This is so insightful, I never thought like this. The rise of vkei in the west was bcs of a combination of different factors and by the looks of it, this probably won´t repeat.
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yea I do not want visual kei to become only commercial focused like kpop now…
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no
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Host style is apparently going out of style. The softer and shorter korean hairstyles are in nowadays. But yeah I agree in general
Alice Nine is already chasing that style years ago, RUKI on Falling MV also did that.
I’d love for A9 and gazette to blow up but I don’t think they ever had the right type of hair and make up to fit the look of the current taste of this generation. The last idol that had a VKish style was G-Dragon but that was almost 10 years ago, I don’t think that style would catch attention again.
Hate to say, but if they don’t look like an evolution of BTS, probably not the right look.
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Its too late, sorry.
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This is exactly it. Any visual band with some steam behind them wanting to go major will have to make many concessions; some big, some small, all of which arguably make the final product “not visual kei”. I can prove this with some pics below the spoiler.
Summary
12012
early 12012
12012 when they were trying to go major/on their redemption arc around MAR MAROON
12012 trying to return to visual kei
Vidoll
early era
late era after a style change and an attempt at going commercial
DIMLIM
Rijin
MISC
lynch.
THE AVOIDED SUN era
something much more recent
girugamesh
early days
BORDER-era look
Hopefully I’ve made my point with these images. This wasn’t meant to be a slight at suit-kei, but it does seem like many bands will resort to suits as a way to maintain a classy image and still be visual. But visuals go beyond what the band is wearing and also into the scenery, what is there and what is not. There seems to be a marked progression towards “simple everything” when bands try to commercialize themselves; a lot of the more extreme elements is what gives a unit flavor and removing those reduces the amount of ways a band can express themselves, and sheds the edge which gave them commercial potential to begin with. Not every band here burned out when they turned major, but they all seemed to put much less emphasis on visuals and costumes and sometimes scenery.
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The 12012 and Vidoll ones really made me the saddest 
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they had a string of very tame looks around 2005-2006 though.
which is not how they built their legacy, but whatever, they can’t compete with kpop because there’s no government grant funding for visual-kei that I’m aware of.
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I mean, it is a softer look in our norm but not really a soft look if you know what I mean
Ruki looks like a voodoo doll compared to plushies like typical boy groups normally do. They are a lot more accessible for a normal teenager
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do you think David Bowie would have started with a jaw shave, chin implant, pastel hair, and other trans-korean surgeries if he was coming of age today?
I understand the point you’re trying to make, but how does jpop, the proto-kpop (but with private, no government investment only) fare fame-wise in the west?
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Wasn’t there some white dude that already tried this and end up looking like a wreck? Lol
Honestly though, I think he would he would have just done his own thing. It didn’t seem like he would be the type to follow a trend.
Jpop is pretty much non-existent which is why I was theorizing the new hotness can probably come (if ever) from a derivative of kpop aesthetics which is being received fine with the younger generation.
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pretty much everyone who grew up in the alt-scene of 2000s is still consuming music and other entertainment, and there’s way less hot western rock/metal coming out now, the scene is literally begging to be revived.
I don’t understand why you think teens decide anything taste-wise? most of top-40 music has always been a variation of this joke:
https://twitter.com/TheOnion/status/767763543466868737
except there’s even less need to physically travel overseas now, we aren’t over covid yet, and concert streaming is more legit than ever.
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Vk is on life support in Japan. It will never be even close to acknowledged overseas in any meaningful way.
The only timeline it which that sorta happens is if trends cycle all back to 1995-2010 so we have another 3 or 5 years with Vk actually growing in Japan so it briefly goes viral overseas for a week.
The reality is once the remaining big Vk acts fade out its over for good and only some lingering touches of the asthetic will remain in host/boyband culture and branding.
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(sound on)
which VK classic are we ready to sacrifice to the tiktok chimpunk remix machine to give our faves a moment of sizzurp Alabama fame? my vote goes to Dir en grey - The Deeper Vileness.
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one dir en grey performance at jimmy kimmel will be all it’ll take
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fuck no
Vkei is barely scraping along in Japan, so it’s a hard no.
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The closest thing to the Korean softbois would be 90s Softbi (Soft Visual) wouldn’t it? And that was pretty much peak Mainstream-era for VK, as those kind of bands weren’t as shocking and edgy as the usual underground or indies stuff of that time. And yet no Softbi bands managed to outlive the early 2000s, no matter how much they tried to tone down their looks and make their music as poppy as possible. Simply because the novelty of VK wore off past the late 90s and guitar-based music isn’t that popular anymore, especially not in Pop.
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