How come Mejibray are more popular than a lot of VK bands from this decade?

[ahnchc 309]

Appearance. Most of the comments on their videos are about the appearance of the members and that's what their fans seem to focus on most also which allows them to lack and become lazy with their sound. I hope 8P-SB is different and focuses more on compositions and lyrics should it be a music project. Of course focusing on visuals isn't a problem—it is visual kei after all—but when they heavily lack in compositions and lyrics is when it begins to become a problem.

[Saishu 1589]

I don’t know. Recently came across a video of two women who look to be late 20s/early 30s and they were screaming their heads off at L’arc videos because of Hyde. Made little to no comments about the music itself, just shrieked like banshees whenever Hyde moved. 

 

I think its safe to say we all know this scene has plenty of people that are here just for the music, but there’s also a vast majority of people hung up on the visual aspect. Then there’s that subset of fans that are fairly new to the scene, so everything they hear is new to their ears and sounds fresh and exciting. They can listen to Mejibray or 2010-2013 Gazette and not think any of that shit is derivative or uninspired because it sounds “different”. Like, motherfucker, don’t sit here and praise Gazette and DEG for being heavy in songs like Rage or Reiketsu Nariseba when they both rip off Slipknot, then turn around and say Slipknot sucks. 

 

I have attempted to break this down in my own head several times, and I really just think it boils down to people fetishizing. When your drummer wears a bear suit or whatever, you’re going to attract a few obsessed crazies. 

[LIDL 692]

I mean, people that bashes VK bands for being visual really contradict themselves, aren’t they?

 

Like, yes, music is important, but their looks are also integral part for fans to swoon over. They won’t bother having new looks on every new cycle (singles) otherwise. Especially since it isn’t at all cheap.

 

You can always deny this the way Kyo hates being called kawaii (allegedly), but you’re still in the scene, either as fans or as member of a band, and such thing are unavoidable.

 

The question why MJBRY got so popular, we are the one who gassed them to this point. In the beginning, when they were new and their music (to some) are still good, lots of people gave them credits, and those got them quickly famous. Everyone wanted to know who they are and become part of the experience.  Having good looking members helped them even more also. But as always, as they got older, some people think their music isn’t that good anymore and jumped ship. But they don’t lose much because by this time they already secure large and loyal fanbase. That is important for musicians tbh. They are the one who will always support you no matter what.

[Saishu 1589]

I mean, honestly, I don’t really care about the visual aspect of visual kei other than to make fun of Kyo and Kaoru’s latest mid-life crisis outfits. But I know for some the visuals take precendence over the music. I’ve seen way too many Gazette gifs in the last few years. 

 

But then why would I get it? I’m a 41 year old dude. 

[donwea 13]

popular? Maybe with international fans they were, because in Japan their sales were shit, always out of the first 30 places in Oricon. Overrated band, in the vk scene in japan popular are Kiryu, R-Shitei, BugLug, vistlip, Pentagon, those are popular bands, not Mejibray

Edited May 13, 2018 by donwea

[chemicalpictures 1888]

9 hours ago, LIDL said:

I mean, people that bashes VK bands for being visual really contradict themselves, aren’t they?

 

Like, yes, music is important, but their looks are also integral part for fans to swoon over. They won’t bother having new looks on every new cycle (singles) otherwise. Especially since it isn’t at all cheap.

 

I'm sorry, but shouldn't that be the other way around?  how come in a BAND music is "important" and the looks are "integral"? We'd be in a very sad place if people could somewhat forgive bad music if it came from nicely dressed boys...

 

And I don't see any contradiction at all. Some people are here (japanese music in general, with VK going for a more specific rock vein) for the composition styles, unique time signatures, different scales and etc. A lot of times VK is a thing of its own, musically speaking. IMO that's what should attract people, in an ideal world looks would be a plus. But I'd have to agree with you that it is what keeps band floating, sucking on the wallets of socially awkward fans who pays shit ton of money to spend some time with them (which is such an abusive practice I can't fathom why people don't stand up against it).

 

In any way, visuals are somewhat of a gamble. You are either doubling down on the weirdness and hoping on cashing on the hardcore fans, or you get popular enough to ditch the hard looks and appeal to more casual masses. And I bet most of them would go clean in a heartbeat, if that meant a more sustainable band career

[Komorebi 2193]

15 hours ago, chemicalpictures said:

In any way, visuals are somewhat of a gamble. You are either doubling down on the weirdness and hoping on cashing on the hardcore fans, or you get popular enough to ditch the hard looks and appeal to more casual masses. And I bet most of them would go clean in a heartbeat, if that meant a more sustainable band career

THIS.

Pretty sure most of those dudes hate shaving their legs all the time and taking 2 hours to apply make up and hairspray.

[Saishu 1589]

5 hours ago, Komorebi said:

THIS.

Pretty sure most of those dudes hate shaving their legs all the time and taking 2 hours to apply make up and hairspray.

I bet you Shinya and Mana are all about it. 

[Komorebi 2193]

17 minutes ago, Saishu said:

I bet you Shinya and Mana are all about it. 

Don't forget Hizaki.

[Ro plz 1290]

On 5/13/2018 at 10:07 AM, LIDL said:

 

The question why MJBRY got so popular, we are the one who gassed them to this point. In the beginning, when they were new and their music (to some) are still good, lots of people gave them credits, and those got them quickly famous. Everyone wanted to know who they are and become part of the experience.  Having good looking members helped them even more also. But as always, as they got older, some people think their music isn’t that good anymore and jumped ship. But they don’t lose much because by this time they already secure large and loyal fanbase. That is important for musicians tbh. They are the one who will always support you no matter what.

This.

 

I became frustrated with the band in a similar fashion as the GazettE when they started falling off the wagon, post DIM. The music was complete ass but the looks stayed consistent. At least with the GazettE, some of the blame could rightfully be shifted towards the label switch to Sony and after DIVISION, they started dropping significantly better music.  Mejibray, unless I'm correct didn't have that (kind of )issue.  They just got worse and worse over time musically but again stayed consistent with the stellar looks. Its clear that they became complacent with where they were, the die hard fans they accumulated, and had no indication of evolving their sound. There's nothing wrong with that but for a band that had so much potential, you really can't blame people for jumping ship at all. 

 

I'm also under suspicion that another reason why Mejibray fell off was because whoever their main and possibly only song writer was, must've ran outta steam hella quick. It became to hard to start telling songs apart....

Edited May 15, 2018 by Ro plz

[frayed 404]

2 hours ago, Ro plz said:

This.

 

I became frustrated with the band in a similar fashion as the GazettE when they started falling off the wagon, post DIM. The music was complete ass but the looks stayed consistent. At least with the GazettE, some of the blame could rightfully be shifted towards the label switch to Sony and after DIVISION, they started dropping significantly better music.  Mejibray, unless I'm correct didn't have that (kind of )issue.  They just got worse and worse over time musically but again stayed consistent with the stellar looks. Its clear that they became complacent with where they were, the die hard fans they accumulated, and had no indication of evolving their sound. There's nothing wrong with that but for a band that had so much potential, you really can't blame people for jumping ship at all. 

 

I'm also under suspicion that another reason why Mejibray fell off was because whoever their main and possibly only song writer was, must've ran outta steam hella quick. It became to hard to start telling songs apart....

I don’t know if this is helpful, but MiA was the main composer with Tsuzuku throwing a few odd songs in here and there (Agitato Grimoire to name one). I’m also going purely by speculation here but given some of the crap observed, I do think the rigorous and really repetitive schedule they slipped into (or their label pushed them into) didn’t do them any favors when it came to putting out new material.  Not to mention MiA was involved in I don’t even know how many little side projects, musical and not, all throughout this. 

 

Granted, generally speaking I stayed a fan of Mejibray’s music; I do think their music production suffered though. The last truly new song came more than a year before they went on hiatus (Nanaki), and it wasn’t even a formal single.

[esper 1]

their songs weren't out of this world but they were solid.  Tsuzuku's vocals stood out. love or hate them there's no mistaking his vocals. 

 

MiA is a pretty good guitarist.  of the better players from bands of this decade

 

 

and like others pointed out, they had a cool look.

Edited May 23, 2018 by esper

[ahnchc 309]

Adding on to my last post: I can possibly give a bit of insight as someone who casually and mildly enjoys their music even though I'm not a hardcore fan like a lot of the teenage western gya that salivate over scantily clad men that the band seems to attract.

 

Perhaps it's uncommon, but the thing about MEJIBRAY that actually gained my attention and sort of attracted me to them was MiA. Not for his looks, but for his guitar playing. Whether you love or hate MEJIBRAY or are somewhere in between those two, I think everyone can agree that MiA is a rather skilled guitarist. The fact that MiA composed almost the entire discography increased the liking I had taken towards them. The compositions were always so versatile and—as a result—I never knew what to expect for their next single or album, and that's what I liked. MEJIBRAY constantly kept me on my toes, and while I strongly dislike songs like 盈虧 (Eiki), I was able to respect the fact that the band was trying something new, not to mention that it was still somehow conjured up by the mind of the composer who also did songs that are very different in sound and ones that I'm fond of such as 砂に帰りしキミ走る (Suna ni Kaerishi Kimi Hashire) or DIVERGENCE.

 

The same goes for their drummer: meto. I consider meto to actually be skilled in drumming and I always thought that he certainly doesn't get enough praise from fans.

 

In addition, Tsuzuku's vocals are unmistakable as someone has mentioned. You can pick his nasal (and also sometimes extremely irritating) voice out of a crowd. In addition, he proves himself to be a decent composer, for he composed one of my favorite MEJIBRAY songs: baby crossing. Something that people constantly critique Tsuzuku for are his screams. While his screams are admittedly quite strange, I'm not sure many vocalists could imitate that strange sound in the outro of the aforementioned baby crossing. His voice is very unique and distinct although sometimes it made me want to grind my teeth when he hits obnoxiously high notes (i.e.: some live versions of 原罪の林檎/Genzai no Ringo). 

 

However, I have a suspicion that a majority of the attention to MEJIBRAY comes from their bassist: Koichi. In the comments of MVs and live videos alike, there are a myriad of comments about Koichi and how attractive they find him and/or his clothes to be. Refer to the latter portion of the first line in this post: "gya that salivate over scantily clad men". Hopefully I've made my point. I don't have anything against Koichi (although I do have my suspicions that he sometimes pretends to play bass during lives for a reason I can't figure out), but it's a shame that a band that—in my opinion—had potential gained most attention because of their wardrobe. It is visual kei, but I think too much attention went on their appearances rather than the (mostly) decent content they were producing and releasing.

[frayed 404]

15 minutes ago, ahnchc said:

However, I have a suspicion that a majority of the attention to MEJIBRAY comes from their bassist: Koichi. In the comments of MVs and live videos alike, there are a myriad of comments about Koichi and how attractive they find him and/or his clothes to be. Refer to the latter portion of the first line in this post: "gya that salivate over scantily clad men". Hopefully I've made my point. I don't have anything against Koichi (although I do have my suspicions that he sometimes pretends to play bass during lives for a reason I can't figure out), but it's a shame that a band that—in my opinion—had potential gained most attention because of their wardrobe. It is visual kei, but I think too much attention went on their appearances rather than the (mostly) decent content they were producing and releasing.

 

I half-agree with this on multiple fronts. First off, while Koichi’s aesthetic surely brings in a hefty number of fans, that’s really underplaying Tsuzuku’s appeal both overseas and in Japan. For almost every live I went to, the spaces in front of them were what filled out first, and there would be a huge gap left in front of MiA.

 

It’s funny, too, because it’s not like MiA isn’t good looking. But he’s not nearly as popular as Tsuzuku and Koichi, and I think a lot of that is due to his princely SNS presence and his own awkwardness with how he relates to the crowd at lives and instores. A lot of overseas fans I’ve talked to have the impression that he thinks a lot of himself (which may or may not be true, it’s not like I know him personally), and both overseas and Japanese fans poke fun at the plastic surgery angle. 

 

And as for Koichi neglecting his bass, you’re right. I’ve seen him straight up stop playing before. However, this is usually to engage the audience - and I can’t speak for anything before 2016 (anyone can feel free to correct me), but initially I found MiA to be a whole lot less engaged with the audience. He was pretty still on stage, maybe doing some cool guitar poses while he played, but generally just kind of doing his own thing. Then progressively throughout the year, he started grabbing people during Negator, he started seemingly throwing out more stuff, and just generally seemed to be trying a lot harder to captivate the audience. (Sort of too little too late? I didn’t really see him making any new fans at this point, but I digress.) Again, this is just from my own recollection, so anyone can feel free to shoot me down on that. Tsuzuku and Koichi never really had any problem with that as far as I could see, which yes, led to Koichi neglecting his bass more. He was also responsible for a lot of the merch designs, furthering playing into the aesthetic appeal box, and honestly a lot better at playing the popularity game than MiA.

 

And then there’s Meto. Lol. He was silent and surrounded by big personalities (‘big’ for better or worse). Personally speaking I fucking adore him, and what fans he had were super devoted, but he flew under the radar for a lot of people I think.

[ahnchc 309]

Spoiler

 

1 minute ago, frayed said:

I half-agree with this on multiple fronts. First off, while Koichi’s aesthetic surely brings in a hefty number of fans, that’s really underplaying Tsuzuku’s appeal both overseas and in Japan. For almost every live I went to, the spaces in front of them were what filled out first, and there would be a huge gap left in front of MiA.

 

It’s funny, too, because it’s not like MiA isn’t good looking. But he’s not nearly as popular as Tsuzuku and Koichi, and I think a lot of that is due to his princely SNS presence and his own awkwardness with how he relates to the crowd at lives and instores. A lot of overseas fans I’ve talked to have the impression that he thinks a lot of himself (which may or may not be true, it’s not like I know him personally), and both overseas and Japanese fans poke fun at the plastic surgery angle. 

 

And as for Koichi neglecting his bass, you’re right. I’ve seen him straight up stop playing before. However, this is usually to engage the audience - and I can’t speak for anything before 2016 (anyone can feel free to correct me), but initially I found MiA to be a whole lot less engaged with the audience. He was pretty still on stage, maybe doing some cool guitar poses while he played, but generally just kind of doing his own thing. Then progressively throughout the year, he started grabbing people during Negator, he started seemingly throwing out more stuff, and just generally seemed to be trying a lot harder to captivate the audience. (Sort of too little too late? I didn’t really see him making any new fans at this point, but I digress.) Again, this is just from my own recollection, so anyone can feel free to shoot me down on that. Tsuzuku and Koichi never really had any problem with that as far as I could see, which yes, led to Koichi neglecting his bass more. He was also responsible for a lot of the merch designs, furthering playing into the aesthetic appeal box, and honestly a lot better at playing the popularity game than MiA.

 

And then there’s Meto. Lol. He was silent and surrounded by big personalities (‘big’ for better or worse). Personally speaking I fucking adore him, and what fans he had were super devoted, but he flew under the radar for a lot of people I think.

I agree completely.

 

It really is a shame, since I think that TZK and MiA were pretty much the backbone to MEJIBRAY, despite TZK himself saying that they don't exactly get along. While I've seen a handful of amusing comments about the whole cosmetic surgery ordeal, it's sad that so many of MEJIBRAY's fans almost judge him based off of it, since he really is a talented guy.

 

I can say confidently that a lot of the MiA hate comes from the belief that he's both full of himself and selfish. Truth be told, I can't speak on his actual personality off stage either, but I think that he's still a very respectable musician. If he's full of himself, he has a damn good reason to be. Unfortunately though, it seemed to get even worse for him when he decided to post about his LINE stickers on Instagram, rather than speaking on the termination of Koichi and Tsuzuku's contracts and MEJIBRAY's hiatus. That seemed to be the last straw for a lot of MEJIBRAY fans towards MiA. They flooded him with hate, which of course ended up with him disabling comments. 

 

MiA's the one that catches the most flak for MEJIBRAY's hiatus and it seems like everyone blames him. I also think some of the MiA hate comes from the interviews in which TZK's talked about disliking the members off-stage. I have no thoughts about it and I don't feel like it's my place to point fingers, since none of us really know what's going on or what went on behind the scenes.

 

I certainly think that TZK deserves the hype he gets, while MiA and meto don't get enough imo. Koichi is a skilled bassist, and it's unfortunate that most people don't pay attention to that or don't care to. I guess it brings us back to my original point: MEJIBRAY attracts far too many girls who are desperate to see thighs and abs LOL

 

However, although not frequently, I have occasionally seen people compliment TZK and Koichi's behavior towards fans (except for that one time Koichi went on a rant on his blog about the shitty saizen LMFAO). I think meto tried his hardest to interact with fans without breaking character too, while MiA wasn't as skilled in that aspect.

 

 

[FOSCOR70 56]

i got into mejibray cuz my friend said its kinda similar to dir en grey (i dig everything similar to dir en grey cuz thats the band that got me into metal) and the friend which im talking about got into mejibray cuz somehow it sounded to him lie cradle of filth which he likes while he was searching internet for similar bands so ya thats how me and my friend got into mejibray and i think they are good.