JaME, a Japamese music new site that doesn't specifically specialize in Visual-kei, has been doing a Visual-kei web series for all of the summer. There are a lot of good articles in there, as well as interviews about topics not really addressed in the Western fanbase that your average fan would rather leave up to his or her imagination than find out the truth. Some of the topics covered include how hard it is to have concert overseas, the unglamorous sides of being in a band, the struggles it takes to actually be in a visual-kei band, and how the scene has evolved since the late 80's. The series was summarized with the results of a mass poll taken back in May or June, asking various questions about what the Western fans thought they knew about Visual-kei: how did you find out about it; how popular do you think it is; is sex appeal a big deal for you; how often do you buy cds; and various other questions to that nature. Instead of posting the results right away, the author and developer of the whole project wrote a bunch of articles to counter the obvious misconceptions a lot of people taking the survey had, with the idea of there not being a lot of credible literature on the subject being his driving force.



All in all, the articles are a great read: very informative and more middle-of-the-road than the interview with an ex-VK record label owner. Just like other JaME articles, it does kind of read like a fluffy fanfiction at times, sugar coating opinions to make it seem a bit more rose colored than it needed to be, but with much less douche-baggery than the other interview I mentioned.

I'd like to take the time to go through each result and give my opinion and input for a few of the sections covered.

Age: Most of the people who answered were either 12 and under (le sigh), or 17~21 (myself). The interest died off a bit as the age groups got older, which doesn't surprise me, but I was surprised to see how many younger people like it, especially how dramatic the bar for age 13 and 12 and under varied.

Where do you live: I was not surprised by these results at all. Most popular place was the US (it's an English site, so we like to go read things that aren't in some sort of Portuguese slang like a lot of other VK sites are in), followed by Poland and Russia (both of which have some frightening fans) among other  European countries, then South American countries like Chile and Brazil. There were a good 30 or so countries listed, so they did have a diverse demographic of readers, but I wouldn't say that there actually only 20 people who like VK in Venezuela, for example: lots of factors play into why several countries had such a low turn out.


How did you find out about VK: not entirely surprised that "the internet" was a high result, especially since most of the people who listen to it do so on youtube or download their music. "A friend who also listens to it" was a pretty typical result in my opinion, especially since I find out about things from friends all the time. My choice was "a magazine;" specifically Purple Sky's Versailles issue.

Would you listen to a non-Japanese band that tries to be VK: Alright, so that question wasn't exactly worded like that, but I believe I put yes. To be honest, I don't care what language a band sings in so long as I like their music. Unfortunately, most wanna-be-vk bands absolutely suck, their visuals are beyond half-assed, and they're pretty embarrassing to admit having listened to: lots of dyed hair and stupid Hot Topic clothing instead of androgyny and useless facebelts. 

Do you listen to mulitple types of music: these questions always make me laugh. "I listen to VK but lots of different kinds of VK, but not Oshare because An Cafe aren't even cute haha and Japanese hard core like unsraw and sadie." Ohhh gosh, I only made up 15% or so of that quote, and I really, honestly and truly, wish I was lying to you. Everyone thinks that what they listen to is diverse. Saying you aren't diverse is like admitting you're fat: not matter how obese you are, you're more than likely going to make sure any conversation about fat people is going to steer away from you so you don't admit that you're something many people consider negative (inb4 getting yelled at, I love fat people just as much as I love everyone else). Anyway, there's no true way to see if you're diverse or not, it's pretty much something someone else has to label for you and that label can change from person to person. For example, I listen to an unhealthy amount of visual-kei, but, as I jokingly stated before, it is actually a variety of genres: I'm not opposed to popular, "mainstream" bands, and I love indie kotekei circle-jerk crap too, but I also listen to non-visual Japanese bands (admittedly not a whole lot, but more than an average vk fan does), as well as plenty of Western ones.

Do you listen to underground music from your own country: No, because I hate American indie music 95% of the time. Trip-hop, Lo-fi, and most things remotely psychodelic like MGMT piss me off more often than not. Ugh, and dub-step. Uuuggghhhh

For the music consumption section: was not surprised in the least about how often people admit to buying music, as well as how reserved they were to admitting they download. Cds from there are expensive, no doubt, but many more options have been opening up for the purchase of music that is much much cheaper than importing. I'm not going to preach anymore on the subject, but I always find it funny how self-righteous  people get when they have to confess how often they do something "bad." Also amused at how many people haven't been to a concert before. I'm not being a concert elitist, but many people criticize the scene by saying "More people reply to this download thread than actually show up to their shows," and I'm seeing that this is more of a reality than a snarky comment.

 Do you think most Japanese people are accepting of Visual-kei : not surprised at all. Most people thought they were, but I've read, and can draw my own conclusions, that that is not the case at all. The internet does skew a person's view a great deal, but the industry is fantastic at creating an illusion of popularity.

Most of the results of this survey I expect, I have to say, but I've been waiting for months for them to come out. I wish they went more in-depth about the different types of visual style instead of gracing over it with cool pie charts, but oh well.