All About Fangirl/Fanboy Culture in VK

Safety of the musicians is significantly more important than anything else. These labels have no business working with anyone who is not a professional in the field without a decent reputation. Lunatics exist in every country, the labels should be doing everything they can to protect their employees from these people.

Is there a way to formally blacklist these people and prevent them from going to any shows again?

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I think that Kiwamu has also had run ins with similar European “fan promoters” in the past, even going so far as to call one out publicly as a fraud. So as to why he went back to working with them, I can only agree that greed is the primary motive?

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Exactly. He doesn’t have to pay, which is a big advantage. Those fan promoters have no idea what they’re doing, and Kiwi can push them around. Plus, there’s no contract.

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Was that the fan promoter that also shoved him away for a photo? And refused to have him in a photo with her? (The rumors say she punched him, but a friend who was at the even she just shoved him away)

I think that’s the problem, you can’t really blacklist in Europe, over several countries, different locations etc etc

That’s basically why it then ends up in people getting called out openly in public, because it’s the only thing you can really do, to warm others

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Behavior like this is why, even if he is right 5% of the time, he can’t be taken seriously. That and the unhinged crap he has said and done. No thanks.

It’s a shame that these labels are willing to put people in harm’s way just to save some money. It just adds evidence to my opinion that they’re sort of prostituting these guys out in a way.

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Oh man oh man I had somehow missed a bunch of earlier replies and now I have thoughts again that demand to be let out :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

I absolutely agree that this is not just something crazy fans created on their own. Every fandom has crazy fans and yet this setup seems to be pretty much unique to VK. I can only guess that the dynamic was brought over from the host-scene since many bandmen also work there and then gradually got worse as they started using the techniques they learned there on their fans. Like both you and @GreatNorthernVK already kind of referenced, some bandmen employ downright abuse tactics to keep fans spending money. Going from the kind of love-bombing you might get in the beginning to then pretending not to know you if you have skipped a couple of lives would absolutely be jarring to any normal person.

I am not claiming everything they do is abusive or that being nice to new fans to reel them in is an abuse-tactic in and of itself but the hot-and-cold switch or telling fans they had missed them last time and maybe even dropping that their “rival” fan was there and things like that. These are of course very extreme examples and I don’t think they are very common even with the bands leaning heavily into selling interactions to their fans. But they do happen sometimes and I feel it is extra sinister given the inherent power imbalance between an artist and a fan.

I would have much less of a problem with it if this was how it played out on vkei too. I don’t really mind that you have to pay to interact with them (although I suppose the metalcore approach would be even better :face_with_hand_over_mouth:) but I do wish the interactions were more… normal. No weird romantic stuff (without actual intention) and no sudden amnesia to make the fan feel guilty for not coming to every live and/or not spending even more money.

A bit of a tangent I suppose but I really like how he handles interactions with fans in general. Not that I pretend to be an expert since I have yet to even meet him and could not properly participate from overseas anyway. But from everything I have seen he seems to be very good at striking a balance between allowing fans some access to him while keeping clearly defined boundaries in place. Some of it is no doubt due to the fact that he can easily afford to decide how much of himself to give but I feel like even then he is exceptionally skilled at creating a space that feels intimate and natural but where the boundaries are clear without him having to specifically establish them. For example he will arrange events for the fanclub with all kinds of activities where all the fans get the same amount of personal attention from him but are also encouraged to enjoy the event with each other in the mean time, making it a nice collective experience rather than a ripe breeding ground for jealousy (except among those of us who cannot participate :smiling_face_with_tear:).

I feel like your comparison to Catholic ceremony is very apt! I think a live can be kind of like theater too. It doesn’t necessarily require a suspension of disblief in the same way but I definitile agree that some things can take you out of the experience. And some artists are better at creating that kind of immersive athmosphere than others. I don’t think it necessary has to do with jokes in MCs but rather with not breaking with the overall feel of the performance. Not saying your experience isn’t valid, just that it might take many forms. For example, I recently went to see Jiluka and if you are on Twitter or TikTok, I am sure you have seen videos of the “buy it” skit they do somewhere in the middle advertising the merch. I fully understand it might put some people off but I feel like it works for them because it fits so well with Ricko’s overall chaotic energy. It doesn’t break the immersion like it absolutely would if someone like DeG or god forbid Kamijo did the same.

Speaking of Kamijo (I know I know I can’t help it :sob:), I think he has always been absolutely phenomenal at making his lives feel super immersive. I am sure there are specific things he does to achieve it but I also feel like a lot of it is simply due to his charisma, experience and how goddam much he simply loves the stage. Literally nothing can go wrong during the performance that he doesn’t somehow make feel like a special treat rather than a malfunctioning amp. When you are there, all the flowery bullshit he is prone to spewing sounds true because in his world, it is and for the duration of the performance, he has convinced you that world is real. …And I realise I might have lost the plot there somewhat oops.

The point is, go see Kamijo if you can. No wait I was talking about ceremony, theatre and how they apply to live music performances. I have always felt that the costumes in vkei add more than just something cool to look at. Like @rsm_rain said, many lives just don’t take you out of your everyday worries like a good vkei show can. I haven’t seen many other types of concerts but I absolutely agree. Although it’s not just the costumes I suppose, I feel like it works best when the band has at least somewhat developed concept they are committed to expressing on stage. It doesn’t need to be full blown theatre like MM or Gackt’s visualives but you can absolutely feel the difference between a properly planned performance and just guys jamming on stage. Ceremony-like elements can be used to help create that athmosphere too. Certain entry music to communicate the transition to the perfomance or specific repeated catchphrases. …I feel like I am still rambling so I suppose I will cut it here because the something still itching at the back of my brain refuses to come out properly :face_with_peeking_eye:

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I feel so sorry for the bands. Wonder why Dazzling agreed?

I’m not sure of what went down in person, but I believe it was for a German show in the early 2010s that didn’t pan out.

I looked a bit further into VKbeats, and I did meet one of their members at Leetspeak Monsters, and ran into her again at Gertena. I know that people tend to only want to show the “good” of overseas shows to keep morale high and to increase the likelihood of getting future opportunities. For a lot of the bands, it’s also a novelty to get to say that they went overseas so they might temporarily overlook things that don’t feel right in the moment.

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Seems like she isn’t allowed to go backstage anymore.

They always love to brag about how the band members meet them in private. But for the guys, it’s just business. Before the bands went to Switzerland, every single band member met with her during their stay in Japan. However, after the concerts, only a few were willing to meet her again. They even went as far as visiting a bar to track down a band member who had skipped their “meeting” in Japan. That says it all.

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Hmmm, yeah. I can’t say I know much about what goes on with the fans from the German scene. It seemed like her and her friend were mainly there for Gertena, but I could be wrong.

I’m not sure whether Leetspeak happens to be a band that they’re trying to court to come to Germany/Switzerland soon…

But still, with that kind of money between everyone I would think the smarter thing to do would be to visit Japan frequently, speak to band guys normally, and try and improve their Japanese if they want to eventually get closer to them.

I guess we’ll see how the DazzlingBad show goes.

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yeah that would be the smarter thing to do, but then they can’t brag that those bandguys are meeting them in private.

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Especially when you’re mixing it with “business” activities, that’s a recipe for disaster.

If someone is so inclined, and they don’t mind playing roulette, there’s always Tanuki hookups. Beats trying to sneak backstage with thinly veiled innuendo.

I can’t say I had much of a chance to ask Zeke Deux if they encountered any issues in Germany. I’m sure there were, but don’t know if all of the issues you brought up were a part of their stay or Gertena’s.

this is such an interesting thread to read, maybe because i’m old and not single, but i cannot imagine fighting over a man for any reason ever especially over some phony attention :joy:

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As a german, I feel obliged to point out that the described behaviour is not typically german :sweat_smile: :point_up:
If everything I read here is true these girls sound very delusional. The whole thing is just so unprofessional - alone the fact that it seems ike they barely speak basic english. I read some comments in a different thread from the head of VKBeats and it was basically just one short sentence repeated a few times. It also seems like they don’t really advertise their shows. And don’t get me started on their behaviour towards the bands :flushed:

One can just hope that the consequence of such black sheep is not that bands from Japan don’t want to tour in Germany anymore.

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