User:Tmat060
VISUAL KEI
Visual Kei basics
ヴィジュアル系 (Visual Kei ) or 'visual style' is a form of rock music, most similar to American Glam Rock, but developed in Japan. It's main priorities are not necessarily the production of music or the accumulation of money, as with the average group, but the display of character and costume one can find most readily on the streets of Tokyo's Harajuku, Shinjuku or Akihabara districts. Although not in anyway linked to those places, the best example of Visual kei's costumes are perhaps seen there. Visual Kei is different to Glam as seen in the west, as Glam seems to lean towards androgyny, whereas Visual Kei completely ignores gender 'boundaries', with many bands having at least one member completely cross-dressing without any embarrassment. The style of the bands are, arguably, as important to Visual Kei as the music, with some of the best bands having some of the most outrageous, stylized, and/or expensive costume, make-up and acts. Groups such as X Japan, Malice Mizer and Dir en Grey are often noted as the fore runners of Visual Kei. At the least they are its most famous and original.
Evolution of a phenomenon
Visual Kei first 'evolved' from Glam, Punk, Metal and 'J-Pop' or 'J-Rock', what western outsiders deem Japanese music based on the pop and rock styles of western bands, in the late 1980's, with its most famous band Japan X, and other bands from the same period; Color and D'erlanger.
