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Showing content with the highest reputation on 09/13/18 in all areas

  1. 6 points
    The visual-kei scene is full of its own quirks and oddities that make it stand out from any other subculture in the music world; these hallmarks also appear to resonate at a national level, in spite of the culture stemming from several metropolitan hubs, each with their own small variants. One of these traits, for better or for worse, is how willing the scene is to reference itself. Since 2013, “willing” has become the incorrect word. “Obsessed,” “addicted,” “driven,” “obligated”; these words seem to fit the bill closer. References to older material is not uncommon in any medium of art, but visual-kei takes it four steps further to emulation. Today is the day we talk about homage-系 (Kei), kids. “Homage-kei” is a made up word. It isn’t a real category to anyone else other than people who use this board, to be honest, but it is an apt descriptor for this phenomenon. This is when a band reuses melodies, thematic, aesthetics, and even titles from an older, typically more successful, band or bands. However: their music also contains many original elements, which sets them apart from being a literal cover band. It also needs to be more than a single occurrence as well: Dir en grey “””borrowing””” the main riff of Luna Sea’s “G” is not enough, but borrowing the front-man of 黒夢 (Kuroyume)’s aesthetic for several music videos is. There are several bands that would fall under this umbrella from the late 2000’s. Two I want to touch on are Ru:Natic and the infamous Vajra. The first was one of the earliest examples I can think of that tried to revive the aggressive and bloody punk-meets-goth-meets-pop style popularized in the mid-90’s. They wore black clothes, had neon hair, and sang about being a crazy person invited to dinner parties that they had no business attending. While they weren’t the only group doing this (re: Sadie’s Mary and Sadie’sla), they were the first to start reusing melodies from older bands, namely La:Sadie’s, Madeth Gray’ll, and Aliene Ma’riage. There was even a hard-to-come-by single that was a reinterpretation of Baiser’s “undersea” and they had a demo tape that contained covers from some of the bands previously mentioned. They even lost a bunch of members, changed record labels, and released a lot of rare material: all cornerstones of “what an old school band does.” In my memory of the scene, this was the first time we got a real taste of bands reinventing the 90s sound that many people liked, but had fallen out of favor. Vajra was fun for the wrong reasons. Their costumes were kind of similar to UnsraW and thematically they were a bit too close to Dir en grey for the fan base at the time’s comfort. One of their singles was apparently a near 1:1 facsimile of another Dir en grey track and that caused a shitstorm on last.fm . For days people were arguing back and forth about whether it was a copy or not. Our own dear @Zeus requested someone overlay it with the original so we could see how similar it was. I personally did not have a horse in that race, but for hours or entertainment seeing the bickering between the hordes of people in outrage vs that one person who apparently went to their shows regularly and gave sympathetic updates about how this was affecting the band personally. Take his with a grain of salt, as it is only a Western interpretation of what happened and I cannot speak to how it was received by fans who could actually go see them in person. Regardless of where you stood in this fight, history’s take is that it did not end well for Vajra; they broke up shortly after only to be remembered as “that band that tried to be Diru.” Both examples were, in retrospect, unsuccessful. Ru:Natic, in their heyday, missed the boat on people eating up old-school revival acts by about 3 years, then only played again in one-off events. Vajra, on the other hand, failed for a couple of reasons. The first is that the fan base wasn’t ready for their style of tribute-meets-original-works. Secondly, there wasn’t enough time passed between what they performed and when their source material was released. Based on later act’s success, time helps prevent “a homage” from being seen as “a rip-off.” Earlier I had mentioned 2013 being the starting point for “homage-kei,” in a more official (but still unofficial) sense. That’s because グリヴァー (GRIEVA) happened and caused a shift in the scene. For those unfamiliar, Grieva’s whole schtick was that they dressed like a modern version of 1998 Dir en grey and made music that sounded like it could have came from from the same time frame. However, after people got a hold of their first album, it became alarming clear that it was one big tribute to “Gauze” (Dir en grey’s first album). A lot of songs “borrowed” the melodies of Gauze-era songs, their music videos were kind of like high school kids reenacting their idol’s work for a class project, and you were even able to draw parallels to the lyrical content. Grieva handled this clearly stating their theme is to bring back the feeling of the old days, and even fabricated a whole interview about how they went on a quest for band members that held the same ideals. Unlike Vajra, when people confronted them by saying “You’re just stealing,” them saying “Yeah, but that’s like the point???” it worked. Granted, there were plenty of people who weren’t buying this act and loathed the whole idea, but there was more than enough support for it to keep them at the forefront of the scene up until 2015. In fact, it worked so well that their label made it happen AGAIN, but this time with a band that pretended to be The GazettE and another that mixed all different concepts from the eroguro scene and western nü-metal together. This was the first time in visual-kei where blatantly copying on purpose wasn’t met with more backlash than praise. Several other acts spawned at the same time, due to a strong desire for “bands that sound like old school groups.” This was in part due to Cell, an offshoot of La’Mule that made somewhat similar music, Lin, a Kisaki band that came after he swore he was retired, and a general sense of boredom from the run-of-the-mill bands that dressed like host boys. Other groups that come to mind include Gauzes (a La’Mule homage-kei group), DEZERT (their first singles were nü-metal interpretations of groups like D’espairsRay and Nega), and AvelCain (who took more influence from groups like Lamiel than their fan base wanted to admit). Suddenly, it was cool to be like someone else. Eventually, the hype waned a bit. Grieva started writing their own music and then eventually split after being worked to death by their label. It was mostly the same case for AvelCain, Cell went on break because frontman Kon can’t keep focused on one thing, DEZERT found (and then killed) their own style, and most of the other old school sounding bands weren’t big enough to really make a lasting impact. This was the death of homage-kei. Or was it??? Interestingly enough, in recent years, this scene metamorphosed along with the scene at large. We started seeing groups now begin to “take influence from” more recent acts (which I guess are still old if you’re younger than 20??). We had メディーナ (Mediena), who took a lot from Phantasmagoria, ガンミ (Ganmi), which sounded like an early 2000s band without a real influence to pin point, and Mamireta, who tried to restart the subculture in high gear with their refreshing takes on 蜉蝣 (Kagerou)’s music. There are even big acts forming side projects that “sound like a 90’s band!!”, like Diaura(who are not guilt-free themselves, when it comes to Pierrot worship) and ぞんび (Zonbi). Even Gossip-ゴシップ- went from copying The GazettE to emulating their label owner’s old band (albeit at gunpoint (allegedly!)). It is worth noting that another significant change: aside from a few examples, the current trend has become "I want to sound like ___," rather than "guess which ___ songs I combined!!!" Arguably, the style should have started with this mentality, but controversy creates buzz. Unoriginality in the visual kei scene is nothing new. We even have an entire thread dedicated to specific instances where someone took a riff or theme and matches it to the exact source material it came from. But homage-kei really takes it to the next level. Bands want you to know who they’re sounding like. Could it be for nostalgia sales? Or because recreating a well liked motif makes it easier for someone to like a new creation (they’re already emotionally invested)? Or is it just a lazy cash grab, which requires 40% less effort to produce material? Maybe it is fulfilling a fantasy to reenact what you love about your idols? In spite of how much I adore everything mentioned throughout this article, I would be lying to you if I didn’t say that it is probably a mix of all four.
  2. 3 points
    コドモドラゴン (CODOMO DRAGON) will be releasing a their 6th single since WOLFMAN, "想葬" (Sousou), on November 7th. As per the exhausting BP routine, the single will be released in four types, submit all obi strips to get a tour pamphlet, they'll do a one month tour for the single (from November 10th to December 16th), and play a tour final on January 9th, 2019. Maybe at that show, they'll announce an album... I dig the look tho
  3. 3 points
    those guys x did you know that snakesz are renowned for their commercial astuteness?
  4. 2 points
    BABOO 3-month consecutive live-limited singles will be released at 2018/9/12, 2018/10/12 and 2018/11/12 respectively. Lyric videos will be posted for the singles along with, for a limited time, free download links!
  5. 2 points
    It's hard to be a goth guy living in a stupid sunny tropical country. #killme
  6. 2 points
    Still makes me laugh every time I see it oh dear
  7. 2 points
    YOSHIKI said at the announcement event today that X JAPAN new album is finished already but still hasn't decided for the release date.
  8. 2 points
    was he drunk when he tweeted this or
  9. 2 points
  10. 2 points
    queen of the former soviet states when will ur fav literally ever x
  11. 2 points
    Seelentau

    DIR EN GREY - Ranunculus

    Lyrics and translation (except for one line) taken from the promotional ver., romanisation done by me.
  12. 2 points
    Masato

    0.1g no Gosan x Mathilda drama

    For everyone who was not at the flyer-eating live: Masato is doing a splendid flyer eating performance in their new MV, where they immortalized this scandal (and the no. 1 ticket invalidadion...)
  13. 1 point
    I think the first time Yoshiki said the album was 90% complete was in 2007? He's a fucking liar.
  14. 1 point
    This is going to be a postumous release.
  15. 1 point
    Red Velvet/kpop fans: as I am too lazy to dig into their discography by myself, I would greatly appreciate if someone could recommend me some of their stuff that sound like these two songs:
  16. 1 point
    suji

    Kisaki Drama 2k18

    Kisaki has been replaced by Kiriha (Strawberry Song Orchestra) for the special session on 11/7.
  17. 1 point
    noir

    Your last music-related buy!

    FerrisWheeL - 黎明レゾナンス FerrisWheeL - グリザイユの胚珠 FerrisWheeL - 夢幻郷 Marvelous Cruelty - 吊サレタ奇形ノ罠
  18. 1 point
    I wait for a bundle with final fantasy 7 remake
  19. 1 point
    Do you ever just listen to a song that you've loved for years and it just reminds you of everything good and bad that you've been with through over the years? I'm listening to 'Lost in Blue' by Nightmare and it's doing exactly that, first listened to it in 2012
  20. 1 point
  21. 1 point
    I believe it when I see it
  22. 1 point
    nekkichi

    Big Mood

    Big Mood
  23. 1 point
    hyura

    Madmans Esprit

    Madmans Esprit covered DIR EN GREY this time. The chorus is awesome.
  24. 1 point
    Komorebi

    Your last music-related buy!

    Jiluka - Metamorphose (all types) Jiluka - Hellraiser Jiluka - The Chronostasis DVD Jiluka - The Chaotic Zion DVD D - Revive (all types) D - Treasure Box D - Narrow Escape lynch. - XIII Gotcharocka - Baccarat Gotcharocka - Ash Gotcharocka - Go with the flow Asagi - Live DVD Diaura - Noah/Shangri-la Acid Black Cherry - L type A
  25. 1 point
    Man it's these infinite singles campaigns that really make lose interest in a band. The next time I'll check them out will probably be the album
  26. 1 point
  27. 1 point
    it's probably quite literally the only japanese musician to drop by those ex-USSR countries besides maybe Sana or HITT so i'm pretty sure every single remaining weeb there will collect their pocket money to attend
  28. 1 point
    Where's that album tho, all this fire they've been releasing and I'm thirsting for a full album punch to the face.
  29. 1 point
    Rosner

    Dir en grey

    I knew the visual kei movement was originally inspired by darkwave bands, butI didn't knew that Dead Can Dance was such a big influence! To me is one of the best bands in the history of music: they are just out of this world, and their music has a really strange and moving vibe that's hard to replicate. They just announced a new album ('Dionysus') to be released in November! Really excited: 'Anastasis' is one of the best reunion albums ever, so I have really high hopes.
  30. 1 point
  31. 1 point
    This is my favorite kind of Homage-kei ❤️ I think that in vk scene there is a lot of creativity, but i love when a band make "revive" another old (amazing) band. (and even more if that old band is like kotekote kei) Although sometimes appear bands that make old songs a shit bag. Thanks for the post! ❤️
  32. 1 point
    I actually really like the sound of this and I never got into Marco before
  33. 1 point
  34. 1 point
    Chi

    砂月 -SATSUKI- new album, "REBOOT" release

    LET'S SELL THIS OUT KING
  35. 1 point
    Chi

    The Bad Boys of Visual Kei

    Idk man, choking a woman isn't very cool, so Wataru was my vote along w Kisaki
  36. 1 point
    nice i will attend none of them x
  37. 1 point
    title has been finalized as "僕が僕じゃなくなる日"
  38. 1 point
    Saishu

    Dir en grey

    I would imagine it has little do with how big or small a band is and everything to do with what they want. Half of Metallica’s albums sound like shit, and they’re one of the biggest bands in the world.
  39. 1 point
    Tanishi

    Dir en grey

    What I don't understand is how small bands like DOF and Dimlim can have much better mastering for their records then one of the biggest bands in the scene. It's interesting seeing this band mentioned here, because they have had an big understated impact on vk influencing Buck-Tick (Atsushi Sakurai), Kisaki, Luna Sea and the whole darkwave movement in general.
  40. 1 point
    Dyingmoments

    Your last music-related buy!

    At long last, I have this on the way from Ikebe. This is going to be a fantastic birthday...
  41. 1 point
    platy

    Kisaki Drama 2k18

    @cvltic regarding the fact people ignore the allegations against Kyo, as far as I know there is no proof or anything beyond what's been discussed on tanuki,probably because it happened so long ago and as we all know most things that come out of a gossip forum should be taken with a grain of salt. With this Kisaki scandal we have a lot of supposed evidence in the pictures and screenshots, making it harder to ignore. Maybe I'm missing out on something, but that's my take on it.
  42. 1 point
    Yo-hey confirmed that "獣声" is read as "Juusei." The Starwave dudes are surprisingly responsive / friendly whenever I ask for clarity on how to read their more obscure titles. I like the sample. It reminds me of late-career Megaromania.
  43. 1 point
    yukidogzombie

    Drawings

    fanart of my favorite clowns clown_if , FryPan / フライパン , Flower The Clown , clown_canon , Odd-Ball , , Captain Dazzle , clown_doremi , Hayato / 上邑隼人
  44. 1 point
    -NOVA-

    Your last music-related buy!

    Lynch. - 13th anniversary - XIII GALLOWS - DVD DIMLIM - CHE DO A RA
  45. 1 point
    platy

    X Japan new album scheduled for 30th of TBD

    What dimension is this where yoshiki and skrillex are chums. The X album can't be finished yet because yoshiki is finishing his dubstep apprenticeship with Skrill.
  46. 1 point
    Should we move this topic to the rumors section instead?
  47. 1 point
    Masato

    0.1g no Gosan x Mathilda drama

    Back to the topic: If anyone goes to the Mathilda live, please report if the Gosan guys stand in front of the entrance to identify unloyal fans, or if they send their saizen to do so instead! 🕴🕴🕴🕴🕴🕴 Coolest thing about it: Since they will not talk to the fan anymore they can just stand there silently and shame them with their eyes!
  48. 1 point
    Masato

    0.1g no Gosan x Mathilda drama

    ... so all 15 people and their grandpa? Now it's getting serious!
  49. 1 point
  50. 1 point
    the parents of the band members are hype
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