{"id":46,"date":"2021-11-16T21:51:53","date_gmt":"2021-11-16T21:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cantavanda.com\/malice-mizer\/?page_id=46"},"modified":"2022-10-24T18:13:08","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T17:13:08","slug":"visual-kei","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/cantavanda.com\/malice-mizer\/about-malice-mizer\/visual-kei\/","title":{"rendered":"Visual Kei"},"content":{"rendered":"

This page contains a brief explaination of the visual-kei genre, but from a “MM-point-of-view”: We look at VK (visual-kei) from the perspective of MALICE MIZER. The context behind the music will be explained, which makes you understand and appreciate the music much more. This is NOT a general, complete history of visual-kei: It’s aimed towards MM fans who wish to learn more about the movement. Please do NOT copy this information on other sites.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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As you might have read already on-line, “MALICE MIZER” is part of the “visual-kei” (or just “visual kei”) movement. VK is a musical (and visual) movement that sees its roots in early-to-mid-80s Japan, and while its peak was in the mid-to-late 90s, it is still very active and loved today, not only in Japan, but also all over the world.<\/p>\n

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What sets visual-kei apart from other musical movements, such as American “punk” or “grunge”, is that the musical genres & styles of visual-kei aren’t standardised. There is no “true” visual-kei sound, genre, style, or look. Visual-kei bands make music in all kinds of genres: Thrash\/power\/heavy\/speed metal, metalcore, hard rock, goth rock, punk-rock, pop-rock, pop, even darkwave and electronic, and much more!<\/p>\n

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The music of visual-kei can be extremely hard, raw and agressive, but also very soft and sentimental. A lot of bands have their own unique sound; a mix of different musical influences, with a personal tiwst.<\/p>\n

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MALICE MIZER is a prime, and maybe the best example of that in the entire visual-kei scene; With all kinds of musical influences: Goth rock, Baroque classical, French chanson\/pop, darkwave, synth-pop, metal, and lots of other influences. Other than the music, the extreme amount of visual styles of MM are definitely the most varied of the entire visual-kei scene, with outfits of all colours, styles and time periods.<\/p>\n

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MALICE MIZER’s musical genre is impossible to categorise exactly. Lots of songs are a complete mish-mash of different influences, genres, instrumentations, and sounds: No single label or name fits their songs or styles.<\/p>\n

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This complete mixture of influences makes the band and its creativity really stand out from any other music, not only in visual-kei, but also the entire worldwide music industry. It’s nearly impossible to find more artists that fill the exact-same musical needs that MALICE MIZER fulfills with its listeners. So you better be happy with the only-four studio albums that they made, full of one-of-a-kind songs replicated nowhere else hahaha!!!<\/p>\n

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While a lot of visual-kei bands, including MALICE MIZER, all have their unique sound, there are still a lot of  musical similarities and conventions shared between a lot of bands. A lot of aspects of the composition style; Such as common chord progressions, ways to build a melody, or rythmic patterns are shared between tons of visual-kei bands spanning all eras and genres. Also, ways of arranging these compositions contains a lot of clich\u00e9’s typical to visual-kei. The singing styles are also shared between a lot of vocalists, just like the playing styles and sounds of guitars, basses, synthesizers, and drums\/drum machines…<\/p>\n

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Some of these musical aspects can also be found in other, non-VK Japanese music from the same times: City Pop, Kayoukyoku (\u6b4c\u8b21\u66f2), non-VK Japanese metal and rock, anime and movie soundtracks, and of course, video-game music.<\/p>\n

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And some musical and visual aspects of visual-kei actually come from Western 70s\/80s\/90s music, such as Glam Rock, New Wave, Hair Metal, and others. Some specific artists that had a big impact are David Bowie, SEX PISTOLS, M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce, KISS, Dead or Alive, The Cure, Nirvana, Marilyn Manson… But these are just a few names, there’s many, many more…<\/p>\n

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There’s also a lot of different substyles of visual-kei, such as kuro-kei, nagoya-kei, angura-kei, and many more… MALICE MIZER mostly is, and also was one of the first “tanbi-kei” bands, a substyle that contains a lot of fancy costumes inspired by European culture and fashion.<\/p>\n

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But what really makes a visual-kei band truely<\/strong> visual-kei, not “J-rock\/metal\/pop” (like many bands), is the conformity and similarities of the many bands in their concepts, visuals, fandoms, typical venues, marketing strategies, and so much more…<\/p>\n

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But there’s still exceptions… Actually, what might be the most important factor to know if a band is visual-kei or not, is if they just simply call themselves, so identify themselves as visual-kei! Even if there are a lot of differences with other VK bands… And yes, that even includes some non-Japanese bands!<\/div>

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A photograph (not my scan) of X (X JAPAN) from 1986. It shows the early metal roots of visual-kei.<\/em><\/p>\n

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A photograph of MALICE MIZER from 1997, a perfect example of the visual uniqueness of the visual-kei movement<\/em><\/p>\n

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A photograph of LAREINE from 1998, another example of a unique visual-kei band<\/em><\/p>\n

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A photograph of Dead or Alive (not my scan), an English band that was very popular in 80s Japan, and had a lot of influence on visual-kei<\/em><\/p>\n

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A photograph of D\u2252SIRE from 1994, a very influential band<\/em><\/div>

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This page contains a brief explaination of the visual-kei genre, but from a “MM-point-of-view”: We look at VK (visual-kei) from the perspective of MALICE MIZER. The context behind the music will be explained, which makes you understand and appreciate the music much more. 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