colorful人生

glad my favorite gen 2 boi is getting some meme love --- Unless those comments are satirical/ in humor, those aren't real friends. To be honest, I realized very early on that completely divulging to others (or pushing) my Japanese hobbies without context would really come off as weird and awkward to most people. Luckily, in high-school I perfected the craft of introducing my friends, who had varying levels of interest in video games or anime, to j-rock & visual kei. While I wasn't as successful a vk missionary in college (immediately got the "hurr durr are u gay" question), I figured the more genres I had in my "repertoire" the better I could connect w/ people and possibly introduce them to vk. To this day, my wealth of music interests has been the king of icebreakers. Some successful examples: Late 00's - Early 2010's metalcore and post-hardcore was still huge, so I showed my metalhead friends the Crossfaith - Blue live clip (only their first album was out at the time), and they dug the shit out of that. Promptly blew up w/ their second album a year-and-a-half later. A friend of mine at the time liked the 14th opening to BLEACH, which was guess what, ViViD - Blue. Ended up getting him and a few others hooked on DIV. Friend of mine who mainly liked VGM (Video Game Music) found my earllly visual kei YouTube channel and really liked the SolariS tracks I posted, which was really interesting. I got him into the Raid.'s first mini and xTRiPx. Helped that he had a Korean-Canadian friend that introduced him to vocaloid/utaite stuff. While K-pop isn't for everyone, it has made strides to change the perspective of androgyny and masculinity in the U.S, and elsewhere. I had friends who were only into K-pop be completely accepting of visual kei aesthetics b/c they had that frame of reference.

Damn, I had ruminate on this for a good hour... This would be my selection if I was forced to bring only 5 vk jewel cases on a long road trip. In fact, all of the ones listed below have been on my road trip rotation. I couldn't choose 5 actual "top" albums, so I went for densely packed albums/best-ofs w/ my favorites. There were artists like xTRiPx, ViViD, and クラビア (Clavier) missing b/c my favorite tracks were too scattered to include a single album. Main Set: パノラマ虚構ゼノン - XENON BEST SELECTION キャンセル (Canzel) - BeST SONGS -SOFT TRACKS- ダウナー (DOWNER) - セットリスト Royz - Revolution to New AGE the Raid. - 【bo_ya SIDE】COUPLING BEST *6 really close runner-ups (possible switch-outs): NEXX - cap:cell girugamesh - MUSIC Janne Da Arc - SINGLES 2 MoNoLith- MONOLITH vistlip - THEATER #ロストワールド(Lost World) - 幻想世界地図

NOW THAT'S A LOOK Individual Looks (high-res): Koudai: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6xk6FDUEAIdjFi.jpg:large Fubuki: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6xj0E2UIAAxbWl.jpg:large Vivi: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6xxlzwU0AAn1xV.jpg:large Ei: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6xlg_RUcAEUBC7.jpg:large Miyavi: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6xjupBU8AAtdFn.jpg:large (He's cropped his to a square. Also not the full image) Promo Image (They went back and -shopped it quickly (vignette, faces, etc.) That's assuming the first isn't unedited.): Pre-tweak: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6xk6FCUEAIcW7W.jpg Post-tweak: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6xi34FV4AEIlP7.jpg

nobody: every other j-indie band: Like half of the bands I follow look like q-tips. Does that shit not get hot in the summer?

I used to dislike K-pop w/ golden-era bands (late-2000's - early-2010's) b/c I found the songs to be really "robotic" and anthemic. The motifs that pervaded western pop + kpop like heavy autotune, techno, metallic design, heavy eyeshadow, etc. weren't really my thing. This current generation of K-Pop I find is a lot more diversified in a musical sense w/ producers + composers playing with more experimental genres/sub-genres. Now, K-Pop bands will use wonky, moombahton, tropical house, 80's, r&b, etc. influences that I really vibe with. I do enjoy 1st generation and early-2nd generation (90's + early 2000's) as well, but that's because of the generally melodic pop sound at the time. Here were some of my gateway songs (I find groups w/ artsy or androgynous concepts to be good segues from vk. Now, musically, you won't be in the same territory, obv.): Korean phonetics used to be a huge barrier for me, but after listening to enough Korean, I got used to it. I find a lot of the newer K-Pop I'm interested in heavily tied to my interest in certain EDM genres (I use "EDM" in this case as a blanket-term for all electronic music.) --- Now, I certainly haven't gotten used to the rabid, but dedicated fanbase K-pop groups have, and I don't really participate in much of the online banter + fan activities either. Over-exploitation, while obviously inexcusable, is rampant in both K-pop and J-pop (and elsewhere.) I find the J-idol exploitation a lot more sinister than K-pop (namely the "black companies" and sexual exploitation), but then again, that's just what we know of in the public sphere. I like a lot of indie J-pop and solo-artists, but I find a lot of the mainstream Japanese idol groups to be really corny/insufferable. I also find the groups to be more focused on homogeneity than individuality. I'm generalizing a bit when I say that, though. I'd say, discover music on a band-to-band basis rather than focusing on just genres (the popular bands/groups of a genre) if you really want to open yourself to different things. A certain niche band might be the first domino that catalyzes your future discoveries and interest in the larger genre. *I've been referring to K-pop in the "group"-sense, so I forgot to mention K-indie and solo acts. I feel like J-indie is a bit more diverse, but both have a similar feel. There's such a huge rift between mainstream K-pop and indie to where I treat them like separate genres. I feel like Korean media always pushes to the extreme the groups from the big labels over indie acts. (Probably because the big five play huge economic roles in SK, wheras JP labels aren't as pronounced in the economic-sense idk Avex, Sony, and Johnny's numbers tho. SK has always been kinda corporatocratic, idk if that's an appropriate way to describe it.)

EXID going out with a BOP. I know they're not disbanding (rather, going on haitus), but w/ Hani and Junghwa not renewing their contracts in typical kpop-indefinite-hiatus-fashion... I'm a bit skeptical of a full comeback unless the rest leave Banana Culture in the future ;_;. Solji just got back, too ;__;. --- New Weki Meki is fun :D. stan yoojung

This is actually really good. While it is far from a new concept, the ERRA/ prog metalcore vibes from the album tickle my fancy.

Just finished up the Nyakuza Metro DLC for A Hat in Time (which came out today.)

THE FIFTH SEASON is so good --- I'm so fucking proud of them ;;_;;. When I first discovered them, there was little-to-no noise (it took me stumbling upon them on last.fm looking up similar artists to B1A4) and now they're finally getting what they deserve. The screams and fanchants are so much louder compared to three years ago... I can't contain my excitement. They deserve the world. I fanboy over Ren constantly, but JR is probably my bias. I love all of them, though. KIM JONGHYUN MY HANDSOME WARTORTLE BOIIII

small YT Drama rant:

A bit dated and situation-specific, but funny regardless. Found this in a comment section going through some Tom Scott videos (for the millionth time.)

Hail the master. Once in a while I'll sit down, turn the lights off, and listen to his playing for hours. He collaborated w/ Sungha and taught Kanaho who are both fantastic guitarists themselves (of the younger generation.)