Introduction
Visual-Kei demo tapes. To me, these are the most exciting, interesting, and my favourite objects to collect. The way they fit in your hand, the whole handmade aspect, the low-budget music, the visual style bands generally applied on them… It’s all so perfect!
But it has become general knowledge that a lot of fake demo tapes exist. Sometimes the panic is misplaced, and fears grow over real tapes, and other times, gullible buyers get tricked into buying fake demo tapes for huge prices. I will try to make it a bit clearer with this webpage.
While you can never 100% know it’s real, sometimes you can get really, really close. This webpage will not serve as a definitive, absolute guide to tell you “THIS IS REAL!” or “FAKE!”, but it will be a very handy tool, full of useful, interesting information, which will help you judge for yourself if what you own is genuine, or a bootleg, or if you should buy that very exciting tape you see for sale!
Let’s get into all aspects of demo tapes…
Building Blocks
Most demo tapes exist out of three things: A plastic case, a J-card, which is the paper with the cover image, that folds inside the case, and a tape stock, which is the actual sound source.
We’ll get into all three in more detail. But first there’s other building blocks which some tapes have, and some never.
An insert, often in the shape of a lyrics card, is a paper or cardboard sheet put inside the tape that contains any information the band wants you to have. This can be dates of live concerts, some information about band activities, but almost always the lyrics of the songs.
Some demo tapes are not in plastic cases, but in cardboard sleeves.
Other other demo tapes don’t have an insert, but a long j-card that folds many times and contains info and lyrics on all folds, replacing the insert.
There are even more creative ways and exceptions bands expressed their music through the physical item.
Tips when seeing a demo tape on sale!
Before diving into all details of demo tape authenticity, here’s some general tips. If you don’t understand some terms in these general tips, be sure to read further, as everything gets explained!
One of the best tips is to look up images online of other copies of the same tape. Maybe other copies on sale? Or look on VK.GY, Discogs, X, or any other websites if there’s any more images of the tape, taken or scanned by people who own the tape. Is the tape usually professionally pressed or handmade? If the tape is usually professionally pressed, but the one on sale is handmade, it might be a fake, but it could also be an earlier press made by the band itself.
If the tape is always handmade, how does the stock of the ones you find compare to the one on sale? Same brand, model?
How does the printing of the j-card look? Better, worse?
Do the images you find online show an insert with lyrics? Does the one on sale include these or not? If not, the one on sale can be fake, or just incomplete!
What is the reputation and history of the one selling the tape? Is it one that regularily sells tapes, making a business in selling tapes? Is it a reputable store, known for selling real ones and fake ones? Ask around!
Does the seller sell mostly unknown/indies bands, or do they have lots of rare early demo tapes by very famous bands for sale too? If so, these are most likely fake, and if you identify just one tape fake out of all that they sell, you should be wary of EVERY tape that they sell.
Does the seller say where they obtained the tape? Very good sign! If they say they obtained it directly from the band, that’s a good sign. If the also have ticket stubs or flyers from the same period of the same band, PERFECT! Do they show enough, clear and detailed pictures of the stock, insert, j-card? Good signs too!
If the J-card has colour fading on folds that look like they naturally came there by folding, it’s good! But if you already see on the images of the tape for sale that they are printed, and don’t perfectly allign with the folds, bad sign! (Scroll down for more info about this!)
If you can see the stock of the tape, be sure to check the release year of the tape on VK.GY, and see if the production years of the stock (as seen by its graphic design) corresponds with the release year of the tape. If it doesn’t match at all, or the stock was made after the release year of the tape, it’s very likely fake. But for this last tip, scroll down to the “stock production years” section!
But let’s not go over the two main types of demo tapes:
Professionally Pressed V.S. Handmade
It is important to know the difference. But it’s also important to know that no rules are absolute, and as much exceptions exist as ones that follow the norms.
Usually, professionally made tapes had at least 100 copies made, as most pressing plants wouldn’t accept to make them in smaller quantities. There is also a shift in importance of demo tapes that happened in the mid-90s: Demo tapes became an important staple of a band’s creative output then, while a lot of bands before saw these as “unimportant releases”. 80s and early 90s demo tapes most of the time were handmade, in small quantities, weren’t mentioned in official discographies, and weren’t seen as important/official releases like vinyls or CD’s. While tapes after 1995 were often made in larger quantities, often more professionally pressed, and even advertised on flyers, and sold in stores as essential releases of that band, which is something unique to late 90s/early 2000s visual-kei I think.
Professionally Pressed V.S. Handmade Stocks & J-cards
The main difference is usually the tape stock: On professional stocks, or on consumer-bought stocks. A consumer-bought stock is the type of empty cassette that any person in 90s Japan could buy in any store. It has a brand on it, a model of the tape, and a number with how many minutes fit on them. An example is the SONY HF10. Brand is SONY, HF is the model series, and 10 is the amount of minutes that fit on the tape. Take a look:
A professional stock comes in multiple forms. It can be a tape stock that is one pure colour, like completely white, black, or any colour. It can also be a full-printed tape, with images printed on them. It can also be a stock in a colour with a printed sticker on it.
The J-cards of professionally pressed tapes are often made with plasticy or cardboardy paper, while handmade ones can be made with basic copy center or even printer paper. Handmade ones can be black and white to save costs, especially in the late 80s/early 90s, while professionally printed ones are almost always in high quality colours. If there’s print lines on a j-card, or clear copy artifacts, it might mean that it’s a bootleg/fake, but it might also mean that it’s a homemade one made originally by the band with a cheap printer. Even blurry covers can be real, just poorly made. See three professionally made here, one looks blurry and is black and white, one is plasticy and in full-colour, and the other one looks cheap, but is professionally printed on cardboard paper. But all three are real!
Handmade Stocks: Exceptions
But the confusion comes with mixes of both! Often times, there were smaller cassette pressing plants who would professionally dub on consumer-grade tapes (like the SONY HF10). Sometimes, indies bands would also dub their music at home and somehow get a hold of these single-colour professional stocks. Sometimes, indies bands would themselves put big stickers on consumer stocks to make them look professional, like these two, who are both real, but bizarre mixes of both:
Also, often, in the late 80s, bands used to make stickers with just some text, and sticked these on consumer stocks. Sometimes with a typewriter instead of printed stickers.
