Hot take: The only new good songs on Phalaris are 13 and Perfume of Sins.
Music videos with just the band jamming out are more than enough.
So the reason i am stating this is our latest trade off. I have seen over the years often complains that MVs nowadays are just the band jamming out, no storylines or anything else.
But on our discord i was able now to read that some trade off participants were indeed able to enjoy the band just jamming out and nothing more.
We live in a time, where you don’t sit anymore infront of the TV and wait that MTV will finally play that one song you like. And meanwhile waiting you end up watching 50 other MVs. Instead we can directly search MVs up on YouTube or we say fuck it and listen to a song without MV.
Also more and more bands use Visualizer and Lyric Videos instead MVs.
Let me add to that different MV examples of the band plain jamming out
I’d account Deviloofs Peer Pressure as example on how you shouldn’t do it.
We have dynamic camera work, we have close up cuts…
But the band standing almost completely in position, barely moving and then in combination with those blinking lights make it hard to watch.
Adding another thing we do get Semi-Close ups on the guys on the stringed instruments, now personally i would have preferred a close up on their instruments. Reason: all three spot a hair-do that covers up almost their whole face, the fact that they look down at their instruments doesn’t help either.
A little edit here, because of my currently slow internet connection i had to re-watch the MV in 240p … Thing is in that low quality you can’t see the drummer in the background at all.
And he only gets a close up shot apparently half way through the MV finally.
Adding another not perfect MV from Alphoenix.
Lighting wise i do prefer this one over Deviloofs MV. We do get nice close ups on the instruments.
The drumset looks pretty much like a fuckin joke.
One thing that annoyed me a lot is, that they are standing almost as if their shoes are glued to the floor.
Now i did read someone making a remark about the MV that it looks as if they were a bit cramped in a Studio and had barely space.
And i think no space was a problem for Deviloofs MVs too.
If you have space, you have to move
Like in Sailing Before The Wind’s Southern Cross
Now without trying to be biased towards the band. I do think the MV is better example of “It’s just the band jamming out”
We do have different camera perspectives, we have different visual effects and different projections.
And you can see that the band put some effort into it, with their jumping, twirling and little stunts.
Thing is… They clearly had space compared to Deviloof or Alphoenix.
Now those were just mere examples, there are tons of bands out there that have MVs with only the band jamming out. Some worse, some less.
Thing is for me, i appreciate the work that went into it.
MVs take more effort (and more money) than Lyric Videos do and a lot of bands will have limited budgets.
We should appreciate any band doing MVs, if it’s them jamming out in the kitchen with some blinking light or them making a full fledged story MV.
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I’m literally 100 posts too late to say this, but when you used a 2004 Miyavi B-side to support your point I freaked 1000 ultimate. 
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Completely agree. This is one of my all time favourite MVs:
Just the two of them, in a white room, with a static camera, and it’s completely magnetic. I remember the first time I watched it, when it came on the TV in some program when I was a child and I stood there transfixed and begged my mother to tell me who it was. It’s now over twenty years since that, and I still desperately want to figure out a way to transform myself into Kikkawa.
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That’s really interesting because I have the opposite experience. I lose enjoyment of a story-focused MV far more quickly than one without a storyline. In fact, I usually watch them only a few times because once you’ve watched it the story is spoiled and the fun is lost, because you know what comes next. Language is lacking for me here, but I also find the cinematography for story MVs to be too direct/one dimensional, as their main point is to tell a story. However, I can watch an MV without plot over and over, especially if there are clever editing/lighting/shot composition choices. Especially those with perhaps a motif or hints of plot where you can interpret and create your own stories with the material provided. Examples of what I mean both come from xaaxaa:
happy wedding
Horror
I don’t know how many times I have watched this damn thing but it quite literally never gets old. I just feel like more care and consideration has been put into “happy wedding” as they have no concrete story to tell… but with “Horror” you have to prioritise conveying a clear story, so gets boring after a few watches. Of course, stylistic differences play a part here.
I genuinely would love to see something like this. Do you have such an MV in mind?
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For me the whole point of MVs is to see the band jamming. To see the looks/costumes in action. Sure, it can be done in a boring way, but it’s still better than not having an MV at all. Otherwise all I have are pictures and selfies of the members.
Story MVs can be good, but they’re a double edged sword for me. I actually don’t like it when it gets in the way of seeing the band in action. Like gulu gulu’s Henna Merry Go Around, it’s a good MV, but there’s just not enough shots of the band IMO. There are also cases where the story just straight up ruins it for me. For example, I can’t stand gore, so I’m never watching Virge’s 私ノ悪イ癖 again, even though the song is great and the costumes are nice too.
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While I agree with everything you said, I think the theme of this tradeoff is a bit of a trap. Because duh, it says make a playlist of your favorite videos, and that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re gonna be interesting…to anyone else 
And go figure how to mesh that into one 25 minute soup. And most of us here didn’t take very long to think about it. Which was my mistake too.
And there’s also the problem of song matching video or, rather how you like the music compared to the video. You can enjoy a video but hate the song and vice versa.
For me the problem is probably not keeping up to date with that medium, and if I do see something interesting then it’s always a random find.
Here’s an example of what you were talking about btw. But can’t say I liked the song, or even remembered the actual melody.
I think speaking of VK as a whole it can be tiring to watch samey pvs surrounding the band play, but maybe I wouldn’t like to see every video getting turned into a scripted movie/animation. They could definitely use a bit of creativity, however you can’t make an interesting video from an empty song.
(In short, agreed with the comment above which I just read after writing all of this ; ; )
maybe a hot take but the reason why I gave up on participating in the trade off is exactly because I feel that enjoyment of any MV is always personal. Of course any kind of art has to be enjoyed on a personal level but for music there are some objective parameters at least. When it comes to visual language and films particularly … IDK I really don’t think anyone can compare different styles, and these different styles can all occur in the same music genre. And the messages that visuals can deliver are so much more… complex and diverse. Symbols. Everything. If we’re talking vk only the spectrum can go from something like:
- band jamming in clothes that range from fancy to REALLY FANCY and something else of vague interest happening, which would be… something like Pentagon - Shounen Waltz, Moran generally, Versailles generally, Leetspeak Monsters generally, Kiryu or Shounenki generally … idk. And your enjoyment is going to depend a lot on how much you like the band/visuals
- the ones in the church (you know the ones) which often overlap with ^
- band jamming in really boring clothes and something else of vague interest happening, aka the “good vibes” ones as I call BAROQUE - ila, Miyavi - Ashita Genki ni Naare lol love the vibes
- seizure inducing but in the happiest way possible like Vivarush (or AnCafe or Psycho le Cemu for less technology)
- seizure induce but in the Malice Mizer - Illuminati way
- ojisan long hair fanservice which is how I call anything from BUCK-TICK - Dress to MUCC - TIMER (trust me on this one)
- the ones that aren’t quite in Dante’s inferno but might as well be in purgatory like Gazette - Dogma
- whatever the fuck you wanna call DEG - Agitated Screams of Maggots
- the ones that are lyrics-only but also the ones that are lyrics-BASED which is even more annoying (looking @ u Amai Bouryoku . . . ) because you could not but you did
- lol I still remember the one time I showed someone the pv for hide - Genkai Haretsu and they asked “…what IS this?” . Sometimes there is a story but … eh
anyway, in short, it’s all very, very personal and I agree that my favorite videos aren’t necessarily going to be interesting to anyone else. And indeed one can enjoy a video but hate the song and vice-versa. And the trade off wasn’t even limited to vk which makes it even harder! In short, uhh I really want to know what will come out of this, but I can foresee people getting MVs they absolutely don’t vibe with.
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I can’t believe that I am publicly sharing this, but here goes nothing.
Sometimes, when Kyo hits those high notes, I feel like I am listening to Vitas. I haven’t decided what I feel about that yet.
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Except Vitas is a studio creation. Half the time he can’t even hit the right notes.
On the other hand, a turntable viewing/listening party of said tradeoff playlists could make for an EXCELLENT jrock bingo game
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This post from THE LAST ROCKSTARS announcement thread got me thinking. I think he’s on to something, so in my usual fashion I did some quick research.
The untitled sixth X Japan album was rumored at first to have a split between old and new songs, but this was later abandoned in favor of all new songs because Yoshiki said “it didn’t feel right”. The singles are confirmed to be on the album.
I.V. / 2008 / Extasy
Scarlet Love Song / 2011 / Japan Music Agency
Jade / 2011 / EMI (NA & US only)
Born to be free / 2015 / EMI
La Venus / 2017 / Sony Music’s Legacy Recordings
Kiss the Sky / ??? / ???
Rockstar / ??? / ???
- Japan Music Agency is a sublabel of Japan Music Agency Co. Ltd.
- Extasy Records is Yoshiki’s label, and for what it’s worth Discogs says that I.V. was also published under Japan Music Agency, so let’s consider them as a pacage.
- La Venus is Sony Records International.
- EMI Group Limited is a British label conglomerate.
I can already see a set up here where these three groups can’t come to a decision on some minor detail that prevents the band from using one of the singles they wrote for the album because they don’t technically “own” it. I see this in the (lack of) retro game releases all the time! Sonic 3 is forever prone to litigation issues because Michael Jackson contributed to the soundtrack. The label that owned the rights to the music from Jet Set Radio Future shut down shortly after releasing said soundtrack, so who owns the rights to the music is unclear. It’s a major contributor to why they’ve never re-released that game in any form. To go the other way, Dimmu Borgir kicked out their first keyboardist because he ripped the piano melody from a game called “Agony” and used it as the intro to “Alt lys er svunnet hen” without credit or permission.
Those examples are just ones I know off the top of my head about how music and litigation intersect in uncomfortable and unexpected ways.
Also, for what it’s worth, THE LAST ROCKSTARS are signed to William Morris Endeavor (WME), under Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. This would be a clean break from the purely hypothetical Sony / EMI / JMA headache. “I’m still mixing and mastering” is probably code for “all three labels I published music with under the last decade still haven’t decided how they want to split my ever dwindling revenue, it’s done but legally I can’t release it”.
Now having spouted enough exposition, it really makes me take the opening of THE LAST ROCKSTARS (the song) differently.
https://twitter.com/hyde_smile/status/1590922615535046656
Did they take the piano opening and some lyrical content from Kiss the Sky and attach it to some guitar / synth combo that was composed just for the new song? We never got to hear Kiss the Sky, the lyrical content more than matches to qualify for consideration, and I’m pretty sure one of those three companies (or perhaps all of them) are laying claim to those demos.
We probably won’t ever know because my unpopular opinion is that the new X JAPAN album won’t ever be released, not because YOSHIKI is lazy and preoccupied with other things, but because of who owns the rights to which singles.
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I swear to god if Kiss the Sky turned into Biggidy biggidy bang bang bang I’m going to lose my mind
Recently I have been entertaining the thought that VK can be best described as one big theater. Why? Because the way the scene operates is pretty similar. Well starting from the fact that you often don’t know any real details beyond their stage persona, not even their real names, which most often change when the musicians change bands. Also there seem to be set roles within the bands in terms of looks and body language. For example, there’s often one guy who’s playing the girl. Or there’ll always be some occasion when bandmembers crossdress and there’ll be some fanservice (maybe not so much now I suppose). There aren’t so many girl bands so can’t give too many examples but Exist Trace vocalist comes to mind. And what strikes me as peculiar, the musicians usually have a similar body type. You’ll rarely see someone bulky or fat for example. It’s like they’re auditioning for the modeling business, which partly what VK is, if we’re being honest. In other words, it’s just so stereotypical and role defined. Heck even the lyrics repeat the same concepts and sentences. And another thing I must mention, most musicians (at least from my observation) will only perform in one genre. I think the best example for breaking the genre rule is the super talented Daishi Uehara (WANDS/Zigzag).
And how could I forget to mention the make up?
The eternally samey scripture by which the scene operates is why I got tired of Vkei eventually. And now I’ll only listen to a select few.
I need Dir en grey to go back to their GAUZE roots.
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I think it’s just funny that GazettE and Miyavi is now two of the most popular acts in VK, (I know myv isn’t anymore but you got my point) seeing that their music were bottom 2 during their earlier PSC era, even I found kra’s music more enjoyable than those two. For one, myv’s music at the time was just first three diru album with the cringe factor dial up to 11, and for the other, i just found pre-Gama era unenjoyable, simply because how bad RUKI sounds most of time. (If i had to rank 2005 PSC bands it would be: Kagrra>Alice Nine>Kra>>>>>>>>>>>>>Gazette=MYV) thankfully their music improve alot when 2006 comes around. MYV Pops and NIL (also GAMA to some extent) is where both acts found their signature style, and it’s only going up from there.
Speaking about Alice Nine. While they’re nowhere near as big as GazettE popularity wise, Musically nowadays they’re about equal with each other imho. it has been the case since Alice Nine return as Alice Nine whereas before then, i always found on more enjoyable than the other.If i also had to rank it, it would be:
Gion Shouja>Madara>Disorder,
Gama=AIW,
NIL=Zekkeishoku
Alpha=SR,
DIM>Vandalize,
Gemini and 9>>>>>>Toxic and Division,
BD=Supernova,
The Entire A9 Discography>Dogma (I’ll take generic pop-rock over the bloated mess that is Dogma, even though there are some song that i enjoy)
Ninth=NCE and WWB,
MASS=Medley<Grace.
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Not sure if unpopular opinion or stoner thought, but should √eight have been read “irrational” instead of “eight” since √8 is an irrational number? Then 必殺eight斬りcould be read as either “special-eighth cut” or “surefire irrational slash”. And their only full-length album is illational which is ill + irrational. They changed their name later to THE EIGHT to accomplish next to nothing, so that period doesn’t even matter.
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Crucifixion/Misanthrope and Futarishizuka are superior to La’veil MizeriA, and SUI and RIKU are better in Lin than David, Riku’s solo, chariots or Phantasmagoria.
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La:Sadie’s is better than indies Dir en grey.
this one is on yoshiki’s ohp at the moment, so it’s either his management agency, or his own company.
were purchased by sony music after series of mergers; sony music more or less does all global distribution and touring for all major VK acts affiliated with yoshiki and freewill, I don’t think there’s any conflict of interest in there.
miyavi is on a standalone non-vk label, and sugizo is on his own label called sephirot.
yoshiki probably fell apart with other x japan members, gackt is on a health break, so forming skin again didn’t work out, and yoshiki likely owns the masters for their past singles, so it doesn’t really matter what label printed the original CDs and put them online.
they probably couldn’t negotiate how much toshi and other guys will get from the album sales and touring, but TLR might been a management idea just because hyde is more appealing to the actively paying crowd, and og x-japan stans are probably retiring in droves already.
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