(I came across this banner, will credit/remove if necessary)

I've decided to make this a lot more interesting by turning it into a poll, since there are not so many options for voting, I was forced to put together some of the possible answers for example since Due le Quartz and Miyavi share a lot in common (at least one member lol) I put them together, same I did with L'arc en Ciel and HYDE, If you choose to vote for one of these two options please do state on your post wether you were voting for the band, or the solist, I was cLose to doing this with Malice Mizer and Gackt but I guess I'd be getting on a certain mod's nerves ^^'

There are many other bands I would have liked to feature on this poll for example BLOOD, Sex Machineguns and Lareine, just to name a few, but again the lack of space wouldn't let me, anyway I only hope this thread would be a lot more interesting than the past one because of the poll add.

Here is the stuff I had put on the last thread I had made, I will probably be posting the pics later on the thread so enjoy!

OLD THREAD:

Good day world, Linak-sama here!

After having some nice, sweet short (ha!) conversations with Blackgir and Darth Satanious at the 'Moi Dix Moi/Malice Mizer' thread, I decided it was time to have a brand new and specific thread about japanese rock/pop, and the Visual Kei movement! Yes I'm a happy girl right now!

From Wikipedia: (yah we all love wikipedia XD)

Visual Kei, literally "visual type", refers to a movement in J-Rock which started in the 1980s and became widely popular in Japan by the 1990s.

Origins:
Largely the movement is credited to have been started "almost single handedly" by X Japan, however a rising trend of utilizing visual shock to gain membership in the independent scene was well in effect by the time X went major; they may be seen in this sense not as a catalyst for the movement, but a mechanism to involve dominant Japanese popular culture with it. Bands in the early 1990s such as Luna Sea, Zi:Kill, Shazna, and Baiser along with previous bands Buck-Tick and X Japan encouraged a "boom" of this media culture.

Characteristics:
Visual Kei is characterised by bands using dramatic costumes and visual imagery to enhance the band's performance. Within Japan, the fan-base almost solely consists of girls and young women and is marketed strongly to that audience with items such as tradeable stickers, glossy photo-books, picture-postcards of band members and so on. In other countries, the comparatively small quantity of Visual Kei followers is roughly an equal division between male and female youth. Visual Kei is often focused upon in the West as a uniquely Japanese part of the Rock music scene.

Members of Visual Kei bands often wear striking makeup, style their hair in dramatic shapes (reminiscent of "glam metal" bands from the '80s) and wear elaborate costumes. Although the vast majority of the musicians are male, band members will often wear makeup and clothing which would be considered 'feminine' or 'androgynous'. Recently, some bands are returning to the more colourful and "fantastic" image popular 5 or 6 years ago, taking inspiration from computer roleplaying games and anime. The appeal of the costumes to fans is so great that large numbers of girls will cosplay as members of their favourite bands, particularly in Harajuku, at live concerts in Japan, or in North America, Chile, Spain and Australia at anime conventions.

Bands:
Visual Kei bands, being defined primarily by visual style, do not necessarily play a specific type of music. They most often play general J-rock (Luna Sea, Dir en grey) and vocal based pop or light rock (Glay, Gackt).

However, there are also bands playing or influenced by Heavy Metal (Sex Machineguns, Onmyo-Za), Darkwave (Velvet Eden, Schwarz Stein), Industrial rock, Punk rock and various other genres can be found. Taking the genre in a wide sense, most of the bands would be considered to play some kind of "rock" music. Particularly popular in recent years are the projects of Mana; Malice Mizer (now defunct) and Moi dix Mois.

Within the field of Visual Kei several popular movements have arose; the fashion style Gothic Lolita and the musical sub-genres; EroGuro and Angura Kei, which form particular visual styles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Kei

So I totally completely love this genre, for real, not only Malice Mizer, (I'm posting mostly their pictures because my computer is full of them, and I don't really have a lot of pics from other bands, shame on me I know), but there are so many, and I mean SO many bands that could be talked about, and this is what this thread is all about, bands recommendations, post lyrics translations, reviews and a whole lot of sharing and trading! Fanfiction? Why not!

Anything JROCK/VISUALKEI/JPOP related is sure as hell welcome!

Now! Who wants to share?!

I'll start first and offer ANYONE a big huge cyber hug if you can link me to Gazette's Tokyo Shinjuu lyrics translation!

Talk to me people talk to meee, any jrockers out there, this is your mating call bwahaha, come little children and speak up! I wanna see who has some reaaally good music taste over here ne! Oh and I hope Blackgir doesn't get maddy at me ^^' I mean goodie, hontou! (for real!)

Ah yes, one last thing, if you're a geek like me and sometimes post phrases in pretty pretty japanese, be a good sexy-beam and translate onegai! (please!) see how easy that was?!

Alright! *huggles* Post on! </crazyfangirlsqueals>