They all know. But honestly it was really hard for me to let them know when I was a teenager. It’s silly to think back on now, but I started listening to VK when I was 14 and I already listened to a ton of other metal bands/hanged around with the alt kid crowd (my friends were mostly the goth kids and the metalhead kids), so I was really scared they’d find out I liked Japanese bands too. There was a stigma around it back then that I think is gone now but back then, liking visual kei was not cool.
When I finally did let it show, I got a light tease here and there, but my friends were mostly cool about it. None of them wanted anything to do with it though, so it was an interest I kept to myself and in online communities. That was amongst my friends anyway. My family did not care. They didn’t see a difference between the Gazette and the Motionless in White posters on my wall
I’m very open about anything, so the people that showed some interest in the music that I like know that I listen to quite some Japanese artists (VK, J-Rock and a bit of J-Pop). So my family knows as well, but it’s not their thing. My mom sometimes says things like “Oh this song sounds nice” and she seems to genuinely like it, but she will never listen to it by herself.
I’m lucky enough that all the guys in my band are as passionate about it as I am (it was because of our drummer that we all got into it), so we’re quite influenced by VK, all aspects of it.
I have 2 friends outside of my band with whom I share my music taste with (Technical Death Metal, Psytrance, Old school Funk, you name it) but I’ve never fully succeeded in bringing them over to the VK side. They listen to Maximum the Hormone and Babymetal, and the occasional DEG or GazettE song, but that’s mostly it.
I’ve always been a pretty big fan of Japanese music/artists even when I young, so, there wasn’t really any surprise with my family, although they will tease me about it sometimes. Most of my friends are J-POP or J-ROCK fans so they were fine with it.
My newer friends were a little weirded out by it but eventually just got used to it as I never played super heavy stuff around them, so some of them just compared it to NiN or MIW…
My family already knows from the time I was just a kid and heavily into my fangirl phase, I had posters everywhere and stuff. Boyfriend definitely knows because I have a habit of going into very passionate tangents about the bands I love when I’m drunk for some reason? lmfao
To avoid any confusion, we just merged the “Do your friends in real life know you listen to Japanese music” thread into the “how did your friends react when the found out” thread.
It’s not a problem inherently. It’s more like people can often be closed-minded to even just foreign music, and especially things like bands where men are wearing makeup, dresses, and sometimes kiss and fondle each other. Especially if your family or friends are conservative/religious. The average person, at least where I’m from in the US, tends to be weirded out by VK sadly
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As for the topic, all of my friends are either fully VK fans or they know of and listen to some VK. My immediate family knows I like VK cause I’ve liked it since I was 14/15 and I’m very loud and showy about things I love lol They never minded and they do like some songs sometimes. My extended family most likely thinks I’m a weirdo but it’s never come up as an issue in all this time I feel lucky in that regard at least
That sucks that some people have a closed minded attitude towards it. My family dont care what i listen to and most mates ive shown VK bands too on the odd occasion seem to have liked it. I do have one mate who jokes its “weeaboo shit” but he doesnt have an issue with it, hes just more into the ultra brutal stuff, which i am as well so all good. Haha.
Hmm I guess it was something like: '‘I didn’t expect you to listen to this kind of music, it doesn’t really suit you ‘cause it doesn’t match with how you are’’. Well moreover, I looked kinda like an innocent kind girl who listens to VK / metal and so on and that was for some of my friends not very well fitting to me xD
But most of my friends know I’m listening to this for several years, and they’re cool with it and are used to me listening to it now. Some newer friends were actually interested when I played some random songs in the car
back in high school i befriended a couple of girls who liked jrock/vkei. looking back it was kind of amazing how i managed to have vkei friends in a small suburb. back then some people thought it was strange, but even liking anime made you a weirdo back then. now that i’m 35, no one seems to care and are intrigued if anything. not sure if it’s my age or if times have changed
All of my friends know I listen to a huge variety of music, from calm ambient music to literally just rhythmic white noise patterns. So some music being in a language I don’t speak doesn’t really phase any of them
I basically dragged my best friend with me into vk hell. My other close friend discovered the same bands shortly after me. Third close friend I first meet at a moi dix moi concert. Japanese boyfriend also doesn’t mind that I like vk. He likes X-Japan, Laruku and such and get’s me tickets.
Most new people I befriend are a bit weeby and usually react positiv. I can’t remember of anyone having a bad reaction.
I wrote my last reply before I introduced my dad to vk (because we made a trip to Japan together and I dragged him along to some lives).
He didn’t mind the music but when he saw an MV he said something like: “They are handsome people why do they try to look like white people with that bleached hair?” (it was Golden Bomber’s Memeshikute btw)
Later when we saw some lives he wouldn’t stop comparing every band to KISS. And he said he felt a bit out of place because there were only woman (which was not true but it was much more woman than man).
Some observation I made about myself when I show vk to people who have never heard about it is: I am so used to everything about vk, I tend to underestimate how wild it must seem to other people. When I try to think of a “nice not so brutal song” I only realize it’s still relativly heavy when I show it to the person (if someone only listens to pop music, Diru’s “Drain away” is not a soft song to them, apperently…)
This pretty much I guess.
I don’t know I gave up on trying.
When I got into VK I already was listening to rock music which included Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory and parts of System Of A Down and Excilia’s Unleashed alongside with Evanescence, Silverchair, Bush and some other bands so the people I knew hadn’t have to cross that gap between pop and what’s “not so brutal” in VK. But for those who aren’t coming from where I came from that’s pretty likely to turn out like this.
It’s a bit similar with ballads. When people outside of VK think of ballads it’s the real soft, quiet songs but they’d consider Gazette’s Cassis or whatever rather as some mid-tempo while to me, and especially compared to most other songs, that one belongs to ballads. Maybe I’m just mistaken or have some weird system for this but I think there’s another difference.
I feel lucky in that regard at least
Japanese boyfriend also doesn’t mind that I like vk. He likes X-Japan, Laruku and such and get’s me tickets.
