MH FEATURED POLL #21: What does your family think of Visual Kei?

[beni 2149]

So, what do your family members think of Visual Kei?

We all know you love it, but what about your yolks?

 

 

What's not to love, right?

 

To submit a poll for the MH POLL OF THE WEEK, P.M. either @CAT5 or @beni with your poll question, choices, and state whether it's multiple choice or not.

[CAT5 9075]

I come from a pretty conservative family (south of murrica yay). I remember showing some stuff to my brothers years ago and trying to explain to them as best I could, but ofc their opinions on it remained as follows:

 

My sisters were a bit more open-minded about it.

As a teen, I distinctly recall playing rentrer en soi (something from sphire croid) in the car with my dad and his response being "what the heck are we listening to?". If he'd actually seen some of the VK bands, I doubt his response would have been any better than that of my brothers.

[yakihiko 1480]

My family says: "they are very colorful and etc..."

But after such long years they accept my music taste XDD

I'm the visual key sheep of family.

[tetsu_sama69 1119]

It's a bit of a rough area for me. Part of my family knows I'm into it and they like to ask awkward questions like "are you still into that japanese stuff?" and then give me judgemental stares because of the fun of being part of an extremely conservative christian family and they consider it a phase even though I haven't shifted gears into much else for almost a decade now. My mom and my brother are accepting of it mostly because they know it makes me happy and helps me get by. My mom really likes the visual aspect though with the make-up and clothing styles she just has that whole "it's ot in english so it scares me" thing that most people I've shown it to have. I'm also the black sheep in the family and live as far from them other than my mom and my brother for personal reasons and visual kei is a big part of me that keeps me sane and comfortable... that went a bit off topic didn't it?

[violetchain 912]

I have a very mellow family, and my mom and sister both listen mainly to rock music too, so they deal with it as well as can be expected. I know they don't really love VK music, for the most part, but they're kind of intrigued by the costumes and theatrics.

 

My mom is a David Bowie fan and she has a vague interest in artists like Marilyn Manson, so it's not exactly shocking to her. She'd walk into my room when I was watching L'Arc and BUCK-TICK concert DVDs and linger for a bit to watch what was going on, ask me questions, etc. My sister likes even more ridiculous music than I do, so she can't really judge either.

[emmny 4139]

my parents dont care lol they know im a weirdo so vkei is just another weird thing i like

[Sakura Seven 593]

my mom stans for malice mizer's merveilles album (au revoir in partic) 

[Champ213 1858]

I'm far too old to still live with my parents, so I voted "They don't know". We may have talked about it on occassion but it's nothing they really care about. When I was still living at home as a teen I was listening to gothic stuff and Marilyn Manson, and they didn't mind that either.

 

 

They shouldn't be ones to complain anyway. When they were young, my father was a long-haired anarchist throwing molotov cocktails at demonstrations, and my mother was pretty much a hippie. I was probably more conservative in my teen years than they were at that age, I was just a half-assed goth, I didn't drink, I didn't smoke, I didn't party away the nights. I remember how they one day would come to me and say "You know, if you ever want to try out weed, better come to us, we can have a joint together, it's better than getting it from strangers", and I was just flabbergasted because the thought hadn't even occured to me, lol.

 

 

So yeah, they're very liberal in that regard, my musical tastes really are the least of their concerns. XD

[TokyoCinderella 77]

My dad has always kinda poked fun at it (but no serious qualms), and my mom's probably the reason I'm into it. She's more than cool with it and can identify a lot of the bands I like on look or sound. In high school she'd let me put my CDs on in the car so they grew on her. She also tells me to give the vocalist of my band hell when I see him for this-that-or-the-other, and wants to come see them with me if she ever visits. ;;

 

My mom dressed up with a group as KISS for Halloween as a teenager and has tons of rock concert stories (like the terrifying one about getting carried along with the crowd in a rush when doors opened without her feet even touching the ground).

 

Proud to have my parents ( ^0^)/

[anakuro 847]

While my family is not particularly interested, they know it makes me happy and is my hobby etc so they're generally supportive or at least accept it. They generally ask me if I've gone to any lives lately, and my mom patiently listens to any stories I have, etc. The music itself will probably never be their thing but whatever.

 

My mom would probably be willing to go to a live with me. My dad probably would not. And my sister has gone to two lives with me and while it's nothing she would ever get into, she enjoyed the experience quite a bit--she thought the way the girls dressed was really interesting, doing furitsuke was fun, and so on. 

[togz 2004]

Growing up, I hid it at first because I knew my parents were very close-minded about things like that. They never approved of things like excessive make up or coloring of hair and didn't understand boys with long hair even, let alone ones that looked like girls. I'd still listen to it openly, but it took me a while to actually show them what they looked like. I remember listening to Carry? by the GazettE and my mom even started singing it... so I took that chance to explain to her and show them what they looked like. She accepted it, but my dad would literally take things I bought with money I earned on my own and throw it in the fire place. He'd yell at me for listening to that "gay shit" as he calls it. 

 

Once i turned 18 I ran off and dyed my hair and got a bunch of piercings in protest I think. I eventually went to cosmetology school and became involved with a lot of fashion shows at conventions (doing hair and make up) and my dad still wasn't supportive. Finally there was a free convention I got to work at with ibi from sixh, and because it was free I begged my dad to go. He sat through the whole thing, and at the end he told me "I finally understand. That was pretty cool." 

 

I think that was the first time my dad made me cry out of joy.

 

Now it's just a thing that exists, and they don't question it at all anymore.

[Senedjem 510]

Everyone in my general vicinity is very much tired of hearing about it


Apathy almost hurts more

[Bear 1817]

I doubt any of them care enough to have formed an opinion on it.

[denkserw 2]

It depends on which member of the family.others are too conservative, I could never tell them. My mom is OK. But I don't tell her anything anymore at my age. I had in the past. She cared because she loves me and not because she likes it of course. It's the same with all people outside family. Some I can tell ,some not. The majority would judge me very negative though. If I would show especially vkei

[eiheartx 1310]

They don't give 2 shit, I'm not giving them any explanations either. XD

Would like to vote "They just don't give a shit" but I can't.

[nullmoon 784]

My dad and brother don't seem to get it, even from a musical aspect. I generally listen to louder stuff so I think they get confuzzled by all the Japanese being screamed at them.

My brother's love of Japanese music extends as far as Ai Otsuka. Go figure XD

[doombox 4421]

My parents love it. Mom is an artist at heart, she's always painting or crafting things so she loves the imagery and costumes when I've shown her magazines. Dad is a musician and has become a pretty die hard Miyavi fan. He actually goes to see Miyavi concerts every time he comes here. I watch live dvds with them of Mucc and they both have favorite songs they'll request. Idk I've always been weird but they encourage it.

[Nyasagi 259]

My mom doesn't care, my interests are my business. There was no fitting answer, so I picked the last one, because it was the closest to it.

[enyx 903]

My family doesn't really care about my music taste. My mother openly admits that she just doesn't 'get' my taste in music (or my personality in general, to be honest). She's one of those people that only cares about the sound of a vocalist's voice, and even then only cares about how "pleasant" it sounds. Anything to do with instrumental composition/complexity, or anything that doesn't centre around being "pleasant" just doesn't seem to have any appeal to her, so that cuts out about 95% of my music taste, including pretty much all of the VK I listen to. My brother is the one that got me into rock music at a very young age, and he probably hears my music so I'm sure he's at least somewhat aware of VK. He's never spoken to me about it though, and he tends to be specifically into early 90's grunge and whatnot. He did buy me a GazettE CD from Japan when he visited there once, but that's probably the closest to VK he's come to my knowledge xD. My sister's very similar to my mom and we almost never speak about anything aside from casual "How are you?"s and the like; I highly doubt she'd enjoy any of the music that I listen to, including VK.

 

That's about it really, there isn't anybody else in my family that I have any contact with aside from my uncle, who also doesn't know anything about it.

[beni 2149]

My answer is pretty much 'they accept it at least.' The only Jmusic my mum has ever given a glance to is Amuro, and even then she complains about the vocals: it being too 'squeaky' and 'chipmunk' like. Visual Kei wise, she's just as astonished as my nan, and chooses to ignore the fact that it used to be where all her money went to when it came to my pocket money, haha. My nan always goes 'I'm going to Japan to sort them out.' x'D She doesn't get drag queens, so when I showed her Kaya, she was confused, and then got even more so with band members such as An Cafe's Miku and Bou, questioning why they have to look so girly, assuming they're all females. When I say they're all men, she's in disbelief. XD So I guess she fits the third option too; can't handle the flawlessness! But she's a lot more accepting and will listen to any Japanese musicians I show her compared to mum, and she shows some interest in it too. I don't think my older siblings know about VK since they're never here, but they know I listen to Asian music. They're not really music fans like my mum so they don't notice it much at all. And my little sister... she's probably the most understanding. She might even get into Jmusic as much as me! Anime music be taking her over slowly, tehe. She thinks the style is cool, but musicially, she questions at times how I can listen to it too. x'D

 

All in all, mine's a pretty understanding bunch as long as I don't play it out loud!

[indigo 389]

I don't talk about my music taste with my family so they don't have any idea about VK. I imagine my mother would probably be cool with it, father would just shake his head unacceptingly + disown me and older brother would just laugh at me. So the last option it is.

[robkun 4184]

It actually divides my parents pretty well. My mom likes a lot of it, the very visual-end of the spectrum makes my dad squeamish lol. Although he does like Metronome and Diru, so that's pretty awesome lol. Soooo I suppose they accept it XD.

[TokyoCinderella 77]

In a few years the responses to similar polls are going to start including "my mom/dad got me into it."

 

 

 

@_@ Blows my mind.

[Des 289]

→ Insert dark joke about how that will never happen 'cause listening to too much visual kei causes infertility.

[Aferni 2381]

While I don't live with my parent's (currently living with my aunt) she really doesn't notice, well either that or she doesnt give a shit.