What is Visual Kei ?

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[last edit : 04/23]


What is Visual Kei?

We always talk about it, but what do we know exactly?

ヴィジュアル系
Also called : visual-rock, visual, visu, and VK.


ORIGINS

Nowadays, Visual Kei is (obviously?) known as a Japanese movement.
However, if "VK" is, indeed, a Japanese term, the use of costumes and make-up as an essential part of the mise en scene isn't actually new, nor is it a Japanese characteristic. Showing off an eccentric style has always been a good way to attract attention.
When attending a play or a musical, spectators can enjoy the actor's performance, but they also see many other elements : sets, atmosphere, way of dressing, and appearance in general. Style allows oneself to convey a particular image (which is often distorted) in order to arise laughter, fear, curiosity, to increase one's charisma, or even to appal.

The notion of "Visual Kei" actually appeared with a now worldly-renowned Jrock band, X Japan.
Founded in 1982, and originally called X, this band broke into the music industry in the early 90's, and finally became one of the most famous Japanese bands on the worldwide scale (as well as their precursors, Loudness).



Their style was inspired by the punk movement and mainly by the band Kiss, and their music by hard rock, punk & glam rock.



Back in the 80-90's, anti-establishment movements such as punk rock had kept growing for twenty years or so. Going on stage dressed in leather, or wearing heavy make-up, long dyed hair... was not really innovative then, but it was still shocking, though. It was the manifestation of some sort of freedom.
X Japan didn't advocate anarchism, though they showed a full-fledged frame of mind.

Their leader, Yoshiki Hayashi, has always had an heightened sensibility, both musically and sentimentally speaking.
Musically, because he learnt the piano from his mother in his early childhood.
Sentimentally because he was still a child when he found his father's corpse (who had committed suicide). This left a scar on his heart, and inspired many of his compositions.

Extract from an interview with Yoshiki, by JaME (2008) :

JaME wrote:

What bands were you generally influenced by before?

YOSHIKI : I don't know. There were many of them. I like punk music. Let's see... I liked the Sex Pistols before they reformed, and classical music : Bach, Beethoven, Rachmaninov. So... i don't really know.

In what way has it changed? What is influencing your music now?

YOSHIKI : I don't know. Everything, i guess. About your first question... There are many good British bands nowadays, you know. I love RADIOHEAD, for example. I really like Brit Rock. I could usually cite many more bands, but right now...

It was X's guitarist, hide, who found the motto "Psychedelic Violence Crime of Visual Shock".

Japanese media started using it to characterize all of the rock bands who attached importance to their style. That's how everyone heard about VISUAL KEI, that is to say, visual style.

hide is thus considered as the VK founder.




French-speakers can read the original article here.