I just want to continue in the vein of the first part of visual kei 103, but specifically I want to discuss visual kei as a music genre.
Because it is one.
Anyone who says that visual kei is simply about the visuals hasn’t listened to enough visual kei. There is a standard of sound about it. As I said before, visual kei pretty much has to be rock based, although it can have any influences that it wants — pop, techno, blues, jazz… whatever the band feels like.
Standard visual kei uses very specific chord progressions in guitar, is usually in a minor key, and has a standard of lyrical content. Visual kei is very dissonant music. So, let’s get some basic music theory in this post which will make it easier to understand the terms above.
First of all, chord progressions.
“Chord Progressions – A series of chords played one after another is a chord progression. Musicians may describe a specific chord progression (for example, “two measures of G major, then a half measure of A minor and a half measure of D seventh”, or just “G, A minor, D seventh”) or speak more generally of classes of chord progressions (for example a “blues chord progression”).” (http://cnx.org/content/m11654/latest/#l0b) Chord progressions can be played on any instrument and are a major, important part of harmony in music. Chords are simply groups of notes based on major or minor triads and a triad has 3 notes (more info, use above link). In visual kei, the chord progressions are commonly found in the lead guitar lines. I’m sure any visual kei fan can tell you that there is a ’sound’ or ’style’ to guitar in visual kei. This ’sound’ is the chord progressions.
Dissonant (or dissonance) means “a note, chord, or interval that does not fit into the triadic harmonies that we have learned to expect from music. A dissonance may sound surprising, jarring, even unpleasant. ” (from above link). Visual kei can be very dissonant — this trick is meant to take you out of your comfort zone and helps bring you into the world that the band is creating.
When I was in high school choir and music theory class (a very long time ago), we talked a lot about minor scales and major scales. A music scale determines the notes used which determines the sound to large degree. We also talked about ‘musical math’ (credit -my high school music theory instructor) because music is made up of patterns (and mathmatics! Gasp!) and scales have patterns that the notes follow the 3 minor scales have different patterns than the major scales which is why they sound different. All major scales follow one pattern, but the 3 minor scales, natural minor, melodic minor, and harmonic minor all follow different patterns. (http://cnx.org/content/m10856/latest/ for the patterns of the different minors).
Minor scales sound different that major scales. Most music is written in major scale — it’s bright happy and cheerful and most pop is bright and cheerful. Minor scales are different, sometimes minor can sound exotic (like indian or middle east music does to many Americans), it can be depressing and sad (a lot of funeral hymns are written in minor) and can be very gloomy (yes, I know gloomy, depressing, and sad are nearly the same thing). I’m sure you can see why writing in minor would be very useful for visual kei bands.
Visual Kei lyrics.
I recently came across a translated interview on JaME from Megamasso where Ryohei talks about visual kei lyrics. He was asked “You often write words concerning night, such as stars and the moon, and the weather is mostly rain instead of fine weather; the season is not summer but winter. From this I got the feeling that you prefer negative things rather than positive things. ” which is so completely true of visual kei. And Ryohei answered with ”Ah… maybe so. And we intend to narrow the width of Megamasso’s world to to fit visual kei. Visual kei prefers such words as ‘rose’, ‘flower’, ’star’, ‘moon’, ‘love’, and so on, which I don’t dislike. Among those words which fit visual kei, I use words which I like.” (for the full interview please see — http://jmusicamerica.com/us/article.php?id=3739). Ryohei really hit the nail on the head about visual kei lyrics — he is 100% right. Visual kei is fully of sad and depressing things such as heartache, death, loss, destruction, and basically pain (of any kind).
So where am I going with this?
Well, if you’ve been reading this post so far, then you’ve probably noticed that I’ve been building to something. I hope you’ve noticed. I said in the beginning that I wanted to talk about visual kei as a music genre with a sound, a style, a ’something’ that makes it legitimate music. It takes talent to write in minor keys, to understand chord progressions and to keep with the lyrical themes of visual kei.
That’s my basic point.
Give the bands some credit and recognize that they are real bands (not boybands) making real music (not fluff). And yes, sometimes it doesn’t turn out well. But a lot of music doesn’t turn out well.
☆Miki