What is the most appealing aspect of Visual Kei?

[nana0iro0miso]

i'm doing a speech on VK a week or so, so i wanted to get a few opinions and such on visual kei. ^^

[Iblis]

The visuals. Obviously. Half the VK bands around can't produce good music for ****, so the only thing they have going for them is the visuals. Which is after all the entire point of the visual kei genre.

[tomselleck69]

that they are currently not very popular in america.


(giggle)

[shadowmose]

that they are currently not very popular in america.


(giggle)


http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j241/blueshadowmoses/pics%202/rofl-doggie.jpg

[Jacku]

I have to say the clothes since for one thing a VK band is about being, oh I don't know, visual.
Duh.

[nana0iro0miso]

wasn't malice mizer visual? and they actually had really good music. its just all this.. oshare or whatever its called, killing visual with its bad music...

[Iblis]

Now, now. I'm sure there are good oshare bands. They just haven't been discovered yet.

[visualxkei]

i actually like some vk bands. . . . hmmm. . but some are just on the borderline of visual kei too. . . hmmm. . . . is plastic tree visual or not? cause they make pretty good music. . .and psycho le cemu . . .they look and sound pretty good, so i cant say that no visual band can sing! okies. . .anyways. . . yeah, i love the style. . . and the guys. kekeke

[Ichigosmiles]

I think it's the clothes. Any band can make good music, not every band can be original with the way they dress.

[nana0iro0miso]

i actually like some vk bands. . . . hmmm. . but some are just on the borderline of visual kei too. . . hmmm. . . . is plastic tree visual or not? cause they make pretty good music. . .and psycho le cemu . . .they look and sound pretty good, so i cant say that no visual band can sing! okies. . .anyways. . . yeah, i love the style. . . and the guys. kekeke

i dunno about plastic tree.. they remind me a lot of la'cryma christi in that.. they're not really visual but.. one or two members might dress kinda crazy.
mostly i was talking about this flood of like super dolled of men thats been covering the pages of Cure.

on a sad note though, Kagerou [the band in my sig] is disbanding ;-; atleast thats the rumor i've seen about. i hope its not true ._.

[Velvy]

Haha, honestly probably the visual aspects - the make-up, the men in clothes, the crazy-sexy-cool outfits... The music can be sometimes hit-and-miss for me. Some bands have a sound that stays consistent throughout their album and I love it. Others experiment more and therefore some songs really grate my nerves and others I totally adore.

[LaughingInBlood]

i dunno about plastic tree.. they remind me a lot of la'cryma christi in that.. they're not really visual but.. one or two members might dress kinda crazy.
mostly i was talking about this flood of like super dolled of men thats been covering the pages of Cure.

on a sad note though, Kagerou [the band in my sig] is disbanding ;-; atleast thats the rumor i've seen about. i hope its not true ._.

I believe they *used* to be visual, but like most bands who were a part of the VK scene back when it was big, they've disowned it now.

I honestly like the lyrics. If you can find a good translation, it really transforms the song. A great example of this is Janne da Arc's "HELL or HEAVEN ~ Itoshi no Psycho Breaker" (http://www.phoenix-dreams.net/kiku/hellorheaven_t.html). The song is amazing as it is, but then you throw the lyrics in there, and it's just 'Wow." :D

[Momochi]

Actually i disagree with alot of whats being said. First off not any band can make good music, I speak from experiance >.>; heh I find the music one of the most refreshing aspects of Visual Kei. What i noticed is that there is hardly two bands that sound alike where as in america alot of bands sound really simmilar to me and they dont have a very distinguished sound. Oshiri kei is just another type of Visual kei its more of a punk feel to it than a metal, which is okay by me i still love it all the same. I have to admit that the pretty guys do lure me into checking a band out, but its their style and sound that keep me hooked, i mean Dir en Grey, and Gazette are amazing bands with amazing musicions involved! And i love them both to pieces! but this is all just my opinion, your' all free to your own thoughts but these are just mine ^^;

[Iblis]

Hahaha, oshiri kei is about right. 8D

And Gazette sounds like a copy of Dir (and 12012 a copy of Gazette), so what are you talking about bands not sounding alike? The VK scene is overwhelmed with bands that sound alike.

[nana0iro0miso]

yea, they don't come as original as they used to =/ style wise at least.
if you compare x-japan, malice mizer, and diru, totally diff sounds.

but lets say... mucc, gazette, an cafe, 12012, phantasmagoria, and whatever else. all those, i can hardly tell the difference between them, save for which singer sounds worse than another.

[AshuriiDiru]

Hahaha, oshiri kei is about right. 8D

And Gazette sounds like a copy of Dir (and 12012 a copy of Gazette), so what are you talking about bands not sounding alike? The VK scene is overwhelmed with bands that sound alike.

Gazette and Diru are not copies! That's crap! I've seen Dir en Grey in concert and Gazette is not a copy of them. I listen to both and I like them both. But Gazette is not a copy of Diru. No...

Ruki is not Kyo's clone!! >.<

[LaughingInBlood]

^ I'll tell you what they both are. Everyone seems to have forgotten that nearly every single current 'VK' band is just a carbon copy of Kuroyume, and both Kyo AND Ruki are Kiyoharu clones. Even today, Kyo pretty much models his tastes after the ones that Kiyoharu currently has. Ruki is also like this, and yes, in the begining, Gazette was just a deg fan-boy band, but they've really come into their own.

I've been watching Gazette for awhile and was really hoping they'd evolve like they have, and can say they've really given me hope for the future of VK. Where all the old bands like deg are disowning VK as 'cliché', Gazette is sticking to their guns and putting out damn good music. They're even surpassing deg themselves these days since Kyo's singing has gone straight to hell.

The point is yes, Dir en grey and Gazette both have a common origin in that they modeled themselves after Kuroyume, which isn't new at all, but the points really have to go to Gazette for using that as just a jumping point and creating their own style while deg became popular for ripping off other bands and finally lost their steam as their audience lost intrest.

And if you're scratching your heads as to who exactly Kuroyume and Kiyoharu are, then you really can't criticize any VK band seeing as how most of them are influenced by them. Natural exceptions are XJapan, Malice Mizer, ect. . It's pretty obvious who comes from where.

but lets say... mucc, gazette, an cafe, 12012, phantasmagoria, and whatever else. all those, i can hardly tell the difference between them, save for which singer sounds worse than another

That's hardly a fair statement. If you can't tell the difference from Gazette and Phantasmagoria, that means you've probably only listened to about one song a piece. :| There's more differences than just vocalists.

[Iblis]

Kiyoharu is a saggy old man.

[LaughingInBlood]

Kiyoharu is a saggy old man.

You need to look at some recent photoshoots. In particular the one he recently did with Ruki from Gazette.

Otherwise, he's who most of your favorite VK bands got their ideas from. He deserves a certain amount of respect.

[Iblis]

I've seen his recent ones, and he hasn't gotten any less gross. D: I think I can safely say that my favorite VK bands weren't inspired by him either, so I don't owe him any respect in that department. HOWEVER! I enjoy his SADS releases, so I'm not saying he's an old shitbag or anything - just that he's saggy. And has a giant nose.

[nana0iro0miso]

That's hardly a fair statement. If you can't tell the difference from Gazette and Phantasmagoria, that means you've probably only listened to about one song a piece. :| There's more differences than just vocalists.


oh i've tried listening to them several times, i even tried watching the videos hoping my eyes would distract my ears from any bad music that might start playing, but alas... they all end up blurring together into a big pile of make-up =/
though now i've heard many are trying to drop the make-up ploy~

one VK band i do like though, is D. i dunno what it is about them.. but they hypnotize me..

[LaughingInBlood]

oh i've tried listening to them several times, i even tried watching the videos hoping my eyes would distract my ears from any bad music that might start playing, but alas... they all end up blurring together into a big pile of make-up =/
though now i've heard many are trying to drop the make-up ploy~

one VK band i do like though, is D. i dunno what it is about them.. but they hypnotize me..

To each their own then, but you should have more reasons other than you don't like their makeup and/or they just suck. ;)

[nana0iro0miso]

<< well you see, suckage includes, in most instances, the whole bad music part.
and its not so much sounding bad, but just being uninteresting. having nothing that really stands out after listening to the song. some bands already have the technical parts, but they just don't make good music imo. =)

[PururinEleven]

I love not only the pretty men in cool clothes, but the style of the cool clothes the most. Some of the bands did have some really good music, but these days most of the VK bands suck. And if you want a band that really does sound like Dir en Grey, go youtube Sadie. Not only does the vocalist sing like them, but even the name is a blatant copy. (But all of their fangirls get incredibly mad if you call them a copycat band, which they are. It's kind of funny).