Does VK do it for you anymore?

[YuyoDrift 1540]

Sounds like a lot of you are having this displeasure with VK these last few days.

 

You think the VK fad is starting to die out?

You feeling like you're too old for this now?

You think shitty bands have been forming recently?

 

Tell me your problems bros.

[yakihiko 1480]

VK funk?

[YuyoDrift 1540]

lol a state of depression. maybe rewording is in order.

[kyoselflove 2680]

VK is life 5eva

[Lestat 2167]

There are only a few Visual Kei groups that can still interest me. However, those bands consist mostly of musicians who have been active in the scene since the early or late nineties. I honestly cannot be bothered with all those feud and borderline metalcore formations who are incapable of creativity and only beckon so-called fans with their looks and so-called 'br00tality'. For me, the scene is over. A miracle must occur first before anything in it might grasp my attention again.

[kyoselflove 2680]

^That's all about taste. Like all the people who are butthurt it's not the 80s anymore and still listen to the same albums from then. VK hasn't gotten 'shitty' it's just so many people stick with what they know and don't like change.

 

Like all music, VK changes and to me, it still lives up to its main appeal and forever kicks ass.

[hiroki 5521]

the vk scene is so vast that it's only as interesting as the amount of effort you put into finding bands that interest you. for me, it really is as simple as that. as someone who unabashedly invests a lot of time in exploring new bands, i won't even pretend to know enough to make generalizations about "vk" as a whole. (but evidently these days listening to 3 bands is more than enough for ppl to prophesize that vk is dying, has died, etc.)

 

anyway i don't listen to 80% of current vk bands that i happen to know of, but whatever i'm listening to haven't gotten any less interesting/relevant to me, nor have new discoveries gotten any less exciting.

[emmny 4139]

i fell in love with vk through bands like deadman, studs, dir en grey, d'espairsray, malice mizer, sugar, rentrer en soi, tgads, emmuree, amber gris, 9goats, lynch. so it was kind of frustrating when i joined here to find bands that sounded like those and there were none. i ended up opening my mind a little and instead of thinking of "metalcore" bands as a guilty pleasure i started to genuinely enjoy their heaviness and sugar-sweet choruses. mind you, if these bands weren't visual i wouldn't listen to them but i still am kind of fond of them. because of this i've opened my mind to groups like nega, unsraw, kuroyuri to kage, dezert, avelcain, grieva, the black swan, D.I.D., MBHI etc, all of which i enjoy quite a bit.

so vk is still awesome for me, i've just had to adjust a little.

[Thedane 176]

VK's been good to me these recent years, amazing bands are constantly forming, all sounding incredible to me.

 

Hope it doesn't change any time soon.

[yakihiko 1480]

lol a state of depression. maybe rewording is in order.

Now I understood xD thank you... in my country funk is literally ass style.

I only listen to a small group from vk bands that are active, most ones are out of the scene.

As @hiroki mention, "the vk is vast...".

It's vast but in the end you will only enjoy bands with members you used to like on their past bands, not always for the music.

[Furik 832]

Hasn't done anything for me since like 2003.

[PsychoΔelica 648]

I hardly listen to any Japanese music anymore. Let alone any of those new wave vk bands.

[YuyoDrift 1540]

A lot of you have made some interesting points. It seems the scene has become limited in variety (no new blood, ex-members joining other ex-members) yet the # of bands has grown quite a bit. So I can see the yawn in some of you who say the music has gone stale.

 

Looks like too much quantity, not enough quality. The same can be said about any music genre though.

 

Even the musicians seem to be feeling the same way. I've seen too many Disbandments/Hiatuses from some of the greats these last couple years due to feeling like they've done it all/no more to achieve.

 

Take for instance DEATHGAZE or 12012. Great group of individuals, yet out of the blue, come out and say they feel they've done all they can as a group and feel its time to move on/rethink their music careers.

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

 

 

Even the musicians seem to be feeling the same way. I've seen too many Disbandments/Hiatuses from some of the greats these last couple years due to feeling like they've done it all/no more to achieve.

 

 

That's a lot of generalizations derived from an outsider looking in on an ecosystem that is highly highly contorted due to distance.

[YuyoDrift 1540]

Of course there's a lot more to take in account with each band and the reason behind their decision.

Didn't mean to generalize. Haha. Don't hurt me.

[LIDL 692]

VK is not a fad, unless for those jump shippers

But many bands just sounds the same. It's kinda exhausting sometimes. So I rarely hear new bands anymore, sry. :U

[doombox 4421]

I feel the inspiration for a lot of the younger bands is different than it was for the older bands. Which is a totally natural thing to happen. So those of us who got into it a long time ago or were attracted to the older bands when we came into the scene may feel like there isn't as much to choose from nowadays. Especially when a lot of us are limited in our exposure due to living so far away from the source.

I have ups and downs, a few years ago I was really losing interest in vk but then recently I've been finding more bands that have brought me back. So it's become more of a waiting game for me at this point.

[Zeus 7997]

Interesting question!

I was into visual kei for many years. I witnessed the bumpy transformation from 90's visual kei to 00's visual kei (although it wasn't as prominent and 9 year old me didn't really know what was going on...I was just in it for what free tunes I could get) and one noticeable part of this transformation was how many online fans didn't move with it. Those that loved the old goth style of the 90s continued to but as the scene moved away from that sound and style they found less and less artists that appealed to them until they quit the scene entirely. This transition seems to happen every ten years because I'm witnessing it again. There's another transition occurring but lots of bands are going in many different directions. I bet in a few years we'll see the birth of new sub-scenes again like oshare-kei that we use informally to describe the new sounds that form (and I can see them forming around bands that use dubstep influence, alt-rock bands, "traditional"-influenced bands, etc.).

As for me, I haven't cared about visual kei in years. There's an undeniable sound associated with it that appeals to all of us somewhat but the scene is saturated with a lot of bands that play very similar music. After ten or so years of listening to the same bands play the same kind of music and watching the progression of visual kei slow to a glacial pace, I got bored. @CAT5 at the time helped me to get adjusted to the other side of Japanese music, which in turn helped me to appreciate different artists in the visual kei scene which were doing things a little differently but we're still pretty cool. It also gave me perspective on just how small this scene really is. In a way, I came full circle back into visual kei but the artists that I enjoy and the amount I'm into it certainly has changed. Now I'm really into a lot of the alternative rock visual kei bands, nagoya-kei bands, or otherwise visual kei oddities that don't fit into the metalcore spectrum.

After thirteen years I can say that there's always bands in visual kei that sound different from the rest of the competition. @emmny mentions deadman and how influential they are as an "old band" but remember that deadman and Aliene Ma'riage were contemporaries! At the time, deadman was playing music completely new to the scene and look where it's got them. It's always easy to look back and say that yesterday's bands are better than today's bands because of x reasons but hindsight is always 20-20 and time has a way of preserving only the best. I feel like we won't really know if the scene's improving or dying for the next few years but I have more hope for the future of the scene now than I did a few years ago. 

 

It's really about how far you want to dig to find it and how willing you are to give new things a chance. And this is coming from someone who barely listens to any new visual kei.

[togz 2004]

I have to agree about the over saturation. But I also agree that it has to do with taste. I don't think Visual Kei is going anywhere any time soon because it's an ever recycling scene. Certain looks get brought back and the new sound is noticeably inspired by and older sound. Which in turn I feel like the people who "grow out of it" are replaced with younger fans just discovering it.

Me personally I got sick of investing my time in to bands that just disband a year later. Like I get it that VK has a band for everyone and saying all the bands sound the same is a little incorrect. But I literally have like two bands that are still active that somewhat interest me. But I guess I have gotten lazy. I've already heard all the bands that have been around a while but o don't check out new ones because they'll probably disband after 2-3 releases.

My actual music interest has changed as well. I'm not just straying away from VK but I'm gradually branching out of the Japanese area. There are still bands I enjoy, but the point is that VK doesn't do it for me anymore. New bands I do check out sound like they played guitar for a year found a great hairstylist and knew a friend who did at home recording. But it's ok to sound mediocre if you look great in VK. It's VK so I can't complain much about looks vs actual music... But I do feel like a lot of bands have gotten lazy with being original and just sort of make something up like "this sounds VK enough" because the figure their image will sell.

That's probably going to upset people, but don't take it personal. VK is still a fun scene and it does have some talent... You just have to ween through the lack of talent to find the good stuff.

There's a lot more I want to say but won't because my fingers are actually getting sore from typing on a phone at a weird angle....

[Pretsy 1343]

You think the VK fad is starting to die out?

Yes. It has been given already that we are witnessing the birth of "visual" among new "visual kei" bands (i.e. dropping the "kei" out = becoming pretty much the same as any other BVB-y act around these corners). So it is very blatant to name newer generations "visual kei" anymore since they lack the "original face" that vk used to have among every sub-scene.

You feeling like you're too old for this now?

Probably? I find it really hard to sympathize with newer acts - especially for reasons described above. Very cute but hollow shells with no substance or roots to the past or whatsoever. Give most of us over 10 years of this stuff (e.g. me, since 2001) and you will realize what I am about.

You think shitty bands have been forming recently?

To be really cruel and straightforward: yes. I had my statements wide open earlier and I don't think I have to provoke anyone again by repeating myself.

Just lump me into the tea party club of ex-weeaboo gentlemen circa Jrocknyc-angelfire era and I can spend my days being grumpy and sobbing about vk back in its definitive, moderately varied and sincere glory. VK will be no more - I say.

/not trolling/

[kyoselflove 2680]

Everyone always says that there are more shitty bands recently....every genre/music scene around the world has plenty of shitty bands in them. And like...I'm pretty sure there were also a ton of shit bands in 90s VK...back when it was all magical and perfect, blah blah.

 

I've been a fan of VK for a long time and I still love some old bands but I also love some new bands. I think now more than ever people in VK can express themselves more freely.  Instead of back then where it was all kinda....the same :/ Now bands are taking more chances and trying out new things; everyone be like, EW MY GOD IT'S HORRIBLEzzzzz.

 

But yeah I can totally see people not really into it anymore because it's stressful as fuck haha ;D

(totally worth it)

 

Also... you're never to old for VK!

 

Okay, I'm done.

[Elazmus 1873]

Oh yeah it does it.

It does it every night ;]

[Biopanda 2675]

This is kind of a hard topic for me to say, either way. Lately I've been feeling some disconnect from the scene, but more on the side of the fans than the actual music. For quite some time, I felt like I was pretty "in-tune" with a majority of the fans and that we'd agree on many opinions about bands. Lately though, it seems like so many bands that everyone would have been "meh" about, they're gushing over instead and it just leaves me wondering why. Obviously people will like what they like, of course, and there's nothing wrong with that.

 

I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping that I'm just in some sort of lull at the moment, since I really do appreciate the scene... I mean I've been part of it for over 12 years now, which is definitely long enough to say that it's had a HUGE lasting impact on my life(for better or worse lol). I think in general for me, I just get "exhausted" with music sometimes. Having to rip 300+ CDs a month for my store can get so exhausting sometimes that I find myself just sitting in silence more often than not. I think that sometimes people need to step away from the scene for a little while and kinda... decompress and go back into it with a fresh point of view, since being surrounded constantly by so many mediocre bands can sort of overwhelm you and mask all of the great bands that still exist.

[lichtlune 915]

Only active artists I like right now are Kamijo, some Mejibray, Dadaroma, Grieva, Femme Fatale, 凛 -the end of corruption world-, emmurée, Lucifer's Underground, and maybe メディーナ. But overall Visual Kei has not interested me as much. 

[YuyoDrift 1540]

This is kind of a hard topic for me to say, either way. Lately I've been feeling some disconnect from the scene, but more on the side of the fans than the actual music. For quite some time, I felt like I was pretty "in-tune" with a majority of the fans and that we'd agree on many opinions about bands. Lately though, it seems like so many bands that everyone would have been "meh" about, they're gushing over instead and it just leaves me wondering why. Obviously people will like what they like, of course, and there's nothing wrong with that.

 

I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping that I'm just in some sort of lull at the moment, since I really do appreciate the scene... I mean I've been part of it for over 12 years now, which is definitely long enough to say that it's had a HUGE lasting impact on my life(for better or worse lol). I think in general for me, I just get "exhausted" with music sometimes. Having to rip 300+ CDs a month for my store can get so exhausting sometimes that I find myself just sitting in silence more often than not. I think that sometimes people need to step away from the scene for a little while and kinda... decompress and go back into it with a fresh point of view, since being surrounded constantly by so many mediocre bands can sort of overwhelm you and mask all of the great bands that still exist.

 

I was waiting for your input Bio (based this topic off of your, and a few other's statuses), and agree that it's a hard question to answer. That's why my questions are so vague.

 

As for what the fuss is all about with meh bands, I couldn't tell you. We're in the same boat haha. Could be the age, could be our experiences over the decade (for better or worse), but I'd take it as good sign that you are listening to the music with more than just the intention of saying yay or nay.

 

I sometimes have my earbuds put on for the sole purpose of listening to the silence. There's a beauty in it, but you have to reach that point and come back to know what I mean.