Because visual kei has so many sub genres, (some of them because of clothes) tanbi kei, osher kei, I can’t think of the others off the top of my head so pretend they are listed here as well ect, it seems like visual kei is just kind of an umbrella term for any Japanese band that has a more alternative dress wear.
We all know that even though Versalles and Gulu gulu sound, and look completely different, even though they are from the same genre. There are metal bands in visual kei like Jiluka and calmer bands like Plastic Tree, so basically visual kei already has every genre under its umbrella. So what makes a Japanese metal band NOT visual kei? Where exactly is the line between metal visual kei, and Japanese metal that has sick ass outfits?
Self-identification. A band has to want to be part of the scene to be considered part of the scene. That means doing lives and activities with other bands in the scene too. If you don’t associate with the scene, then you can’t be considered a part of it.
Bit of a circular definition, but it’s the best I’ve got.
Visual Kei is much more about the appearance and atmosphere of the performance. This in turn affects the music composition to fit the concept. You can normally feel a shift in the music when comparing a VK based metal band compared to one not.
As said above, the band itself has to indicate the are doing visual kei, then we can nitpick how good their visual style is.
They’re Visual Kei if they participate in the eco system of VK. That means playing at Visual Kei live houses, appearing in Visual Kei magazines, being signed to a Visual Kei label, playing with other Visual Kei bands, offering certain kinds of merch, engaging in satsuei before or after shows for smaller bands.
This my super debatable opinion that can be change if a better criteria comes along:
I refuse to think about vk as a musical genre because bands play music in completely different styles with different expressions and goals. You can’t convince me Sadie and Jikkendai Marmot are the same music genre. I got ears.
I would define Visual Kei as a wide japanese music scene that approaches both musical production and overall band presentation under the influence of (late) 80’s and 90’s japanese musical counter culture that is rooted in the rock band culture on the 70s and 80s but put an emphasis in shocking and challeging the audience through alternative music and extravagant clothing that represents the kind of music they are playing.
Of course as the scene evolved and became broader less alternative music appeared, but the core of being rock-band or rock adjacent is inherent to vk, as well as the visual presentation of the band as a reflection of their concept and music.
All in all, VK has alwasy channeled in some way or form that will of shock audience instruments in hand taking what bands 35 years ago started into the future. Time dilutes everything and the context has been shifting
As the scene stablished itself and VK became a trope, some of their aspects were translated into other kinds of music projects, like the “visual kei idol group” gimmick, that excludes itself from vk because of their musical and presentation ties to idol culture instead of a lineage of rock bands. What started to hatch with boowy, dead end and took some shape with Buck-Tick, X Japan, Luna Sea is what we’re seeing today with decades of maduration and turning points. But it was all born of the goals and feelings those early bands had in our current scene veterans.
I don’t buy the self identification argument because it doesn’t provide a definition, and that diludes the identity. If you didn’t want to play an instrument ispired by X Japan, Mou Dix Mois, Kagerou, Gazette, etc and carry on that way of doing things, you’re not VK. But you can do that by being Deviloof or Mimizuq.
I absolutely agree with @Heyt but also with the initial posts about self-identification being key. Though I would say self-ID is not a complete definition.
I want to add my 2 cents about the musical aspect:
As a general observation, I find that because visual kei is so insular, it has developed musical tropes of its own. I believe this does separate it as a genre in a broad way, despite the variety of distinct subgenres and musical styles. Some tropes include things like key changes between verses and choruses, inclusion of poppy choruses, a lot of spoken word, strong focus on bass, more complex drum rhythms, lots and lots of vibrato, untrained vocals, etc etc. Sure, you can have visual kei songs without any of these things, but patterns do emerge and oftentimes you can hear the differences between visual kei and non-visual kei music without the visuals (not always fool proof tho lol). I think this is particularly apparent in more modern renditions of visual kei, less so the further back in time you go.
I personally love how messy it is and the difficulty in pinpointing any specific definition, just goes to show how organic of a scene it is and provides so much source for pondering and research : )
This is pretty much the main way I identify a vk band. The Japanese music scene in general is extremely fond of tropes, so I’ll identify j-indies, j-pop, j-rock and so on by visuals and the musical tropes of each genre. Not that vk is a musical genre, but it definitely has developed characteristics of its own.
It’s undeniable there are musical tropes and approaches in vk that cross over regardless of the style/genre, so the scene at large produces a somewhat unified kind of sound, but it would bet that if somebody puts real work into it the result would still be “vk musical clusters” or “families” of bands that use those resources more or more similarly. But I would like to know more about any really wide musical through line along most/a majority of VK bands in history, musically speaking.
Not really a definition but imo some bandmen really embodies the term visual kei well,like Ruki the Gazette,Yusuke and Hazuki of lynch., and Tatsuro MUCC,Kyo of Dir En Grey to name a few, they have almost nothing in common but when you look at them you can tell they’re Visual Kei if that makes sense