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Visual kei


Visual kei (Japanese: ヴィジュアル系 Hepburn: Vijuaru Kei?, lit. "Visual Style" or "Visual System") is a movement among Japanese musicians, that is characterized by the use of varying levels of make-up, elaborate hair styles and flamboyant costumes, often, but not always, coupled with androgynous aesthetics, similar to Western glam rock.

Some Western sources consider that visual kei refers to a music genre, with its sound usually related to glam rock, punk rock and heavy metal. However, second generation visual kei acts play various genres, including those considered by some as unrelated to rock such as electronic, pop, etc. Other sources, including members of the movement themselves, state that it is not a music genre and that the freedom of expression, fashion and participation in the related subculture is what exemplifies the use of the term.

Visual kei emerged in the 1980s underground scene, pioneered by bands such as X Japan, Dead End, D'erlanger, Buck-Tick and Color. The term visual kei (the kanji kei meaning "system", "order", "origin") is believed to come from one of X Japan's slogans, "Psychedelic Violence-Crime of Visual Shock", written on the cover of their second studio album Blue Blood (1989). The movement designated a new form of Japanese rock music influenced by Western hard rock and glam metal bands like Kiss, Twisted Sister, Hanoi Rocks, Mötley Crüe, as well punk-gothic rock influence, and it was established in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The movement is roughly divided into two generations, with the first in three transitional eras, of which the first lasted almost a decade.


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