Diabolically delicious guitar riffs coalesce with the egregious purrs of a figure robbed in garments befitting of a vampiric Mary Antoinette, or scantily clad in leather, belts, complete with a spiky wig that could pass someone off as emo Cloud Strife in a dimly lit venue. This is visual kei.
Visual kei, meaning “visual style,” is a music genre that emerged in ‘80s Japan. With influences from glam rock and punk styles that disrupted Western society integrated with aspects of Japanese culture such as bishounen style (men of an androgynous nature that particularly aimed to captivate women), and kabuki theater, Visual kei (or v-kei for short) was able to become more than just a music subculture confined within itself.
Widely recognized for its heavy metal sound popularized by early bands such as X-Japan and Buck-Tick, visual kei remains undefined by a single sound and visual style.
“The overall energy of v-kei groups, especially Malice Mizer, is eccentric and strange, and that is what I find most appealing about them,” said OH senior Shaelyn Benson. “The visuals of the group attract me, and many others, with members like Mana Sama and Kozi as a prime example.”
One of the most acclaimed v-kei bands, Malice Mizer, brought nuance to the genre with their gothic Victorian garments and francophile tendencies noted in songs like “Au Revoir,” which were further glamorized by the eccentricity of their musical performances that had been choreographed and directed by Mana Sama.
“V-kei bands put a lot of attention into the detail of their aesthetics, but they don’t let it overpower the sound of their music,” continued Benson. “Many Malice Mizer performances feel like a theatrical play, which we don’t see often in the west.”
Arguably, the popularized emphasis on non-traditional gender-defying beauty and visual aesthetics most artists subscribe to can be attributed to Mana Sama.
A known crossdresser, Mana Sama rejected gender roles, dressing in gothic lolita dresses, adopting mannerisms traditionally associated with femininity, such as soft spokenness, or having someone speak for him through a mediator.
Aesthetics undoubtedly are a major component of vkei, yet as said by Benson. “Vkei bands put a lot of attention into the detail of their aesthetics, but they don’t let it overpower the sound of their music.”
Even within itself, the genre, much like aesthetics, maintains its uniqueness. Namely, visual kei is an umbrella term for various subgenres, all with different components and styles.
Kurofuku kei for example, consists of mainly black outerwear that could be considered more formal in style; typically, music from this subgenre would include more melodic rock elements when compared to Oshare kei, which is recognized for its pop-punk musicality and colorful and cute outfits that bring to mind the Harajuku street fashion donned by bands like An Café.
With exotic visuals and aesthetics, v-kei is an inexhaustible genre that subverts uniformity, enthralling and captivating fans with atypical chord progressions, delectable cacophonous sounds, and carnal raunchiness.
42Fiftys very own post-niche internet micro-ecelebrity (mid geoguesser player) that lived through a chronic gas leak that was going on in their house for a little over a year without their knowledge. Their only qualification is that they bring a silly goose vibe to the geese party.
