The music is bizarre, occasionally brilliant. I view the incongruities like the phone game; things get messed up in translation… Dir En Grey… kinda funny to hear passionate Japanese lounge vocals over death metal techno.

I used to be into Visual Kei.. but it isn’t worth it. They are very, and sadly, screwed up in Japan; they just cover it with the picture they portray to the other countries. If you do research, read ShoxX, and submerse yourself in their culture nowadays, you’ll understand..

I wouldn’t ever want a country to conform their style to another’s… If you do, where will you go to get away from it… where do you go to become calm… I’d like a picture to be colorful, romantic, but also real.

...a vampire can’t live in a pure kind of happiness, and if I told otherwise, I’d be lying.

Thanks for the comment, Autumn. I certainly am no expert on Visual Kei – how could I be really without spending a substantial amount of time in Japan (which I hope to do when I have $$$$...) Is your trouble with the scene the fact that is isn’t “real”? That it relys too heavily on aesthetics? I’m intrigued…

= F

Gosh, I reread my comment, and I sound a bit condescending on your piece; I didn’t mean for it to sound that way at all (it was actually quite good…). The culture in Japan is very eye catching, indeed. It is just the fact that too much of a fantasy can become very unstable after awhile.. It’s hard to land back down to reality if you’ve been flying for years, but then again, flying is much better than walking. The sweet smell they are releasing can be overpowering, and the there’s a bitter beast waiting for you at the end. When I was into it, I would have that sort of Lolita guise, and people loved it. The fact I was in the fascinating towers and the type of things sung in Malice Mizer (which, Mana, girlish male guitarist, was my favorite, even to this day) kind of made me caught up in myself. This, I might add, isn’t good for the development of a young girl. Its excellent, just a bit too intoxicating.

I can see what you mean, although I suppose I am still under the spell to some extent, so we’ll see what happens if I ever decide to stop “indulging” in Visual Kei….God I love Mana too, wish he wasn’t so adverse to interviews! Moi Dix Mois is fabulous…Thanks again for the thoughts…

ah yes! Moi Dix Mois is very fantastic! The art is beautiful, but its a shame Juka left…

Yes, and the only reason he’s so disagreeable with those type of things is because he never talks! But hey, I guess he’s allowed to do that sort of thing; he’s Mana. Ha…

I think this is an interesting article, and I like that you are approaching the subject from a cross-cultural perspective. You should continue thinking about whether genre divisions could be products of culture, it is an idea I haven’t come across before!

However, my concern is that your research subjects seems quite out-dated. Malice Mizer don’t even exist any more, and both L’arc en Ciel and Dir en grey are hardly considered Visual Kei any longer (per my opinion at least, and I know many agree with me). Using these bands in a piece like this may have been relevant seven or eight years ago, but not any more. (don’t get me wrong, Dir en grey are my absolute #1 favorite band… but I don’t believe they’ve fit that genre for years now)

You should try following up with this by looking into current Visual Kei bands. Vidoll, D’espairsRay, Phantasmagoria… to name some you may have heard of.
If it’s different music you’re looking for, check out Himitsu Kessha Kodomo A; they are definitely out there!
Personal favorites include Nana, Gossip, Gilgamesh, Kamikaze Boyz, the Pumpkin Head, and Arc.

(I claim no expertise, but this past Saturday night was my 48th concert in Japan, most of them indies VK shows… I suppose that might count for something?)

Thank you for your spot-on comments RG. I had difficulty writing this piece to an audience that has absolutely no idea what I’m talking about- hence my use of old standards for examples. I would have never written this piece for actual Visual Kei fans, and perhaps that’s the real problem with it. Genre-fying bands is always difficult, and often pointless, but I will concur that L’arc and Dir en Grey would NEVER be considered VK bands now. I felt that I had to start somewhere with a topic that I know 99% of BT readers have never even heard of. Thank you again for bringing this up though, its something I thought a lot about when writing this. My next piece should be a historical one which details what ACTUALLY happened to the bands I mentioned and what is going one with the scene in 2006. Any insights from Japan would be most appreciated…

Thats a wonderful idea on a piece! Includeing that, changing and growing up as a band, and wanting to appeal to a wider audience, has helped them change their look, if not their overall style, but always keeping the same passion in their music and performance.

i think l’arc en ciel, is more jrock rather than visual. just my opinion.

for me, Larc en ciel is more like pop rock

I agree, they are definitely JRock or Pop Punk now, but as I mentioned in an earlier comment above, I had to discuss these bands as they began since most of the BT audience hasn’t a clue about VK. Perhaps it was a bad idea to do this. Nevertheless, I think a lot of people would agree that they started out as a VK band. Which is why for the purpose of this ‘primer’ I labeled them as such. Clearly Dir En Grey are not a VK band anymore either, but I had to start somewhere, so I chose the beginning…

A lot of the old VK bands are moving away from their earlier images, not a surprising move really since the audience changes, so does the band. I think though that it’s interesting to look back on these bands now… after all the Japanese music scene has changed so much since when I first started listening to it. When I started it was bands such as Malice Mizer, X Japan, Luna Sea and the like… now hip hop and rap are prevalent. It’s really sort of interesting that their music scene is so heavily influenced by the American scene, and yet there are some things that Americans would never stand for. We would have a hard time stomaching most visual kei artists (for any length of time) or some of the gimmicky bands such as Psycho le Cemu with their costumes, or even the girl group Morning musume with it’s revolving door of young girls.
The Japanese certainly take something and create their own spin on it, and music is really no exception.

L’arc en ciel were never Visual Kei dude.

Kra, Gazette, Kagraa, Alice Nine, early Dir en grey, Moi Dix Mois, Malice Mizer, Luna Sea, hide, X Japan, The TRAX, Early MUCC, D are all jrock bands whom are part of the Visual Kei.

Lmao ‘screwed up’

They are not screwed up. Better than being dim-minded like the West.

U people need to actually listen and take an interest before judging, like alot of u do. These are to the people in the comments, not the reviewer.

Had I realized so many VK fans would read this, I really wouldn’t have written the piece in such a way. But I know better now, so next time I’ll be sure to put in some qualifiers. The three bands I used as examples perhaps weren’t the best, as one is disbanded and the other two are not VK at all now. As far as L’arc, I’m not the only one who says they began as VK. Here’s one example of an article describing their early work as such this one. We could argue about genre labels all day long, but in the end there is no definitive classification of any band. I mean, can you call The Sisters goth if Andrew Eldritch specifically says they are not?

This naughty computer in Amsterdam has posted my last unfinished comments too soon, but instead of re-writing them I’ll just say that I’m glad there’s discussion of these amazing Japanese bands on my blog, whether positive or negative. Any press is good press, so if fans want to criticize my lack of capitalization or classification or the comments of others, its all for a worthy cause.

It’s Dir en grey,
Not Dir en Grey/ Dir En Grey.
Just wanted to clear it up. ^_

Wow, Diru fans really like to nitpick with the capitalization. As I mentioned in another post where it came up last, I have to stick to the normal formatting of Big T (caps for all band names!) so as not to confuse the majority of people who don’t know Dir en grey from Malice Mizer. Plus, now that I’ve taken this stance, I’m way too stubborn to back down now. Thanks for posting though! = )

This is an interesting article and observation on the music genre on the other side of the Pacific. I can relate to Autumn in terms of the intoxicating fantasy that undertakes you when you’re deep into the scene. I’m not one to say too much, but I was a big Luna Sea fan over all the others that made a big hit. After they broke and had their children, and dropped the visual look (Sugizo was diehard about it.), it broke my heart. But I guess the magnetism of the scene itself can be derived from the unlimited amount of bands with the correct supplement of charisma and talent.
I think if you can come to terms with things like HIDE’s suicide, and Kami’s brain hemorrage, along with the in the closet type of thing going on. But a lot of these guys are drug-addicts, anorexic, have a history of trauma and make some life choices that can confuse. Regardless of that, visualkei has infiltrated parts of my mind that won’t be erased, and at the end of the day I’m an audience to music that’s delivered with theatrics that take imagination and a level of courage I probably couldn’t muster. These people are passionate about their music, and they deserve the right into our hearts because they expose theirs in a vulnerablility that I never before could’ve imagined.

Also, I think visualkei semi-spawned from the velvet underground in the UK.

I’d also like ot point out that Dir en grey is written wrong in the article. It should be ‘Dir en grey’ not ‘Dir En Grey’.

Why does it seem that there are more people interested in criticizing my punctuation than my ideas? How many times do I have to explain myself on that issue? Am I really going to have to give up clarity and uniformity for nitpicking accuracy? Perhaps its necessary for people to be able to take me seriously.

i thought it was written “Dir en Grey”?
oh well… anyways. i think it would be neat if America made genre names easier. just for emo stuff there’s tons and it’s confusing to those (me) who don’t really listen to music in english.
B.T.W. nice article ^-

People are critizing your punctuation because you are the one writing about their fav. band-and they are taking you seriously otherwise they wouldn’t have bothered to give you any comments, and if your going to write about visual kei bands then get the current v.k bands and at least spell them right-do your homework,man. (p.s-the truth hurts babe!)Laterz

There’s nothing factually inaccurate about what I’ve written above. I was just in Closet Child buying CDs in Harajuku yesterday and whaddya know, they sell L’Arc CDs, Malice Mizer CDs, and Dir en grey CDs. Sure those are not the ‘current’ VK bands, sure one isn’t in existence any longer and the other two aren’t considered VK now. But my point remains about genre stratifications, not the history of VK. I’m clearly not writing for a VK magazine – I’m trying to explain a phenomenon I find interesting to a readership that doesn’t know a thing about VK. I had to simplify things, and not explain every little detail so my point could be engaging to people who don’t care about Mana’s latest project, or D’s new album, or who is still considered VK now and who was years ago. It’s all about audience, babe.

I adored this article and thought it portrayed the bands that were really big as VK. Because even if the audience has never heard of VK before or these bands, period, then at least the fans know and can appreciate someone’s effort to make the online public more aware that there’s an untouched goldmine of music that Americans haven’t tapped into yet…great job!

Thank you, ESL. Nice to know my article and its purpose was understood clearly by somebody. I do hope it has reached at least a few people and inspired them to dig into the “goldmine’’ that is VK. (And no, I did not ask a friend to post something positive here because I was sick of being slagged off – Bring it on haters!)

This is a pretty good article but I never heard of L’Arc~en~Ciel being a part of the visual kei scene. This is also one band that can’t be forgotten and that’s D’espairsRay. They always push the limits and they sound better live then they do on their CD! (I should know ‘cause I saw them live.) For anyone who reads this article you can’t say visual kei without mentioning D’espairsRay. Everyone needs to listen to this band! They come back to America almost every four months! So check them out if you hear they are coming here again!

yeah I saw D’espairsRay at Megacon and they kicked ass. I got to shake Hizumi’s hand at the end of the show XD.

Anwyays, this article is exactly what I need because I am actually writing a paper for a Religion Class on VKei. Don’t worry, full citation and all that good jazz will be given, but I am glad I came across this article as it will help give an introduction into the VKei scene.

Wow,
I’m honored to be cited in your paper Lando! I’d also love to see it if you feel like sharing when you’re done….
VK as a topic for a Religion paper sounds very intriguing.

This is a great introductory piece to those of us overseas and who aren’t clued in to what VK really is. Yes, Malice Mizer disbanded, but still, they can be used as a great reference of what VK is all about alongside with the likes of X-Japan and Luna Sea.

Anyhow, I really did enjoy this article and with your permission, I’d also like to cite your work in my paper.

To Lando,
Cool, you got to shake Hizumi’s hand? I got to shake all their hands ^__ It was so cool!

poiwqewipoqeipodsa

Not to sound like everyone else… but I really enjoyed your article, it was well written, to the point and very informative. Thank you! I’m currently also writing an article for my university class about VK and both the article and peoples comments on it (especially the one about getting to into the genre) was very inspiring. The VK bands have also started doing conserts here in Sweden. Blood had one just after xmas, that I missed :-(
Also you can now find a sub genre of our goths dressing in a new variation of Gothic Lolita. It’s very interesting when you start seeing cultures taking in other cultures and making them their own.

I’ve allways found american genres to harsh on themselvs.

nice article. Im new to this VK scene and know nothing about JRock. I went out and bought Dir en grey’s new album yesterday and I am amazed. I have become accustomed to this kind of genre because of my favorite bands here in the states. (slipknot, mudvayne, MushroomHead, CoF) All these bands use visual aspects to grab the audience’s attention. There seems to be two groups here in the states though, you have the seriouse bands like slipknot, mudvayne…and then you have your joke bands like GWAR. My point is both these groups are in the same shock rock genre, but looked at in very different ways. How are VK bands looked at in Japan?

Also if anyone can point me in the right direction to some more great JRock bands send me a reply or email. I am a very big nu metal fan and I love Dir en grey’s heavy sound if that is any help.

Great article – I’m in love with the fact that this is the first piece with some intellectual analysis of the VK scene I’ve been able to find on the internet. I hope you don’t mind that I’ve cited you in a paper I wrote during spring, but I found your article very inspiring and wanted to thank you. Now I finally know why I can only listen to Blink 182 for so long, but I can listen to Dir en Grey for hours on end…

Hey Christy,
Would you consider sending me a copy of the paper? I’d REALLY love to see it if you wouldn’t mind sharing – great to know other people are taking an academic approach to this phenomenon too! We’re not alone….

KSollee (at) BigTakeover.com

wow, people… very into visual.. Tis amazing.^^

I like it, but not to the point where if i don’t have it i’ll die…

Dir en grey was like the first vk band i knew. It’s strange how they change out of that scene, and younger and newer bands stay in that scene.

I like the article, very nice.

L’Arc~en~Ciel USED to have a SMIDGE of Visual Kei (I think it was referred to as…Shiro Kei though) look at Blurry Eyes. They quickly moved away from it, and weren’t “true” VK, I suppose.

VK is dying in Japan, it’s not that big. It’s not a genre a music, but a style of dress.

Kristin, I just want to applaud your patience with these people.
I’m not even halfway done with reading these comments and I’m already irritated with the repetition, and you having to re-explain yourself for them.
Anyway, I love all of your articles. I’ve posted some comments earlier, also. Just so you know, I am using most of your VK articles [Dir en grey and D’espairsRay included] for a term paper I am writing about Japanese music. I don’t remember if I have mentioned this to you before, but whatever hahaha xD. I’m nervous about presenting this to my class because these are people who don’t know a damn thing about Japanese music and I’m sure they would be creeped out by a bunch of guys in dresses. But hey, I am sticking to it! :] Thanks a bunch! Feel free to email me about this. [seamonsterspit@hotmail.com]

oh and of course, citation will be included!! xD

i think this is a wonderful article and i enjoy visual kei very much. one thing you must watch for. even if the boys are beautiful, you’ll most likely never get with one. they just don’t happen hear in canada. i must steal one from japan! watch out die! oh1 i’m a Dir en grey fan.