Visual kei combines a unique mix of movement, style, and music genre. This Japanese subculture has morphed throughout the decades, casting a wide net and catching all sorts of fun influences and aesthetics. Let’s dive in.
What is visual kei?
Visual kei, with “kei”, said as “K”, is not only a music genre, but it’s a subculture, as so many music genres are. This is an entanglement of various styles, such as glam rock, punk, new wave, kabuki theatre, and shojo.
For anyone reading this who may not know what kabuki theatre is, it is a form of theatre in Japan, that is considered to be ‘classic’ theatre. Kabuki theatre has elaborate costumes and is often used to talk about politics.
While most people are more familiar with glam rock, and punk, the two styles do differ slightly, and the differences are important. Glam rock first came around in the 1970s, and the costumes were provocative, the hairstyles were wild, and often there was a lot of glitter. Most likely, the most well-known glam rock band is Queen. Punk rock, on the other hand, came around in the 1960s when bands started rejecting the mainstream styles. Their songs were short, fast, and typically aimed to make a political point. This showed in the choice of clothing, as well. Mohawks and bright colors, and a street-easy style. The Sex Pistols are probably one of the most well-known punk rock bands.
New Wave is its own brand of mixed genre, including late 1970s pop and 1980s punk rock. It was originally a catch-all for everything that came after punk rock. This new genre was a chance for artists to break away from blues, jazz, and rock & roll. In the early 1980s, artists began to draw African and African-American styles into their music, creating a crossover, such as you hear when listening to Adam and the Ants.
And of course, as all genres do, visual kei has evolved over the years. There are other genres within the overall genre, such as angura kei (underground), eroguro kei (erotic and grotesque), and even kurofuku kei, where groups favored all black, edgy clothing.
And of course, in the 2000s, groups began to call themselves neo-visual kei, which is more of a marketing technique and focuses on the marketability of the group as a whole. This change introduced share (fashionable) kei, which introduced the likes of An Cafe, Sug, and more. The movement towards marketability led to merchandise and clothing lines, which has led to visual kei moving into Japanese streetwear. The music industry is all about marketability, as many musicians and bands have clothing lines, even perfume, and makeup lines.
After all, if your fans wear your clothing, buy your albums, and try to resemble their favorite artists, are you not at the top of your game? It’s definitely easy to see that this same marketability applies to many bands, like j-pop idols and rock bands, as these bands are encouraged to give out “prizes” (think: meet-and-greets that create a sense of intimacy with the artists and their fans). It’s very common to see your favorite artist, no matter the genre, posting photos online of behind-the-scenes, live-streaming events, and more.
Is visual kei goth?
Visual kei does have its own style of goth, but should not be confused with j-goth, a gothic movement that promotes lolita styles, a style that is often worn by Kanon Wakeshima. While visual kei does focus on appearance, just as much as they focus on the music, their style is usually drastic enough to be in its own category.
Someone who wears visual kei goth will often draw from other styles for their appearance. Punk, goth, sometimes even steampunk, and cyberpunk fashions. Like all styles of goth, visual kei goth is about doing and wearing what makes you most like who you feel yourself to be, as one poster on Reddit found out.
The poster asked, “To be goth or to be visual kei… I need advice.” The poster went on to describe their dilemma:
“For a while I have been interested in both the goth and visual kei subcultures, and I like the music and fashion of both quite a bit. Lately though, I have been thinking that I should commit to one, but I can’t decide from the music or aesthetic which I like better. What would you say the key differences in the general mindsets of these subcultures are that might help me decide? And is there anything else I could ask myself in order to determine where I would be happier? Thank you.”
There was a bit of debate among commenters, however, it eventually boiled down to respecting the roots of the fashion style you’re interested in, and feel free to blend styles if that’s what makes you happy. After all, visual kei is all about the blend of styles.
What is visual kei fashion?
Visual kei is also known as visual style or visual system. Some of the first visual kei bands that started the movement were D’erlanger, X Japan, Color, and Bick-Tick. Visual kei is considered to be an “under-the-radar” style of fashion, highly based around Japanese styles.
To be part of the visual system scene, you need to start small. The clothing style that most visual kei bands sport is minimalistic. However, this means that there are very few shops that cater to the kei scene, especially in the Western world.
So, Westerners, if you’re interested in dressing like your favorite Japanese rock members, look no further, we’ve got some details here. While Japanese clothing brands would be ideal, that’s not really a requirement of the style, so if purchasing clothing from overseas is a bit much, don’t fret! You can easily mix and match what you have in your closet, or what you can purchase at local stores. In fact, some aspects of the style can be made out of clothing you don’t mind tearing up.
Depending on the styles you draw from, you might be looking at biker chains, arm warmers, cuffs, and bracelets, goggles, and glasses, perhaps handcuffs, buckles and straps, and of course, rags.
A really easy place to start is to look at your favorite jrock band members and take inspiration from their styles.
Is visual kei a popular style in Japan?
Visual kei may have started as an underground movement, but it’s still widely popular today. It is considered an influential subculture in suburban Japan and slowly spread to the western world as well.
A fun fact about the term ‘visual kei’ is that it’s speculated to come from X Japan’s slogan, “Psychedelic Violence Crime of Visual Shock“. And of course, you cannot forget the record labels that exclusively deal in visual kei bands, such as Extasy Records, Free-Will from Tokyo and Osaka.
Some visual kei artists to look up.
If you are on the hunt for some good bands that display the visual kei style in appearance and music, look no further.
- The Gazette
- D’esparesRay
- Alice Nine
- X Japan
- Dir En Grey
- Malice Mizer
- A9
- An Cafe
- Buck-Tick
- Versailles
- Luna Sea
There are of course many other visual kei artists out there, some visual kei bands even draw from heavy metal from the Western world, and some draw exclusively from Japanese music. In fact, the most common genre of music that’s drawn into the kei scene is heavy metal, but that doesn’t mean that other genres aren’t popping into existence.
There’s also horror punk, power metal, gothic punk, electronic music, pop, and more. It just depends on the time period you’re looking at, and the band you’re listening too.
Some main visual kei genres are:
- Angura Kei: emphasizes traditional Japanese culture, often dressing in kimonos or geisha style makeup.
- Kite Kei: the most established after genres split off from visual shock. Striking clothing and hair, each member has a different hair color. It has two forms, one of which is slower, the other is faster (music-wise).
- Oshare Kei: this genre has a cheerier sound, brighter appearances. Soft materials, and colors being favored over the darker colors of the other genre. Most bands play soft pop-punk or rock, though some do play other genres. An example of this band is An Cafe.
- Lolita: this genre is a direct tie to the lolita style of fashion. People in a visual kei band that focuses on lolita will dress in the typical fashion and usually play alternative rock, power metal, and symphonic metal. This genre is also more likely to involve a visual style that makes it hard to tell the band-members genders.
- Eroguro Kei: this combines Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson, where fetishes are combined into the costumes and the music tends to be sexually charged. Dir En Grey was once considered EK, but Dir En Grey changed their style. The Gazette is still an EK Japanese rock band and has never changed styles throughout the band’s career.
The visual kei scene is a diverse community, and is most definitely still an active community today, across the world.