-KUROFUKU KEI (黒服系)-

vg.ky's write-up

vg.ky official playlist

-initial impressions-

Unlike yesterday's okeshou kei bands, I was familiar with a larger number of the names on this list -- LUNA SEA, BUCK-TICK, JUSTY-NASTY, and so on -- which, combined with my knowledge of prior artists, gives me more to speculate about. I noticed that the bands on the playlist and listed on the article which carried over from the okeshou kei era were all rock-heavy, and "A Brief History of Visual Kei" says that most bands which turned into visual kei acts were associated with the metal scene in some way, so I assume the sound of kurofuku kei is "harder" than its predecessors. I suppose this also would have been reflected in the gloomier visual style groups adopted, with members styled with pretty make-up and dressed in black (it reminds slightly me of goth fashion, even though I know its connection to goth rock is tentative at best). One thing I noticed while reading the subgenre summary was that the word "decadent" was used very often to describe kurofuku kei, especially in the context of its music. I'm not sure what that sounds like, but I'll keep an eye out nonetheless.

-my thoughts-

Indeed, the sound of kurofuku kei is very rock-oriented, more so than some of the okeshou kei bands I listened to. I think one unique aspect of today's music, which I noticed particularly with LUNA SEA and BUCK-TICK, was the pairing of clean vocals , as I didn't hear it nearly as often yesterday -- I assume that's due to the influence of beat rock. I'm also stating the obvious here, but the pieces felt fairly consistent with another in terms of their instrumention, singing style, and "vibes" (how shocking...).

I had a much stronger reaction to these bands than yesterday's. I actually went out of my way to listen to ZI÷KILL and early LUNA SEA, who had 0 and 2 songs, respectively -- that's unfortunately little for such influential groups! I guess I would agree kurofuku kei has a "decadent" sound (kind of in a dark chocolate way for BUCK-TICK? xP), but I can't put my finger on how. The moodier, heavier-sounding rock music? A heavy use of bass guitar across most artists? The aforementioned clean vocals in combination with a more layered sound? I don't know, but I am very fond of the kind of sound it creates.
I think BUCK-TICK has this "richness" the most of the artists I heard, which made them stand out to me (very positively!) once again, though a couple other bands I liked particularly above the rest, LUNA SEA and D'ERLANGER, had this sense, too. Honestly, the only band I wasn't really grabbed by was Gilles de Rais -- I liked it, but something felt 'off' about it. I don't think it was a lack of this "decadence" or moodiness that persists throughout the subgenre, though. Maybe just a matter of preference.

I'll confess, I'm a little bummed I don't understand the lyrics of these songs because I think it could help me understand the changes in themes and tone from subgenre to subgenre. I don't have enough drive or time to learn Japanese, though; I must work on improving my Czech before anything else. Ah well. Maybe I'll retroactively look up lyric translations of a few songs and hope they're halfway decent...

-OKESHOU KEI (お化粧系)-

vg.ky's write-up

vg.ky official playlist

-initial impressions-

According to vg.ky's article, okeshou kei is not actually a visual kei subgenre! Rather, it's all the bands that heavily inspired and/or eventually became visual kei -- the first bands that come to mind for me, in my limited knowledge, are X JAPAN and BUCK-TICK. I read that some bands (like the ones I listed) had a strong impact on the scene, whereas others had a far greater influence on the sound (like DEAD END and BOØWY, which I have not heard of).

X JAPAN - Blue Blood

DEAD END - Dead Line

BOØWY - BoØwy

I don't have much of a foundation of what visual kei really looks like, let alone the history of Japanese rock or of any of the genres okeshou kei pulls from, so I don't have anything very profound to say about the genre or music. I'm hoping these sections will be more interesting to myself and my (unfortunate) reader once I know more about the evolution of the genre.

-my thoughts-

(i'll admit that i didn't like having to log into spotify for first time in a few years... i'm not very fond of the site (^ ^)")

I listened to the playlist mostly while drawing and cooking, jotting down brief notes on each artist. I split listening to it over the course of two days because I had started rather late, and I grew sleepy before I finished. I will try to avoid doing this in the future, with exceptions made for exceptionally large (i.e. 3 hour-long) playlists or subgenres whose music I'll have to hunt down outside of Spotify.

It's a little difficult to talk about the music itself because of how varied it is -- the playlist encompasses 4-5 genres across roughly a decade, after all. It's also difficult to try to talk about the music as it stands on its own, as this playlist exists to create a foundation for understanding the artists that followed in their footsteps. I hope my other write-ups will be more interesting, once I have something more focused to write about.
Funnily enough, while apparently BOØWY had a huge influence on visual kei, as they were the group that invented "beat rock," a genre that fuses pop and punk elements, according to Rate Your Music, I wasn't particularly grabbed by it (though, I did like 'MARIONETTE'). Nonetheless, I can see its influence on the bands I've listened to, as I have noticed a number of songs pair harsh rock music with catchy, pleasant vocals. On the other hand, I absolutely loved DEAD-END, the other band critical to the development of visual kei musically. I particularly liked its more rock-heavy sound and moody atmosphere; in general, I found myself most drawn to songs like it, in line with general music preferences and my personal schema of what visual kei sounds like. I think this is why BUCK-TICK was my favorite of the bands I heard on the playlist... because they turned into an influential visual kei act themselves. Several other bands on the playlist did, too, so I'm curious to see how their sound evolved.

I liked the playlist as a whole. Most groups' music were less obviously related to visual kei than the above mentioned bands -- SOFT BALLET, for example, despite being very moody, felt far more pop-adjacent than a lot of what I'm familiar with, and X JAPAN reminded me more of western 80s rock and metal. In general, it's interesting to see how some of these bands both do and don't resemble their predecessors (metal, punk, glam rock, prog) and successors (the many subgenres of visual kei). I definitely could hear the influences of the former on various artists in the playlist; I love seeing the connections between different people's ideas and innovations, even if they aren't always very clear at first. I hope I can continue to do so with later genres.

I spent several hours today making this webpage. I'm off school, fortunately, and my job hasn't started yet, so I have time to blow on a passion project. It took a lot of work, but I'm proud of how it looks so far. Below the divider are some little templates that I made for myself for later use... ;)

-TEMPLATES FOR LATER USE-

-playlist link-

example link

-photo grid-

-table-

Unlike my main site, a lot of the assets and information on this page come from other places. Here is a list of everything I used:

Information and Music

• My main reference is vk.gy's "The Official Guide to Visual Kei" and their spotify playlists.
• I sometimes referred to cultic's "Subgenres and Visual Kei: Everyone is Wrong Except Me."
• I used Discogs relatively often.
• If I use any more specific playlists or articles as references, I will add them here.

Assets

• Images:
• neckdoll | tiled background
• candyshoppe | bow png, rose divider, all pixels, template for back button stamp
• pixelprism | black flower png, rosary png, cross divider
• Daniele Franchi on unsplash | background image for header
• Text:
• bunnyfonts | body text (crimson text)
• fontmeme | site header (gl stellamystica)
• Other site elements:
• scripted | cross animation script
• solielios | lace border on main div and table
• valetines | lace border on images
• doodad.dev | dithering
• textfixer.com | html encoder for japanese characters