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To break it down: Rock vs. Pop Rock made the most profit when culturally it became a part of Pop culture. This started to die off in the 80's but hair metal became a sensation. Hair metal was then killed off for the next wave of acts that were assimilated into the record industries more reliable formulaic machine for hits. Record labels like Mercury began purposefully killing off hair metal bands. Eventually pop punk, grunge, nu metal and other genres were manipulated in the main stream to become represented by the producer controlled music making machine. Why have a band completely in control of their music and writing what they want when they want? Would you not make a lot more money having an inner circle of producers who have mastered making hits, and creating the mainstream landscape of what a hit is? Instead of investing in bands who may go any which direction, it is more lucrative to hire performers who will treat it as more of a job, and sing the songs written for them, dance to the choreography created for them, endorse the products your sponsors give to them, etc.. And if some kind of rock is popular, we'll study the trend with a focus group, then get the producer to hold their hand through a simple track, we'll get a director to come up with a topical video to get attention, the lyricist's will come up with a catchy provocative line that will be repeated until it gets into people's heads, then the people will repeat the lines and memes to advertise for us, for free. Wardrobe will get them something trendy, then we'll get PR to get some interviews, and create some kind of juicy scandal for the group. Then we'll pay stations a lot of money to play us often, iTunes to feature us heavily, Youtube to recommend our video, etc... Then we'll make a bunch of money, give a good chunk to execs, producers, lyricists, then pay off all the marketing, and other costs, and we'll throw a few bucks at the band. Oh wait, we 'advanced' the band all sorts of money when we paid for that new guitar, the gas in the tourbus, their catering, etc etc... Better cut down how much we gave them. Then compare that to moderately successful VK bands filming a PV in the parking garage a thousand other bands played in, in some flame retardant outfit that 99 percent of people would not be caught dead wearing, and a bass player who looks better than most girls, playing a song in a low drop C tuning, over vocals still high pitched as hell, in a style of music that is no longer popular or never has been popular in the mainstream. Then they take that PV, and include it as a bonus for the limited edition, cd only release not on iTunes, and not uploaded to Youtube unless somebody decides to do it against their wishes. And the majority of viewers are international viewers since Japanese have their own sites and ways of digesting media to choose from as well. And they compete in the second biggest music market in the world, with a huge amount of other independent visual kei artists, many of them producing their own music, and not having doors opened to them, no big funding, and a lot of bands still survive somehow, and bands like Royz, Kiryu, etc.... enter the top ten of the charts repeatedly beating tons of major produced and marketed acts, despite being the antithesis of worldwide pop culture and trends. Then you have bands like SID, and lots of older bands like X Japan, Luna Sea, Dir en grey, who have made more money than most pop artists, have been around longer than KPop was a 'thing', and will be referenced as long as there is VK. But in terms of Youtube and worldwide presence, Korean Pop has a very large presence, has several connections to worldwide pop culture where it isn't such a huge step, they are just rapping and twerking in a different language. The Korean government has also heavily funded Korean media on the global stage, from the Korean Wave of film that had a regrettably short life, to KPop now. Japanese individuals and companies have actually complained about not representing Japanese workson the worldwide stage, I even remember Gackt talking about how they are failing to promote Japanese work outside of Japan. But at the same time, Japan has a much more insulated subcultural make-up, and is not AS rapidly molded and influenced by Global and especially American trends. So I definitely think certain cultural exports from Japan are hard to find an audience for, while some others, like anime, games, manga, JDM, etc... have been some of the most influential things in pop culture and subculture history. Not sure if I answered the question or even tried to, but ah well.

Show from A9 plays guitar during some songs. Chisa from DIV plays '65 Jazzmaster (Beautiful guitar) Takeru from SuG plays guitar during some songs. Many play pianos, like Keiyuu from Kra. AKi plays bass. Miyavi. Hyde Hide And other solo or side projects etc... Then there are member switches and collab projects. Just off the top of my head. Hard to be 'visual' and as active if you always have an instrument, also a lot of fan interaction and call response type stuff, and many bands are on the melodic side rather than rhythm based. Hard to play anything other than simple stuff while singing a tight song. Three piece bands also aren't as common in Visual Kei, which usually derive from different styles of music. Most good vocal only frontmen from different areas of music use a style that would be lost if they always had to hold an instrument. I can't imagine Kyo from deg, TMR, Mao, or Mick Jagger, etc... always holding a guitar.

Thanks for all the comments! I also use that GiTS quote btw. Also Gazette I still haven`t spun as much as their older stuff, but just the fact that they got back into my ears with this release was a good feeling. I think MuCC swung a little bit back into doing what old-timers (hehe) can enjoy some-what with some tunes on their last album and this mini. Although I am a feverish fan of all their stuff from Karma on myself. I listen to the same bands all the time but some new acts entered into my endless loop this year which is good. Also something I forgot to say: Thanks to everyone who shows me new music, or new ways to look at bands or even individual songs. A lot of people have inspired me, and added things into my life. I really appreciate it, and I am sure some people noticed bands that I stole from them, and things they showed me over the year. Anyway, enough of that sappy moment, 2016 is upon us, let`s rock!

Great look into the colorful (live-limited) mind of Hiroki. Resistar mix was really awesome, still want them to do another big one like BPR. This one was easier to get even if it wasn`t a `big`release. Also I am presuming you got all those signatures, lucky! Without VK I may never have imagined listening to vocals like some of these bands, I might not think that anyone could pull it off, but thankfully, I have been shown the light, and love it (even if I have trouble singing along). Blitz you got me more into, but you showed me so much that I still need to play catch up, ah well, let`s see where the future will bring us!

Really cool, I really love FALILV but didn`t get too listen to them too much this year, seems like I missed out. I will be studying the second half of your list, don`t know too much there, and I have to admit I have taken a peek at your last.fm before and stolen some bands from you there that I really like. Hopefully girugamesh will be killing it next year to make up for keeping us waiting again!

Already loved the list when I saw my boy`s in SuG, but you just kept listing things I also love. Gonna go out on a limb and expect to see SuG`s VIRGIN on your favorite list next year, I am looking forward to that the most right now. Like the category set-up and the .gif`s. Also good to see other people enjoying FAR EAST DIZAIN. Angelo I haven`t been keeping up with enough, will look into.

Really like the list and thorough nature of it. Absolutely obliterates computer memory as well, hehe. You really bring another side of VK to the table and represent it well. Lots of stuff that need more repping on this list. Some random things I also really like are Inoran, and the X Japan song is still great, as well as other acts that have been around a while but are still making it work in 2015-2016, which is why I think in VK, anything is possible!

I was really surprised that you enjoy so many similar things, didn`t know that. Great, great list, I gotta try more of the Pelican. I really love that SuG track too, hehe, the ending really pushes it to greatness for me, always love listening and waiting for that part, and then the start up of BLACK, oh man. Then just letting the album loop again, etc etc... For me one thing that really adds pleasure to listening to a release is the order of songs, like sometimes you can not like a song so much on a single or in a PV, but on an album it either starts up after an epic song, and the mood is made, or the ending leads into an epic tune, so you always listen to both songs together and it grows on you. Really liked Baroque`s video performances of those songs too.

Salut, sweet list, megamasso stands out quite a bit, do you usually listen to `heavier`music toujours or is it just the case that this year your favorites happened to be heavier? Just wondering.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: I couldn`t fit everything into my main list, and I can`t fit everything here either but here are some: BugLug (changed a lot but I still enjoy some), Chanty, Xaa Xaa, Clowd, Anfil, Plastic Tree, Arlequin, Dead Children, Deviloof (they look cool), Pentagon, Ronocro (R.I.P.), My Fairytail, Panorama Kyoko etc, Loud Grape, Liraizo, Unrealistic, The Mortal, Jupiter. Also, I didn`t include any live-limited. Favorite Vocalist: Takeru from SuG Favorite Guitarist : Taizo from Kra (And favorite solo from雨に唄えば) Favorite Bassist : Chiyu from SuG Favorite Drummer: Shinpei from SuG Favorite Synth Sound : INAZUMA by ALSDEAD Favorite PV: Teenage Dream by SuG Favorite lyrics : イケナイ Kiss by DIV Favorite Label : BPR Best Comeback : Alice Nine members in Diawolf Worst Split : ALSDEAD Best Look : Gackt during Hallowe`en Best announcement : New Gackt album Favorite Live`s : UNiTE Band Reunions, TMR Live Experience. Best VK fan : Tetora Thanks for reading. Also big thanks to Yakihiko for bugging me (for months) to make this.

ALBUM`S COOL! LOG-ログ- – Re:TRAGRAS-リトラグラス- A great, higher pitched release somewhat down the street from Blu-Billion. R指定–少女喪失-syojosoushitsu- A really deep and enjoyable album. I was surprised by this. The GazettE – DOGMA To me this was the comeback of Gazette I had been waiting for, they got back to a place where I could finally be excited to hear new things from them. A well thought-out album that feels like it was conceived as such, instead of being a compilation of songs or singles. CRAZY! AKi – ARISE, EPHEMERAL He came out with a stripped down sound and youthful approach that some might not expect, and not everybody will enjoy. I personally loved it. Simple and fun. FAR EAST DIZAIN – TONICK DIZAIN This album definitely rocks. Some great lyrics, interesting guitar work that goes very low on the spectrum, and some rocking songs like The War Went On and Blank Space. Blu-BiLLioN – GENESIS A great album by them. You really feel plugged in to what the vocalist is feeling. DIV – SECRET Okay, I didn`t appreciate that there were barely any new songs, and no killer tracks like DIV is more than capable of, but I still have to admit it is a great album if you take a step back and look at it. コドモドラゴン –下克上。 A heavier release that does not contain as many catchy moments as their first album, but is still great altogether. It may be more of a grower than an instant turn-on. If you just let it play, you start to get the feel of it. SMOKIN` SICK STYLE!!! Develop One`s Faculties - reincarnation Definitely one of the break-through`s of the year. A resurgence of the classic `band-playing` feel, great vocals, and songs that leave a strong impression. vistlip – LAYOUT Great album with emotion and delivery. The feeling is one of a kind. Kra – 次の物語 Their most cohesive release in a little while. Not quite as rocking as some would wish, but still great altogether. If you are a fan, it contains great moments, though leaves you wanting more (like more guitar!). BORN – LIVE THE STALIN Possibly the most rocking release of the year for me, they absolutely kill it live, and you have to appreciate how he can still pull off his vast array of voicings in a hectic live show. If you really enjoy the head-banging element of BORN the live songs almost outperform their studio versions. BAROQUE – PLANETARY SECRET A new direction that really left an impression on me. Swallow The Night is one of my favorite songs, and the awesome guitar always pops into my mind making me listen to it again and again. DOG inTheパラレルワールドオーケストラ– パラドッグス They went in a different direction as well with this one, creating an album based on their past, present and future. ユナイト – UNiVERSE The grower of the year for me. At first I was very disappointed by this, but after a long time, I started to appreciate it more, and can now see it as a great album. Hard to explain, but the band creates huge expectations, though this does definitely deliver once you get over the fact that not every song is wild ride through UNiTE-ville. SuG – BLACK For me this is the greatest release of the year, and one of the most well-made albums I have ever heard. I have always loved a deep tonic sound mastered to cover the full spectrum, creating a sonic environment that is rich in detail and a pleasure to sit back and listen to, examining the different parts. The song-writing is amazing, at times taking elements from their influences, and making them their own, and at times creating their own completely fresh sound. Every track is great, every member performs the best that they ever have, and everything is so different yet it all fits together into one amazing album that gets better with every listen.

MINI-ALBUM`S MORRIGAN - ブラック・ルシアン Very interesting, darker band. What I like most is the atmosphere they create. umbrella -キネマトグラフ Really loved the emotion coming from this single, the longing that was projected throughout. nue – mother As I said before, nue really mixes it up and this release shows that. Very different tracks to explore, and a very melancholy sound. My BACTERIA HEAT IsLAND – MIMIC The youthful feeling I got from this band was something I really enjoyed. They had a different approach to their sound which was very interesting. All of their releases were great. ムック– T.R.E.N.D.Y. -Paradise from 1997- Amazingly well made mini from them. Track after track has that now signature MuCC `different` feeling about it, and they pulled it all off very well. The tracks feel a lot less linear on this one, and it`s a pleasure to listen to. DIAWOLF – Rebellion, Turbulence Really love them. Very experimental, without sounding like they are `just experimenting`. I already feel like they have such a deep and varied library after just two releases. A stand-out is definitely Show`s lyrics, which feel much more real and emotional than his other work in recent years. BORN –オルタナティヴ・タランチュラ Their most complex release. They really went somewhere else with this one, while still being able to have some moments of classic heavy BORN. They did a lot of things I didn`t know they could, and have become one of the most exciting bands for me to hear new material from. Overall a very cohesive release with lots of greats moments in each track that I keep going back to.