Started in the 1980s, visual kei, or v-kei music, is an underground type of music started in Japan to challenge social norms. This genre is big on the visuals rather than just the music, using big outfits and theatrics on stage and in music videos to gain attention and interest in the music. Inspired by western genres such as: glam rock, goth rock, and heavy metal. Within about ten years, visual kei became so popular it started challenging the album sales of popular J-pop bands within Japan. Despite the popularity there have been many controversies within the genre and the fanbase surrounding it, which is expected when the purpose is to challenge the norm.
There are many bands considered to have been the ‘pioneers’ of visual kei, such as: X Japan, Buck-Tick, Color, Dead End, and Malice Mizer are just some of them. Each of these bands had their own unique sounds, while still working to build visual kei as a growing genre against the norms of the mainstream media. The term ‘visual kei’ was actually started from the slogan “Psychedelic violence crime of visual shock,” which was created by the band X Japan. This slogan was meant to refer to the band’s appearance, which consisted of crazy hairstyles, heavy makeup, and interesting clothes to appear different from the mainstream. The genre was then labeled “visual-shock kei,” but was then shortened to “visual-kei” or “v-kei”
The growing popularity of visual kei led to many sub genres being developed such as: Nagoya kei (emphasis of music rather than fashion), Angura kei (use of Kimono and traditional clothing), and Ouji kei (depictions of princes or boys specifically). These styles were first modeled after visual kei but over time grew to become their respective genres gaining their own fanbases and popularity. However around the late 1990s, big visual kei bands disbanded and caused the music to lose popularity and go back to being an underground genre rather than in the mainstream.
Around the 2000s there was a new wave of visual kei starting to make an appearance. They had a lot more variation in the styles of music and focused a lot on breaking gender norms and seeming more fluid than the mainstream music at the time. This caused the new wave to be considered “neo-visual kei” (visual kei bands made in 2004 or later). Many people think that this new wave of visual kei is a good thing to revive the genre while others sometimes disagree.
Overall visual kei music is making a comeback from when it fell in the late 1990s, with this new wave of artists coming into the genre. This has caused more widespread recognition around the world rather than just in Japan. This genre surely does what it was meant to do, it shocks people and gets them interested in what they are about to gain traction throughout the world, even if people are not into the style. It truly lives up to the slogan it was named after, “Psychedelic violence crime of visual shock” – X Japan.
Sources- https://www.bokksu.com/blogs/news/rocking-the-visual-a-deep-dive-into-japans-visual-kei-movement
