GreatNorthernVK
-
Content Count
198 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by GreatNorthernVK
-
-
-
On 9/25/2020 at 6:19 AM, Kabukichoatmidnight said:I gotta admit while I do understand why Vkei bands don't like people taking photos and videos at the same time I don't get it. Like if people are taking photos/videos of bands they can share online or whatever isn't that helping give the bands exposure to people who may not have heard of the bands otherwise? Like see some photos or a video and think "wow, this band look awesome, I'll have to catch another show as that one looked kick ass" sort of thing. And isn't like phone videos of gigs are ever that good that it's going to stop people attending lives or buying the dvds or whatever so seems a bit petty and counter productive in my opinion. Also is worth noting that basically no other genre of music has dumbass rules like this so is weird that vkei does, just seems a bit lame and shit that vkei is like this.
Other Japanese acts do this as well, but it’s always genres where the image of the artists is very important (ex. Idol groups).
From a foreign lens, yes, it seems counter productive. The only reason why some bands don’t allow pictures overseas is because they don’t want word getting back to Japanese fans that they allowed it.
Kiwamu and Dada have explained that the reason for the ban is due to anxiety that it will detract from cheki/photoset/DVD sales. To them, it’s worth it to lose the outside exposure because it encourages the most dedicated portion of the fanbase to empty their wallets on their favourite band.
-
On 8/5/2020 at 5:42 AM, Jigsaw9 said:Setlist of the 2020/07/28 gig which can be viewed/purchased via streaming from 08/08:
deadman
01. dlof facs
02. please god
03. 溺れる魚
04. blood
05. monster tree
06. follow the night light
07. ドリスからの手紙
08. through the looking glass
09. quo vadis
10. re:make
11. 蟻塚cali≠gari
01. 死は眠りを散歩する
02. オーバーナイト ハイキング
03. その斜陽、あるいはエロチカ
04. 動くな！死ね！甦れ！
05. ママが僕を捨ててパパが僕をおかした日
06. 暗中浪漫
07. -踏-
08. 淫美まるでカオスな
09. セックスと嘘
10. エロトピア
11. セックス オン ザ ビーチencore session
01. 死刑台のエレベーターDo you know what channel it’s available on?
-
Echoing what a couple of people have gotten at, the turnover of VK fans to K-pop is largely due to the accessibility of the fandom (or lack thereof, in VKs case).
The main difference is... the Kpop industry actually wanted the west’s engagement. Even if it’s just “share the fuck out of our music videos, and spam pictures of us on Twitter”. The VK industry’s response to this was “How did you get those music videos!? How did you get those magazine scans!? Region lock everything!!”
Eventually, western fans got tired of having to beg for crumbs, spend twice as much as Japanese fans for half the experience, and having any rare overseas lives still be more about flexing to their domestic fanbase than about catering to the foreign fanbase.
The irony here is that the “boom” of VK in the west was precisely due to the same promotion methods that Kpop acts use today (though on a smaller scale, as most of the groundwork occurred prior to the popularity of social media). The management of the bands that came over, however, were largely oblivious as to why this happened. So they just assumed they could do exactly as they did in Japan, but half-assed, and their fanbase would continue to grow.
This just built up hope that VK would eventually be more accessible, only for the momentum to die down once management realized that it wasn’t as simple as they thought. This discouraged many, and they lost interest after ~2010, even if they had been a fan long before 2007. Most of my friends fall into this category.
-
-
The thing to keep in mind is that Gackt’s solo career was signed by a subsidiary of Nippon Columbia (MM‘s label), where as MM retreated to Mana’s indies label. I don’t trust Gackt when he says that he was the one kicked out in this situation. Everyone else was.
-
About a 50/50 chance of telework next week. The PM’s wife has tested positive, so the government is taking it a bit more seriously now.
-
4 hours ago, Ameyoru said:Honestly I think the biggest problem it's how close was to the Dir en grey concert
Like I mention before, many people spended all of their money on Diru, so no money (Vip was like 250 dollar and General 70)
But I know, I know, somepeople had the money but procrastination attack
And fucking Dimlim random schedule, "hey let's go to Mexico -when? -dunno, March? -yeah" Your band is not famous, not like The GazettE is, you have missing members, you just changed your style and you want to hold a oneman in Mexico, a hole country, yes you have fans, but in a hole country, not just Mexico City
The Sound Bee HD were able to do their Concert and I'm sure they are less famous than Dimlim, but they went to an Anime con, not fucking alone in a whole 1000 people venue
Bad, horribly planification
I agree, they need to consider scheduling, and budgeting. Someone on Facebook was saying “Oh, well if they liked Dimlim, they should have bought tickets no matter the cost! Even if it was more expensive than the Super Bowl!”
Yeah, people don’t have that kind of money to throw around. Especially not most people in Mexico. Especially if people have to travel to the city.
It’s one of the reasons why Gazette’s Toronto show was only half sold. Because people aren’t just attending from Toronto. They’re flying in from numerous cities. And not everyone can keep doing that for every Japanese band that comes.
-
-
3 hours ago, Saishu said:Only way they were going to sell tickets
Don’t know what they expected. If they’re pushing for an international audience, renouncing VK isn’t it.
There are basically four camps:
1) Those that will only listen to VK, because the aesthetics are slightly more important than the music.
2) Those that mainly listen to VK because of an interest in the scene, but who wouldn’t stop listening if a band dropped their image, if the music was still good. Won’t seek out non-VK bands regularly .
3) Those that listen to all types of J-music as long as it’s good. Doesn’t care one way or another if it’s VK.
4) Actively avoids VK, either because “it’s gay”, or “I hate the fandom”. Won’t listen to a band that used to be VK either, because of fandom crossover.
So basically, there’s very little reason for a band to drop the “VK” label, especially in the foreign market.
-
-
This album sounds like a weird hybrid of Dance Gavin Dance and (new) Bring me the Horizon
nomemorial reacted to this -
6 minutes ago, Pho said:Also, can the vocalist stop sexually moaning for some guy called 'Richard' in out of the darkness please?
Sho and Koichi have the same sugar daddy.
-
Still holding out for that LP they teased...
-
-
3000 yen for a digital album? Fuck me.
Where is this vinyl they teased?
-
30 minutes ago, nekkichi said:they didn't lose any either & wouldn't gain any new fans out of the disgusting homophobic cloaca that is american metalhead fandom;
like literally the point I lost interest in the western white pig music scene was when a (married het) frontman from d*goba posted a halloween pic with guyliner on his bands IG and the moment aint shit comments from north america started flowing in he deleted the picture without telling the idiots to piss off.
I don't think lycaon or whoever was relevant in 2008 VK would have gotten much paying following out of the same breed of stans - they won't even know how to crowdfund their tour van if it got broken into in tenessee.
That might apply if they were trying for the bro-metal scene.
Post-hardcore/metal-core was a different beast entirely.
Cereal Killer 13 reacted to this -
14 minutes ago, nomemorial said:That really speaks volumes on the whole deal. I'm very used to the concept of bands partnering with other bands (or, in some cases, just riding their coattails) to gain a following in the States, so to see just how dramatic the difference in thought is kind of amuses me - especially in a genre that, we can all probably agree, produces a lot of cookie-cutter artists at a rapid fire pace.
Agreed. They could have had an important ally in someone like Kevin, but even MUCC, D’espairsRay and The Underneath’s management teams messed that up by screwing him over while he was planning the Canadian leg of that tour.
Somewhere along the line, they told him that they weren’t doing the Canadian dates, which caused him to try and scramble to salvage something to no avail. The attendance at his Canadian shows never recovered, and Taste of Chaos only lasted one more year, with record low attendance.He’s invited other Japanese bands onto Warped Tour after that, but *never* another VK band.
-
1 hour ago, nomemorial said:That's the thing, though - I think that a lot of visual kei fandom is rooted in buying merch/etc. when that's just not how most music fans operate these days. The problem with visual kei's accessibility doesn't begin and end with their merch-selling capabilities - it starts with getting people on board in the first place and keeping them engaged. I think a lot of that is rooted in a strong internet presence.
As unfortunate as it is, we're not living in the era of CD sales and purchased merchandise any more - at least outside of live shows (and even then, arguable) - and while I understand the importance of those things (trust me, I spent 10 years of my life on the road as a down-on-my-luck-broke-as-a-joke DIY musician), I think we're expecting far too much of the average consumer to conflate fandom with opening one's wallet. (again, not arguing for rightness, just reality)
Past that, I still find that a lot of the lack of international interest in VK is that it is classically very difficult to enter and navigate as a fandom. Not only are fans classically elitist (visual kei is one of the only fandoms I've encountered where people have actively hoarded content from their faves with the explicit purpose of keeping it from others), the artists do not follow the same sort of cues that most other bands do and they don't engage their fans in the same way, either.
I mean really, this conversation can extend into the realm of photo-free gigs and cheki sales - things that I absolutely understand, but are likely doing more harm than good in the long-term nowadays (an easy buck to make from the aforementioned horny fan, but something that simultaneously makes these artists feel very distant and "unattainable," which just isn't sustainable in a world where the concept of the "rockstar" has basically been deconstructed entirely.) Add that to too-expensive albums and merchandise and no matter how interested one is, it requires a lot more cash and die-hard effort to support someone you enjoy.
Again, most of this is being analyzed from a strictly Western point of view, but really just trying to answer the opening question. Japan clearly functions very differently from the rest of the world when it comes to music, but VK still feels even further removed. I highly doubt we'd ever see some major international renaissance focused on kote kei groups or something - stuff like that is and always will be incredibly niche - but there are a lot of bands in the game right now that have HUGE crossover potential and if paired up with the right artists would skyrocket in popularity on an international scale.
This goes back to the Japanese style of fandom vs Western style of fandom. Which was one of the major barriers when bands started coming over here.
I read an interview at the end of 2007 with Warped/Taste of Chaos organizer Kevin Lyman, where he was explaining why he went with the Visual Kei bands for Taste of Chaos 2008. He explained that MUCC/D’espairsRay/The Underneath weren’t even his first choices, initially. He approached several other bands, and said that their management just didn’t understand why they would benefit from being invited on a 50 some stop North America tour with seven other bands.
To them, their fans are their fans. Not some other band’s fans. So they didn’t understand why people who wanted to see Avenged Sevenfold would ever consider listening to their band’s music, let alone paying for it. To them, playing a gig with seven other bands is what you do when no one on the bill can fill the venue by themselves.
So by brushing off the demographic of “people who could be interested in our music, but they aren’t devoted to us exclusively, so fuck them”, they didn’t exactly win any friends. Instead, they just made things harder for themselves by not connecting with either Western bands or even other Japanese bands. Dir en Grey seems to have been the exception, but even they’ve stopped touring with other bands for these last couple of tours.
-
The reason why VK hype died out is because it was entirely fan driven, and the bands and management themselves didn’t know what they were getting into. They assumed that they could come over here and do everything like they did in Japan, and people would just accept it, because they received x amount of fans without even trying.
What they needed was *connections* to keep the western market engaged and active. They failed, because management of the bands assumed that they were too good for trying things a different way and integrating into Western markets. The connections they did make ended up being alienated. Both industry and fans. That’s why only die hard fans are left, perhaps with the exception of Dir en Grey or Miyavi crowds.
-
On 12/21/2019 at 10:08 AM, platy said:The only thing “avant-garde” about this project is the teaser imagery and the ironic dread that we all feel watching this unfold.
-
-
At metal shows, you typically get two types of people. Those that scream, yell and mosh, and those that stand there stone faced with their arms crossed.
It seems that Kyo gets annoyed with both of those types. Well sorry, this isn’t a bunch of teen girls doing furi. This isn’t The Gazette’s Overseas shows.
One of the reasons why Dir en Grey has been able to reliably come back every few years and have people other than VK diehards remember them is because of their ability to integrate into the North American market and compromise with us.
-
Is it just me, or was this album basically created by creating 15 seconds of hook for each song, then Koichi asking “how can we stretch this out to 2 and a half minutes for each track?”
Tsuzuku/GENKI TAKEBUCHI new project SpelL first single "SPELL" release
in News
Posted
The song itself isn’t too bad, the high pitched chorus is probably the worst part. I can tell that he was having...fun...with the mirror and distortion effects on the video editing software.