This is something that I’ve been thinking doing for a while now, and should be a continuing series (for a while at least). I will jump around a bit in these little posts and I may confuse you. And please, please keep in mind this is opinion — Don’t be offended.
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It frequently comes to my notice that by limiting myself to that which I can afford to buy, I miss out on some really great music. Of the many albums that many many jrock/visual kei reviewers mentioned as ‘amazing’ or ‘album of the year’ for last year, I have heard one: Dir en grey’s latest.
Partly, this is definitely due to choice. I only buy that which I like. And since the break-up of TINC, and Phantasmagoria; I have to admit that I have my bases covered. I simply do not have the never-ending amounts of money to listen to EVERYTHING that is released. Besides, I often don’t like the part of visual kei scene that many of the reviewers like an awful lot, the part that floats happily into American rock and will one day be completely indistinguishable (MUCC is a good example of this IMO).
It is also due to my moral objections to downloading. If I didn’t think it was so wrong; I would probably download. But, being a person who intends to work in the music industry (after college), I’ve spent a lot of time researching and thinking about downloading, and its effects. Like that it could effect my job or ability to get a job; or that it is artistic theft. Even as a audio engineer, I will (to a small degree) put my artistic flair onto a musical work. Which led to the realization that:
One day, downloaders will be stealing music that I’ve personally helped to create.
BUT, poor college student ranting aside, I rather like having my own niche taste. I know the quality of music that I listen to, and although I deeply lament the lost chances of Kagrra, (who rock) and D (who are equally awesome) to come into my CD collection; I can also reveal in the fact I am unique in the visual kei fanbase: I buy everything I listen to. I’m going to be contrary here and remind you that many of us buy everything we listen to. This is not meant to be a rant on downloading, or even a remark about the poor economy (which sucks), but just a comment on, well, I guess ourselves.
You see, much of what I like, you like. BUT (that little word just keeps coming back), much of it all is simply ignored. Like Ayabie’s outstanding single Meltaway released last spring. Maybe it has something to do with Ayabie making softer rock, or that they once (and always?) flirted with the Oshare end of the scene. And it’s not that we don’t all listen to it, but as I was told at an Ayabie concert this past summer by a self-described ‘hard-core jrock fan ‘ “Ayabie is our happy fan music okay?”.
My general response is “well Ayabie rocks my musical world okay?” I don’t get this hard-core thing. Why must music be ‘hard-core’ in order to be good? AND what defines hard core? For example, I think Ayabie is ‘hard-core cute’, and ‘hard-core melodic’, but that seems to defeat the meaning of the phrase. This really is the meat of what I’m talking about. This idea that music must be ‘hard-core’ to be good. We shouldn’t stand for this. As fans, we are limiting ourselves by buying into this idea that in visual kei, only hard rock, metal, or some combination of the two are the ‘good’ music.
Afterall, visual kei is full of wide and varied music. It stands to reason that there is good music everywhere we turn. The question is then: Why doesn’t the album of the year listings reflect this?
Miki
