Visual kei
Visual kei (Japanese: ヴィジュアル系 or ビジュアル系, Hepburn: Vijuaru kei or Bijuaru kei, lit. "Visual Style"[1]), abbreviated v-kei (V系, Bui kei), is a category of Japanese musicians that have a strong focus on extravagant stage costumes that originated in Japan during the early 1980s. Koji Dejima of Bounce wrote that visual kei is not a specific sound, but rather it "revolves around the creation of a band's unique worldview and/or stylistic beauty through visual expressions in the form of makeup and fashion".[2] While visual kei bands can be of any music genre, it is generally associated with glam rock, punk rock, and heavy metal.[3][4]
Visual kei
Visual kei was pioneered by groups such as X Japan, Dead End, Buck-Tick, D'erlanger, and Color, and gained further notoriety in the 1990s through the success of groups like Luna Sea, Glay, L'Arc-en-Ciel, and Malice Mizer. The movement's success continued through the 2000s with Gackt and more musically broad bands such as Dir En Grey, the Gazette, Alice Nine, Girugamesh, and Versailles, a period which some critics term "neo-visual kei" (ネオ・ヴィジュアル系). Many acts tone-down their appearance upon achieving mainstream success, calling into question whether they are still to be considered visual kei.
Etymology[edit]
The term "visual kei" was derived from one of X Japan's slogans, "Psychedelic Violence Crime of Visual Shock", seen on the cover of their second studio album Blue Blood (1989).[5][2][6] This derivation is credited as being coined by Seiichi Hoshiko, the founding editor of Shoxx magazine, which was founded in 1990 as the first publication devoted to the subject. However, he explained in a 2018 interview with JRock News that visual kei was technically coined, or at least inspired by, X Japan's lead guitarist hide. Hoshiko also said that at the time they were called 'Okeshou Kei' (お化粧系, Okeshō Kei, "Makeup Style"), "but it simply felt... too cheap... Even though X Japan was a big band and people used the term 'Okeshou kei' to describe them, the term was still lacking substance, I didn't like the term at all! Because of this, I tried to remind all the writers to not use this term as 'They are not okeshou kei, they are visual-shock kei'. From there, it went from 'Visual-shock kei' to 'Visual-kei' to 'V-kei'. After we spread the word, fans naturally abbreviated it to 'V-kei'. The Japanese love to abbreviate everything as a matter of fact." Hoshiko considers visual kei a distinctive Japanese music genre and defined it "as the music itself along with all the visual aspects of it."[7][8]
History[edit]
1980–1992: Origins and success[edit]
Visual kei emerged in the 1980s Japanese underground music scene,[9] pioneered by bands such as X Japan, Dead End, Buck-Tick, D'erlanger, and Color.[10][2][11][12] Japanese pop culture website Real Sound wrote that similarities between the appearances and behaviour of the founders of visual kei and members of the yankī delinquent subculture are often noted.[13] The movement designated a new form of Japanese rock music influenced by Western hard rock and glam rock/metal acts like David Bowie, Kiss, Twisted Sister, Hanoi Rocks, Mötley Crüe, as well as punk-gothic rock and was established in the late 1980s and early 1990s.[5] In The George Mason Review, Megan Pfeifle described the movement as being roughly divided into two generations, with the first in three transitional eras,[14] of which the first era lasted just over a decade.[15]
In the late 1980s and until the mid-1990s, visual kei received increasing popularity throughout Japan, when album sales from such bands started to reach record numbers.[9][16] The first band with recordings that achieved notable success was Dead End, whose independent album Dead Line (1986) sold over 20,000 copies,[17] and whose major label debut album Ghost of Romance (1987) released by Victor Entertainment reached No. 14 on the Oricon Albums Chart.[18] That same year, Buck-Tick released their major debut Sexual XXXXX! through the same record label.[19] Dead End even had albums Ghost of Romance and Shámbara (1988) released by American label Metal Blade Records, with radio station and MTV exposure in the United States. In 1990, D'erlanger's major debut album Basilisk reached No. 5 on the Oricon chart,[20] but they and Dead End both disbanded that same year.
In 1988 and 1989, Buck-Tick and X Japan started to gain mainstream success that continues to present-day. Buck Tick's single "Just One More Kiss" entered No. 6 and "Aku no Hana" is first visual kei No. 1 single on the Oricon Singles Chart, while their studio albums Seventh Heaven (1988) and Taboo (1989) charted at No. 3 and 1 respectively and were the first Japanese rock band to hold a concert at the Tokyo Dome.[19] They continued to have success, with nearly all of their subsequent albums topping the charts until 1995 and later reaching the top ten on the charts. X Japan's first album, the independently released Vanishing Vision, reached No. 19 in 1988, making them the first indie band to appear on the main Oricon Albums Chart.[21][22] Their second and major debut album Blue Blood (1989) reached number 6 and has since sold 712,000 copies.[23] Their third and best-selling album Jealousy was released in 1991, topped the charts and sold over 1 million copies.[23] They went on to release two more number one studio albums, Art of Life (1993) and Dahlia (1996). In 1992, X Japan tried to launch an attempt to enter the American market, even signing with Atlantic Records for a US album, but this ultimately did not happen.[24]
Two record labels formed in 1986, Extasy Records (Tokyo) and Free-Will (Osaka), were instrumental in promoting the visual kei scene.[2] Extasy was created by X Japan drummer and leader Yoshiki and signed bands, not limited to visual kei acts, that would go on to make marks on the Japanese music scene, including Zi:Kill,[25] Tokyo Yankees and Ladies Room. Luna Sea and Glay, who both went on to sell millions of records, with Glay being one of Japan's best-selling musical acts, had their first albums released by Extasy in 1991 and 1994 respectively.[26][25] Free-Will was founded by Color vocalist and leader Dynamite Tommy, and while at the time not as popular as Extasy, it had many moderately successful acts, such as By-Sexual and Kamaitachi.[2]
Criticism[edit]
There has been criticism directed at newer visual kei bands for having lost the spirit of their forefathers by copying each other in design and sound, and becoming all the same.[15] As far back as 1998, Neil Strauss reported that to visual kei bands "after X" makeup and outrageous looks became "more important than music."[42] Several musicians have expressed their discontent; in 2008, Kirito (Pierrot, Angelo) said "now it's more like people are dressing up a certain way because they want to be visual kei or look visual kei. They are doing it to look like others instead of doing it to look different. This is obviously very different from when we started out more than ten years ago,"[79] while Sugizo (Luna Sea) stated in 2010 that "they cannot make good sounds and music is more like a hobby for them. I cannot feel their soul in the music."[88]
Although almost from the newer generation himself, Dir en grey bassist Toshiya said in 2010 "to be honest, when we first started and we were wearing a lot of makeup on stage and stuff, there were a lot of bands doing that at the time in Japan and people thought it was cool. But not anymore, ha ha." and added "the music was so unique, too – bands like X Japan. At that time, there weren't any two bands that sounded alike; these days everyone sounds exactly the same."[89] Kenzi (Kamaitachi, The Dead Pop Stars, Anti Feminism) commented in 2009 that "back in the day, there were bands, but people would try to do things differently. Nowadays, there's one band and everyone copies off of them," with Free-Will founder and Color frontman Tommy concluding with "I don't think our breed of visual kei exists anymore."[90] In 2013, Kiyoharu (Kuroyume, Sads) said that although he, Ryuichi (Luna Sea) and Hyde (L'Arc-en-Ciel) were influenced by Morrie (Dead End), they "sublimated each other" inventing something new, but the younger generation is more imitative. He proposed that from Morrie's perspective this probably appears to be a "copy of his copy's copy".[91] In the same interview, Morrie added that the problem with new visual kei bands is that "they're established as a genre... well, there's probably a part of it that's business-wise, but it wouldn't be fun if it got stiff. I would like to see people who are trying to break through that area. It doesn't matter how good you are, whether you're doing it on the visual kei route or not, it's something fundamental."[91]
Time Out Tokyo's Bunny Bissoux concluded in 2015 that the movement "today is basically a parallel of the J-pop idol system" and "that originally prided itself on being different, it now attracts those who want to 'look' visual kei. Genuine originality (in the music, at least) seems to be dying out."[38] In 2018, Seiichi Hoshiko said that he was worried about this trend's effect on the movement's future.[8]
