VISUAL KEI

In a place where everything always is and has been alike, the resentment and discontent below the surface is likely to overflow. To placate this affect of lifelong restrainment is Dramatization; sparkle and dark ribbon that buds from the confined minds and forbidden sights blind eyes are told to ignore. Japan is a place where every person is expected to look, think, and speak alike. To be different is to be impolite and frowned upon. To be frowned upon is to have failed. This aversion to difference is due in part to geography, as well as culture All of these rules in dress and manners are designed to make everyone similar and assimilated to avert friction. Yet in being polite one must not talk about the issues in a society and deny that problems exist. With such a need for rebellion as an outlet from so much conformity, and to lend a voice to taboo issues otherwise not discussed, Oshare and Visual Kei were created. 

  Visual Kei began in the 1980s, mainly with the growing popularity of the group X-Japan. X-Japan was founded 1982, and was known in addition to their strong music for their intricate clothing and towering fountain-like colored hair. ‘The group is widely credited for pioneering the visual kei movement’(LyricsFreak1). As the band grew in popularity and awareness, the style began to be imitated by other bands and those within the fashion industry. As the band was founded in Tokyo, it seems to be there that Visual Kei  first truly began to take root. Mainstream cities seemed quick to adapt the new more modern ideas, with concert halls popping up for the youth there to escape to. Bands such as Glay followed with forward and outspoken style, and lyrics that addressed corruption and rape which otherwise everyone was expected to ignore and pretend did not occur. Yoshiki, the drummer and composer of X-Japan, mixed instruments such as pianos with guitars to create varieties of violent emotions, whether exuberantly happy or incredibly despondent and conflicted. The incredibly emotional tones to songs were new, and spread quickly within the Visual Kei.

Visual Kei consists of outspoken style and words, which were otherwise considered always out of place, rude or shameful. Many parts of Visual Kei are still permitted only at certain moments when it conforms to rules. However, over the internet watched privately or in sequestered away halls after dark rules hold less sway. Often, dress is incredibly intricate with ribbon and tiny chains expertly sewn through the outfit. Usually group members create their own accessories to make their own style all the more exclusive from everyone else’s. The color patterns of clothing tend to range with the emotion the band is choosing to over-display with the song. Neon blues and red cling to peppy songs as bonds and black hold songs of sadness.Members of the band tend to be androgynous or feminine, with make-up accentuating whichever they have chosen as well as mirroring their clothing. Hair is equally as intricate, and can be in any color that is available in dye.  The result is that members of the band are easily distinguishable from everyone else, with a very unique style to each member different from anyone in Japan. The subjects touched upon in lyrics tend to be violence, conformity, abortion, corruption, greed, gang brutality, sexuality, sexism, rape, and discrimination. Happier songs of course include love songs and songs about friendship, where artists tend to adopt lighter or warmer colored hair from red highlights to white-blonde.

            Japan is severely rule and custom oriented for cultural and geographical reasons. Japan is an island nation with land area adding up to less than the state of California. On top of that, ‘Approximately 70% of the total Japanese population is concentrated in the plains and basins, an area comprising just 24% of the habitable land’ (Japanese Geography2). What this means, is that of the 127.57 million people(Chapter 2 Population1), seventy percent of them live in about a fourth of California. With so many people in so little space, any discord causes repercussions for everyone else, even if they were trying to mind their own business. There is no being alone, so society encourages order greatly to keep the country running smoothly. Everyone looks alike, tries to speak with the same accent, wear similar clothing and says similar things in the same circumstance.The effect is a highly conformist society where any difference is zeroed in on and picked at continually. Individuality is a no, in all ways shapes and forms. Culture and customs are also repressive to expression of emotions, ideas, or otherwise. Since people are in such close quarters, one person’s anger could easily and quickly incite others. Inflammatory speech about uncomfortable or heavily debated topics could also cause strife. Likely this caused the restrictive, carefully regulated interactions which people have. There is a proper thing to say to someone in any given situation, and because of that people are rarely offended or made uncomfortable.

            The cultural formalities dictating how one may and may not act cut both ways, however.  A ‘furita’ is a derogatory name for a man which chooses to live freely, not following the rules for male life. “The characteristic male furita (again, insofar as it is a choice and not an economic necessity) is, like the cases considered above, making a choice about what relationships to have and not have. He chooses a series of limited, temporary relationships with employers and co-workers, and perhaps with a semi-stable cohort of fun-loving fellows. He will not have to be berated or humiliated by a boss who has any real power over him, nor will he have to forge or sustain long, demanding relationships with co-workers,”(Social Problems in Japan9). The people who choose not to conform and stay in proper roles, who choose not to work themselves to death by heart attack at fifty, are labeled with a derogative term and often first suspected when violent crimes occur in the case of the furita, such as rape or murder.(Social Problems in Japan9). They are different, and are therefore forcefully divorced by society from everyone else, showing how important custom and rules are to the Japanese society as a whole. This is an example of individuality in Japan, showing why it is so difficult to grasp and how truly restrictive their cultural boundaries are. “There is often such a friction between Japan's conformity-or-else rules and young people longing for a breath of fresh air” (Robs Japan Photo Gallery13). Whether through different styles of white socks or otherwise, young children in school, following the dress code, find minor ways to rebel. It is longed for, as much as it is frowned upon.

            Visual Kei fills a void which has no rules to conform it. In the privacy of one’s own room, anyone can watch videos of pornography or otherwise, whatever they want. In people who have been made to crave individuality, they can find anything that is entirely individualto fill the void left by societal rules. For those entirely devoid of opportunity to be individual, the draw to music about things never spoken of is probably irresistible.  Add in the fact that society cannot judge what they do not see or hear of, and a void is created that offers opportunities to those who are brave enough fill it. Japanese custom has always been emotionally, verbally, and physically repressive to everything seen. Every interaction regulated. In the 1980s, VHS became accessible, and suddenly people could watch whatever they wanted out of public view. “The 1980s ushered in the visual-kei, or visual style rock bands...”(Lunning4)

 People could watch bands without attending a concert considered ‘improper’. Out of everything chosen, people who had always chosen the same clothing and had the same color hair would want something asdifferent as possible. Individuality would sell best. No surprise then, that it was 1983 when X-Japan was formed, catering to the void which had just recently occurred. There VHS tapes sold like wild-fire. Their popularity sky-rocketed, as did the forward and over-done clothing style to which other quickly bands began catering to increase their own popularity. People longed for some kind of rebellion against the repression, and it showed. Songs about incredibly-strong feelings tended to be the main fodder for bands, and remain that way. Remembering that the band with the ‘towering hair’(LyricsFreak1) of bright crimson and purple became perhaps the most treasured band in Japan, (there is, actually, a holiday of remembrance for the deceased pink-haired guitarist Hide of X-Japan), it is not hard to see the craving of people for individuality, and how it led directly to the birth of a movement as extravagant and far reaching as the people’s desires. 

                Current bands note and understand how their stand out appearance draws fans to them because of their individuality. “We practice putting on make-up..and choose the best look for our band. We gain many fans this way..”(Cocoro Books2). This is said by Tadayuki, a member of Le Bris a Visual Kei band in Tokyo. He notes that being different is exactly what makes them popular, gaining them fans for a more outspoken appearance. At the end of his interval, he makes a comment that enforces the rigidity which people desire to escape saying, “..every day I work hard. But, I can live a free life this way..”(Cocoro Books2) He is paid to fill the void for thousands of people more than willing to pay, and gets to talk about whatever ideas he desires and wear the clothing of his choice. Visual Kei fills the void created, occurring because there were people willing to pay dearly for difference and individuality that is otherwise not acceptable because of society and space. A fan, a nineteen year old girl, describes why she loves her favorite visual kei band and dresses as them when out of her parents sight in Harajuku “They are so cool…sometimes I cosplay them..I look like an ordinary Japanese girl. But, when I cosplay I become a whole new person”(Cocoro Books2). Here is the consumer of the Visual kei movement. Someone who craves individualism, but cannot have it and idolizes those who do. She goes as far as to imitate to, “feel like part of the band”, and share in their independence. Her mother does not know about her idolization, the girl worries she will not find it socially acceptable. Fortunately, over the internet there is not interaction with others, and therefore no rules. In Harajuku, there are some rules but they are slightly different then elsewhere. In another book, visual kei is referred to as “a stylized hybrid movement of rebellion and self-expression”(Vickers7)

This would makes sense, as in every day Japanese society seeing something erotic is completely foreign to everyday youth and young adults, as it is improper and repressed. In all these farther examples, stand out appearance and individualism is what draws the fans to the bands, clearly depicting the void that was the reason for the emergence of Visual kei.

            In the end visual kei was created to fill the holes that a heavily ruled conformist society caused in its people. It achieved popularity because of how much people craved, that need being most clearly demonstrated when for the first time people could explore out of societies reach. The conformity of Japanese society made the need in the first place, being influenced by culture, geography, and population density. The negative effects in particular, deepened the void and paved the way for the movement of over-done self expression through topics, sounds and dress which is Visual Kei. The popularity started in the 1980s and was lead by the revolutionary band X-Japan, who were known for their over the top style in hair, make-up, dress, and music. They ended up heavily beloved and icons of individualism in Japan for everyone forced to conform to similar codes of dress, hair, speech, and other customs. After them, the style quickly spread to other bands who wished to have more popularity or desired to live free of the constraints put on them by society as a whole. The style remains popular in Japan today, having developed many sub-groups and off-shoots. As a last remark, for every action, there is an equal opposite reaction. The potential for this reaction was always present, it simply waits, for the opportunity to emerge and truly fly.

Credit to : ahsasianstudies.wikispaces.com