The (most) influential releases in J-music scene

[Pretsy 1343]

So, the point of this topic is that you'll bring up a few (let's limit it to ~2 RELEASES PER PERSON*) titles that have affected the sound in later generations. AND THIS TIME you don't need to rely on "facts" - unless you are willing to cause shitstorm here: before you post your title, discard the whole "influence fact" mess out of your head - and think how that certain title has influenced IN YOUR OPINION (I am not really looking forward to "opinions are for the weak"-ideology, btw).

 

I am not really sure whether this kind of idea has been cultivated much earlier here (as in topics with same ideas), but it's still interesting to see that what kind of titles pop up here. 

 

You can format your posts your own way, BUT MAKE SURE it includes following details:

 

1) artist title - album title (obviously)

2) album cover

3) release date (or release year)

4) Explanation to your choice (Why? How?)

5) Youtube link for certain song off the album, if possible (as a showcase/supporting element for your explanation, you can add a small description if you wish)

 

And definite rule of thumb here is of course: NO SPAM, NO SHITSTORM

*yup, I am quite harsh here.

 

Thank you.

 

As a "firestarter", I will do this first:

 

 

LUNA SEA - IMAGE

5/21/1992

 

Some say that it's actually their later phase (MOTHER) that influenced the later movement in vk sound, but "airy, serene" and "dark, threatening" sound of later generations came out of here: Ryuichi's dramatic "X meets Morrie and Atsushi"-kind of vocals, Inoran's airy, tingly rhythm/acoustic guitars, Sugizo's smooth riffing and atmospheric soloing with occasional violins, J's dynamic basswork and Shinya's "rock-friendly but still on heavier side"- drumming - and all those combined together form a spacious sound, which later acts - such as Gazette or Nightmare, adapted in some of their works. I think that certain vk vocals, with their sympathetic over-dramatic performance, have taken a leaf out of  LS' book. Other elements, such as guitars, here instead helped to combine two genres, which might have been at that time quite impossible to fit together due to different means: post-punk (thanks to early LS' friendly "late DEAD END" influence) and hard, glam-ish rock (thanks to X). Thus, I believe that this is by far one of the most important key factors leading to later "new wave of visual kei sound".

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NL8ecB_0R8

for album version, skip to 3:15 if you wish, you can pinpoint some instances I mentioned above in that video.

 

 

AND THIS IS NOT LIMITED TO VK ONLY, GO AHEAD AND POST NON-VK TITLES TOO (that's actually something I'd appreciate too).

[Tetora 625]

Gackt - Mars

 

 

April 26, 2000

 

The first album by Gackt, which featured his second best selling single Vanilla and a myriad of other more experimental tracks featuring a wide range of sounds and instruments, as well as tempos and structures.

 

This was during a period where Visual Kei, and others forms of `different` rock music started losing its footing in any mainstream context within Japan. Yet this album was regarded as the first of many `monster` albums by Gackt, which enjoyed huge popularity and coverage, despite not being easily definable as mainstream in any sense.

This album really blew open the formula and idea for what a modern, successful Rock album could sound like, and really endorsed freedom to both Gackt`s peers, and listening fans.

 

Without an album, or artist like this, I feel that what could be mainstream in Japan would have narrowed even further, and we would not have as much freedom in major bands, or even Indie bands in terms of what we could hear.

 

Although some say Gackt starting straying away from the Visual Kei influence at this time, this is up for debate, as Visual Kei is not clearly defined look or sound-wise, and one could still easily attach Gackt`s look and sound in Mizerable (pre-Mars) Vanilla (Mars), or Redemption / YFC (very post Mars) as Visual Kei.

 

The album was written, composed and produced by Gackt. He also did the vocals (for those somehow totally unaware of Gackt) and played piano. As composer his influence also runs to the other instruments, though there is input from long-time friends and contributors to Gackt such as You (Violin, Guitar), Chachamaru (Guitar, Associate Producing), and Masa (Guitar).

 

Although this is a major album, it should be noted that the experimental sound of this album did take a while for the public to warm up to, and in fact following Gackt works which kept with the experimentation were increasingly more accepted by the public.

 

For those new to Gackt or this album, instead of listening to a Youtube video for this, I recommend you listen to the album in its entirety a couple of times to get a feel for it.