Visual Rock was founded in Japan in the late 1980s, influenced by European and American glam rock (Note 1) and New Romanticism. It is famous for its gorgeous and exaggerated makeup styles. Visual means using visual effects such as clothing and makeup to express music. Visual rock bands often dye their hair different colors and wear unusual clothes (from Renaissance elegance to postmodern avant-garde). There are often one or two members in the band who wear feminine clothing. Generally speaking, during the underground indies (Note 2) period, the band's costumes were bolder and their music focused more on concepts; but after entering the mainstream, their clothing and music generally tend to become more popular.

Classification of visual rock and roll

1 According to music form

Visual rock is not as specific as music terms such as "Ramp; B" and "Punk" Refers to a form of music with various musical forms. Therefore, the main music form of a band is classified as follows:

Pop sugar music: Shazna

Pop rock: L'Arc en Ciel, Glay

Industrial Rock: Zlich, MACHINE

Heavy metal rock: X/X Japan, sex MACHINEGUNS

Special rock: Madeth Gray'll, Dir en grey,

Classical/ Baroque rock: Malice Mizer, LAREINE

There are also Japanese-style bands, such as: Raphael

At the same time, a band is also compatible with several forms of music, and even rock and classical coexist ( Typical such as X Japan).

2 Composition by band

Visual rock bands are the same as ordinary rock bands, generally consisting of an electric guitarist, an electric bassist, a drummer and a lead singer. The number of people is usually five, but there are also four or even less.

Five-member band: usually two electric guitarists, one main melody player and one vocalist; one electric bassist, one drummer and one vocalist. For example, X Japan, Luna Sea. There is also an electric guitarist, an electric bassist, a drummer and a vocalist, plus a keyboard player, such as Sophia. There are also very few bands with two drummers and one drummer each.

Four-piece band: also more common. It can be an electric guitarist, an electric bassist, a drummer and a lead singer, like L'Arc en Ciel; it can also be two electric guitarists, an electric bassist and a lead singer, like Glay who comes to Beijing to sing.

Bands of less than four members: less common. The most famous is the band "Black Dream", which consists of vocalist Qingchun and bassist Renshi.

3 Others

The characteristics of many bands are not only reflected in the music, but also cover the dress, behavior, lyrics, playing methods, etc.; therefore, Japanese locals use the ×× book series To distinguish them: such as basement series, dark series (Dark Visual series), soft series (Soft Visual series). Take basement rock bands as an example. This type of visual rock band has thicker makeup and is mostly black and white. Their songs have the flavor of nursery rhymes, and their lyrics mainly express feelings, death, and loneliness. Their musical techniques vary from band to band.

There are also classifications based on region, such as the Osaka school, the Sendai school, the Nagoya school, and the Kyushu school. Although there are many bands established in Tokyo, there are very few bands that are all born in Tokyo.

Mainly representative bands

On the stage of visual kei rock, new bands continue to appear, while old bands die and cease from time to time. No matter how good the band is, they cannot escape the fate of disbandment. , but the representative band of visual kei rock will not be forgotten because of this, and their music is still widely circulated to this day.

1

X/X Japan not only promoted the development of visual kei rock into mainstream culture, but also sparked a rock craze across Asia. Yoshiki, the leader of X was founded in the 1980s and released its first album in 1989. In 1992, it changed its team members and entered the international market, and changed its name to X-JAPAN. In 1997, the members disbanded due to disagreements over their musical ideas. X's music style was initially hard rock and heavy metal music, but later on, the music incorporated a large number of classical music elements and orchestral soundtracks, establishing two extreme styles of extreme intensity and tenderness, and even the lyrics are equally full of love and hate. The intense emotions of life and death. At the concert, in order to fully express the connotation of the music, X introduced the performance techniques of a small theater to make the stage atmosphere intense and audio-visual integrated. In terms of publicity, they went against the common sense of the rock music industry and vigorously used the media for publicity. They also became the first visual rock performers at the Red and White Song Festival. In 1998, X's lead guitarist HIDE died suddenly, bringing this legendary band to a tragic end.

Main members: Vocalist - Toshi; Drummer - Yoshiki (the leader of X, who also plays piano); Guitar - Hide, Pata; Bass - Taiji from the

Main works: "Red", "Endless Rain", "Forever love", etc.

2 Glay

Today’s top performer in the Japanese rock scene, Japan’s “National Band”, has set a historical record of sales of 4.87 million copies of a single album, and has also opened 200,000 A first for a concert. Moreover, Glay also pays great attention to the Chinese market: releasing albums for China, shooting commercials in Shanghai, and holding a concert with tens of thousands of people in Beijing. The band officially formed in 1990, and recorded its first album under the supervision of Yoshiki in 1993. It entered the mainstream music scene in 1994, and has developed very smoothly since then. In 1997, the best collection "Review" sold 4.87 million copies, and Glay jumped into the Japanese mainstream. The big brother of rock and roll. The four-member band plays lead vocals, guitar, and bass; the drummer is supported by foreign aid. Glay's songs cover a wide range of topics, including family, friendship, and love. There are also songs to inspire the nation, and even "Winter Again" that misses his hometown. Today, when rock music no longer has the courage it once did, Glay still adheres to his own ideas and continues to create music.

Main members: Vocals - Teru; Guitars - Hisashi, Takuro; Bass - Jiro.

Main works: "Beloved", "Lip", "Winter Again", etc.

3 Larc-en-ciel (Rainbow)

Originally one of the three major visual kei bands, but now they have officially announced their departure from visual kei. Larc-en-ciel means "rainbow" in French. The Rainbow band is very popular in Asia. It has visited Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and other places, and many albums have been introduced to the mainland market. Rainbow is a band from Kansai, officially established in 1991, and has been affiliated with Ki/oon Sony Records since 1994. In 1997, due to the Sakula drug possession incident, the drummer was replaced, but they did not feel depressed, and instead became a first-line band. Rainbow's slow songs are soft and psychedelic, while the fast songs are crazy and powerful; the lead singer's bass is deep and ethereal; the guitarist and bassist's excellent skills make up for the monotony of having only one guitarist. The composition is jointly performed by members of the team, so the genres are varied, including British rock, blues, electronic music, etc. The band is unique in its MTV filming, with an independent film style. In recent years, in order to get rid of the outside world's prejudice against visual kei bands that emphasize appearance rather than music, Rainbow Band has repeatedly stated that they are no longer visual kei rock.

Main members: Hyde on vocals; Sakura on drums, later replaced by yukihiro; Ken on guitar; Testu on bass (leader and backing vocals).

Main works: "Rainbow", "Honey", "finale", etc.

5 Alice nine / GazettE

Two Japanese beauty groups. GazettE debuted not long ago, but they are also a relatively powerful band.

Main works: " "Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter", "Q" (Alice nine), "Chizuru", "Cassis" (GazettE)

4 other bands

Luna sea is also one of the three major visual kei groups in Japan One, discovered by extasy records. Formally established as a member in 1989, they were active in the underground music scene under the name "LUNACY" at that time. Debuted with "IMAGE" in 1992, briefly suspended the group in 1997, and announced its "end" in 2001. Because of their outstanding live singing ability, they have been hailed as "a band that cannot be copied by other bands and has no semicolon." After that, band members Kawamura Ryuichi, Sugizo and others continued to develop their personal works.

The outstanding bands in the Japanese visual kei scene today include Pierrot, Janne Da Arc, Psycho le Cemu, etc., among which Dir en gray is undoubtedly the most outstanding representative. Dir en gray was formerly known as La: Sadie's. Dir en gray was officially established in February 1997 and debuted in 1999. Dir en gray has been very popular since its formation, so much so that the single "I'll" released in August 1998, even though it was an indies release, ranked seventh on the Oricon singles chart. It is worth mentioning that Luna Sea and Dir en gray both came to Shanghai to perform in 1999 and April 2002 respectively.

The current situation of Japanese visual kei rock in the storm

As early as 1997, when X Japan disbanded, there were signs that the Japanese visual kei rock structure was unstable: Luna sea members were temporarily single. Fei, Rainbow team members were temporarily suspended due to the case of awakening agents, etc. But with the climax of Luna Sea and Rainbow, Glay became popular to the end, new forces emerged one after another, and the flourishing age of visual kei rock continued until the end of the century. However, in the 21st century, as the R&B craze swept the world, new and old bands disbanded one after another, and the visual rock scene disappeared.

1 Signs that visual kei has entered a trough

1.1 New and old bands have disbanded, and visual kei lacks a standard-bearer

The soul of visual kei rock X-Japan 1997 September After disbanding on May 22, Hide, one of the members of the team, known as Japan's No. 1 guitar player, died mysteriously at home on May 2, 1998. Since then, there have been constant turmoils in the visual kei rock camp. The Rainbow Band publicly announced their refusal to be called visual kei. Luna Sea ended at the end of 2000, and the three major visual kei bands no longer exist. Even Glay, the remaining main force of visual kei rock, claimed that "neutral dressing is indeed close to visual kei, but this kind of dressing is not to get close to a certain group." The implication is self-evident. Other bands were also in bad shape: Malice Mizer's lead singer Gackt quit the group in 1999, and drummer Kami died of a sudden cerebral hemorrhage. Although they formed a group again, they finally officially went solo in 2001; Black Dream, which debuted at the same time as X Japan, experienced two During the band period, they finally announced an indefinite break. Emerging bands also have many mishaps: in Team Raphael who had just entered the Budokan, Hua Yue died of an overdose of sedatives; D-shade disbanded, Lareine members quit one after another, and Due’le qrartz, which was favored by the media, also announced its disbandment in 2002.

At this point, the main bands of visual kei rock have been fragmented. Although Dir-en-grey, Pierret, etc. are still active, the whole visual kei is obviously no longer as brave as it used to be.

1.2 Album sales have declined, and the market has begun to slump

Although visual rock music was not favored by record companies in the early days, they had to raise funds to release albums. However, in the mid-1990s, visual rock music The band gradually became popular, not only supported by major companies, but also recognized by various awards, and the album was a hit. Take Glay, for example (as of 2001):

1996 "Beloved" 1.522 million copies;

1997 "Review" 4.875 million copies;

1998 "Pure soul" 2.427 million copies;

1999 "Heavy Gauge" 2.357 million copies; 2000 "Drive-Glay Complete Best" 2.637 million copies Thousands

At the same time, Rainbow's multiple albums and Luna Sea's collection have also sold more than 1 million copies, and the Tribute album "Hide Tribute Spirits" in memory of Hide's death also has a historical record of 780,000 copies.

After entering the 21st century, the sales of visual kei bands dropped significantly. In 2001, even Glay's "One Love" sold far less than one million; by 2003, the business of visual kei albums became increasingly bleak, with the highest 300,000 copies (the highest is Glay's collection, which is 240,000 and 250,000 respectively). Most of the albums sold less than 100,000 copies, and the singles sold less than 50,000 copies, and none of them entered the top 30 for the whole year. If things go on like this, it is estimated that the visual kei rock market will continue to shrink, and band companies will face difficulties.

When visual kei became popular, not only did the band’s own records sell extremely well, but a corresponding industry also emerged: magazines specializing in visual kei (such as "SHOXX", the proper noun "Visual Rock" ranked first published in this magazine), professional TV programs (such as TV Asahi's "Break Out", which mainly introduces underground bands), large-scale Indies Rock Show (such as shock wave), and there are also shops serving Cosplay (Note 3) and competition. The band itself has also launched official fan clubs, peripheral products and other by-products; some members have also opened their own stores, such as Malice Mizer's Mana, which has opened a concept store.

However, as the bands have disbanded one after another, official fan clubs have been stopped one after another, professional TV programs have been suspended, and many magazines have ceased publication. This is a tragedy for visual kei.

2 A brief analysis of the reasons for the decline of visual kei rock

Various music forms in the world have their ups and downs. Visual kei rock’s decline is due to its own shortcomings and is also influenced by global music. The influence of culture is more important than that of business and economy. The reasons are complicated. The following are just personal opinions.

1) The global music style is not conducive to the development of rock and roll

Looking around the world, the whole United States is rapping, and all Asia is ramping; B; in the Chinese music scene, the two main players, Jay Chou and Tao Zhe, are also Ramp; B singers; the same is true in Japan, where Ramp; B is popular. As young people pursue fashion, they also change their careers and stay away from rock music. It's just the simplest reason why Japanese visual kei rock has entered a trough: forced by music trends.

2) The Japanese music economy is in recession

From the perspective of the entire Japanese music industry, it is facing an extreme recession. The production volume of records has been declining year by year since 1999, and has dropped by 1,000 More than 100 million (yen, 2002 data), young people not only spend less time listening to music, but also spend less. The popularity of online music downloads has dealt a huge blow to the global music industry.

In recent years, the number of newcomers’ debuts has dropped sharply, from 128 groups in 2001 to 510 in 1991.

It is even more difficult for a rock band to make a debut. In the Indies era, only those with more than 10,000 records could attract the attention of major record companies. This led to the birth of a new force in visual kei rock.

At the same time, the number of creative musicians who cannot release albums is also increasing. For the sake of their own safety, record companies give priority to releasing albums that sell well. Rock bands require greater time and expense than ordinary singers, and the time it takes to reap benefits is several times longer than that of idol singers. None of the visual rock bands that are popular today or have been brilliant in the past have gone through several years of hard work in the underground stage, and even starved themselves in order to release albums. Even after their debut, there are no examples of immediate hits, only counter-examples: Glay lasted 3 years; Rainbow took at least 2 years; Luna Sea was hovering between commercial interests and musical concepts from beginning to end, without any outstanding results. Therefore, on the one hand, record companies are reluctant to easily release records for rock bands; on the other hand, some visual rock bands give up their music concepts after entering the mainstream. This has resulted in many excellent rock bands having to seek help from Indies, which affects the production and quality of visual rock albums to a certain extent.

In the past two years, Japanese music magazines in China have ceased publication one after another (such as "Music Today"), and other magazines cannot escape the fate of shrinking pages. Most of them have given way to Korean music magazines. This also illustrates Japanese music from one aspect. of recession.

3) Parts of visual kei are divorced from the essence of music

After visual kei came to the mainstream stage, some bands' music styles seemed to be gradually moving closer to the mainstream, abandoning the initial visual shock in style. , with the main purpose of attracting fans. Over time, the media and the public have developed a wrong impression, thinking that those who dress neutrally and make up amazingly are visual kei, ignoring that dressing up is the form and music is the god of rock bands. The performance of the backward bands also makes people feel that their creativity is gradually withering. Whether it is music or style, they continue to see the shadow of their predecessors. There are not many styles that have established their own and are irreplaceable. Under the excessive commercial packaging, bands that should have created music as their first priority have gradually become commodities similar to idol groups, and there has even been a visual kei band ∧ucifer with packaging. As a result, visual kei, a noun that was originally exclusive to rock music, began to waver, and it also changed into the meaning of "winning by appearance", and the characteristics of visual kei, which "combines visual expression with music", gradually became blurred. Some music fans also ignore the performance of music and judge people by their appearance. They are obsessed with rock musicians like they are obsessed with youth idols, causing the distortion of the meaning of visual kei.

Visual rock music is not a genre established based on music style, so it will not be inherited in terms of music style. "Combining visual expression with music" is the most important key for a visual rock band. I hope that emerging bands can work hard on both aspects of visual music and become a band with both spirit and form.

4) Many musicians died suddenly, causing public dissatisfaction

As we all know, there is a lot of dissatisfaction with the deviance of rock musicians; the public’s dissatisfaction with visual kei rock is also that they are bizarre Dress up, and the news of the accidental death of a visual rock musician almost every year since 1999:

On May 2, 1998, he was known as the number one guitar player in Japan and the former guitarist of X Japan Hide died mysteriously at his home. The cause of death is still unknown. Suicide is also possible.

Malice Mizer’s drummer Kami died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage.

On October 31, 2000, Raphael captain Hua Yue died from an overdose of sedatives. He was only 19 years old when he died.

Hide's death had the biggest impact on the visual kei rock industry. On the one hand, Hide has promoted many underachieving bands, and even the current Glay has received his help. Therefore, Hide's death is a great loss to Japanese visual kei; on the other hand, after Hide's death, many extreme girls want to help him. They commit suicide, and a very small number of people commit suicide. This makes many parents object to their children's preference for the visual system, in case they also embark on a road of no return. At the same time, the entire Japanese music industry began to reflect on the merits and demerits of visual kei rock.

Hua Yue’s death is a tragedy for the commercialization of visual kei. Raphael’s team members were signed by record companies before graduating from high school. As the team leader, Hua Yue, who was the main music creator, lost a lot of music due to excessive pressure. Take tranquilizers and die as a minor.

At this point, visual kei rock has received less and less support from ordinary people. Parents are not only opposed to liking it, but also to engaging in visual kei; the road to visual kei has also become difficult.

Epilogue

Japan has formed a visual kei rock culture in just twenty years. Although there are factors of commercial hype, the charm of visual kei itself plays a more important role. effect. Although today's trend is moving away from visual kei rock, the latter has a deep foundation of underground bands in Japan and will not decline overnight. If one or two outstanding bands emerge and lead the entire music scene, visual kei rock can achieve greater success.

About notes

Note 1: Glam rock (Glam Rock or Glitter Rock) is a branch of hard rock, characterized by gender-ambiguous dressing, gorgeous and dramatic stage style and decadent laziness. Lazy music style. "Glam" comes from the word "glamour", which refers to magic and charm. It was born, active and died in the UK in the 1970s, with representatives such as David Bowie and Roxy Music. There are also some glam rock singers and bands in the United States, such as Alice Cooper and Kiss, but their music is more inclined to heavy metal.

Note 2: Underground = indie is the abbreviation of independent. Generally speaking, after forming a band, it is difficult to attract a major record company to sign a contract with them immediately. So they often set up their own record companies or sign with an indie record company to release their records. After a few years, they may attract the attention of major record labels (such as EMI and SONY) and sign them as a major band (this process is also called a Major). There are also bands that refuse to sign as a mainstream band for the sake of their independence.

Note 3: Cosplay = Costume Play refers to the act of modeling a specific character's dress. Cosplay targets generally comics, games, film and television characters, and visual rock musicians. Most of the participants are fans of the people being cosplayed with, expressing their love for them through cosplay.