WhirlingBlack

My main issue with the visual kei scene isn't really represented in the options here, and it's something you generally get more in touch with once you get to Japan and get to experience the scene.
Firstly, the fact that a large majority of visual kei musicians more or less openly admits they don't have any artistic or personal integrity, they don't care what they produce and they don't care that their sound is exactly like every other band out there, because they know that as long as the members are pretty enough there WILL be fans, and they WILL pay you money for "company" and "favors" so that you can survive comfortably and keep rehashing the same song for a couple of years until you feel like calling it quits and do something more worthwhile with your life, or more likely, go into full time hosting business now that you have a decent circle of clients already.
 
This sort of leads me into my second issue and it's the bangya culture. It's generally really vile, and the way the girls not only talk about the musicians but also each other is quite disgusting. If the bangyas decide that a member has done something they do not approve of, that doesn't live up to their perfect ideals that they hold them all to (because god knows the fangirls don't live up to any of them) they can easily start enough shit to cause a band to break up or force a member out of the band. The issues doesn't end there though, because the few foreign bangya that exists generally adapt to this mentality and lifestyle too. They openly shun other foreigners who dare attend the lives of "their" band and ruin their "specialness", they participate in this completely daft saizen system where a designated person basically decides who gets what spot at a concert so everyone can enjoy playing ten year olds doing the "you're not allowed to play with us"-games... And the obviousness of what really drives people to be fans of these bands become so apparent when they get to this level, and it's certainly not the music.
 
To be honest, in a lot of ways I never realized how bad this was until I got there and could see it all for myself, and that's despite a 13 year stint in the scene by now.

Reclaiming their good name from the trash vk band, Anemone have announced a new look + new site!
 

 
http://anemone1358.jimdo.com/
 

Hi, nice to see another aie fan.
Write me if you want to discuss aie and/or his related concerts, I've been to quite a few and I always enjoy sharing stories and random trivia from them.

Single vs. Maxi-Single originally referred to different physical formats, a single was a 7 inch vinyl with one song on each side while a maxi single was either a 7 inch with more than one track on one side, or a 12 inch disc cut different from an LP so it didn't fit as many tracks, and a different physical format compared to an EP. It's complex and apparently it involved different definitions in different countries as well.
 
In Japan though, I generally get the feeling that VK bands arbitrarily tack "maxi" onto anything shorter than an EP in order to squeeze and extra 500yen out of their fans, despite that the content not always warrants it.

Single vs. Maxi-Single originally referred to different physical formats, a single was a 7 inch vinyl with one song on each side while a maxi single was either a 7 inch with more than one track on one side, or a 12 inch disc cut different from an LP so it didn't fit as many tracks, and a different physical format compared to an EP. It's complex and apparently it involved different definitions in different countries as well.
 
In Japan though, I generally get the feeling that VK bands arbitrarily tack "maxi" onto anything shorter than an EP in order to squeeze and extra 500yen out of their fans, despite that the content not always warrants it.

My main issue with the visual kei scene isn't really represented in the options here, and it's something you generally get more in touch with once you get to Japan and get to experience the scene.
Firstly, the fact that a large majority of visual kei musicians more or less openly admits they don't have any artistic or personal integrity, they don't care what they produce and they don't care that their sound is exactly like every other band out there, because they know that as long as the members are pretty enough there WILL be fans, and they WILL pay you money for "company" and "favors" so that you can survive comfortably and keep rehashing the same song for a couple of years until you feel like calling it quits and do something more worthwhile with your life, or more likely, go into full time hosting business now that you have a decent circle of clients already.
 
This sort of leads me into my second issue and it's the bangya culture. It's generally really vile, and the way the girls not only talk about the musicians but also each other is quite disgusting. If the bangyas decide that a member has done something they do not approve of, that doesn't live up to their perfect ideals that they hold them all to (because god knows the fangirls don't live up to any of them) they can easily start enough shit to cause a band to break up or force a member out of the band. The issues doesn't end there though, because the few foreign bangya that exists generally adapt to this mentality and lifestyle too. They openly shun other foreigners who dare attend the lives of "their" band and ruin their "specialness", they participate in this completely daft saizen system where a designated person basically decides who gets what spot at a concert so everyone can enjoy playing ten year olds doing the "you're not allowed to play with us"-games... And the obviousness of what really drives people to be fans of these bands become so apparent when they get to this level, and it's certainly not the music.
 
To be honest, in a lot of ways I never realized how bad this was until I got there and could see it all for myself, and that's despite a 13 year stint in the scene by now.

My main issue with the visual kei scene isn't really represented in the options here, and it's something you generally get more in touch with once you get to Japan and get to experience the scene.
Firstly, the fact that a large majority of visual kei musicians more or less openly admits they don't have any artistic or personal integrity, they don't care what they produce and they don't care that their sound is exactly like every other band out there, because they know that as long as the members are pretty enough there WILL be fans, and they WILL pay you money for "company" and "favors" so that you can survive comfortably and keep rehashing the same song for a couple of years until you feel like calling it quits and do something more worthwhile with your life, or more likely, go into full time hosting business now that you have a decent circle of clients already.
 
This sort of leads me into my second issue and it's the bangya culture. It's generally really vile, and the way the girls not only talk about the musicians but also each other is quite disgusting. If the bangyas decide that a member has done something they do not approve of, that doesn't live up to their perfect ideals that they hold them all to (because god knows the fangirls don't live up to any of them) they can easily start enough shit to cause a band to break up or force a member out of the band. The issues doesn't end there though, because the few foreign bangya that exists generally adapt to this mentality and lifestyle too. They openly shun other foreigners who dare attend the lives of "their" band and ruin their "specialness", they participate in this completely daft saizen system where a designated person basically decides who gets what spot at a concert so everyone can enjoy playing ten year olds doing the "you're not allowed to play with us"-games... And the obviousness of what really drives people to be fans of these bands become so apparent when they get to this level, and it's certainly not the music.
 
To be honest, in a lot of ways I never realized how bad this was until I got there and could see it all for myself, and that's despite a 13 year stint in the scene by now.

My main issue with the visual kei scene isn't really represented in the options here, and it's something you generally get more in touch with once you get to Japan and get to experience the scene.
Firstly, the fact that a large majority of visual kei musicians more or less openly admits they don't have any artistic or personal integrity, they don't care what they produce and they don't care that their sound is exactly like every other band out there, because they know that as long as the members are pretty enough there WILL be fans, and they WILL pay you money for "company" and "favors" so that you can survive comfortably and keep rehashing the same song for a couple of years until you feel like calling it quits and do something more worthwhile with your life, or more likely, go into full time hosting business now that you have a decent circle of clients already.
 
This sort of leads me into my second issue and it's the bangya culture. It's generally really vile, and the way the girls not only talk about the musicians but also each other is quite disgusting. If the bangyas decide that a member has done something they do not approve of, that doesn't live up to their perfect ideals that they hold them all to (because god knows the fangirls don't live up to any of them) they can easily start enough shit to cause a band to break up or force a member out of the band. The issues doesn't end there though, because the few foreign bangya that exists generally adapt to this mentality and lifestyle too. They openly shun other foreigners who dare attend the lives of "their" band and ruin their "specialness", they participate in this completely daft saizen system where a designated person basically decides who gets what spot at a concert so everyone can enjoy playing ten year olds doing the "you're not allowed to play with us"-games... And the obviousness of what really drives people to be fans of these bands become so apparent when they get to this level, and it's certainly not the music.
 
To be honest, in a lot of ways I never realized how bad this was until I got there and could see it all for myself, and that's despite a 13 year stint in the scene by now.

My main issue with the visual kei scene isn't really represented in the options here, and it's something you generally get more in touch with once you get to Japan and get to experience the scene.
Firstly, the fact that a large majority of visual kei musicians more or less openly admits they don't have any artistic or personal integrity, they don't care what they produce and they don't care that their sound is exactly like every other band out there, because they know that as long as the members are pretty enough there WILL be fans, and they WILL pay you money for "company" and "favors" so that you can survive comfortably and keep rehashing the same song for a couple of years until you feel like calling it quits and do something more worthwhile with your life, or more likely, go into full time hosting business now that you have a decent circle of clients already.
 
This sort of leads me into my second issue and it's the bangya culture. It's generally really vile, and the way the girls not only talk about the musicians but also each other is quite disgusting. If the bangyas decide that a member has done something they do not approve of, that doesn't live up to their perfect ideals that they hold them all to (because god knows the fangirls don't live up to any of them) they can easily start enough shit to cause a band to break up or force a member out of the band. The issues doesn't end there though, because the few foreign bangya that exists generally adapt to this mentality and lifestyle too. They openly shun other foreigners who dare attend the lives of "their" band and ruin their "specialness", they participate in this completely daft saizen system where a designated person basically decides who gets what spot at a concert so everyone can enjoy playing ten year olds doing the "you're not allowed to play with us"-games... And the obviousness of what really drives people to be fans of these bands become so apparent when they get to this level, and it's certainly not the music.
 
To be honest, in a lot of ways I never realized how bad this was until I got there and could see it all for myself, and that's despite a 13 year stint in the scene by now.

My main issue with the visual kei scene isn't really represented in the options here, and it's something you generally get more in touch with once you get to Japan and get to experience the scene.
Firstly, the fact that a large majority of visual kei musicians more or less openly admits they don't have any artistic or personal integrity, they don't care what they produce and they don't care that their sound is exactly like every other band out there, because they know that as long as the members are pretty enough there WILL be fans, and they WILL pay you money for "company" and "favors" so that you can survive comfortably and keep rehashing the same song for a couple of years until you feel like calling it quits and do something more worthwhile with your life, or more likely, go into full time hosting business now that you have a decent circle of clients already.
 
This sort of leads me into my second issue and it's the bangya culture. It's generally really vile, and the way the girls not only talk about the musicians but also each other is quite disgusting. If the bangyas decide that a member has done something they do not approve of, that doesn't live up to their perfect ideals that they hold them all to (because god knows the fangirls don't live up to any of them) they can easily start enough shit to cause a band to break up or force a member out of the band. The issues doesn't end there though, because the few foreign bangya that exists generally adapt to this mentality and lifestyle too. They openly shun other foreigners who dare attend the lives of "their" band and ruin their "specialness", they participate in this completely daft saizen system where a designated person basically decides who gets what spot at a concert so everyone can enjoy playing ten year olds doing the "you're not allowed to play with us"-games... And the obviousness of what really drives people to be fans of these bands become so apparent when they get to this level, and it's certainly not the music.
 
To be honest, in a lot of ways I never realized how bad this was until I got there and could see it all for myself, and that's despite a 13 year stint in the scene by now.

My main issue with the visual kei scene isn't really represented in the options here, and it's something you generally get more in touch with once you get to Japan and get to experience the scene.
Firstly, the fact that a large majority of visual kei musicians more or less openly admits they don't have any artistic or personal integrity, they don't care what they produce and they don't care that their sound is exactly like every other band out there, because they know that as long as the members are pretty enough there WILL be fans, and they WILL pay you money for "company" and "favors" so that you can survive comfortably and keep rehashing the same song for a couple of years until you feel like calling it quits and do something more worthwhile with your life, or more likely, go into full time hosting business now that you have a decent circle of clients already.
 
This sort of leads me into my second issue and it's the bangya culture. It's generally really vile, and the way the girls not only talk about the musicians but also each other is quite disgusting. If the bangyas decide that a member has done something they do not approve of, that doesn't live up to their perfect ideals that they hold them all to (because god knows the fangirls don't live up to any of them) they can easily start enough shit to cause a band to break up or force a member out of the band. The issues doesn't end there though, because the few foreign bangya that exists generally adapt to this mentality and lifestyle too. They openly shun other foreigners who dare attend the lives of "their" band and ruin their "specialness", they participate in this completely daft saizen system where a designated person basically decides who gets what spot at a concert so everyone can enjoy playing ten year olds doing the "you're not allowed to play with us"-games... And the obviousness of what really drives people to be fans of these bands become so apparent when they get to this level, and it's certainly not the music.
 
To be honest, in a lot of ways I never realized how bad this was until I got there and could see it all for myself, and that's despite a 13 year stint in the scene by now.

My main issue with the visual kei scene isn't really represented in the options here, and it's something you generally get more in touch with once you get to Japan and get to experience the scene.
Firstly, the fact that a large majority of visual kei musicians more or less openly admits they don't have any artistic or personal integrity, they don't care what they produce and they don't care that their sound is exactly like every other band out there, because they know that as long as the members are pretty enough there WILL be fans, and they WILL pay you money for "company" and "favors" so that you can survive comfortably and keep rehashing the same song for a couple of years until you feel like calling it quits and do something more worthwhile with your life, or more likely, go into full time hosting business now that you have a decent circle of clients already.
 
This sort of leads me into my second issue and it's the bangya culture. It's generally really vile, and the way the girls not only talk about the musicians but also each other is quite disgusting. If the bangyas decide that a member has done something they do not approve of, that doesn't live up to their perfect ideals that they hold them all to (because god knows the fangirls don't live up to any of them) they can easily start enough shit to cause a band to break up or force a member out of the band. The issues doesn't end there though, because the few foreign bangya that exists generally adapt to this mentality and lifestyle too. They openly shun other foreigners who dare attend the lives of "their" band and ruin their "specialness", they participate in this completely daft saizen system where a designated person basically decides who gets what spot at a concert so everyone can enjoy playing ten year olds doing the "you're not allowed to play with us"-games... And the obviousness of what really drives people to be fans of these bands become so apparent when they get to this level, and it's certainly not the music.
 
To be honest, in a lot of ways I never realized how bad this was until I got there and could see it all for myself, and that's despite a 13 year stint in the scene by now.

My main issue with the visual kei scene isn't really represented in the options here, and it's something you generally get more in touch with once you get to Japan and get to experience the scene.
Firstly, the fact that a large majority of visual kei musicians more or less openly admits they don't have any artistic or personal integrity, they don't care what they produce and they don't care that their sound is exactly like every other band out there, because they know that as long as the members are pretty enough there WILL be fans, and they WILL pay you money for "company" and "favors" so that you can survive comfortably and keep rehashing the same song for a couple of years until you feel like calling it quits and do something more worthwhile with your life, or more likely, go into full time hosting business now that you have a decent circle of clients already.
 
This sort of leads me into my second issue and it's the bangya culture. It's generally really vile, and the way the girls not only talk about the musicians but also each other is quite disgusting. If the bangyas decide that a member has done something they do not approve of, that doesn't live up to their perfect ideals that they hold them all to (because god knows the fangirls don't live up to any of them) they can easily start enough shit to cause a band to break up or force a member out of the band. The issues doesn't end there though, because the few foreign bangya that exists generally adapt to this mentality and lifestyle too. They openly shun other foreigners who dare attend the lives of "their" band and ruin their "specialness", they participate in this completely daft saizen system where a designated person basically decides who gets what spot at a concert so everyone can enjoy playing ten year olds doing the "you're not allowed to play with us"-games... And the obviousness of what really drives people to be fans of these bands become so apparent when they get to this level, and it's certainly not the music.
 
To be honest, in a lot of ways I never realized how bad this was until I got there and could see it all for myself, and that's despite a 13 year stint in the scene by now.

My main issue with the visual kei scene isn't really represented in the options here, and it's something you generally get more in touch with once you get to Japan and get to experience the scene.
Firstly, the fact that a large majority of visual kei musicians more or less openly admits they don't have any artistic or personal integrity, they don't care what they produce and they don't care that their sound is exactly like every other band out there, because they know that as long as the members are pretty enough there WILL be fans, and they WILL pay you money for "company" and "favors" so that you can survive comfortably and keep rehashing the same song for a couple of years until you feel like calling it quits and do something more worthwhile with your life, or more likely, go into full time hosting business now that you have a decent circle of clients already.
 
This sort of leads me into my second issue and it's the bangya culture. It's generally really vile, and the way the girls not only talk about the musicians but also each other is quite disgusting. If the bangyas decide that a member has done something they do not approve of, that doesn't live up to their perfect ideals that they hold them all to (because god knows the fangirls don't live up to any of them) they can easily start enough shit to cause a band to break up or force a member out of the band. The issues doesn't end there though, because the few foreign bangya that exists generally adapt to this mentality and lifestyle too. They openly shun other foreigners who dare attend the lives of "their" band and ruin their "specialness", they participate in this completely daft saizen system where a designated person basically decides who gets what spot at a concert so everyone can enjoy playing ten year olds doing the "you're not allowed to play with us"-games... And the obviousness of what really drives people to be fans of these bands become so apparent when they get to this level, and it's certainly not the music.
 
To be honest, in a lot of ways I never realized how bad this was until I got there and could see it all for myself, and that's despite a 13 year stint in the scene by now.

My main issue with the visual kei scene isn't really represented in the options here, and it's something you generally get more in touch with once you get to Japan and get to experience the scene.
Firstly, the fact that a large majority of visual kei musicians more or less openly admits they don't have any artistic or personal integrity, they don't care what they produce and they don't care that their sound is exactly like every other band out there, because they know that as long as the members are pretty enough there WILL be fans, and they WILL pay you money for "company" and "favors" so that you can survive comfortably and keep rehashing the same song for a couple of years until you feel like calling it quits and do something more worthwhile with your life, or more likely, go into full time hosting business now that you have a decent circle of clients already.
 
This sort of leads me into my second issue and it's the bangya culture. It's generally really vile, and the way the girls not only talk about the musicians but also each other is quite disgusting. If the bangyas decide that a member has done something they do not approve of, that doesn't live up to their perfect ideals that they hold them all to (because god knows the fangirls don't live up to any of them) they can easily start enough shit to cause a band to break up or force a member out of the band. The issues doesn't end there though, because the few foreign bangya that exists generally adapt to this mentality and lifestyle too. They openly shun other foreigners who dare attend the lives of "their" band and ruin their "specialness", they participate in this completely daft saizen system where a designated person basically decides who gets what spot at a concert so everyone can enjoy playing ten year olds doing the "you're not allowed to play with us"-games... And the obviousness of what really drives people to be fans of these bands become so apparent when they get to this level, and it's certainly not the music.
 
To be honest, in a lot of ways I never realized how bad this was until I got there and could see it all for myself, and that's despite a 13 year stint in the scene by now.

My main issue with the visual kei scene isn't really represented in the options here, and it's something you generally get more in touch with once you get to Japan and get to experience the scene.
Firstly, the fact that a large majority of visual kei musicians more or less openly admits they don't have any artistic or personal integrity, they don't care what they produce and they don't care that their sound is exactly like every other band out there, because they know that as long as the members are pretty enough there WILL be fans, and they WILL pay you money for "company" and "favors" so that you can survive comfortably and keep rehashing the same song for a couple of years until you feel like calling it quits and do something more worthwhile with your life, or more likely, go into full time hosting business now that you have a decent circle of clients already.
 
This sort of leads me into my second issue and it's the bangya culture. It's generally really vile, and the way the girls not only talk about the musicians but also each other is quite disgusting. If the bangyas decide that a member has done something they do not approve of, that doesn't live up to their perfect ideals that they hold them all to (because god knows the fangirls don't live up to any of them) they can easily start enough shit to cause a band to break up or force a member out of the band. The issues doesn't end there though, because the few foreign bangya that exists generally adapt to this mentality and lifestyle too. They openly shun other foreigners who dare attend the lives of "their" band and ruin their "specialness", they participate in this completely daft saizen system where a designated person basically decides who gets what spot at a concert so everyone can enjoy playing ten year olds doing the "you're not allowed to play with us"-games... And the obviousness of what really drives people to be fans of these bands become so apparent when they get to this level, and it's certainly not the music.
 
To be honest, in a lot of ways I never realized how bad this was until I got there and could see it all for myself, and that's despite a 13 year stint in the scene by now.

My main issue with the visual kei scene isn't really represented in the options here, and it's something you generally get more in touch with once you get to Japan and get to experience the scene.
Firstly, the fact that a large majority of visual kei musicians more or less openly admits they don't have any artistic or personal integrity, they don't care what they produce and they don't care that their sound is exactly like every other band out there, because they know that as long as the members are pretty enough there WILL be fans, and they WILL pay you money for "company" and "favors" so that you can survive comfortably and keep rehashing the same song for a couple of years until you feel like calling it quits and do something more worthwhile with your life, or more likely, go into full time hosting business now that you have a decent circle of clients already.
 
This sort of leads me into my second issue and it's the bangya culture. It's generally really vile, and the way the girls not only talk about the musicians but also each other is quite disgusting. If the bangyas decide that a member has done something they do not approve of, that doesn't live up to their perfect ideals that they hold them all to (because god knows the fangirls don't live up to any of them) they can easily start enough shit to cause a band to break up or force a member out of the band. The issues doesn't end there though, because the few foreign bangya that exists generally adapt to this mentality and lifestyle too. They openly shun other foreigners who dare attend the lives of "their" band and ruin their "specialness", they participate in this completely daft saizen system where a designated person basically decides who gets what spot at a concert so everyone can enjoy playing ten year olds doing the "you're not allowed to play with us"-games... And the obviousness of what really drives people to be fans of these bands become so apparent when they get to this level, and it's certainly not the music.
 
To be honest, in a lot of ways I never realized how bad this was until I got there and could see it all for myself, and that's despite a 13 year stint in the scene by now.

My main issue with the visual kei scene isn't really represented in the options here, and it's something you generally get more in touch with once you get to Japan and get to experience the scene.
Firstly, the fact that a large majority of visual kei musicians more or less openly admits they don't have any artistic or personal integrity, they don't care what they produce and they don't care that their sound is exactly like every other band out there, because they know that as long as the members are pretty enough there WILL be fans, and they WILL pay you money for "company" and "favors" so that you can survive comfortably and keep rehashing the same song for a couple of years until you feel like calling it quits and do something more worthwhile with your life, or more likely, go into full time hosting business now that you have a decent circle of clients already.
 
This sort of leads me into my second issue and it's the bangya culture. It's generally really vile, and the way the girls not only talk about the musicians but also each other is quite disgusting. If the bangyas decide that a member has done something they do not approve of, that doesn't live up to their perfect ideals that they hold them all to (because god knows the fangirls don't live up to any of them) they can easily start enough shit to cause a band to break up or force a member out of the band. The issues doesn't end there though, because the few foreign bangya that exists generally adapt to this mentality and lifestyle too. They openly shun other foreigners who dare attend the lives of "their" band and ruin their "specialness", they participate in this completely daft saizen system where a designated person basically decides who gets what spot at a concert so everyone can enjoy playing ten year olds doing the "you're not allowed to play with us"-games... And the obviousness of what really drives people to be fans of these bands become so apparent when they get to this level, and it's certainly not the music.
 
To be honest, in a lot of ways I never realized how bad this was until I got there and could see it all for myself, and that's despite a 13 year stint in the scene by now.

My main issue with the visual kei scene isn't really represented in the options here, and it's something you generally get more in touch with once you get to Japan and get to experience the scene.
Firstly, the fact that a large majority of visual kei musicians more or less openly admits they don't have any artistic or personal integrity, they don't care what they produce and they don't care that their sound is exactly like every other band out there, because they know that as long as the members are pretty enough there WILL be fans, and they WILL pay you money for "company" and "favors" so that you can survive comfortably and keep rehashing the same song for a couple of years until you feel like calling it quits and do something more worthwhile with your life, or more likely, go into full time hosting business now that you have a decent circle of clients already.
 
This sort of leads me into my second issue and it's the bangya culture. It's generally really vile, and the way the girls not only talk about the musicians but also each other is quite disgusting. If the bangyas decide that a member has done something they do not approve of, that doesn't live up to their perfect ideals that they hold them all to (because god knows the fangirls don't live up to any of them) they can easily start enough shit to cause a band to break up or force a member out of the band. The issues doesn't end there though, because the few foreign bangya that exists generally adapt to this mentality and lifestyle too. They openly shun other foreigners who dare attend the lives of "their" band and ruin their "specialness", they participate in this completely daft saizen system where a designated person basically decides who gets what spot at a concert so everyone can enjoy playing ten year olds doing the "you're not allowed to play with us"-games... And the obviousness of what really drives people to be fans of these bands become so apparent when they get to this level, and it's certainly not the music.
 
To be honest, in a lot of ways I never realized how bad this was until I got there and could see it all for myself, and that's despite a 13 year stint in the scene by now.

My main issue with the visual kei scene isn't really represented in the options here, and it's something you generally get more in touch with once you get to Japan and get to experience the scene.
Firstly, the fact that a large majority of visual kei musicians more or less openly admits they don't have any artistic or personal integrity, they don't care what they produce and they don't care that their sound is exactly like every other band out there, because they know that as long as the members are pretty enough there WILL be fans, and they WILL pay you money for "company" and "favors" so that you can survive comfortably and keep rehashing the same song for a couple of years until you feel like calling it quits and do something more worthwhile with your life, or more likely, go into full time hosting business now that you have a decent circle of clients already.
 
This sort of leads me into my second issue and it's the bangya culture. It's generally really vile, and the way the girls not only talk about the musicians but also each other is quite disgusting. If the bangyas decide that a member has done something they do not approve of, that doesn't live up to their perfect ideals that they hold them all to (because god knows the fangirls don't live up to any of them) they can easily start enough shit to cause a band to break up or force a member out of the band. The issues doesn't end there though, because the few foreign bangya that exists generally adapt to this mentality and lifestyle too. They openly shun other foreigners who dare attend the lives of "their" band and ruin their "specialness", they participate in this completely daft saizen system where a designated person basically decides who gets what spot at a concert so everyone can enjoy playing ten year olds doing the "you're not allowed to play with us"-games... And the obviousness of what really drives people to be fans of these bands become so apparent when they get to this level, and it's certainly not the music.
 
To be honest, in a lot of ways I never realized how bad this was until I got there and could see it all for myself, and that's despite a 13 year stint in the scene by now.

My main issue with the visual kei scene isn't really represented in the options here, and it's something you generally get more in touch with once you get to Japan and get to experience the scene.
Firstly, the fact that a large majority of visual kei musicians more or less openly admits they don't have any artistic or personal integrity, they don't care what they produce and they don't care that their sound is exactly like every other band out there, because they know that as long as the members are pretty enough there WILL be fans, and they WILL pay you money for "company" and "favors" so that you can survive comfortably and keep rehashing the same song for a couple of years until you feel like calling it quits and do something more worthwhile with your life, or more likely, go into full time hosting business now that you have a decent circle of clients already.
 
This sort of leads me into my second issue and it's the bangya culture. It's generally really vile, and the way the girls not only talk about the musicians but also each other is quite disgusting. If the bangyas decide that a member has done something they do not approve of, that doesn't live up to their perfect ideals that they hold them all to (because god knows the fangirls don't live up to any of them) they can easily start enough shit to cause a band to break up or force a member out of the band. The issues doesn't end there though, because the few foreign bangya that exists generally adapt to this mentality and lifestyle too. They openly shun other foreigners who dare attend the lives of "their" band and ruin their "specialness", they participate in this completely daft saizen system where a designated person basically decides who gets what spot at a concert so everyone can enjoy playing ten year olds doing the "you're not allowed to play with us"-games... And the obviousness of what really drives people to be fans of these bands become so apparent when they get to this level, and it's certainly not the music.
 
To be honest, in a lot of ways I never realized how bad this was until I got there and could see it all for myself, and that's despite a 13 year stint in the scene by now.

My main issue with the visual kei scene isn't really represented in the options here, and it's something you generally get more in touch with once you get to Japan and get to experience the scene.
Firstly, the fact that a large majority of visual kei musicians more or less openly admits they don't have any artistic or personal integrity, they don't care what they produce and they don't care that their sound is exactly like every other band out there, because they know that as long as the members are pretty enough there WILL be fans, and they WILL pay you money for "company" and "favors" so that you can survive comfortably and keep rehashing the same song for a couple of years until you feel like calling it quits and do something more worthwhile with your life, or more likely, go into full time hosting business now that you have a decent circle of clients already.
 
This sort of leads me into my second issue and it's the bangya culture. It's generally really vile, and the way the girls not only talk about the musicians but also each other is quite disgusting. If the bangyas decide that a member has done something they do not approve of, that doesn't live up to their perfect ideals that they hold them all to (because god knows the fangirls don't live up to any of them) they can easily start enough shit to cause a band to break up or force a member out of the band. The issues doesn't end there though, because the few foreign bangya that exists generally adapt to this mentality and lifestyle too. They openly shun other foreigners who dare attend the lives of "their" band and ruin their "specialness", they participate in this completely daft saizen system where a designated person basically decides who gets what spot at a concert so everyone can enjoy playing ten year olds doing the "you're not allowed to play with us"-games... And the obviousness of what really drives people to be fans of these bands become so apparent when they get to this level, and it's certainly not the music.
 
To be honest, in a lot of ways I never realized how bad this was until I got there and could see it all for myself, and that's despite a 13 year stint in the scene by now.

My main issue with the visual kei scene isn't really represented in the options here, and it's something you generally get more in touch with once you get to Japan and get to experience the scene.
Firstly, the fact that a large majority of visual kei musicians more or less openly admits they don't have any artistic or personal integrity, they don't care what they produce and they don't care that their sound is exactly like every other band out there, because they know that as long as the members are pretty enough there WILL be fans, and they WILL pay you money for "company" and "favors" so that you can survive comfortably and keep rehashing the same song for a couple of years until you feel like calling it quits and do something more worthwhile with your life, or more likely, go into full time hosting business now that you have a decent circle of clients already.
 
This sort of leads me into my second issue and it's the bangya culture. It's generally really vile, and the way the girls not only talk about the musicians but also each other is quite disgusting. If the bangyas decide that a member has done something they do not approve of, that doesn't live up to their perfect ideals that they hold them all to (because god knows the fangirls don't live up to any of them) they can easily start enough shit to cause a band to break up or force a member out of the band. The issues doesn't end there though, because the few foreign bangya that exists generally adapt to this mentality and lifestyle too. They openly shun other foreigners who dare attend the lives of "their" band and ruin their "specialness", they participate in this completely daft saizen system where a designated person basically decides who gets what spot at a concert so everyone can enjoy playing ten year olds doing the "you're not allowed to play with us"-games... And the obviousness of what really drives people to be fans of these bands become so apparent when they get to this level, and it's certainly not the music.
 
To be honest, in a lot of ways I never realized how bad this was until I got there and could see it all for myself, and that's despite a 13 year stint in the scene by now.

As far as I understand it, in terms of the current style of bangya culture, is that it's not new but it certainly hasn't been going on forever. Visual Kei has gone through a lot of changes and while there's always been parts of the scene more affected by this than others, it's much more prevalent now than it was 15 years ago, according to people I've spoken to. Just like the commercialisation of the genre have reached new heights due to the safety of this economic system that have developed between the two. Talentless hacks would not have lasted like they do today.
Would be interesting to research deeper into the connections there.