The Beautiful Revolution

Descendants of the Rose

I am a passionate lover of beautiful things.  Everything from butterflies and silks to beautiful scents like perfumes.  I am helpless to the enchantments of things like roses and jasmine flowers.  What captivates me most of all, however, is the ultimate combination of beautiful sound and extreme aesthetics: Visual Kei.

Visual Kei is a revolution started in the late 80's by a band called X Japan, and since it's advent, Visual Kei, also called things like VK, V-Rock, and Visual Rock, has taken the world by storm.

Visual Kei is my biggest passion, and so, at least for the forseeable future, this blog will cover notable artists and aspects of this wonderful form of art and expression.


Today, I'll give a brief summary of Visual Kei in general.  As I said before, Visual Kei was started in the 80's by X Japan.  At that time, Visual Kei was very controversial, and was looked down upon by the general public of Japan, mostly because of a mentality that can be summed upby an old Japanese proverb:

"The nail that sticks out gets hammered down."

But X Japan held strong, and ended up becoming the single most legendary rock band in Japanese history.  To this day, they are loved, admired, and idolized by both Visual Kei and non VK musicians alike.  More on X Japan will be covered on a later date ^-^

Over the decades that have passed, Visual Kei has evolved more and more, into several different styles and forms.  

Originally, the image of Visual Kei was like this-->

1988 X Japan had just begun shaping out the scene.



As time went on, the drastically large hair and Kabuki-style makeup was adapted and modernized, and customized to fit each band's own set of values.




Nowadays, Visual Kei can range anywhere from the dark shocking visuals of Dir En Grey:

To the immaculately beautiful, doll-like, gothic-lolita-esque image of Versailles:

 
The last thing that I'll go into detail about is the common theme of Visual Kei aesthetic: androgyny.  All of the people pictured here are male, including the one in the dress.

While this may be shocking to some, this is a big part of Visual Kei, which is focused on shocking visuals almost as much as it is on beautiful appearances.

While I may have left a few things out, it would be difficult to completely sum up an art as diverse and unique as Visual Kei, and so I will have to wrap it up for today. 

I leave you with a saying of famed late bassist of Versailles, Jasmine You:


           "Visual Kei is not a genre.  Visual Kei gives the power to express the things within me which I cannot.  Visual Kei is a way of expression."

                          ~*~*~ Join the Beautiful Revolution~*~*~

--Matsu