DIR EN GREY vs. X JAPAN: The battle of the century

[robkun 4184]

This basically stems from a conversation I had with one of my high school friends a few years back. We were talking about whether or not DIR EN GREY have surpassed X JAPAN in popularity. I argued that Diru had the edge based on their global recognition and the fact that they have broke the Billboard charts five times, while X have only done it three times, with their three latest-released singles. So I looked around the forum, and since the inevitable question hasn't been come up, I thought I would do the honors: have the kohai surpassed the senpai? What do you guys think? Who have the edge in terms of popularity and overall relevance internationally? DIR EN GREY or X JAPAN? Let the battle begin.

[Zeus 7997]

1 hour ago, robkun said:

Who have the edge in terms of popularity and overall relevance internationally? DIR EN GREY or X JAPAN? Let the battle begin.

This isn't even a contest. Dir en grey comes out with an album every two to three years. X comes out with an album every two to three centuries.

[emmny 4139]

 vote x japan and face a permaban.

[Original Saku 1593]

lol I voted for X-Japan before I knew that it was a popularity poll XD I thought it was a "who do you think is better" not a "who is more popular" poll.

 

DEG is totally more popular now a days.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

For sure, I think DIR EN GREY is far more popular in the (online) international community.

 

...tho I did vote for them based on my preference, without first reading the first post thoroughly, lol.  Anyway, X were great for like 3-5 years, while I've enjoyed almost everything DEG put out during their ~20 years of existence, so I'll have to go with them just for that. You can't deny that X's first 2 albums are stone-cold classics tho (and their 3rd one is solid as well).

Edited October 20, 2016 by Jigsaw9

[filth_y 189]

Internationally maybe Dir en grey.

In Japan, definitly X. 

You might underestimate how little known Dir en grey is within Japan (95% of the time speaking to young/old people: Dir en grey, who?). Visual Kei is only X, Kuroyume, Luna Sea, Glay, L'Arc, Golden Bomber for most people. Within the (small) community its different of course. Its always interesting on what dimension you discuss. Only within the community, the foreign community or within media/country/global in mind?

Even tho i prefer Dir en grey by far, its unarguably how little importance they had and still have compared to X. Again you can say that Dir inspired dozens of bands following their sound, but all with even less to no importance and with more fans on this forum than ever showing up at their live/buying their CDs.

 

[Wicked Teletubby 528]

being tired (as lots of people around) of Yoshikrap over and over again, I vote, DIR EN GREY.

(like I wouldn't in any other case, right?)

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

Even internationally I wouldn't cross out X outright. I've been surprised many times by how many people seem to be cordially familiar with them, while Dir en grey is a name brought up almost squarely within the circles you'd expect to see them in. Whether this translates to money is another thing; I doubt X has the same ability of filling a club in any city at any moment, year after year like dir en grey has.

 

As far as I know however, the most well known vk band ever is L'arc. Facebook, Last.fm numbers back this up too ( for whatever they're worth. Oddly enough GLAY has less facebook likes than Dir en grey and Laruku eclipses both of them combined  )

[Mamo 1172]

5 hours ago, filth_y said:

Internationally maybe Dir en grey.

In Japan, definitly X. 

You might underestimate how little known Dir en grey is within Japan (95% of the time speaking to young/old people: Dir en grey, who?). Visual Kei is only X, Kuroyume, Luna Sea, Glay, L'Arc, Golden Bomber for most people. Within the (small) community its different of course. Its always interesting on what dimension you discuss. Only within the community, the foreign community or within media/country/global in mind?

Even tho i prefer Dir en grey by far, its unarguably how little importance they had and still have compared to X. Again you can say that Dir inspired dozens of bands following their sound, but all with even less to no importance and with more fans on this forum than ever showing up at their live/buying their CDs.

 

I doubt this is true since DEG can fill tokyo dome or Budokan, as they have during their entire career. Even so X may be more famous in Japan but it's ridiculous to say DEG is unknown.

Edited October 20, 2016 by sume7

[Euthanasia 333]

X is more popular in Japan (or more known), at least I got that feeling when I was there. A few people knew about Dir en grey, but a lot knew X. 

 

[Hakari 282]

Dir en grey is my favorite band of all time. Over the last decade they easily surpassed all other bands in terms of listens.  They have my attention and rightfully so, consistently releasing new material and evolving their sound through the years they are far from boring. I love x Japan they are so talented make beautiful music. What a shame they can't release anything and be a more prominent band

[ghost 2687]

There are more X Japan songs than Dir en grey songs on my karaoke machine, so...

[Takadanobabaalien 3607]

International: possibly Dir en grey (not 100% sure, they always play at small areas while X have done Madison square garden).

 

In Japan: no doubt X. People underestimate their popularity over there. They sell out Tokyo Dome in less than 5 minutes while Dir en grey can't even fill Tokyo Dome.

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

57 minutes ago, Uglymouth said:

International: possibly Dir en grey (not 100% sure, they always play at small areas while X have done Madison square garden).

 

In Japan: no doubt X. People underestimate their popularity over there. They sell out Tokyo Dome in less than 5 minutes while Dir en grey can't even fill Tokyo Dome.

 

Yeah I think the Tokyo Dome sume7 mentioned is the city hall venue, which is only the modest 50 000 odd seats short of the capacity of the actual Tokyo Dome.  

 

a sidenote; I was once asked for directions by two Japanese tourists of my age and disposition. As I was attempting to bring up the map on my phone I intentionally flashed my weeaboo badge by visibly pausing my Dir en grey musics on the device with absolutely no urgency whatsoever just so I'd get the attention I didn't get as a child. They completely no sold the name and the cover art which they clearly saw ( I unfortunately didn't have a track playing that had Japanese lettering on it! ). I'm empirically forced to deduce from this that no average Jane or Joe has any idea of their existence. 

[Takadanobabaalien 3607]

Yeah and also 

 

@sume7 dir are obviously not unknown... Within the rock community. While 50-60 year old obaachans who only listened to enka and jpop their entire life will still know who X Japan are. It's kinda like the blue hearts and bands like that. Even if they're not fans or listen to their music, they're still aware of who the guys are. 

 

Also to put sales into the perspective: X has sold over 30 million records in Japan. I have no specific number for DIR but they're not on this list (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists_in_Japan#15_million_to_20_million_records) meaning they at least haven't sold over 15 million records.

 

also this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_albums_in_Japan#Best-selling_albums_by_year

 

is a list of Japanese albums that has sold over 1 million copies. X has 2 albums there, DIR has none.

Edited October 20, 2016 by Uglymouth

[nick 10212]

X JAPAN were able to sell millions of copies because there was no Monochrome Heaven back then. x)

[nekkichi 6043]

13 hours ago, Uglymouth said:

Also to put sales into the perspective: X has sold over 30 million records in Japan. I have no specific number for DIR but they're not on this list (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists_in_Japan#15_million_to_20_million_records) meaning they at least haven't sold over 15 million records.

 

http://oriconv.seesaa.net/article/165528048.html

Diru album/single sales, ending with hageshisato ( oricon charts for comparison, with no digital downloads accounted for).

 

 

also voted XJapan because yoshiki was blessed enough to have a career before annoying western metalhead neckbeards discovered bijuarukei

 

Edited October 21, 2016 by nekkichi

[blackdoll 907]

On 10/19/2016 at 9:37 PM, robkun said:

 overall relevance internationally?

fake people are not relevant, so xjapan

[WhirlingBlack 1043]

X Japan is the most "well-known" I'd say, but if we are talking in terms of fans I'm pretty sure that Dir en grey has the advantage by far in the overseas fandom.

It's pretty similar in Japan, almost everyone knows X but few are die-hard fans, while for a band like Dir en grey most people you will find who knows of them are pretty invested in them as well. The whole household generic rock band vs. a niche artist deal that you're bound to find whenever discussing western artists too.

 

When it comes to quality I have no doubt in my mind that Dir en grey is the more consistent artists. X Japan had a short period of brilliance that they've been living off ever since while Dir en grey has released consistently good material for almost 20 years now.

[kuntzilla 1]

X was great, but it's long dead.  Yoshiki pretending its back is a joke and he is a fucking joke.  15 years no violet uk, no skins, no X.  It's so embarasing.    DEG is amazing and incomparable to X.  Still X from the 90s is awesome.  Apples and oranges love both

[suji 8317]

Of course it's Diru cuz

 

1) they're not old, attention-seeking, washed-up hags

2) their music is actually good

3) 80s rock is just not my cup of tea

Edited October 31, 2016 by midi:nette

[Mamo 1172]

35 minutes ago, midi:nette said:

Of course it's Diru cuz

 

1) they're not old, attention-seeking, washed-up hags

2) their music is actually good

3) 80s rock is just not my cup of tea

I 2nd this.

[seikun 317]

I don't really think this matters, but for the sake of discussion...

 

Both bands are very different musically and generationally and the kind of music they make affect the level of popularity they may encounter internationally. I am suprised though that many people outside the Visual Kei sphere in the west know about X Japan today.

 

I dare say X Japan may be a bit more popular than Dir en grey internationally. Many of us got introduced to the band during the very early 2000's through Clamp's movie X with the legendary ending Forever Love and the movie's clip with them playing X (X Japan's hymn). VHS is how we watched the movie with friends

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBL04EVCzSw

Edited October 31, 2016 by seikun

[chemicalpictures 1888]

I'm not even a fan of both bands, but you guys must have lost your minds. Someone wake me up when kyo's death draws a crowd like this:

 

 

[LIDL 692]

16 hours ago, chemicalpictures said:

I'm not even a fan of both bands, but you guys must have lost your minds. Someone wake me up when kyo's death draws a crowd like this:

 

 

 

 

lmao you need to be fair and mention that thing happened when VK was at the height of media attention and popularity. VK is not like that anymore since Luna Sea finally taking hiatus and disbanded (again) in the late 90s

 

That is like comparing Michael Jackson death to his dozens of  successors in his genre today.

 

But realistically speaking, X-Japan today are no less than a name, people only talk about their past success, they are like KISS except KISS didn't cock teas their fans with new project for many years only to keep it delayed. Plus none of KISS members would use the name of their fallen member for filling their own pocket like Yoshiki did with Hide as of late.

 

As for DEG, ever since Yoshiki helped them co producing few songs on their major debut, they have been getting their own success on their own terms and never stop experimenting to find their own sounds. And they did actually recorded some original sounds over their career.

 

Trust me, the day DEG should end, there will be lots of people will mourn, and that is not only in Japan.