Oshare Kei

As Oshare-kei ( Japanese おしゃれ系 to German literally "fashion conscious flow") refers to a subspecies of Visual Kei (Visual: English visually Kei:.. Jap flow). Bands that use the Oshare style often orient themselves musically towards a mixture of J-Pop and J-Rock . The style itself developed around 2001 in Japan . The now disbanded band baroque is considered a pioneer of this subspecies . It should be said, however, that like visual kei, it is not a genre of music - this is not infrequently confused in the fan base.

Identifying features

Most bands from this genre stand out due to their colorful and happy appearance (e.g. An Cafe , baroque ). In most cases the music of these bands also has a cheerful, slightly punky sound. The lyrics often deal with the topic of love, but now and then also with more serious things, which are nevertheless packaged in the typical oshare sound.

The look of the oshare kei bands is roughly the same as the look of the visual kei bands, with the difference that they bring a broader, lighter color palette into their outfits and use less dark make-up, but often many different colors. In western countries it is often assumed that members of an oshare kei band are homosexual or transgender because of that feminine style. Usually these bands only try to stand out from the often dark style of the visual kei bands, although these have been wearing less extreme outfits since the appearance of the oshare kei; thus the boundaries between Oshare and the well-known visual kei are often blurred. The colorful, light clothing style makes use of Japanese " street fashion "; this means that these are often outfits that are not uncommon in Tokyo’s districts such as B. Harajuku can be worn by fashion conscious people. Many bands have started to adopt more bright colors for their stage outfits and a happier, more poppy music style in their own repertoire. This also includes bands like Ayabie and Charlotte .