Which visual kei trope would you ban?

[platy 3018]

Visual kei is essentially a collection of tropes from song structure, naming conventions and stylistic choices. Anyway, some of these characteristics can be very unpleasant so which one would you ban if you had the power to do so?

 

I'll start off with Engrish. The artists probably have no idea what they're saying to begin with and are only doing it for cool points/to cater to a possible western audience(???) and anyone who speaks more than one language knows that your tone of voice changes depending on which one you are speaking in. Usually when Japanese artists switch to English their voice changes for worse, not to mention the mess they make trying to pronounce stuff. See: the first minute of Sukekiyo's Foster Mother sounds like kyo's blowing flour from his mouth 

 

 IT RUINS THE MUSIC EXPERIENCE

 

 

[Gesu 1537]

Edgy face reveals. Unless you're a really popular/established musician making a surprising comeback, there's just no need for it and it kind of defeats the point of VK being a visually striking genre that jumps out at you the moment you see it. It's meant to get your attention and not being able to see the members just completely takes that aspect of it away. I do believe that the music is more important than the visuals but in such a stylised genre, you're taking a huge (and usually stupid/arbitrary) risk by obscuring yourself like that and more often than not, they fail to live up to the high expectations they give to the people waiting to see what they look like with mediocre music. It kind of adds insult to injury, imo.

[Himeaimichu 1535]

I would ban the trope of completely toning down your sound and visuals once you go major. Like... you actually got money now, why not go all out with the visuals and the music? Why the hell do you just start wearing less makeup and host-boy hair and playing generic pop rock the second you make more than 10 dollars?

So many great bands have been lost to this trope

[Tokage 5930]

dressing up as girls x

 

in fact ban all forms of dressing up other than shironuri makeup & cool uniforms imo

Edited January 28, 2020 by Tokage

[platy 3018]

47 minutes ago, Himeaimichu said:

I would ban the trope of completely toning down your sound and visuals once you go major. Like... you actually got money now, why not go all out with the visuals and the music? Why the hell do you just start wearing less makeup and host-boy hair and playing generic pop rock the second you make more than 10 dollars?

So many great bands have been lost to this trope

+1 but this is how the big boys make money apparently? "Tone down your looks so you'll appeal to the masses and make big bucks" but then they just lose what made them good in the first place and end up disbanding a year (tops) after going major. Stoopid.

 

52 minutes ago, Gesu said:

Edgy face reveals. Unless you're a really popular/established musician making a surprising comeback, there's just no need for it and it kind of defeats the point of VK being a visually striking genre that jumps out at you the moment you see it. It's meant to get your attention and not being able to see the members just completely takes that aspect of it away. I do believe that the music is more important than the visuals but in such a stylised genre, you're taking a huge (and usually stupid/arbitrary) risk by obscuring yourself like that and more often than not, they fail to live up to the high expectations they give to the people waiting to see what they look like with mediocre music. It kind of adds insult to injury, imo.

Especially now that most vk bands have really pedestrian looks there is literally NO need for this trope.

[Komorebi 2193]

The one that really annoys me and is thankfully dying out lately is the silent member trend. It was cool when Mana did it, not so much when it became a trend and a bunch of newbies started doing it.

[BrenGun 2261]

Yes those "Edgy face reveals"

I would say, just don't announce your new band until the day you gonna announce everything.

 

I also dislike like the "My age is secret", "It's secret in which previous bands I played"  kinda of crap shit.

 

 

 

But I don't mind the Engrish part.

Engrish is a known common thing in Japanese bands. not only visual bands are doing it.... no it's a daily thing in Japanese language anyway.  

Even if it's in the common language spoken in the Japanese way and written in Katakana, English is something which just flew in the language.

Only we Gaijins can often only hard get what that Japanese human is actually saying. 

Which remembers me of a Dragon ball song, which they sing "ANGEL ANGEL ANGEL" and I misunderstood it for ears as ENJEM ENJEM ENJEM 

So for me Engrish is simply amusing  Give me more of wrong English. Whenever they know what they are singing or not it's fun!

But I still must say, if a band decide to write a lyric in complete English; then please sit down with a English/Japanese speaker to form a bit of correct English sentences which you 100% understand the meaning off. But even so... It's fun to read such "not corrected google translated" lyrics. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[platy 3018]

2 hours ago, BrenGun said:

 

I also dislike like the "My age is secret", 

 

 

One thing that I admire about k-pop, they are open about the members' age. I was pleasantly surprised by how many K-pop dudes are nearly 30. Actually, I can't remember if this is the same with girl groups? Anyway, in Japan it's a crime to be over 18 years old in media/music/etc., which I find creepy and annoying tbh. As if people over 18 can't be charming or cute, can we stop pretending human beings don't age 

 

[evenor 1655]

Awkward/sudden key changes.

[violetchain 912]

The "risutokatto" trope in general is a huge turnoff for me, tbh.

[ShTon 268]

I don't mind Engrish. I find the awkward use of it in lyrics pretty amusing and world would be a little bit sadder without the google translate tier phrases in songs, lol.

 

I gotta say +1 on edgy face reveals.

[nekkichi 6043]

ayabie line-ups from the 2nd one and onwards

 

heteronormativity

 

robe attire fad of 2019-2020

[frayed 404]

Nazis.

[suji 8317]

50 demo releases once you're active for more than a year

 

Live limited shit

 

Pop/Visualcore (??? is that the right term?)

 

Joke bands

 

putting out 50 consecutive monthly singles instead of just putting them all together on a fucking album

 

Starwave-tier production quality

 

MENHERA

[colorful人生 2777]

the swedes

[chemicalpictures 1888]

all crowd related stuff

 

furi, rows and everything else that makes freaking metalcore concerts look like a kids show live audience or smh

[sleepy coffee 1476]

2 minutes ago, chemicalpictures said:

furi

+1

[Jigsaw9 6783]

The "we're not visual anymore" cop out. 🙄

[CAT5 9075]

7 hours ago, platy said:

I'll start off with Engrish.

 

Yep, although this is a problem that I have with Japanese music at large too. Apparently, the Japanese simply think "it's cool". 🤦🏿‍♂️

[platy 3018]

1 hour ago, suji said:

 

 

MENHERA

I'll raise you one up... MEN DRESSED AS BABIES/YOUNG CHILDREN PROMOTING MENHERA

[Tokage 5930]

PVs/songs about abusive parents and/or TWISTEEEEED children trying to kill their parents in some way

[Saishu 1589]

The music box intro

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

Not really a trope, per say, but I want to enforce a strict rule that requires you look up a band name before you officially debut to ensure there aren't already 3423042042 other bands with the same name already.

[lichtlune 915]

Shitty synth to cover up bad/lazy instrumentation 

[Saishu 1589]

31 minutes ago, Peace Heavy mk II said:

Not really a trope, per say, but I want to enforce a strict rule that requires you look up a band name before you officially debut to ensure there aren't already 3423042042 other bands with the same name already.

Also make sure your band name is easy to Google. Don’t make it one letter or a super common word like “Sugar”