Hello! I'm a 24 year old guy from Turkey. First, let me tell how I met visual kei for the first time. I was watching Death Note and I loved Nightmare's music in the first season. But still wasn't very much interested in vkei. Then, in the second season of Death Note. I met with maximum the hormone. I checked out their PV "Zetsubou Billy", there is another band in the PV's beginning. I really liked that band's vocalist's dress style. And I wondered which band was that. I googled it and stumbled upon a yahoo question that asked the same. Someone said in the answers that the band in question is Moi Dix Mois(wrongfully, and thankfully. I later learned that band is a shitty band called Parfait.) That's how I met with MDM. I youtubed them and encountered the live of their song "Solitude". I fell in love with Juka's voice, but the dressing styles were still a bit weird for me because I didn't see it before. Though that period ended quickly and I really liked vkei after a little time. Then band after band, I was really into vkei and japanese bands.
My favourite bands/artists are, with or without vkei: Dir en Grey, Versailles, D, Juka(I was obsessed with him, but now I'm kinda mad at him because he quitted music), Aoi(Aoi from Bounty, I heard that there is something wrong with his voice and he can barely talk anymore. I'm really sad.), Luzmelt(Such an original and good band, it is sad that they disbanded), exist-trace, LIPHLICH(my current favourite, I recommend them to everyone!), Malice Mizer, Kamijo, Kaya, Schwarz Stein, Amadeus, D'air, Femme Fatale(Although they only have 2 songs atm, I'm expecting great things from them.), Galneryus, L'arc en ciel, Lareine(some people don't like kamijo's voice in this era but I think it's great.) , LuLu, Phantasmagoria and Xover.
I'm trying to advertise Visual Kei, but the majority of people here in Turkey don't agree with the dresses, and think that vkei bands are gay(sometimes as a homophobe, sometimes not.) I think vkei brings color to this world and I'm wishing that it will never end. Every man and women should be able to dress like that, without people thinking anything about their sexual orientation. The people that I've introduced vkei also think that their genders are hard to tell. That's just they are not used to that kind of dressing. I can easily distinguish men and women in the vkei world. Visual kei is a blow on gender roles that say "men should dress like this" and "women should dress like this" and that's one of the reasons why I like vkei.
To advertise vkei, I'm thinking to go to my graduation vkei style. Though I'm not that courageous because I may get exiled.
I would like to knoy many more bands, so I'm open to recommendations.
Thanks for reading