Japanese Culture

Sub Culture

More specifically, Visual Kei.

To be honest, I don’t know what else I should write about. I don’t want this post to be another cliché post about Japan. But I don’t know if this is cliché or not. But in the end, I don’t really care. It’s my choice and I want to write about something I’m interested in.

I’ve been interested in Japan my whole life. And when I was 11 I somehow found out about a Japanese guitarist/singer named Miyavi. At the time he was a solo artist who would be in the genre of Visual kei. And since then I’ve only been listening to Visual Kei.

But I’m not just interested in the music, I also find the artists themselves interesting. The whole idea of Visual Kei is to have a sort of persona when performing which is usually accompanied by outrageous outfits and have. I think that the easiest way for me to describe it is and updated version of 80’s rock in the US. Big hair, crazy outfits, and crazy make up. Visual Kei can be a darker kind of music, and musicians can look like Marilyn Manson or they can be poppy outrageous characters like Lady Gaga.

One other reason I find Visual kei interesting is because almost every Japanese person I have met knows about Visual Kei and some of the bands (and will ask me if I know __________.), but no one will admit that they themselves like it (even if they can sing a band’s song). I’ve even had Japanese students tell me that they don’t like it because they are afraid that it would turn them into bad people.

Visual kei may seem silly or stupid to many people, but I don’t care. I find it to be an interesting part of Japan and I recommend that people give it a chance and look into some bands.

Pictures are From a Visual kei concert that I went to. the one is the band's truck, and the 2nd one is of fans waiting to buy tour goods.