Tetora

Strong rumour mill churning.
Sales peaked at Rank 82 in the charts, lasting one week on the charts; their last three single being their most popular.
Not high enough to be a moderately successful Indie band by chart measure alone, but not a disaster for bands in that stage of their lifecycle. There are many bands who have lasted longer with similar or even lower sales, and have been on a bigger label. They also had no major work to act as their defining moment in early career, you have to sort through shorter releases and receive a mixed bag sound wise.
Though the label has been pushing them producion and promotion wise to gain an audience, and their last PV is not location heavy but has better production than bands in the top ten of Oricon, so I would say there was a lot of expectation for them similar to the expectation that me and other fans had for a band that was so skilled in blending pop hooks into rock music.
They definitely could have gained traction, and been more successful, in my opinion.
First, they had an unpopular release approach, no album and single after single, meaning lower output of songs compared to other bands, also meaning live shows had a redundancy to them since you were always seeing a very similar performance.
Second, hard to pin down Shounenki sound signature, since their releases changed quite a bit, most new acts develop a distinct callingcard first then branch out, developing their demographic then pushing the boundary. Harder to pin down Shounenki sound and attract the market for it, even if there is one.
Then you have the style of vocals and style of band possibly clashing. Differing songs including drastic changes in some B-sides, there is a possibility that not all members always agreed or wanted to focus on making that kind of music. And again, may be hard for some fans to follow,or choose Shounenki as 'their band' when you never know what you're going to get. Most creators with a business plan develop a base first.
After that, they are all young and you never know what is going to happen, we don't know the labels plans, what kind of pressure they were under, if the label can afford all their bands at the moment, if the members can afford it, if there was a strong leader in the band, or if they had differing personalities or some major issue arise, if all members can handle the not-so-easy task of writing songs in great number to meet a schedule, etc...
Anyway, just my speculation, don't know why I wrote this. Great band, hope to hear of a new group forming soon, they could have went places, if the vocalist especially forms a new group, he especially can go places, etc...

loss of another good vocalist

Out of the trilogy that has been Girugamesh's "comeback" , "CHIMERA" is the strongest till date. Its more or less of a continuation of Gravitation but this time its mixed with the flavor of the old school badass Girugamesh sound that made them such a force to be reckoned with in the past. I also love how the songs make me wanna do a mix of dancing and headbanging. Only song that is iffy to me is Horizon. But even so, it fits with the album and isn't anything id deem bad.    Reactions to my fav songs Wither Mind:   MY NIGGA WHEN THAT BREAKDOWN CAME THROUGH:
    END: From start to finish...I haven't heard a song like this from Giru in like ever.    Chimera (after it sunk in): Has this badass feel to it that makes me go       Very well done. Huge props also to them still pimping the whole EP concept. Its working. No filler, just straight to the point banger's. Right now its the album to beat this year. Great job Girugamesh! 9.5/10

This made me "awww" more than I'd like to admit. haha.
 
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-gets-apology-from-eight-year-old-boy/1100-6434470/

I always already getting my bag to go US ....
Coldrain! Great band ahead!

People are already blaming Yoshiki for the cancelled show while they're saying absolutely nothing about Pata and fail to recognize how critical his condition is. How truly awful and inhumane the Visual Kei scene is at times like these.
I seriously hope the man gets better and that he takes his time to recover, everything else can wait. Health goes above all.

I have seen recently on twitter, a lot of people (musicians and normal) choosing 9 albums, the idea here is for you to pick around 9 albums (no more, no less) that you like the most or that in some part of your life was really important to you, no order is need. You can have Full Albums, Mini-Albums, Singles, even Vynils are okay. Not only Japanese...
Also, try to pick one album per artist/band, and post at least one song video from a track inside
Here are mine (not in order):

Fall Out Boy - Infinity On High
coldrain - VENA
Linkin Park - Meteora
NAINE - NEW ANSWER IS NEW ENDING
BORN - BLACK THEORY MARKET
ケミカルピクチャーズ 世界を撃った男
My BACTERIA HEAT IsLAND - 青空のギロチン
GREEN DAY - 21st Century Breakdown
MUCC - Shangri-la
汚染区域 by My BACTERIA HEAT IsLAND
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIb7LsKbBWM
Breaking the habit by Linkin Park
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2H4l9RpkwM

Youtube comments are so funny sometimes that you end up hurting cause you are laughing so hard, so why not make a thread about. Link the video with the quote. maybe a little explanation if its needed.
 
"RIP MY WIG OFF YEZI" lmao took it to the next level
 
"HE SAID WHO DO U LOOK UP 2 SUCH AS FEMALE RAPPERS SHE NAMED ERYBODY BUT LIL KIM GIRL U FAKE" Its so funny because she clearly said kim too in the interview. then she goes on not own up to it in a convo and it's too funny

Mmm, yoghurt.

The border collie cross (Male, George) doesn't mind the camera unlike Phoebe, the female springer spaniel. Or well, more like it's almost impossible getting a good picture of her as she runs around 24/7, while George is a lazy sod who enjoys sleeping instead of exercising. Sorry for the quality and poor lighting, I just can't believe I haven't given them the MH love yet. ;3;

Snowed in with my Dr. Seuss dog. 

one of my dogs

My baby NEKO5, Lif <3

Zeus *^*

My female dog, Suri    (she passed out last year, heart problems =/ )

He looks mostly like a boxer, but his mother was a bulldog and his father was a boxer and rhodesian ridgeback mix. He's a big cuddly baby who gets really jealous when the other animals are getting attention. My cat thinks his tail is a toy. 

lol people were saying that back in 2008-2009 XD Oh how funny a thing time is huh?

even after excluding mini-albums and best albums, there are literally hundreds of post-2010 albums i can put on without skipping a track lol.
 
if i'm to narrow them down to 20 (already very hard!) they will probably look something like this..?
 
メガマソ - M of Beauty (2010)
ギルド - GUILDED (2010)
NEXX - cap:cell (2011)
Para:noir - a 21g meaningless existence (2011)
Shiva - Neverland (2011)
SwallowtaiL - プレセント (2011)
Royz - Revolution to NEW AGE (2011)
EVE - NOVUS (2012)
faice - Stay by my side (2012)
POPCORE - Core's (2012)
ZUCK - 遺伝アルゴリズム (2012)
ALSDEAD - Separator (2013)
DIV - ZERO ONE (2013)
Ray℃ - 君にリアルは届きますか (2013)
xTRiPx - Any verse (2013)
Anli Pollicino - ELECTRIC ROMANCE (2014)
CodeRebirth - CATHARSIS (2014)
シド - OUTSIDER (2014)
vistlip - LAYOUT (2015)
アンフィル - LUNAR PHASE (2015)
 
+ probably some others i don't rmb offhand. but, yeah, i listen to too much rubbish ._.
 

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.

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.

I was just correcting that part because Kpop took from Visual kei; not the other way round.
 
I cannot provide a very detailed explanation for your question, but if you want to compare Visual kei and Kpop in the west, I think there are a lot of differences that keep them separate and experiencing different realities.
 
Kpop is basically western pop, sung in Korean but the basic melodies are in the western style, a bit of English here and there, a bit of skin from both men and women for the sex appeal factor and that's how they made it. Kpop doesn't want to introduce people to something new, instead it gives people the same thing but a bit refined. Now, I'm not convinced Kpop is THAT popular in the west, I might even dare say it may be declining a little bit because it has become repetitive and too westernised.
 
Visual Kei, on the other hand, even in its most mainstream expression is still something that basically appeals to "outsiders", it still retains many attributes that keep it from being totally mainstream such as androgynous looks that basically defy gender roles, thought-provoking lyrics, the melodies themselves are many times an acquired taste, they are not necessarily conceived to appeal to the mainstream, etc.
 
Two different uncomparable genres, one is pop and the other rock and rock isn't as massive as pop is.

Isn't it the other way round? Kpop took the makeup, hairstyles and overall androgynous looks from Visual Kei.

can't wait - their new look is KILLER!

this joint rocked, even the engrish wasnt too horrible. ill take it over regular genirc j-core any day