears shit I don't give a rat's ass if they dress in rainbow T-Shirts and crocs.

Cover art, I LOVE IT.
 

 
Also, "Thoughts" will air on Ryuichi's radio "FM802 K-POWERS NITE MAGIC" this saturday.
 
I hope someone records it, dying to hear it.

"IT IS A TRAVESTY WHEN VKEI BANDS TONE DOWN THEIR VISUALS"
 
I had to use a fucking Gaia Online widget site to make that text, so you know I mean it. I honestly get really upset when I try out older, god-tier vkei bands and look at their old pictures and see how fetishy they looked at one point, and their most recent pictures are pretty much regular Japanese guys, maybe one with auburn colored hair and one having blond, in street clothing. One of my biggest appeals with visual-kei is the visuals: I live for frilly, neon hair, guys who can't paint, feathers, bloody bandages, useless face belts, hooker stockings, 8 inch Hot Topic boots, naziploitation, and unnatural eye colors. To an extent, I do feel that there is a lot of creativity that can go into stage costumes, and it is a damn shame that there isn't more effort put into visuals in an artistic sense, instead of "our frontman is blond and we have a trappy bassist so we are vkei ok." Obviously as the scene has become more streamlined, there are typical styles and ~*~visual shock~*~ approaches that are going to be repeated over and over, but that isn't to say that one day someone else will share my stance on it.
 
Take Malice Mizer, for example, They took visuals and theatrics to the extreme to accompany their music. Versailles, to a lesser extent, did as well. As did groups like Raphael, Lareine, Missa, and listenable Diru. However, groups like Penicillin, Pierrot, Luna Sea, Kuroyume, and Rentrer en Soi all mellowed out as time went on. I get that Hakuei no longer wearing having flowing red hair in a pvc g-string is going to appeal to a larger audience, but that doesn't mean I have to be fucking happy about it. Due Le'Quartz is the biggest offender here. Their outfits were stellar, and then they ended in 3 piece suits with cigars and sun glasses. MYV, put those bat wings back on and cut this shit out.
 
This all stems from my appreciation of androgyny. I do find being gender ??? to be artistic, not only in vkei but in other art forms as well, and find the elements of visual-kei costumes that shroud the band members' humanity to be fascinating. That's why I really don't care about finding pictures of Mana without makeup because I can already tell that home girl needs Adobe's help.

"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~

I think too many people are treating VK like it's too 'mainstream', to the point where successful groups are apparently making it worse for the industry. Like "ew The GazettE are popular now so I can't possibly like them. Oh noes, Dir En Grey is reaching out to a wider fan base and they can now play in my country".
Stop ruining it for everyone else; VK is about supporting the bands you actually like and enjoying the music. People tend to want their favourite band to stay indie forever so then that way they can sort of own them; they don't want other people to know about them because that probably gives them less to talk about to their hipster friends or whatever. I don't get it; why wouldn't you want your favourite band to succeed ?

"I don't like the GazettE because of the fans."
Response of the Zess: You're stupid. Anyone that lets the actions of other people determine whether or not they can enjoy a band isn't focusing on the music. Bonding over liking a similar artist is an attractive draw to liking a certain band but it shouldn't be the only reason why you like a band. It's entirely possible to like the GazettE and not step foot in the shoutbox or a GazettE tumblr ever. I do. As of this writing, they are the fifth most played band on my last.fm. Separate the fans from the music.
This also goes out to the people that act like the GazettE never has made good music and is the symptom of decay in the visual kei scene. Shut up. I know you listen to them with the scrobbler off so don't front.
Oh and if for whatever reason you feel like somebody will judge you for liking the GazettE (or any band) get off last.fm and dismount from your high horse. That's a sign of neurosis. If you actually knew how few people looked at your last.fm or cared about what you listen to, you wouldn't care at all. If anyone ever DOES judge you for listening to a band you like, tell them to go play in traffic.

Visual kei gets a bad reputation because visual kei fans can't talk music
Elaboration is the cornerstone of great conversation and great writing. Talking about music and bands is an exercise in persuasive writing. You're giving your audience - anyone that took the time to read what you have to write - very good reasons to consider why your position is correct. Now let's say I just left this topic with that one sentence in bold. I may have a good point. If I explain, I very well may change your view. But since I don't, you won't take me seriously. If I do this over and over again very soon I'm going to build up a reputation as someone not worth listening to because I don't explain the "why's" behind my beliefs.
Expand this out to the entire visual kei scene.
One of our largest problems isn't that we don't have a lot to say about our favorite artists. We do. We just never get around to ever saying it. This extends out beyond Monochrome Heaven. I find I can't take people's opinions or reviews seriously because they'll just say something is great or something is shit and leave it at that. Most of the time I'm convinced that subsequent people just parrot the first person to say something different, and it continues in that direction from there. There is hardly ever details and when there is it is at the most basic level possible. As fans, we should continue to promote our favorite bands and our favorite releases, but then couple that with reasons. Why do I like this album? Why don't I like this band?
And let's keep it strictly about the music, because believe it or not saying "the vocals are good and the guitars are awesome!" tells a potential interested reader nothing. What exactly does awesome sound like? Right...
Now if you are not confident in your writing and explanation abilities, don't let it stop you. Read up on professional reviews on other websites. Take tips from them. Continue to work on it. You can't become better at reviewing if you never try. But if we all begin to discuss the actual music behind visual kei when we make our claims, I believe that people in other scenes will stop dismissing us outright as wankers who only listen for the pretty boys.

I feel like Mejibray is that band that all the Gazette haters love because they can finally listen to Gazette songs without losing their indie street cred.

It seems like that opinion isn't as unpopular as I thought but I hate VK bands playing Metal.
It's not even that I dislike Metal as a genre or influence but the fact that every band does it just destroys most things I like about VK.
It takes aways the simplicity and elegance of the genre.
The heavy chords eat up the prominent basslines.
The dark growls take away that 'vullnerable' feel many VK singers voices have.
The SPEED and SKILLZ factor kills the punky garageband-feeling and most of all:
The cheesiness and poseritis of visual kei bands isn't properly balanced by the bitter and 'unskilled' post-punk sound anymore.
Metal as a music genre is just as cheesy and poseurish as VK as a style and together it's too much pathos.
Almost like a fantasy RPG.
 
Also there are more than enough 'real' metal bands out there who do it properly and have singers that actually manage the screaming and growling, there is simply no need for so many VK bands suddenly trying it.

1.  Number girl
2.  うさぎさんの片耳ちょんぎったろか
3.  The Stalin
4.  あざらし
5.  ぐしゃ人間
6.  浅川マキ
7.  ミドリ
8.  J・A・シーザー
9.  Dakuu 堕空
10.Auto-mod (sometimes)

Counting active bands only:
 
1. B'z
2. サカナクション
3. tacica
4. cinema staff
5. 凛として時雨
6. FoZZtone
7. andymori
8. Base Ball Bear
9. STRAIGHTENER
10. アルカラ

1: X Japan
2: Galneryus
3: Dir en Grey
4: Luna Sea
5: Kuroyume
 
I could only find five   most of these are ex-visual kei too lol though most of my non-vkei is classical artists and anime stuff.

basically all of my j-rock music since I don't have to focus on lyrics when listening.
 
I typically do a whole discog, ANTHEM is my fave
 
but for harder courses, silence

"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.

Just look at Dir en grey's similar artists on Last.fm, all VK bands harharhar.
 
I mean come on, Sadie is a VK band correct? Rentrer en Soi was also a VK band right? Yet they all had vocal training from Kyo or give credit to Kyo personally working with their vocalist to hone their vocal technique. To say that Dir en grey has no connection to VK is hogwash. Just search bandmen blogs and you'll find a post here and there with Toshiya or Kaoru hanging out back stage at some tiny little VK dive gig.
 
Like I dunno, Kaoru and KISAKI chillin.
 

 
So basically I agree that Dir en grey is still VK-ish. They certainly don't dress up anymore and are very casual but their connection to VK is still there, though more or less indirect.
 
__
 
My controversial opinion is that VK fans don't care about the music.
 
Okay, that statement is more of a joke but there's still some truth behind it. Just face it, most of us were drawn to VK because of how flashy and colorful it is. A lot of us were originally anime fans and VK is basically anime IRL almost. The guys are so colorful, so outrageous looking and are essentially a fantasy character. So it's easy to get into VK when anime was your gateway. That's why I think cosplaying bands, RPing as bandmen and writing fanfiction is so common because that's something that is done in the anime fandom. So seeing it among VK fans really doesn't surprise me and why I don't think it's a bad or weird thing either.
 
So basically when someone claims they don't care about the image at all, yet have entire Last.fm profile full of nothing but VK I call bullshit. There is absolutely no way you don't care about the looks. It's why almost all of us are here in the first.
 
And you know what? Who the fuck cares if that's what drew you in and is your main reason for sticking around. Trying to get on your high horse and claim you are better than everyone else because you don't masturbate to Kamijo every night is more obnoxious and worse than the girls that admit they get off every night to fanart picture of Kamijo molesting HIZAKI. 
 
Anyway, I'm in a hurry and on my phone. I don't think I really explained myself that clearly. I don't mean to say we all want to fuck bandmen but we're all still vane and pretentious so get over yourself and accept that you are just as superficial as the rest of the VK fandom. Deal with it.

When I'm studying I like to listen to Merzbow (Merzbient is a favorite of mine) and Boris' dronier/instrumental stuff like Flood and The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked. For some reason that kind of music really helps get me into my "zone" which helps me to focus on my work without being too involved in the music itself. 
 
For reading novels, it depends on the mood or genre of the novel. Most of the times I listen to really mellow ambient and post-rockish stuff that isn't too distracting because my brain is absolutely terrible at multitasking. (If I listen to something too exciting, I start paying more attention to the music instead of what's going on in the book). 

We're really doing this? okaaaayyyy
 
According to nothing except my feelings right now . . . 
 
1. Number Girl
2. Bo Ningen
3. cinema staff
4. Boris
5. 88kasyo
6. andymori
7. Anthem
8. Melt-Banana
9. Suiseinoboaz
10. Grand Slam 
 
Honorable mentions:
 
1. B'z
2. The Stalin
3. The Yellow Monkey 

He did! Seems like I didn't include him because I didn't have a 'portrait'-style picture like for the others. XD
 

 
I didn't even know the white-streak of hair was still going on tbh. Thanks everyone for posting!
 
 
And yes. Pink haired guitarists.
 
Hide (X Japan)
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1dunoltuAiI/Tb8LmZVOJuI/AAAAAAAAAGU/aGMElDLCYkk/s1600/hide0908.jpg
 
Sugizo (Luna Sea)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/28/Sugizo_in_S%C3%A3o_Paulo%2C_Brazil_2011-11-09.jpg/399px-Sugizo_in_S%C3%A3o_Paulo%2C_Brazil_2011-11-09.jpg
 
Kaoru (Dir en grey)
http://www.freewebs.com/dirufansite/kaoru26a.jpg
 
Jun (Phantasmagoria)
http://www.jame-world.com/_pic/pic/2330-a.jpg
 
Aoi (The Gazette)
http://www.jref.com/forum/images/imported/2010/12/16659447968817554318270-1.jpg

Haha, I made one like that not too long ago - may I present: the Chain of Fanboyism.
 

 
Kyo (D'ERLANGER, late '80s) --> Kiyoharu (Kuroyume, early '90s) --> Kyo (Dir en grey, late '90s) --> Kyouki (Grieva, 2012-)
(also notice the name similarities, lol)

Pete Burns appreciation post...3...2...1...GO!
 
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lcptzdZxrT1qae2lfo1_500.jpg
Morrie (Dead End)
http://blog-imgs-38.fc2.com/p/r/o/providence0708x0520/200912102219541ce.jpg
Ryuichi (Luna Sea)
 
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lt30imd7Mj1qlf9g8o1_500.png
Shuuji Ishii (Cali-gari)
 
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/21959879/HAKUEI.jpg
Hakuei (Penicillin)
 
Though we might safely assume that both Shuuji and Hakuei are inspired by Pete Burns' latest efforts...which you can google-image search by yourselves (warning: you might get horrified) 
 
@hyura: I think Das:Vasser's vocalist had same-ish look, if I remember correctly :/

Lol I half-expected Kiyoharu and Hyde to appear there when I read the title. Ryuichi Kawamura should be there too tbqh, and Atsushi (considering they're friends, amirite, no?)

VK is more about the image than the music anyway. It's not surprising chekis became a standard way to make some extra cash at lives since fans are mostly superficial people primarily there for the image.
I don't think it's a bad thing, some have said why don't bands make enough from CD or merch sales. I'm under the impression it's the same situation that western bands run into. Most of the profit from initial CD sales is gobbled up by the middle man before it even reaches the band. So the band is stuck with making most of the money back from touring and selling merch and CDs at their lives. This is the case with metal bands and why I wait and buy CDs when the band is in town. If metal bands could make money by selling chekis I'm sure they would do it but instead it's guitar picks, patches and stickers.
If I could go to VK lives, I would probably buy their CDs and merch there in person and also pick up a cheki or two as a memento from the event. However I wouldn't buy entire boxes of them though because that's just crazy. It's no different than me grabbing a patch or sticker at a metal show. That's like me buying out all the stickers and patches the band has for sale.
Also posting from my phone so ignore typos and grammar :C

Mexico stahp
 

Somewhat different than everything that has been suggested before but you should try it out.