Visual kei among friends

[secret_no_03 959]

1 minute ago, spockitty said:

I couldn't tell you how long it was going after I left, and I left around 2009 I think?

And wow did talking about it led me down a not-exactly-pleasant memory lane 😕 

Ah, the only reason I ask is because the person who asked is a teen now, so they'd have been...between 4 and 6 a decade ago, so they couldn't have been on it lol.

[spockitty 643]

1 minute ago, secret_no_03 said:

Ah, the only reason I ask is because the person who asked is a teen now, so they'd have been...between 4 and 6 a decade ago, so they couldn't have been on it lol.

LOL way to make me feel old

[secret_no_03 959]

33 minutes ago, spockitty said:

LOL way to make me feel old

I feel old as well.

[secret_no_03 959]

I guess it's safe to say that everyone here generally don't have VK friends, which is what brought them here and now have several acquaintances. You could also say that all of us make up a family...or a Cult.

[spockitty 643]

...or a roadside freak show 

[platy 3018]

In high school I enjoyed vk by myself because all my friends were as normie as it gets. I mean, they knew I was into weird music, but the sound of a guitar was too aggressive for their ears. Luckily those people are gone 🙌🏼 As I got older I made a couple of friends who are more into metal music who give vk a try  without judgement, say if there's a release I'm excited about I can share it with them. I also turned my bf into a vk weeb a few years ago. Otherwise, MH is the place to discuss it. 

 

Since some people mentioned kpop, I have relatives who are into that and they think vk is okay. We trade music occasionally. 

[psychonnect_rozen 585]

5 minutes ago, platy said:

Since some people mentioned kpop, I have relatives who are into that and they think vk is okay. We trade music occasionally. 

I don’t shit on people who enjoy K-Pop, I’m just against the music and the labels. Labels treat artists like shit and they overwork the groups they work with. Plus, even though I enjoy western pop, K-Pop is just soooo boring and unoriginal. I find western pop artists to have some creative control over their work. With K-Pop, it gets annoying and repetitive.

 

Every time I say I hate K-Pop, I always get the “YOU JUST HATE IT CUZ ITS POPULAR” argument. No I don’t, I just hate the industry behind it.

 

I have listened to a few K-Pop artists and all of their songs don’t click with me. Im sorry but oh well. Like they say, music is subjective. 

[platy 3018]

2 minutes ago, psychonnect_rozen said:

I don’t shit on people who enjoy K-Pop, I’m just against the music and the labels. Labels treat artists like shit and they overwork the groups they work with. Plus, even though I enjoy western pop, K-Pop is just soooo boring and unoriginal. I find western pop artists to have some creative control over their work. With K-Pop, it gets annoying and repetitive.

 

Every time I say I hate K-Pop, I always get the “YOU JUST HATE IT CUZ ITS POPULAR” argument. No I don’t, I just hate the industry behind it.

 

I have listened to a few K-Pop artists and all of their songs don’t click with me. Im sorry but oh well. Like they say, music is subjective. 

It is subjective. I hate the industry too, but visually/aesthetically the kpop industry is very creative in my opinion. I find the use of colors, imagery and styling satisfying. 

[YuyoDrift 1540]

10 minutes ago, platy said:

In high school I enjoyed vk by myself because all my friends were as normie as it gets.

^^

Similar situation. Most friends were hella ghetto and listened to Bone Thugs and tried to become rappers themselves lol.

I was actually fully introduced to VK by a girl I liked in HS (she was well into the scene years before I was) and since then only people I know who would be open to it would share my interest. I think my brother and my cousin are the only ones left to still listen, as that girl and I went our separate ways but say hi when we run into each other at concerts. My gf is slightly opening up to VK, so that's nice.

 

You just made me realize that I have no friends out here in Denver lol and no, coworkers don't count.

@The Reverendwhere you at? lol

 

 

[psychonnect_rozen 585]

1 minute ago, platy said:

visually/aesthetically the kpop industry is very creative in my opinion. 

I won’t lie with you there. The asthetics are alright

[Triangle 345]

15 hours ago, psychonnect_rozen said:

 

So I was asking, what are some funny experiences trying to get someone into VK or showing them VK?

 

This reminds me when I  had a framed picture of Yukke on my desk at work and people would come up and be like "Who?? Is this you???" and I was like "Yep, that's me, I did a little touch up on the face and here I am now XD. No no, he is actually my husband :)." 

 

Honestly most of my friends listen to VK, like anime and all that. 

 

VK was quite huge in my country when anime series were shown on TV. And from there, we even used to have these big two anime conventions in my city and even forums on the internet so I got to meet a lot of interesting people (and learn what catfishing was from a young age XDD), so I wasn't surrounded too much by people who didn't know about VK.

 

But theeeen I started listening to other genres and widen my musical taste and with that, I got to become friends with people who didn't listen to VK. In high school a lot of people thought I needed to wear more bright colors and maybe try staying in the sun a little bit XDDD. But other than that we were chill. I wasn't popular but I did get to be part of the drama club so I guess people knew me as a funny person, rather than that girl with hair covering her face XD (I never had that pineapple hair cut, it was just hair in my face XD).

 

I was a very awkward kid who didn't talk that much about what I like, but now, I tend to spread my knowledge to everyone XD. I'm shamelessly exposing all them VK bois I like to the world :)). 

[Ikki 807]

To be honest, I have gotten more friends, although most of them being in their 40s or 50s, in real life for being a fan of Loudness and EZO than VK ever did for me. 

 

However, VK did manage to snag me my boyfriend of 15+ years.  It's hilarious to tell people that we started to date because I had pictures of Dir en grey and Malice Mizer hanging in my locker in the 8th grade and my SO overreacted when he noticed because he was a closeted VK fan and thought he would never find another VK fan in our tiny, country bumpkin town.  We ended up getting a lot of our close friends into VK during high school, but I'm pretty sure most of them don't listen to anything related to VK anymore. 

Edited June 18, 2019 by Ikki

[Mihenno 4195]

When I first got into VK, I got into it with a friend but he has since grown out of it. I feel like it was just a phase for him but it was honestly life changing for me as dumb as that sounds. I think he stopped bothering with it 2011/2012? We'll still bop to Lycaon, Deluhi, Lolita23q, etc from time to time if he's in my car, but he's completely oblivious about all new bands that came about within the past 7 years or so.

 

The rest of my friends know I listen to it, but no one is really interested in taking a dive into it themselves. Honestly, 90% of the time they're forced to listen to VK whenever they're in my car so they have no option but to listen to it lmfao. Some of them even have a specific song they like and ask me to play, but there's no real interest there for them to delve into it any further. Maybe I'm lucky? Nobody, not even my family, gives me a hard time about it or makes fun of me or anything. 

[lichtlune 915]

I always thought people had a sort of racist passive objection to any type of Japanese music so I've pretty much avoided showing my music to many people anymore. 

[psychonnect_rozen 585]

1 minute ago, lichtlune said:

I always thought people had a sort of racist passive objection to any type of Japanese music so I've pretty much avoided showing my music to many people anymore. 

I guess that's one reason. Granted, I myself have never experienced that myself but I often get judged for it or just get called a "weeb".

 

Even if I show VK to some classic rock or metal snob who refuses to look for good modern music I'd get the whole "WHAT IS THIS FAGGOT SHIT". 

[monkeybanana4 1732]

I got into VK thanks to some friends in middle school who showed me bands like An Cafe (and also thanks to anime shows). But I've lost contact with most of them, and the last time I saw them, they didn't have an interest in VK anymore. In high school, it was something I mainly enjoyed alone other than one girl who was half-Japanese and knew about it, but I'm not sure if she was a huge fan of it either. I guess it was a 'phase' for most people I knew, but as has been mentioned already, it also has played a big role in my life and remains important to me, greatly molding me into the person I am.

 

There's only one other person I know irl who is interested in it, but she doesn't listen to it as much anymore. Thanks to places like Livejournal and MH, I've made some great friends. Some have come and went, but it's always awesome to meet new people who like VK ^^

[evenor 1655]

6 hours ago, Ikki said:

However, VK did manage to snag me my boyfriend of 15+ years.  It's hilarious to tell people that we started to date because I had pictures of Dir en grey and Malice Mizer hanging in my locker in the 8th grade and my SO overreacted when he noticed because he was a closeted VK fan and thought he would never find another VK fan in our tiny, country bumpkin town.  We ended up getting a lot of our close friends into VK during high school, but I'm pretty sure most of them don't listen to anything related to VK anymore. 

Basically the same - I met my bf off of soulseek trading rarez The pumpkin Head releases lmao.

[CAT5 9075]

2 hours ago, lichtlune said:

I always thought people had a sort of racist passive objection to any type of Japanese music so I've pretty much avoided showing my music to many people anymore. 

 

"nobody wanna hear that ching-chong music"

"why u be listenin to dem Chinamen?"
"they make music in Japan???"

"they could be singing 'i hate niggers' and you wouldn't even know it!!!"

 

 

Just a few examples of the ignorant things ppl have said in the 20-something years I've been listening to Japanese music

 

Granted, I can understand why they'd be perplexed. I still don't understand why a poor little black boy in the late 90's took a liking to Japanese music. My only explanation for that would be: "I just like it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

 

[violetchain 912]

I don't really show people songs/videos to try to get them into the same music anymore - I used to do it a lot in high school, and my friends were all very polite about it but clearly not very interested. I still kind of cringe looking back on that. These days, I write for a website and post on places like this forum to get all my nerdy J-rock energy out without subjecting my family and friends to it.

 

However, I drag my friends to concerts all the time. (Well, concerts that are $25 or less, anyway. If it's an expensive concert I feel too guilty to ask.) They don't usually care for the music all that much, but they come along for kicks since we don't get to see each other that often now that everyone is working different schedules. It's something to do, and the artists I want to see tend to be a little ridiculous, so I think they always at least end up being entertained by the costumes and stage antics. Recently, I just say "Hey guys, are you up for seeing _ with me?" and they'll say yes without even checking to see what kind of band it is, so I feel super lucky.

 

My two best friends are both casual anime fans, and they're familiar with some of the artists that do theme songs and stuff, so they don't really make fun of my taste in music all that much. Although they both have kind of strange taste in music as well, so I guess they're not really in a position to judge.

[suji 8317]

7 hours ago, CAT5 said:

"nobody wanna hear that ching-chong music"

basically when i listen to jrock around my family; either that or my mom sings in her own ~pseudo-japanese~

 

also my sister and her friends thought i listened to K-pop because of the MERRY posters in my room..........................................:))))

 

[Gesu 1537]

1 hour ago, suji said:

also my sister and her friends thought i listened to K-pop

People always assume I listen to K-pop the moment they see me. Fun fact: I've never listened to a K-pop song the entire way through besides Gangnam Style and Gentleman by PSY (and that's only because they were pretty much inescapable when they first came out). Not that I have owt against it, I just haven't really listened to it, that's all.

 

I remember showing a VK guy to this guy in my class last year at college and he didn't really think much of him until he put two and two together and realised he was a guy, not a girl. Oh, lordy, I'll never forget the way his face contorted in utter horror and confusion.

[GreatNorthernVK 183]

On 6/17/2019 at 11:12 PM, psychonnect_rozen said:

They have become the very thing they swore to destroy 

Eehh, kind of?

 

I mean, for *me*, the whole purpose of the downloading boom and the increasing diversity of music taste that it resulted in was to “get away” from the boybands, girl groups, and kitschy Euro-pop that dominated the charts in the mid to late 90s. So I personally can’t understand why a person would un-ironically listen to the Korean version of that, when that’s what they were trying to get away from in the first place.

 

Then again, the friends of mine that did switch over never explicitly hated *pop* music, they just didn’t care for most of the stuff in the 90s.

[Doesn'tEvenGoHere 121]

I'm 99% convinced I was the only kid in my high school who listened to VK. My dream back then was to find at least one other girl who also listened to VK who would be my bestie and who would fangirl together with me, so I made my interest pretty obvious (not obnoxious, just obvious). It never happened. The people who would approach me about it listened to regular Jrock bands, but not VK. Even when I would bring up VK bands, they'd just shrug it off and go back to talking about One Ok Rock or something. I guess I'm glad I could make new friends either way, but it didn't fill the void of having another VK fan to share joys and sorrows with irl.

 

And there was no way in heck I could fathom having my main group of friends listen to VK. They were normies in every sense of the word (didn't like anime, geek culture, or anything along those lines). I was the geeky best friend who listened to weird looking japanese bands. We could talk to each other about almost anything, but when it came to VK, I was on my own. I DID turn to making friends online and feel I met some wonderful people. I have one online friend who I met thanks to VK who I love as much as my irl friends, but yeah, like other stories here, they eventually stopped caring about it too. 

 

I've met one guy irl who also liked VK and would talk to me about it, but apart from our interest in VK, he had a terrible personality and I cut him off. Now in university my luck hasn't gotten any better and I've basically had a parallel experience to others here about how even the crowd who's into japanese culture don't like VK. It's disheartening. 

[spockitty 643]

7 minutes ago, Doesn'tEvenGoHere said:

I've met one guy irl who also liked VK and would talk to me about it, but apart from our interest in VK, he had a terrible personality and I cut him off. Now in university my luck hasn't gotten any better and I've basically had a parallel experience to others here about how even the crowd who's into japanese culture don't like VK. It's disheartening. 

I mean, it's a niche even in it's own country, so I feel like it's a winning lottery ticket to randomly meet someone who's into it on the other side of the world ^^; 

 

In my experience, it's way easier to meet some local fan online (and by local I mean, at least in your country lol) and then meet them irl. 

[Miku70 214]

13 minutes ago, spockitty said:

I mean, it's a niche even in it's own country, so I feel like it's a winning lottery ticket to randomly meet someone who's into it on the other side of the world ^^; 

 

In my experience, it's way easier to meet some local fan online (and by local I mean, at least in your country lol) and then meet them irl. 

Same thing for me :). Online is more easier to discuss VK than irl .