In old times most visual kei bands were started because the members were fans themselves. The shock-effect and freedom those bands radiated when exposed to mainstream attention (like on tv) must have been extremely inspiring for many "regular" guys back then.
They wanted to become famous that way and inspire other "regular" poeple by being as "different" as possible themselves. This way it was very easy for the scene to stay alive and change in new interesting ways.
But now Visual kei doesn't touch general society much anymore. It became a subculture in which always-the-same-bandmen are fighting for the attention of always-the-same-fans.
And because the bandmen were never inspired by another band which made them want to express something inside of them (more by this small group of fans and the money they might have) their music often lacks sincerity.
Instead of trying to get new fans from outside by being aggressive and different they simply try to get as much from the fans they allready have by being exactly what the majority of those fans wants them to be. Also instead of the fans inventing furi for their favorite songs it's more the band writing music which fits the most popular furi.
And because the bands do this their music gets more and more similar while the standarts for looks are rising higher and higher.
Today even the most minor bands who didn't yet play oneman-shows for some reason need tailored costumes, professionally filmed pvs, hair and make up artists, magazine features, designer clothing and accessory for offstage-time, a crew of photoshop experts and custom instruments to be taken seriously while in 2000 these were things only major artists like Dir en grey and a few very popular indies bands like Dué le quartz and La'Mule could afford.
Actually bands today can't afford it either without spending a ridicilous amount of time and energy on pressing money out of their 20 fans with the help of 2943 type releases, instore and photo event campaigns, selling their worn clothes, filming special messages in santa-clothing and selling their bodies to fans.
It's only natural that the music suffers from this.
It's also only natural that most bands lack edges now, if you try selling 2334 cds, 2392 livetickets, 93942 cheki and 2833 special bracelets to 40 fans instead of selling 1000 livetickets and 1000 cds to 1000 fans you just can't take the risk of losing a single fan by trying something new.
Back in the 90s every second band looked horrible, sounded horrible and had no fans but nobody lost anything from that and in exchange certain bands were really, really innovative.
Now we have tons of bands that look okay, sound okay but somehow can't inspire anybody.
Of course I'm a fan of older bands and not so much of the newer ones, but even if I really, really liked the more colourful and electronic stuff I'd still say that certain dynamics are dangerous for the scene and while I don't want to says that it will actually "die" as in disappear any time soon.
It's more that it already killed itself some time ago and now got less interesting since it became a zombie.
fantastic comment
I learned a bit from it too.
