Music WI: Visual kei more popular with Western audiences?

[Romantic Nihilist]

Visual kei is a music movement in Japan exemplified by such bands as X Japan and Dead End.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_kei

However, their popularity with Western audiences was limited and it's only been in the past few years that the genre gained acceptance.

What POD's could have helped the genre gain popularity? Not on par with the UK/US bands of the 1980's/1990's but an equivalent?

 

[Lost Freeway]

The problem is that there's a rather strong stigma against "effeminate" men in Western societies.

 

[Colonel Levnekov]

While L'Arc-en-Ciel shut up, they're close enough got popular thanks to working with Fullmetal Alchemist, you're going to need a lot more media exposure than just one anime. And FMA was pretty damn popular, so it's going to be hard.

Perhaps some Japanese-Americans start a kei band (minus the getting close to the 'edgy as f**k' line), and go mainstream? They do some theme songs, get on Billboard Top 10, then kind of become tabloid news.

 

[marathag]

The problem is that there's a rather strong stigma against "effeminate" men in Western societies.

In the '80s, didn't stop Boy George and the other New Pop bands and Glitter Rock before that in topping the charts

 

[oreocruncher]

In the '80s, didn't stop Boy George and the other New Pop bands and Glitter Rock before that in topping the charts

They look much more effeminate...
Also, there's this "foreign" stigma, which is why pretty-boy characters in anime tend to be less popular in the West than "badass-looking" ones...

 

[Colonel Levnekov]

They look much more effeminate...
Also, there's this "foreign" stigma, which is why pretty-boy characters in anime tend to be less popular in the West than "badass-looking" ones...

Dio Brando comes to mind.

But seriously, it's true. I mean, compare Miley's insanity to normal kei.

 

[Remitonov]

Dio Brando comes to mind.

But seriously, it's true. I mean, compare Miley's insanity to normal kei.

You go try telling DIO he's a fag. See what happens.

But yeah, visual kei isn't particularly enticing for Western fans. Their fanbase had always been geared towards Japanese audience. Maybe earlier influences from Western rock subgenres might make Western audiences more receptive.

 

[Romantic Nihilist]

Maybe if Loudness hit it big time...


Although, X Japan planned to release an album in the US after Jealousy. Had they done so, they'd have given the genre more exposure. Yoshiki has worked with legends such as George Martin and Roger Taylor, which would have worked in his favour had it not been solely for his Classical solo records.

I think X Japan are the best bet here. Guitarist hide planned to tackle the US market with Zilch though his death put a stop to that. And his popularity was skyrocketing in comparison to his X Japan bandmates.

 

[Kermode]

I don't think this is possible. The timing just doesn't work out.

The high point of visual kei's popularity is the late 80s to early 90s. This point of time is when the western rock scene is specifically repudiating the excess of glam, turning to aggressive, guitar-driven music played by people whose image is "no image" (so to speak). Wikipedia notes that X Japan attempted to enter the American market in 1992... but I can't imagine these guys making any headway in a post-Nevermind environment.

By the time the western music scene is receptive to excess again (late 00s/early 10s, I'd say), the visual kei scene has dwindled even in Japan.

 

[Tyr]

I don't think this is possible. The timing just doesn't work out.

The high point of visual kei's popularity is the late 80s to early 90s. This point of time is when the western rock scene is specifically repudiating the excess of glam, turning to aggressive, guitar-driven music played by people whose image is "no image" (so to speak). Wikipedia notes that X Japan attempted to enter the American market in 1992... but I can't imagine these guys making any headway in a post-Nevermind environment.

By the time the western music scene is receptive to excess again (late 00s/early 10s, I'd say), the visual kei scene has dwindled even in Japan.

Yes. This.
Go back more and you pretty much do have a visual kei image albeit not sound.

I think its best to make this challenge broader and have Japanese music in general be more popular in the west. The trouble there is aside from the occasional oddity we just don't like non-English/native language music.
Perhaps something like Pizzicato Five with English versions (minimalist anyway) could lead the way in the clubs?- for rock bands the trouble of performing live in the early days will always limit their popularity (especially a problem for style over substance pop-rock like visual kei). Though there are plenty that carved out a niche, Cobain is known to have been a fan of Shonen Knife for instance.

 

[Romantic Nihilist]

Image wise, X Japan did tone down their Visual kei image around the time of Dahlia (although Toshi only did because of those two assholes and that horrible cult). Only hide kept the imagery. Imagine a POD where Groove Metal/Thrash was bigger than Glam in the late 1980's (check out Ace Venom's.. uhh ace TL 'The Heart of Metal).

Maybe then X Japan's Speed Metal influence could capitalize.

 

[Neoteros]

Tokio Hotel and, to a much lesser extent, Cinema Bizarre became quite popular here during the 2000s emo/pop punk explosion; even though they both were German bands, their image and sound were modeled after Japanese Visual Kei bands - so much so, in fact, that the members of Cinema Bizarre adopted Japanese-sounding (or at least anime-sounding) stage names. An actual Japanese Visual Kei band could've become somewhat relevant (if only for a short while) if it had released something in Central and Western Europe back then.