Youtubers React to Visual Kei

[platy 3018]

4 hours ago, rekzer said:

Mix Speakers Inc would've been better than the Gazette song they picked 

 

Good point, I wonder if people might have found it easier to get into by trying a 'cosplay' band.

[Deathtopi4 428]

I think it's weird that they didn't use more established and well-known bands along with the gazette, but it was pretty amusing to watch the reactions to Insanity Injection and Dadaroma so I'm glad they went with that lol. Reminds me of when I was a kid and I used to show other kids edgy vk videos to freak them out 

Edited August 30, 2016 by Deathtopi4

[CCXXVIII 30]

they totally remind me of when i wasn't into visual kei - everyone terrified me so much LOL

it's kind of weird thinking back of then when now, no band's concepts or videos is too much for you to handle anymore xD

Edited August 30, 2016 by CCXXVIII

[Ai Chan 26]

I know they chooses Insanity Injection and Dadaroma for visual shocks. But for music genre. I wish the they choose more variety and diversity. 

[Takadanobabaalien 3607]

why weren't popcore featured

[The Moon 989]

The Pokemon shirt guy is adorable. 

[sybil 15]

6 hours ago, Ai Chan said:

I know they chooses Insanity Injection and Dadaroma for visual shocks. But for music genre. I wish the they choose more variety and diversity. 

 

I totally agree.

I feel like something "à l'Occidentale" like Versailles, Kaya or Lareine would've been fun. They kind of neglected that side of vk which gets a lot of people interested in the scene (through lolita/harajuku fashion) and is more familiar to people from the West. And then something darker,  good compositions... something from Rentrer En Soi, D'espairsRay or Deluhi.  Anyways, they  did say that there's many different sounds and vibes but it would've been cool if they had shown that in the video. 

 

Insanity Injection is kind of a new "old school vk" band so instead of showing Aliene Ma'riage (which would've gotten a similar reaction honestly, kyouka is fcked up), they showed something "actual" and that's good. Gazetto was a safe choice and DADAROMA's a pretty damn popular bangya-magnet so that's representative of a side of the scene.

 

I don't think the video's bad at all, though. We could argue for hours about what band they should've shown but at least they did choose bands that are undeniably "visual kei". And like some people said earlier in the thread, this kind of exposure's always cool. I don't think vk could ever become the next kpop (15 years old bts stans are not mentally prepared for this lmao) but if it can introduce the scene to people who would enjoy it, then that's great \o/ 

Edited August 30, 2016 by sybil

[itsukoii 1300]

3 hours ago, sybil said:

I don't think vk could ever become the next kpop (15 years old bts stans are not mentally prepared for this lmao)

 

vk becoming the next kpop is actually my worst fear so thank u

[doombox 4421]

51 minutes ago, itsukoii said:

 

vk becoming the next kpop is actually my worst fear so thank u

I dont think you have to worry about that. Since its rock genre mostly the circles for it will always be smaller than pop/dance music which kpop appeals to.

[Nagisa 131]

Didn't know about Insanity Injection before this but they look interesting.  One of the main reasons I listen to visual kei is that it isn't mainstream, so I don't really mind if it doesn't get much attention.

[platy 3018]

8 hours ago, itsukoii said:

 

vk becoming the next kpop is actually my worst fear so thank u

Same, the fangirls are rabid enough as it is.

 But my sister's a hardcore kpop fan. She's still freaked out by Mejibray videos even though I've been showing vk videos to her ever since i can remember.

I don't think these girls can leave the comfort of their clean,pretty, mellow-sounding men for the vk dirty,disturbed, satan-worshipping-death-wailing guys. So it's okay.

[nekkichi 6042]

8 hours ago, itsukoii said:

 

vk becoming the next kpop is actually my worst fear so thank u

 

to be fair, kpop is the next vk. it doesn't overlap with jpop fandom that much as far as I know, and quite a few vk stans moved onto kpop at some point.

[WhirlingBlack 1043]

2 hours ago, nekkichi said:

 

to be fair, kpop is the next vk. it doesn't overlap with jpop fandom that much as far as I know, and quite a few vk stans moved onto kpop at some point.

 

Was about to say the same thing: VK was a huge thing around 2007-2008 (you know, when it was in national newspapers and Dir en grey could sell out a 1000+ man venue in tiny Sweden?)  but around 2010-2011 I'd say a good 75% had moved on to K-pop. To this day I meet people every once in a while through my Japanese studies who mention being into VK/J-rock a long time ago but moving on to """better things""" (that is, K-Pop).

 

[doombox 4421]

I still don't think VK was ever in the same realm of popularity as Kpop, though. Sure, VK was more popular 10 years ago and a lot of fans moved onto the "next big thing" (that still happens a lot btw). But Kpop got a HUGE push from going viral with "Gangnam Style". Literally, millions of people were introduced to Kpop through that song, then 2NE1 was on American programs like "The Bachelor" and commercials. That's the first thing I thought of when @itsukoii mentioned that. That they didn't want this video to make VK some viral new thing that suddenly gets passed around at every work station and you begin to hear it over the music stations in convenience stores.

[WhirlingBlack 1043]

This might be a case of European vs. American perspective. I think VK was a much bigger "thing" here in Europe back in the day, possibly. I feel like the American scene has been pretty much static in comparison with decent numbers throughout but without any major spikes, but I might be wrong since I can only base that assessment on the online community. It might also help that metal and rock are pretty commonplace here in the Nordic countries as well so the threshold might've been lower to get into this kind of music.

 

Second difference I suppose is how mainstream k-pop has become, we don't have K-pop on national television and most people here never made the connection between gangnam style and k-pop, it was just that one funny song from Korea, sort of like how Rammstein's popularity didn't cause a wave of german-language metal to become popular either. It's very much a subculture just like VK is/was and share a similar "obsessive" demographic and type of fans, since a lot of k-pop fans here are otaku who enjoy anime and things like that, people you'd think at first glace would be vk fans.

[platy 3018]

I live in the UK and gangnam style became absolutely huge, most people I know forgot about K-music as soon as the hype died down.

Now, my university course is a weeb magnet (people who know all the naruto hand moves off by heart) and some friends told me they were huge k-pop fans back in the day, most of them have never heard of VK however. 

My only friend who knows VK was a fan of DEG back in 2008, she has moved onto better things, but definitely not k-pop.

I don't know anybody else who's into VK but most people I know are into anime. I'd imagine it would be more popular among anime fans too, but seems like k-pop is the go to choice although Kyary Pamyuu Pamyuu and anime fans seem to correlate a lot more nowadays. 

Edited August 31, 2016 by Platy

[Furik 832]

Vinesauce, looking as sexy as ever. My bae. ❤️

[gekiai 231]

When I saw the video, I kinda expected the actions to be like this. Another YouTuber a while ago reacted to the GazettE and found them pretty awesome; so I also wasn't surprised when they received a milder reaction. Their music is a lot more palatable.

 

i found the choices questionable, however. I was surprised they even found Insanity Rejection...but showing such an extreme from the get go will dictate how they feel about the rest of the music they see ....so I was put off by that.

 

They should've had a more "oshare" band included or a classic visual Kei band. It would've been a broader representation of the scene. 

 

EDIT: Also, I'm very happy that the scene is getting more attention since a couple reaction videos to vkei have been fairly recent (at least from what I've seen). Tbh, it'll never blow up like k-music did but the fanbase does need more newness (but I say this with hesitance because like k-music, newer kpop fans are a mess).

Edited August 31, 2016 by gekiai

[peffy 3568]

They probably picked Insanity Injection (and the horrifying clown face DADAROMA pv) because they wanted to get better reactions. 

I doubt the goal was to get them interested in VK. The goal was to get them to make funny faces and make funny comments..

 

(to that end, I'm more surprised they picked THE INVISIBLE WALL, which is a fairly bog-standard unremarkable GazettE song+pv, IMO)

[Chi 2624]

there are two dudes on youtube i know who have been reacting to vk and jrock in general in some videos

 

the first dude just reacts to whatever people send to him it seems, meanwhile the 2nd dude does a bit of research on google and reacts to 2~3 videos(he already reacted to a bunch of other bands). i think it's really cool that they do this.

Edited August 31, 2016 by seurong

[nekkichi 6042]

oh @ caucasian comments on the first video

fucking time machines, how do they work

Edited August 31, 2016 by nekkichi

[doombox 4421]

6 hours ago, WhirlingBlack said:

This might be a case of European vs. American perspective. I think VK was a much bigger "thing" here in Europe back in the day, possibly. I feel like the American scene has been pretty much static in comparison with decent numbers throughout but without any major spikes, but I might be wrong since I can only base that assessment on the online community. It might also help that metal and rock are pretty commonplace here in the Nordic countries as well so the threshold might've been lower to get into this kind of music.

 

Second difference I suppose is how mainstream k-pop has become, we don't have K-pop on national television and most people here never made the connection between gangnam style and k-pop, it was just that one funny song from Korea, sort of like how Rammstein's popularity didn't cause a wave of german-language metal to become popular either. It's very much a subculture just like VK is/was and share a similar "obsessive" demographic and type of fans, since a lot of k-pop fans here are otaku who enjoy anime and things like that, people you'd think at first glace would be vk fans.

It well could be. Ironically enough, I have the exact same perspective from this side. Europe seems to have a bigger fanbase for it and feels more consistent (even looking at the tours they get versus us when it comes to VK artists) where the American scene had a good spike a few years back but has since dwindled (this probably coincided with brands like Hot Topic moving from alternative music culture to movie/gaming culture. Lots of kids discovered VK because they had Cure and Shoxx magazines for sale there. And the "mall goth" scene that gravitated to VK as well is as dead as a door-nail.) Though I can see how it would seem the other way around from the online community, for some reason it remains the safe haven for the few of us who have been into VK for the long haul. 

 

I don't know if I'd compare Psy to Rammstein. lol. Rammstein never made it outside of metal circles. I'd say their popularity is more akin to Babymetal, who isn't inspiring a whole J-metal craze from their own surge in popularity either. They're just a novelty to most metalheads. But its silly to think that Psy would have the same reaction from Europe as in America. The whole aspect of going viral here usually relies on co-workers sharing funny videos from youtube via facebook or something. So it definitely carries a regional aspect. However, that doesn't dismiss the popularity it created here, and online, for Kpop in general. The Kpop appeal, at least in America, is much bigger than your general "weeaboo" demographic. It shares so many common threads with our own brand of pop music that most teenagers/young adults I speak with are at least familiar with it and can name a group or two. That's a lot different than the fanbase who obsesses over Kpop like the hardcore VK fans do. 

 

I mean, let's put it frankly, even the most popular VK videos right now take years to get a million views on youtube, even for bands with the most obsessive fans. CL's latest foray into her American debut got 7mill views in a week, and it's still rapidly increasing. So yeah, the American acceptance of it may just be that much different.

[echo 547]

I agree with @doombox. Kpop is just easier for the average person to accept. Not just cos of its similarities with American pop/R&B, but it generally has good beats. I know a lot of dancers like kpop cos it just has good dance beats, whereas if you don't already like rock, there's very little chance of you getting into vk (although I was kind of opposite... somehow I went form rap and R&B to vk to rock/metal?? lolol) I was surprised when I went to visit some bboy friends and they were bumpin 2NE1 in their cypher haha 

 

And yeah, vk seems to have more popularity in European countries than the Americas. But I think metal has a stronger presence in Europe as well so that's just consistency maybe?

 

@peffylol yeah. Out of ALL the Gazette songs that are available... I wonder what made them choose THE INVISIBLE WALL o_O

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

To add to what was discussed above: Kpop was the new VK insofar as the weeaboodom was concerned. The scene that was here from early 2000's till the end of the decade either disintegrated into kpop or musical apathy. Kpop certainly has a wider reach in demographic, but it swallowed the visual kei culture in Europe and spat it out. There were more reasons to its demise such as the general decline of physical sales, bad promotion & mismanagement, the death and emergence of a new generation of vk bands in Japan and the general zeitgeist not being all that in favor of "alternative rock", with the kpop vulture certainly swooping in at the opportune moment to pick the carcass. It almost seems as if by fate that kpop really hit its stride right around the time when the vk bands of the early 2000's responsible for the western market breakthrough started disbanding and/or sucking en masse. 

 

 

[itsukoii 1300]

10 hours ago, nekkichi said:

quite a few vk stans moved onto kpop at some point.

 

7 hours ago, WhirlingBlack said:

To this day I meet people every once in a while through my Japanese studies who mention being into VK/J-rock a long time ago but moving on to """better things""" (that is, K-Pop).

 

doesn't this just confirm vk will never become the next kpop?? if people are leaving this small scene to join a bigger, already popular one?

 

i agree with@doomboxsaying "they didn't want this video to make VK some viral new thing" because let's face it, VK will never be some viral new thing. it'll never evolve like kpop did nor will it appeal to as many people as kpop does for various reasons already mentioned (which i'm totally fine with tbh, i'm not a hipster or anything but having vk mainstream, especially in the western world, would be weird as hell)