Most Popular Non-VK Rock Bands in Japan?

Watching this years Monster Rock in Kyoto and I knew Dragon Ash used to be popular, but seem to still be pretty popular and 10-Feet headlined Day 2 and had the entire crowd singing, so I’m wondering who are genuinely popular and not just hype by labels. Are Sekai as popular as they seem? Have Mrs.Green Apple taken over? How did 10-Feet go from unknown to headlining huge events with no flash or flare to speak of?

Mainstream popular?
One Ok Rock
Babymetal
Etc.
It’s the same names and it feels like it’s hard to actually get more new band up to the same level.
Labels and event organizer know the bands that attract audience and then just opt for the same bands again and again.

Another thing is, when we are talking about not visual JRock, there is such a huge variety genrewise.
A band can be popular inside their genre specific scene, but is a nobody outside that scene.

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B’z and mr.children for sure

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I feel like Bump Of Chicken is very popular

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SiM aka Silence iz Mine I guess?

Glay for sure

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Glay were crossing into the VK scene thou :thinking: especially in their beginnings

Glay is one of the best japanese bands imo, their discography is mindblowing

Southern all Stars

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MY FIRST STORY feels more popular than even ONE OK ROCK at this point.

KISS for sure deserves to be on this list. Idk if it’s a coincidence, but all the rock and metal fans I’ve met from Japan love KISS
And the community in japan is undeniable.

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Probably should have clarified that I’m speaking of Japanese bands otherwise BTS would be the answer.

I am accounting scottykins didn’t see the category were in :wink:

Can we count BTS as band thou? :laughing:

It’s KISS I’m close enough

If Kiss are Japanese now, they are visual kei too, which means they have nothing to do in this thread here.

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UVERworld, Radwimps

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L’arc En Ciel surprises no one has mentioned them.

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Probably because their VK or nonVK status is kinda difficult, if i remember that right.

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Seems like they’re more like honorary members of VK than owning the label of VK.

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If we are talking who counts as vk and who does not… what about Dir en grey? They probably would say they are not vk abymore but lately I am really having a hard time believing that. :laughing:

Normal japanese people have zero idea who DeG is. You can probably ask 1000 people in the city and maybe one person has heard about them.

B^z, Souther All Stars, Mr Children, Glay, Yuzu are some that everyone knows about.

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