Post your "UNPOPULAR" music opinions!

[mahoujin 395]

I don't think it's weird to buy like 1 cheki as a cheap souvenir for a live you actually went to, but I don't really understand buying a whole bunch or from random lives you didn't even attend. That said, the fans who do that indeed really give the band a lot of extra money that I'm sure they're grateful for. I just have no idea what I would want a bunch of cheki for. There's no appeal to me.

[emmny 4139]

im someone who prefers buying band merch over actual music/dvds so i totally understand the logic of cheki. the idea of seeing my fav member in different looks and cute poses in pictures i can hold and play around with is totally cute.

i just dont get when bands charge upwards of 1000yen like uh ???? its a fucking polaroid

[doombox 4421]

I've bought a few chekis because it was the closest I'll ever get to seeing the band and I was scared my fave was gonna fade into obscurity when they break up. And now that they have broken up I'm happy I have a little something from them.

[Chi 2624]

i think i would be willing to buy one for each look/era and trade if it's not my favorite member (it's random, right?)

but i would probably not buy 10 at once.. or buy ones that are too expensive

[Lestat 2167]

The owner of 185 cheki quietly crawls into a corner as she realizes she has probably spent over ¥120.000 on them.

[yakihiko 1480]

I usually subscribe to the notion of "live and let live", but I'm sorry, the entire concept of spending money on chekis bewilders me! It just seems like buying photographs of strangers...which is creepy:*purchases 10 chekis*"My family photo album is almost complete"

I think it's natural, till a certain point, buying chekis from band and changing with others, but overpricing it like some bands does isn't correct.

I have saw not one, but lot of japanese fans with cheki(s) in front while eating food, like dating... This I think it's too much xD

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

The only checki I care about is the one I have with Kamijo. The rest I came across by accident or they came with things as bonuses 

[paradoxal 2948]

im someone who prefers buying band merch over actual music/dvds so i totally understand the logic of cheki. the idea of seeing my fav member in different looks and cute poses in pictures i can hold and play around with is totally cute.

i just dont get when bands charge upwards of 1000yen like uh ???? its a fucking polaroid

 

I think it's natural, till a certain point, buying chekis from band and changing with others, but overpricing it like some bands does isn't correct.

I have saw not one, but lot of japanese fans with cheki(s) in front while eating food, like dating... This I think it's too much xD

 

 

Bands usually start raising the prices of chekis only after they've reached a certain level of popularity. New bands usually charge around 500 yen, but more popular bands might charge even 1500 yen for one cheki. They don't necessarily want to raise the price that much, but it just simply prevents people from buying too many cheki at once. They can't produce infinite amounts of cheki, so if they can make 100 cheki for one concert, the higher pricing kind of guarantees that more people will get the chance to buy one.

 

Everybody knows already that the material cost of one cheki is basically nonexistent, so chekis are basically just one more way to support the band you like. Nothing wrong with that imo

[Lestat 2167]

The highest price I've paid for cheki during lives is €7,50, and those were for Kamijo – a considerably big artist. It's usually the fans afterwards that sell them for ridiculous prices, not the bands. There have been a countless amount of times where I've seen fresh cheki that were originally sold for ¥500, go for at least ¥2000 because a 'fan' sells them right after the live. These people are literally making it their business to rip people off.

[Ikna 1225]

I prefer photosets over cheki. Photosets are at least professionally done, probably printed on better quality photo paper and sometimes bigger. I really dislike the cheap look of stupid blurry polaroid photos, where you often can't even see the outfit properly. I also see no point wasting so much money for a crappy photo instead of a well done one. Good, photosets don't have the uniqueness factor, but I am no collector anyway.

Do bands nowadays even sell photosets? VK groups used to sell a lot back in the day. But nowadays it seems all you get are chekis. Or sometimes a single photo as an extra bonus (at CDJapan for example).

 

 

Also agree with the opinion about the -core trend. There are a few I actually like (Nega, Mejibray to some extend), but overall I prefer even the mid 00s Nu Metal groups over that whole -core trend. The Nu Metal groups were already derivative with their chugga chugga beats and trashing the same chords on the guitar. But most Visual kei -core acts aren even worse.

 

First the vocals totally suck. VK vocalists just can't growl. Give me late 90s to early 00s screams and harsh singing, those were fine. But the vocal chord disrupting mess that has been popular since ca 2004? No, thanks.

Guitar work has become even more stale. Now it's just breakdown after breakdown, a few misplaced solos, the rest is chugga chugga crap. Occasionally there is the totaly unfitting dubstep-techno-bloop shit and poppy vocals. I feel most modern VK songs are disjointed and sound like two or more songs mashed together.

 

Ulitmately, and this is my own subjective experience, I feel bands like Deviloof and Nocturnal Buttlust are erasing everything that made VK kind of unique and seperated it from other japanese rock music. Now I know the eternal dispute wether or not VK is really a musical genre (with most people saying it isn't), but to me Visual kei has (or had) it's own sound. Yes, it changed several times throughout it's almost 30 years timespan, but certain elements were always there. And you don't have to look at revival bands like Grieva or Sibilebashir to find them. Even in groups like Keel, emmurée or even (early) Nega and Ayabie you have/had elements that went as far back as into the 90s.

But the more we venture further into the future, the more VK moves away from its roots. Bands like deviloof are just like generic deathcore. There is nothing in those groups' sound that hints at any Visual kei connection at all. Even funnier, some of these bands started out as Metalcore and only got into VK because they probably want to have some extra bangyas. They could do just fine being a regular deathcore band. Same problem with those unbearable host kei groups and same tactic. VK was always a bangya magnet, but it's sad to see how it has become only that.

[Lestat 2167]

Ulitmately, and this is my own subjective experience, I feel bands like Deviloof and Nocturnal Buttlust are erasing everything that made VK kind of unique and seperated it from other japanese rock music. Now I know the eternal dispute wether or not VK is really a musical genre (with most people saying it isn't), but to me Visual kei has (or had) it's own sound. Yes, it changed several times throughout it's almost 30 years timespan, but certain elements were always there. And you don't have to look at revival bands like Grieva or Sibilebashir to find them. Even in groups like Keel, emmurée or even (early) Nega and Ayabie you have/had elements that went as far back as into the 90s.

 

Most of the bands you mentioned here, at least KEEL, emmurée, ネガ and Ayabie, already had their roots in the 90's, or early 00's. Their members spawned from groups such as AZALEA, Aliene Ma'riage, D'elsquel, and another few honorable mentions. It was only a matter of time before you heard that inspiration back in these members' newer bands and that is why they still sound attractive to the people who are stuck with their tastes in these eras. A lot of the newer bands that came about after 2010 consist of young folks in their early twenties. Surely, they might have grown up with 90's Visual Kei but they haven't had the experience that came with playing in such bands, thus these elements have simply been erased and they follow what's currently attractive to the general audience. This is why you always see musicians dabbling around in completely different bands; yesterday it was Oshare, today it's the fluke that Visual Japan calls 'metalcore' — they simply follow the direction of what most fans are currently most stoked about and a lot of these musicians don't care what music they play, or if they sport demon wings, dark makeup, or a frilly princess dress, as long as it sells. It's why I usually tend to stick to units that bring older members with them (those who are in their mid 30's) because there will still be a source of the original sound that Visual Kei brought along with itself and it feels to me as if these musicians have a lot more respect for the scene. It's why I will always support most —if not anything— these iconic musicians who have had experience with Visual Kei's memorable sound, release. 

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

 

 

Do bands nowadays even sell photosets? VK groups used to sell a lot back in the day. But nowadays it seems all you get are chekis. Or sometimes a single photo as an extra bonus (at CDJapan for example).

 

Kamijo sold a set of professional photos from various Lareine and Versailles costume sets when he toured the US. Grieva, as another example, has photo sets up on their web shop. It seems like this isn't uncommon to do, there's just no emphasis in advertising that they are available. 

[Takadanobabaalien 3607]

im someone who prefers buying band merch over actual music/dvds so i totally understand the logic of cheki. the idea of seeing my fav member in different looks and cute poses in pictures i can hold and play around with is totally cute.

i just dont get when bands charge upwards of 1000yen like uh ???? its a fucking polaroid

This :v

My japanese friends always think its fun that I don't give a flying fuck about chekis, but I love to buy merch (clothes) and releases lol

[CAT5 9075]

i used to baffled as well.. until i began collecting chekis myself ._.

 

that said, back when i was only collecting CDs and nothing else i've already felt that even among fans of the same band, everyone has different reasons for supporting them and likewise very different ways of showing support. quite a lot of japanese girls whom i know personally do nothing but collect chekis of their favorite vk member(s); some of them even go for lives just to buy chekis so they can keep those they want and trade/sell the rest. and to be honest, their surprise at our effort in hunting down live-limited CDs isn't any less than our disbelief of them paying 2-3k yen* for a rare instore event cheki XD as for myself, i'm just a casual collector and am nowhere near as fanatic (nor can i afford to be), but i think i do "get" why people do these things.

 

of course, the more pragmatic reason for me buying chekis is that they are the main source of income (especially) for the smaller indies bands. for my few pet bands that don't release CDs on a regular basis i'm always tempted to spend a little on their chekis when i have the money to spare

 

I don't think it's weird to buy like 1 cheki as a cheap souvenir for a live you actually went to

That said, the fans who do that indeed really give the band a lot of extra money that I'm sure they're grateful for.

 

im someone who prefers buying band merch over actual music/dvds so i totally understand the logic of cheki. the idea of seeing my fav member in different looks and cute poses in pictures i can hold and play around with is totally cute.

 

I've bought a few chekis because it was the closest I'll ever get to seeing the band and I was scared my fave was gonna fade into obscurity when they break up. And now that they have broken up I'm happy I have a little something from them.

 

i think i would be willing to buy one for each look/era and trade if it's not my favorite member (it's random, right?)

 

I think it's natural, till a certain point, buying chekis from band and changing with others

 

Bands usually start raising the prices of chekis only after they've reached a certain level of popularity. New bands usually charge around 500 yen, but more popular bands might charge even 1500 yen for one cheki. They don't necessarily want to raise the price that much, but it just simply prevents people from buying too many cheki at once. They can't produce infinite amounts of cheki, so if they can make 100 cheki for one concert, the higher pricing kind of guarantees that more people will get the chance to buy one.

 

Everybody knows already that the material cost of one cheki is basically nonexistent, so chekis are basically just one more way to support the band you like. Nothing wrong with that imo

 

The highest price I've paid for cheki during lives is €7,50, and those were for Kamijo – a considerably big artist. It's usually the fans afterwards that sell them for ridiculous prices, not the bands. There have been a countless amount of times where I've seen fresh cheki that were originally sold for ¥500, go for at least ¥2000 because a 'fan' sells them right after the live. These people are literally making it their business to rip people off.

Thanks for your responses, everyone! This all makes perfectly good sense to me, so I've certainly got a better picture of things now.

[Tokage 5930]

Live albums are lame and pointless, if I wanted the ''live experience'', I'd rather go to a concert

[evenor 1655]

Live albums are lame and pointless, if I wanted the ''live experience'', I'd rather go to a concert

 

preach

[emmny 4139]

live albums for me are essential in visual kei/jrock. i love listening to live versions of my favourite songs, and considering they've outlawed all recording (audio/visual) at lives its the only way i get to connect on that level.

i only have a handful of live albums in my japanese library (its a lot more popular in western rock) but audio rips of DVD lives serve the same function for me.

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

live albums for me are essential in visual kei/jrock. i love listening to live versions of my favourite songs, and considering they've outlawed all recording (audio/visual) at lives its the only way i get to connect on that level.

i only have a handful of live albums in my japanese library (its a lot more popular in western rock) but audio rips of DVD lives serve the same function for me.

 

ya lot of bands tweak and alter songs for their lives that can at times even drastically add to their character, while other times it's just the different sound and live energy that makes them worth having. There are bands all over rock spectrum who'd play songs in a different manner or just jam on whim, I mean some bands would do this to the point where they'd be almost unrecognisable from the originals. Then there are live albums that are generally regarded as classics that I don't know why anyone would go on skipping should they be into the band. This is just rock music too that's comparatively pretty rigid in structure, this definitely happens even more elsewhere in music where it starts living in performance. 

 

In visual kei there certainly isn't a wide array of bands to choose from that have documented instances of them really fuckin' wif their songs live, 's due to many factors one being that these fucking bands very rarely get to see two Christmases before they break up under the crushing financial burden - hence when they whimsically pull out a half baked live arumabu out of their arses to fund their drinking. Dir en grey is obviously the best example of the opposite, being a band with their exposure and stature ( thusly havin' a good amount of raibus in circulation )  that's known for having their old shit evolve with them. If I'm invested into a bands sound and their musical craftsmanship then yes I want to hear what happens in a live setting even if it's a minute difference. I at least used to have audiorips of every Gazette dvd on my computer just because I dig their live energy and stan furiously. These days I prefer to just listening to their lives instead of the albums that I've already listened to more than I would dare confess.

 

I don't know how common doing bootlegs is in the visual kei scene, but I'd honestly pay good money for recordings of gazette lives with rarer songs and the inevitably necro sound quality subtracts absolutely nothing for me bring on the hiss and fuzz. Looking at a bunch of early Luna sea and Kuroyume footage on the youtubes makes me sad that there aren't whole gigs recorded because these two bands at their rawest were phenomenal. 

 

I have a habit of hoarding live recordings definitely, officials and bootlegs and all from my favorites. The most I have is 13 gigs of Throbbing Gristle on my computer and most of that is bootlegs. Used to have a respectable David Bowie bootleg folder on my old computer until it passed on rip. In electronic music too you're nothing less than damn near obligated to get live sets that have been recorded along with shit like DJ sets so I got a lot of those 2 in 'ere.

[Bear 1817]

Best thing about bootlegs is the fact that they aren't tempered with before it's release. No guitar/vocal dubs or anything like that. Gotta love that. WHile I do like plenty of live albums, a huge part of them are ruined in the way that they've dubbed it in studio before its release, something wich often removes the feeling of listening to a proper live album. To me at least.

 

Not too keen on live albums myself though even though there's plenty great ones that I'll play every now and then. But a lot of them doesn't feel like proper live albums at all though because of the dubs. I honestly believe that (live)albums like Live and Dangerous, No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith, At Folsom Prison, Made in Japan, Live at the Star Club, Hamburg, MTV Unplugged in New York, Alive!, Live After Death, It's Alive', Minimum Maximum and more are so good that they belong in the record collection of every single fan of music in general. Not kidding. Fantastic albums. Simple as that.

[yakihiko 1480]

I HATE the act of people selling free flyers, like, the band waste money doing it to distribute on lives and/or instore,... this kind of people take advantage selling it...orz

[emmny 4139]

+1 on disposables entire comment. there are some nuances in the live performance which are so notable and i remember specific parts of the live part for examples how the vocalist alters the melody during certain sections and i sing along differently to the live version; its almost like they're 2 different songs with a life of their own. this doesnt make a lot of sense but its kinda complicated

and i'd kill for certain live footage, especially during the start of bands' careers like u mentioned for the gazette.

[Nagisa 131]

I don't understand the appeal of the GazettE's Filth in the Beauty. It seems to be one of their most popular songs and it was one of the first GazettE songs I heard but I've never gotten into it. It's not like I don't like that style of music since I enjoy listening to several other similar-sounding songs like ガンジスに紅い薔薇 (Ganges ni Akai Bara) and Silly God Disco (unless they aren't similar at all). 

[Ikna 1225]

VK bands cosplaying as Tokyo Ghoul characters is lame. And it bores me how suddendly every freaking band is doing it (those face masks from the anga look stupid. Seriously)

[DESTINYGUY0316 363]

I miss Alice Nine. In old time is awesome now A9

music pop rock no more visual kei my opinion

I am honest with you guys I no like the new SuG

he look like j pop electronic pop rock no visual kei

old SuG so cool and funny,happy ...

[CAT5 9075]

"UNPOPULAR" opinion: Frequent disbandment is not unique to Visual Kei

From what I've observed over the years, there seems to be a common notion that the VK scene is highly unstable and unhealthy, and thatVK bands disband at the speed of light. I completely understand why some people might feel this way, but I think perspective is very important here. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of passionate Visual Kei fans abroad - people like @Trombe who tirelessly deliver news from every nook and cranny of the scene, and people like our good MH users here (@Champ213, @Biopanda, @Mi'ihen, @Yuki No Sai, @robkun, @kyoselflove, too many to name) who have gone out of their way to purchase and share all kinds of indie and rare VK goodies with overseas fans, we tend to have a rather enlarged and distorted view of VK as a whole. The overwhelming fervor found in the overseas Visual Kei fanbase simply doesn't exist for most other areas of Japanese music, like Japanese Jazz or folk/ssw for instance (although I wish it did). Bands outside of VK disband all the time - we're just much less aware of them. Most of us are viewing visual kei under a microscope and ignoring the peripheries. Common sense dictates that not every 4 to 5 guys with instruments and a makeup kit will find success.