Visual kei
Visual Kei ( Japanese ヴ ィ ジ ュ ア ル 系 vijuaru kei [ viʑɯaɺɯ keː ]), often abbreviated as VK or Visu (plural Visus ) in fan circles , is a collective term coined in Japan for visually striking musicians from different musical genres and the fans who imitate them.
In Japan, visual kei musicians mostly belong to the independent music scene and have little economic importance within the music industry. According to unofficial information, the complex networked scene is mainly financed from contracts with large music publishers when they sign up-and-coming bands. Internationally, however, visual kei has developed into one of the most famous manifestations of Japanese popular music.
Definition of terms
The term is made up of the English term visual ( visual , optical ) and the Kanji 系 kei (in this context type ).
Visual kei is characterized by the striking and unusual appearance of the musicians. The music cannot be assigned to a specific genre: visual kei groups play JPop or JRock , among others , although many bands do not limit themselves to just one type of music.
Origin and history
At the beginning of the 1980s, some Japanese rock musicians began to orientate themselves stylistically and visually on the western music scene and to dress and make-up in unusual ways. Influences for this came from the areas of New Romantic , Glam Rock , Sleaze Rock and Gothic of the early 1980s. Rock musicians such as David Bowie , Kiss and Twisted Sister - who were in turn inspired by the Japanese Kabuki Theater and the Takarazuka Revue - as well as the fashionable designs of Visage , Siouxsie and the Banshees and Alien Sex Fiend served as role models .
It is unclear which Japanese musicians first performed in visual kei style. The band "X" (later X Japan ) is generally considered to be the forerunner , even if the band has never declared itself to belong to this style (the roots of this band are in metal ). Visual kei spread rapidly during the 1990s, when bands like Luna Sea and Malice Mizer managed to establish the style as their own fashion trend in Japan.
Many visual kei elements have been picked up by young fans trying to emulate their idols. In Japan this takes place during leisure time, as the strictly regulated Japanese school and work life leaves little room for individuality, especially with regard to appearance (hairstyle, make-up, clothing). Popular visual kei models include An Cafe , LM.C , X Japan , Malice Mizer , Moi dix Mois , D'espairsRay and The GazettE .
Since the late 1990s, visual kei bands have been emerging in the USA , France , Germany and Sweden .
The first visual kei festival in Japan took place on October 24th and 25th, 2009 under the title "V-Rock Festival" in the Makuhari Messe in Chiba . More than 50 groups performed in front of 29,000 fans from 49 countries.
Appearance
In visual kei there are no hard and fast rules about clothing and make-up. The musicians combine various fashionable elements such as gothic and punk, but also stylized school uniforms and fantasy costumes. In addition, the bands often change their styles and outfits at short intervals.
In the beginning, visual kei was mainly characterized by eye-catching hairstyles or wigs, bright make-up and exotic clothing - a recourse to traditional Japanese art such as kabuki theater, in which all roles are played by men. Nowadays, hair is usually worn long or half-length and covers part of the face, and it is not uncommon for each band member to have a different hair color. The eyes are outlined in black, and contact lenses are often used to change the color of the eyes .
While black clothing, latex and leather used to dominate in the style of Gothic and Punk, many different colors are now worn, which are often intentionally inappropriately combined. Associated accessories include corsets, belts, platform shoes and pant legs, which are not an integral part of the pants. Also Baroque - and Rococo -like dresses come before, a well-known example of this was the band Malice Mizer .
A further development of Visual Kei is Oshare Kei ( oshare means pretty, cute, fashionable ). Representatives of this style are as cute as possible and wear many colorful accessories such as bows, gemstones, hair clips and bracelets. When it comes to clothing (mostly shorts and cropped shirts), light colors dominate, and the make-up is bright and colorful.
The Lolita fashion that by the Visual Kei musicians Mana became known, represents its own fad.
Debates on mapping
General
In western countries it is often assumed that the mostly male, often androgynous Japanese visual kei musicians are homosexual or transgender . The use of lipstick, hair styling and female clothing can be explained on the one hand by Far Eastern ideals of beauty and kabuki traditions and on the other hand by the attempt to attract attention or shock by exaggerating such traditions. A comparable use of androgynous behavior for the purpose of provocation can be observed in western rock music and metal , for example in glam rock and glam metal .
Visual Kei and Gothic
The adoption of fashionable elements of the Gothic scene leads to the often expressed view that visual kei represents a special form of the Gothic movement. However, the main point against this is the lack of reference by many visual kei musicians to Gothic music and the frequent use of garish Hair and dress colors that are unusual for the Gothic environment.
In contrast to the Gothic subculture, visual kei is a purely external appearance. Usually the Gothic movement lacks the individual expression of inner attitudes of Weltschmerz, gloomy romance and interest in the mystical and the occult, which is why the Gothic culture in Japan is clearly differentiated from visual kei and especially from the imitation tendencies in the visual kei scene . However, the Gothic-Lolita fashion associated with the visual kei scene contributes to the confusion between the two scenes , and some groups from the visual kei environment were referred to as "Goochikku-Kei" or "Elegoth-Kei", the Gothic reference is mostly limited to purely fashionable externals.
Visual kei scene in the west
Originally developed in Japan in the 1980s and a marginal phenomenon in its own country, the visual kei scene has been gaining support around the world since around the year 2000. It is now also being marketed in music and youth magazines.
The western visual kei scene consists largely of young women and girls who come into contact with the scene primarily through manga , anime and Japanese popular music ( J-Pop , J-Rock ). The main medium is the Internet. Some German-speaking followers of the scene refer to themselves as "visuals" or "Visus", while others perceive these terms as condescending or offensive.
Appearance
Often the outfit of the respective favorite band is emulated. The clothes are usually sewn and put together by yourself, which can be very time-consuming and costly. In addition, there are often applications such as safety pins, patches and buttons, hair accessories, lacquer and leather, colorful contact lenses, extreme hairstyles, colorful buttons and hair clips and lots of make-up.
Due to the partly similar accessories and hairstyles, Visus can occasionally be confused with supporters of the emotional scene ( emos ).
To meet
The most important public activity of the members of the scene is attending visual kei (“ViT”) meetings, and less often also anime conventions . On such occasions they organize outfit competitions, photo shoots and mutual entries in friend books ( Con-Hons ).
In contrast to anime conventions, which are often supraregional, sometimes also commercially organized meetings of manga and anime fans, visual meetings are privately organized and locally limited. One of the largest visual meetings in German-speaking countries is the "Cologne Visual Meeting" (KöViT).
See also
literature
- Friederike von Gross: Visual Kei - young music fans on the Internet. In: Kai-Uwe Hugger (Ed.), Digital Youth Cultures. Wiesbaden 2010, pp. 151–167.
- Marco Höhn: Visual kei: From the change from a 'Japanese youth culture' to a translocal media culture. In: Tanja Thomas (Ed.), Media Culture and Social Action. Wiesbaden 2008, pp. 193-207.
- Nadine Heymann: Play Gender in Visual Kei. Dynamics at the interface between European ethnology and queer theory . In: Esther Denzinger et al. (Ed.), Work in progress. Work on progress. Berlin 2012, pp. 409-421.
- Jana Katzenberg: Glamorous border crossers. The development of visual kei between subculture and entertainment. In: Michiko Mae u. Elisabeth Scherer (Ed.), Japan-Pop without Borders? Transculturality and Subcultures in Japanese Popular Culture. Düsseldorf 2015, pp. 75-100.
Web links
- Nippon Project (German, French, Italian, English)
- J-Music Ignited (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Interview with an ex visual kei record executive , hellodamage.com, October 10, 2010
- ^ "Visual" Bands Rock the World , Web Japan, January 21, 2010
- ↑ Peter Matzke, Tobias Seeliger: Gothic! - The scene in Germany from the point of view of its makers , 2000, p. 143