This is reminding me of the early '10s with the following of alt JPs loving the shit out of Abandon All Ships, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Crossfaith, Attack Attack!, crabcore and crabcore accessories. All those weren’t a far cry** from the early-to-mid '00s of Finch, Saosin, Enter Shikari, etc. who came even earlier.
My hot take is that I concur with @zumbah that many of the Visual Kei bands that fall into this camp, sonically, are very much at home in the international metalcore, djent, & post-hardcore “alt umbrella” (this is a huge oversimplification, but that’s just how I hear it.) There’s not enough that separates the two language camps to make me favor one over the other, and you can find your sappy, melodic and/or technical bands in both. Meanwhile there are sub-genres of Visual Kei that I feel have no Western equivalent (or good one), thus have had more staying power in my music rotation.
**Ok, playing that back in my head. With the notable exception of early-T-Pain energy/autotuned vocal goodness that those bands had.
I just realized I never actually responded to this.
It’s a short slippery argument between saying “visual kei without visuals is just music” (which is true) and “separating music from visuals becomes boring” (which is subjective) because then we end up in the waters of “only visual kei is exciting because it has visuals, and music without visuals are boring” (which is just false).
That is a very firmly misguided combination of beliefs of international fans who consume manicured photo shoots and music videos and have no concept of what the culture is really like. It’s not a belief you see here often, since we’re mostly jaded old farts, but throw a stone in visual kei waters and you’re bound to hit a fan who does.
That’s why I feel that Taylor Swift is a really bad comparison, even though I see what you’re getting at. Her music may be as exciting as a cup of warm butter to me, but her stage presence is undoubtedly next level. Most artists actually do care about the presentation of their music live.
When it comes down to it, most artists only have X amount of money to spend and are always faced with opportunity costs. If you dump money into outfits, that’s less for instruments, renting equipment, studio time, lights, fog machines, room and board, a house on the stage, or whatever else fits the band concept. I guarantee you for most bands that if the money isn’t going into outfits, it’s going into something else, so the reverse is also true. If a sizable chunk of money is going into outfits, that’s less money for everything else!
That’s why I find the vast majority of recorded visual kei lives aesthetically flat. They don’t have enough money to shoot fire into the air on that small ass stage while one of the guitarists rips a fat solo. It’s all about the outfits, the venue, the connection, being there in the moment, and the ability to potentially connect with these musicians on and off the stage.
I think it’s also important here to say that the vibe of lives in Japan vs. America/Europe is VERY different, regardless of the genre or scene.
Western audiences are very lively and expressive, with pits breaking out and people bopping around in place while singing along loudly. People just enjoy the music in whatever way feels good to them.
In South Korea and Japan, audiences will literally just stand still unless directed or have an established routine. It’s part of the cultural norm to not really express yourself too much in public lest you make others uncomfortable, even if you’re in a situation where it’s clearly acceptable. Mosh pits rarely form spontaneously; it’s often at the direction of the artist. If you don’t know/can’t keep up with furi, you might even become a barrier that obstructs others who are doing it correctly.
Therefore, artists need to directly manage the crowd and elicit participation, which is why furi is such a big thing. What you don’t see in recorded lives are the MC sections where the artist makes everyone practice the furi for the next song or they do cute fanservice-y banter.
Skilled musicians don’t make a live show fun, because the music is always gonna sound shittier in real life. A band that is skilled at managing the audience and creating a communal space for everyone to have fun is what makes or breaks their live career.
This is why bands like 0.1g no Gosan or Royz are so popular despite being fairly unremarkable in their artistry. They interact with the fans and work the crowd so everyone is jumping and having fun.
But do they have the “k-pop factor”? Attractive members people can project their horny fantasies onto. That’s also part of what makes vk, at least recent vk. It was probably not intentend in the beginning of VK.
To be fair, I know of ppl who thirst after random individual backing musicians of Ghost who are completely covered-up and are virtually indistinguishable from each other, so anything’s possible!
It’s not your civic duty to check every artist’s history to determine if they are good enough people before you are allowed to listen to their music. Especially if you base that opinion on rumors…
It really bothers me if people play online police and say stuff like “You do listen to band xyz? But they did bad stuff 5 years ago.”
I followed a Gulu Gulu member because, daily cat posts I love cats some girl @/ me with a bunch others who followed him and was like "guys! you know ur following (gulu gulu member name I forgot) I was like…yeah I like his cat “well…ur still following him dont u know the stuff the vocalist did”…what does the vocalist have anything to do with my daily cat pics
I think everyone should draw the line wherever they see fit and in the most arbitrary way possible. But I also think that this is just your problem, and it is not a reason to brag about your high standarts or to monitor others.
Everyone is going to have their hypocrisies in some cases, and that’s A-ok. In the end, no one cares irl
