GreatNorthernVK

Worst: Gackt Job

HOLD UP!!!
 


 
Are these fuckers just burning files onto a CD-R?!

I also will react to this topic.
 
I've listened to more songs on their youtube.. and all their previous songs are just  bad, shit visual kei music.. not even amazing rock quality, just typical boring visual kei, with no heart with no feelings just.... no.
 
 
but the new song...
The beat, the melody, the kinda vocal sound...
It all mix nicely together as a perfect mix.... it really though your heart.
Truly 10/10 song.
And believe me it is. 
 
Lately I only listen to masterclass rock music. music who is played by bandguys who are longer in the music world as those young dudes. music of people who know what music is.  I follow lot's of "legend Japanese rock stars (which most of you never did hear off tho lol)"  
So because of that I became very picky of what GOOD music is. 
 
 
However, I call this song really a master piece. it's a perfect song, easy to like, it touch your heart.
vocal fits perfectly to the melody....
 
 
But by listening to their previous songs,, I kinda doubt their their album will only contain this masterclass songs. 
 
 
If they will release more music like this... then I surely will support them.
I'm looking for this kind of visual kei bands, who really put everything into music.
 
 
if you dislike this kind of sound,
well then. you really don't have a good taste for music. 

It might sound weird from a western perspective, but visual kei is like the straightest and most homophobic music scene in Japan. We tend to look at visual kei with western eyes and mix its cultural aspects with things that belong to the western culture. Fanservice and provocations used for shock value put aside, the androgynous aesthetics of visual kei band rarely expressed anything related to gender identity and especially sexual orientation. 
After all, it started with people like X Japan who admittedly were inspired by glam rock bands and way of life, which I would find hard to connect to sexual orientation. Visual kei early bandomen were mostly chinpiras, bosozokus (bikers) and the likes. They really incarnated the somewhat glamrock aesthetic of riding bikes getting drunk, banging girls, etc. Of course X had their own decadent/romantic taste that made them different, and a lot of influences changed the scene over time. However, visual kei is still remains 99% driven by social outcasts looking for pussy and very rarely by something else.
In Japan we also have onnagatas, who are kabuki actors specialized in female roles that are again 99% straight. Bandoman with feminine looks call themselves onnagata, not josou (crossdresser), implying that the cultural source behind their looks is not connected with crossdressing but just playing a female role in a band,  but again this something that might be hard to completely understand it taken outside of Japanese culture. For example Izam, the king of all onnagatas, married more than once and has more tha one child, and outside of his role in Shazna he rarely did anything ambiguous, just like the kabuki onnagatas out of stage. Both media and fans are everything but respectful of privacy, but I've rarely seen Japanese articles or message board questioning bandomen sexual orientation. That's because the number 1 reason people do visual kei is because the girls like it (well, liked it, I am not sure this is the trend with young girls anymore). 
Soft Ballet/Ken Morioka are closer to Soft Cell/Marc Almond so I would not even count them as visual kei even though they had some influence on it. And of course, there are exceptions as you mentioned. The chinpira bandomen of the 90's almost extincted and younger generations bandomans are usually anime/game otakus. They grew up with different influences and values, and it would make sense if the current incarnation of visual kei instinctively appealed to more people with sexual orientation/gender identity concerns, especially after Japan started talking about these issues in a less obsolete viewpoint.

The entire "marketing" of this new album is atrocious. It really feels like they want to fail. I love these guys to death but seriously... they need to know what they want. They post a one second preview, then they decide it will be a digital only release. They want to charge full price for a digital release, but later on make the physical cd an amazon exclusive but post no details. The release is in a week and this is a trainwreck. All we can do is speculate but I honestly don't see this benefiting them in anyway. Even if this becomes a banger of an album no ones going to hear it... the promotion is non existent and i dont see them making any money on this. People will pirate this album. 

Really hope this album is good and they've worked out their live kinks, but damn, these guys are really bad at marketing (not trying to knock them, I love them, it's just the truth).
 
I guess there's a part of me that wishes they kept the VK thing going for selfish reasons (I legitimately think they had great looks and were kind of at the top of the scene in musical quality), but I think dropping it the way they did really only serves to hurt them even more from a marketing perspective. I get it, you wanna be "true to yourself," etc., but pulling away from that scene in conjunction with every other marketing misfire just seems really ill-conceived.
 
Not that I'm in any position to see them live again in any part of the near future (unless they decide to take this world tour business to the US), I think my opinion of them in their current state would dramatically improve if they'd just fill out their lineup. I think performing over backtracked bass and rhythm guitar is kind of "cheap" to say the least and if your international fans are willing to pay the big bucks to see you play some songs you should have enough self-respect to actually perform said songs the way they're meant to be performed. 
 
Who knows, I could very well eat my words in a few months, the album could be fantastic and they could really turn it out for these shows, but I really just want to see them at the top of their game for their sake and for the sake of the people who dig them.
 
And lastly, I still think if they stuck with their heavy sound (impressions making me worry they also dropped that) they would do some serious business just riding the djent/metalcore train in the west. They'd definitely fit in on a mixed bill of those bands in the west (hell, even some of the noodly post-hardcore bands like DGD and such). But that whole discussion in the "make visual kei great again" or whatever thread has made it clear that Japanese bands have no real desire to capitalize on band relationships or playing to their strengths with like-minded artists and just wanna be supported on a one-man bill, something that literally no other artists do on an international level outside of the tippy-top, long-standing hitmakers.

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.

That might apply if they were trying for the bro-metal scene.
 
Post-hardcore/metal-core was a different beast entirely.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Before people mentioned it here I had totally forgotten that not even that long ago they were using pretty much none of the social media platforms used in other countries. 
 
The Japanese are just not interested in investing time in figuring out how the market here works and then investing money in those foreign markets if it doesn’t work out practically by itself like when manga and anime did the heavy lifting for them, and that’s it. I doubt most of these labels have any business savvy other than the yakuza school of street entrepeneurship that was beaten into them. They’re about as clueless as to how things work here as most of us are about how it works there. You can’t really blame them for that when things are lucrative enough domestically, and everything else is a great unknown with big risk and mediocre reward at best.
 

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.

Hot take:
 
The initial seed for a lot of people is seeing cute boys in crazy makeup. We need to start spamming Twitter threads with slow motion gifs of [insert guitarist here] sticking his tongue out while looking to the side.

A better marketing team. That is what VK lacks.
 
Being edgy isn't the issue, Billie Eyelash is the latest example of that. And language barrier? Although valid, but with these K-Pop acta around and actually popular, so much so that they went to evening talk shows or performs at Coachella, one of the major Summer music festival in the world, I don't think it is that much of an issue these days. Especially when your music genre audience market is younger people or people who are young spirited.
 
And what did Billie, BTS, BLACKPINK, Ariana, Kardashians, and others have that VK acts don't? A marketing team that control the hype machine up in large scale.
 
Also, they are not utilizing internet very well when it is a great  tool to expand your reach. And actually this is a main issue with Japanese music industry in general. Like, L'arc~En~Ciel a major label band have only set up their official YouTube channel in December 2019!! And have been copyright strikes every single uploads of their music or music video by regular people so nobody but the actual fans actually know who they are. Imagine that.
 
Which is sad and tragic, since internet was the reason VK went viral outside Japan in the first place in the early 2000s with the P2P file sharing such as Soulseek being popular.

I just noticed the “with love,” in the tramp stamp area.
 
I wonder if he tattooed his ass cheeks with his signature 

I bet “Richard” is Koichi’s sugar daddy

Just noticed. They better not be faking me out on this...

Just noticed. They better not be faking me out on this...