hiroki

^ praying it isn't a live-distro

hope this is as gd as their first album

always hard to come up with subgenres that ppl will agree with, but good effort. anyway i'm surprised to see Kagrra, listed under angura kei, since i always thought angura kei (literally 'underground kei') is an umbrella term used quite differently. my japanese friend used to refer to bands like Kagrra,, Kiryu, etc. as wa-kei ("Japanesque-kei"), though i'm unsure if that's actually a term in popular use. well i voted for the last 3 (and shall resist the urge to complain that "oshare" and "soft kei" can potentially be split into more categories than the 8 "subgenres" that preceded them ._.)

fuck do not want.

hey, welcome what are some bands you like? ^^ hope you enjoy your time here!

this is probably the appropriate thread for this. yeah i know JIN's vocals can be annoying to a lot of ppl, but all pet owners / dog lovers need to listen to this song: basically it's a song from the p.o.v. of a dog and its unconditional love for its owner. the perspective switches to the owner for the second verse and vacillates between them for the closing sections of the song; anyway, the final wish of the dog is just for him (the owner) to be by its side when it finally dies :'( i'm sorry but i really can't do this song justice. as you might know lyrics are very impt to me. this song's lyrics are profoundly moving and i'll translate the first verse (dog's point of view) here to show you what i mean.. *note: the title of the song ("how to spend 2.5 billion seconds") is a reference to the lifespan of a dog.

All I'm saying is that for people who cannot sit down and peruse music at their own leisure, there is definitely some tradeoff to be made between (i) (re)listening to stuff one likes, (ii) finding more bands that one is likely to like, (iii) taking a "leap of faith" - as you'd say - to try and expand one's musical horizons. Spending all your time on (iii) will mean sacrificing time that you'd otherwise use for (i) and (ii). That's a very real tradeoff anyone who loves music has to contend with. In an ideal world you would be right. If I weren't clearing almost 40 credits per semester and instead had unlimited time, I swear that I won't only be checking out every single release that people post here, I'd even go down to the local CD rental shop and go through everything there shelf by shelf. Yes, there are definitely those people who keep away from non-vk stuff due to phobia(?) and their own resistance towards non-vk stuff, but I think for most people it's more practical than that. Chances are they have tried something, didn't like it, and returned to their favorite music, be it vk or something else. That's something I find perfectly rational. I understand where you're coming from. There's always the excitement that comes with finding something outside of my comfort zone that I would never imagined I'd like had I not tried. (As a concrete example, there was once I casually downloaded which Keiyuu generously shared. I absolutely loved the song and it's now in my rotation, although anyone who knows my taste will know it doesn't even come close to the part of vk I usually dabble in). But unfortunately there's always gonna be that proverbial elephant in the room because no one can listen to all the music that exists, and I think people should decide for themselves how they want to apportion their time between (i), (ii) and (iii).

Feedback: Very nice seller with prompt service. I received my cd today and it was in good condition

That is precisely it. Some people want something in excess of the music itself, and continue to seek that something out. The best evidence: visual kei exists. The very fact that these people are open to so many genres suggests that they aren't "genre purists" (for want of a better phrase). That isn't to say that quality of music doesn't matter; there's just more than one factor at play for this group of ppl.

i didn't quote but i was actually responding to the series of posts above (starting with Zess'). i have no idea how popular/unpopular my view is, although i suspect it's primarily a matter of where someone stands w.r.t. visual kei

The problem is that most discussions centered on visual kei (especially by non-vk fans, or anti-vk ppl) are often slathered with frightening helpings of overgeneralization, made worse by a common stereotype of vk fans that's, let's just say, not too charitable. People need to realize that not all visual kei fans are (or come anywhere near to) immature, rabid fangirls who creepily stalk twitter/ameblo and hyperventilate at their bandomen's zettai ryoiki 24/7. Oh yes, of course, there are those (and btw I don't believe there's anything wrong with that, but that's going off-topic). And there are also vk fans who refuse for whatever reason to listen to anything else but vk. So what? This "snobbishness" isn't even something peculiar to vk - just take a look at people who exclusively listen to classical music, or trance, or hip-hop, or whatever - and in my view, not necessarily something "bad". The thing is, contrary to common presuppositions, some of these people who swear by vk have actually explored other genres, found that they didn't like them, and returned to the "sanctuary" of vk music where they feel most at ease. There's a very common tendency to feel that simply because I found a mind-blowingly good band, people are "missing out" on this gem because they don't know about it (and if they do know, then they're not being critical!). I used to feel the same way sometimes, but I've come to accept that isn't the case at all. For every 1 person who's interested I can easily find 100 others who quite honestly don't give a shit. In my case I've also occasionally checked out purported "albums of the century" (hurhur) and didn't know wtf I was listening to. But this is just as well; if there were any place for aggressive musical evangelism, all of us would be listening to AKB48 and Arashi and nothing else. A final point. Let's face it: the music industry today is staggeringly huge and there are way too many bands/artists for anyone to listen to. For most people who are neither NEETs nor retirees, their "exploratory" phase must stop (or at least slow down) at some point. To put it crudely some sacrifice has to be made between breadth and depth of music: because no one has infinite time to sit down and listen to music leisurely, people who have less diverse tastes can channel their time to further exploring what they really like. It's not so much that vk music is irreconcilable with other genres of music; it's the practical constraint of time where spending a month to explore other genres means they will have 1 less month to explore vk bands they like. Not everyone is willing to make this sacrifice. As an anecdotal aside, I'm just a rather casual listener of classical music but I have a good friend who listens to almost nothing but Chopin since he was 14 and has developed an unbelievable familiarity with almost every single Chopin specialist from the 19th through the 21st century (he even knows who are the Nocturnes specialists, Mazurka specialists, etc. within the Chopin repertoire). I hardly think it would make any sense for me to inform him that he has wasted his time and suggest that he'd have been better off if he had traded 50% of this expertise to explore rap or J-indies instead. And if I wouldn't say that, why would it be easier to say the exact same thing to the obsessive vk fan, if not for the derogatory (and often incorrect) stereotypes usually associated with vk fans I've mentioned at the start of the post..?

I've only listened to the album once very casually and i don't think i'm in the position to comment on the quality of the album, much less give a proper review. But my own view is that there's no value inherent in taking risks just for the sake of doing it. I mean, if i'm in a band that has found a unique niche sound and accrued a solid following, why would i not want to keep to my sound? Moran's songs sound "samey" too, and enough people buy their sound, so I don't believe being a successful musician is all about changing sounds every few releases and trading a group of fans for another as the band becomes more "mature". To be honest that would be ridiculous. Instead it's about being able to stand your ground in what's alr a very challenging scene, consolidate some sort of identity for yourself/your band, and then explore how to vary elements of your music meaningfully. I feel it's important that the variation comes in at the last step (and note the emphasis), otherwise the result will be the polymorphous disaster that's Sadie's last album ._. For me arlequin has managed to find their own sound (already impressive given how young and relatively inexperienced they are), and i'm more than happy to give them time to take the last step. Simply because it will take time.

Pretty much what Tetora said. Hope to see you back posting soon.

it's a 1-minute long PV spot that's put on repeat. the whole thing is 98 minutes, so presumably the PV spot repeats 98 times XD

yay, nice to see Resist members in a new band

^ i dunno if it's just me but your photos always don't load for me

oh yessss. sounds like something from Revolution to New Age era which is my favorite.

hmm, cds of course, and posters, photosets. i also keep the small merch that come along with cds e.g. postcards, trading cards, stickers but don't think of it as "collecting" since i don't specifically hunt for those. i have some band shirts as well. more recently i started collecting chekis but yeah it's a waste of money

i haven't heard of this band before but the preview's really good ^^ no Engrish is a big plus for me too.

Well in this case MAR has his own label with a webshop, so the potential profit loss doesn't really apply. It's not as if they have to distribute it via ZEAL LINK or Like an Edison or other vk shops. The only reason imo why this isn't on the PCM webshop is because this single is a live-distro, not a live-limited. If it's a live-limited chances are that it would be sold on the webshop as well for the same price (even RoNoCro's live-limited is on the PCM webshop). I understand both sides of the argument well, and don't really blame them for not selling it. At least they're a somewhat popular band and so I'm confident we'll hear this thing someday. What really annoys me is when small bands release full albums at their last live and there are so few copies in circulation there's no chance in hell of getting/hearing it if you aren't there in person :<

my favorite vk "christmas song": also, some other winter ballads:

#11 Call Me - オムカエ #10 シド - ENAMEL #8 Sadie - true word

^ AvelCain's 揺り籠

they're pretty slow with the releases but i'm not complaining as long as they can keep the quality. every release they've put out is top-notch, and Xepher's easily one of the few bands where I can confidently preorder everything they announce even without having heard a preview. and yes, Ran needs more love