Japanese Rock and Visual Scene

It happened to me.  I found myself listening to the same thing over and over again, despairing, thinking this was it, this was the end of music.  I couldn’t find any other artist that could inspire me.  Eventually, I stopped listening to music altogether. 

And then it happened.

I found my revolution, my breakthrough. 

A small glimmer of hope.

It came in a form of an anime [Japanese animation].  An odd way to discover music, but nonetheless, successful.  I watched “Gravitation” and fell in love with the upbeat music.  Granted, I couldn’t understand a single word, but it was still something new.  From there on, I went online to check out other artists and here’s what I found.

If you’re more into pop-ish music, if you’ve seen animes and thought to yourself “This is a catchy theme song!”, these artists are for you:

• Gackt [Moon Child, which is a Japanese movie about vampires, he is the main character]
• L’arc~en~Ciel [Blood +, Full Metal Alchemist, etc]
• Hyde [lead singer of L'arc~en~Ciel]
• Abingdon School Boys
• Nightmare [despite the name, they have good music.  Death Note]
• GLAY
• Luna Sea

For all you soft rock lovers, here’s another few artists which are sure to rock you out of your socks:

• Alice Nine
• Plastic Tree
• TM Revolution
• An Cafe
• Ayabie
• Kagrra
• Vidoll
• Psycho le Cemu

For a more hard rock sound, check these guys out:

• X Japan [end theme song of Saw IV]
• Duel Jewel
• Gazette
• Kirito
• Pierrot
• MUCC
• Vistlip
• Phantasmagoria
• Psycho le Cemu [they cover both the softer and the harder sound of rock]
• Malice Mizer [considered more visual rock than regular rock.  If you watch one of their videos you'll understand why.]

As for all you metal heads, you should definitely look into these:

• Dir en Grey [THE most successful Japanese band in America.  They are all over the music scene.  They've done everything from pop to hard rock to downright death metal.  Once you've heard them, you'll never be the same.]
• Versailles [considered more symphonic metal.  Their music is absolutely gorgeous.]
• X Japan [I had to put them in here as well.  More of old school metal.  This band has been around since 1982.  The lead singer now owns his own record company.  You will be one lucky musician if you get signed by him.  However, unfortunately, their lead guitarist passed away 10 years ago.  Hideto Matsumoto was incredibly talented.]

There are many more bands out there, but this is just a start for you to go out there and explore other music. 

But just be aware of the culture shock!  Many guys tend to look like girls.  Don’t be confused.  They are ALL guys!  It’s just the fashion in Japan.  That is why they call it visual rock.

ENJOY!

PS: if you really get into it, check out the online radio JSHOXX!! you can find it on live365.com