jrock...in the beginning

Hmm, i don't know much about Jrock in the beginning. First jrock group? singer? when? who? blah blah. anyone know lol.

I remember when Tetsu was the singer of Malice Mizer, but that was only back in 1990-1992, when X Japan have been about since the 70's. so what really was before X, and where did they get inspired to start the trend of 'Visual-kei'. Or, perhaps it derived from pop. It just fused together to make rock???

When in Rome, do as the Romans do: check it out on the Wiki!

Japanese rock - Wikipedia

Psychedelic rock was invented in the 1960s by American and British counterculture figures. Arriving in Japan, psychedelic rock took on a different flavor. Previously known for the drug intake of its performers leaving an impact on the hazy, drugged-out music, J-Rock performers tended to be drug-free, or even adamantly anti-drug (for example, Kosugi Takehisa, Haino Keiji, Nanjo Asahito).

Psychedelic rock first appeared in Japan in the mid to late 1960s. A few Group Sounds bands imitated their Anglo heros, including The Golden Cups, The Tempters,The Mops, The Dynamites and Jacks, whose "Karappo No Sekai" and "Marianne" were two of the first psychedelic recordings from the country.

Like in the UK and US, the psychedelic rock scene was linked to a political movement involving young, spirited students. An economic boom brought many young people to universities, where radical politics abounded. Central to this movement, arising from the late 60s Kyoto student revolts, was the band Les Rallizes Denudés and the Taj Mahal Travellers, followed by Lost Aaraaff.

In the 1970s, singer-songwriters like Kazuki Tomokawa and Kan Mikami became popular. As in the US and UK, Japanese rock spawned a folk-rock scene, there led by Magical Power Mako. At the same time, radical progressive rock was evolving, with distinctly Japanese bands like After Dinner and YB02, Kenso and KoenjiHyakkei.

From the late 1980s popular rock bands such as X Japan helped define the VISUAL kei aesthetic in Japanese rock and pop music. "VISUAL kei" is often focused upon in the West as a uniquely Japanese part of the Rock music scene. Strictly speaking, however, "VISUAL kei" is not defined by its sound (which may or may not be "rock" music) but by the appearance of the bands.

A fringe movement from the late 1980s in Japanese alternative rock took the form of noise rock, a sound popularised by bands such as Boredoms.

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Unfortunately, that's the only source I know. It's an interesting question that I've thought about, too, before.

O__________O you are sooooo smarter than me, never even thought of that site!!

Nah, I just have the nasty habit of abusing that site for information all the time anyway. If you come up with anything else, let us know!

Interesting topic! And thank you for the info lastmagi! i don't know alot about jrock beggining just that X Japan were somehow the first visuals or something

anchyyy it think so 2.
x was the first Visual jrock band, and the first one too make ik BIG time.
because when you say visual kei 2 someone in japan, no matter how old etc.
the all say x japan.

and indeed an interesting question..
ill come back on this when i stopped searching for some info!

Yeh, X was a major influence on current japanese artists and groups of the genre.

advigilo said:

anchyyy it think so 2.
x was the first Visual jrock band, and the first one too make ik BIG time.
because when you say visual kei 2 someone in japan, no matter how old etc.
the all say x japan.

and indeed an interesting question..
ill come back on this when i stopped searching for some info!

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@Yokan : X (Japan) started in 82

DemonHunter said:

@Yokan : X (Japan) started in 82

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Ahh sorry, i thought they were an Indies band before they went big. Well they were but I thought they began in late 70's. ^_^ And about them being the first big one, not necessarally true X Japan as a group must have been in competition with some one else. They were the first band to fill the Tokyo Dome, and have done it since it was built - to there last live concert in new years eve, 1997.

Huh. So what bands would ya'll recommend to a person totally new to J-Rock, given the context of this thread? What's the Japanese equal of Bob Dylan?

There are a few threads of recommendations, so if you have a search around the first few pages of this subforum you'll find some suggestions. Also, all the bands that have individual threads here are popular.

What sort of stuff are you into? Heavy, not so heavy, jazzy, acoustic, pop...? :?

Anyway, some bands/artists that I recommend if you're new to j-rock are *takes deep breath*:

Dir en grey (hard to classify, not metal really, I guess you'd call them hard rock or something of that kind, but their music is really diverse, so it's worth giving a quite a few songs of theirs a listen. Songs of theirs that I like are Jealous, Fukai, Machiavellism, Cage, Hydra, Drain Away, Dead Tree and Pink Killer. If you prefer ballady-type things, listen to Ain't Afraid to Die).

Malice Mizer (gothic with classical influences. Again, they've produced some songs which are heavy-ish - Beast of Blood - and others which sound almost classical - anything off the Bara no Seidou album!)

MUCC (rock with fantastic basslines. Quite simply this band is great!)

Kagrra, (you must definitely listen to Kagrra, they are so good! Unique sound, you can hear the influences from 'traditional' Japanese music. Again, really great basslines... and guitar... and drumming... and vocals... hehe).

Psycho le Cemu (pop-ish, dance-ish music, very catchy; they have ballads and heavier stuff too).

Gackt (the archetypal Japanese pop-rock singer/musician! Actually he used to be singer with Malice Mizer, but now like the most famous Japanese pop star! He's a good musician who knows how to write a catchy chorus...)

L'arc en ciel (pop-rock).

Galneryus (sort of metalish rock with excellent guitar playing).

Lucifer Luscious Violenoue (one of very few female j-rockers, but worth listening to because of the music regardless of gender. Non-heavy gothic ballad thingys).

Kozi (I laugh at myself because I'm a Kozi fanatic, but I'm serious in my recommendation! Kozi's music is really varied, which is why I'm suggesting it. Some is goth - Katarushisu/Catharsis album - some is classical - Izayoi no Tsuki album - and some is just plain weird!... think fairground music meets ska... )

SID (excellent, excellent vocals. Not heavy music, but not exactly pop... I don't know how to classify them but they're really good).

The Zolge (really good punk-rock band, now sadly disbanded though).

Other bands/artists I love include Gazette, Deathgaze, KuRt, Kagerou, Miyavi, X Japan (of course! wow! topic!), GISM, Aushvitz, Kra, Scissor, 12012............. and... too many to mention... you get the picture!

EDIT: The stuff that I've mentioned is music both that I happen to like and that is popular among 'j-rock fans'. But that doesn't mean it's the most popular in Japan - like you say "the Japanese equivalent of Bob Dylan". I've never had the chance to visit Japan, so I can't tell you what is popular over there, but I know from my Japanese ex that the bands such as I like aren't the ones that are mainstream in Japan (apart from Gackt and L'arc en ciel...). To find that out you really need some advice from someone who lives there...

Hope this is helpful and good luck on your search!

anchyyy said:

Interesting topic! And thank you for the info lastmagi! i don't know alot about jrock beggining just that X Japan were somehow the first visuals or something

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As far as I know, there were another bands who used to be Visual bands (eventhough they didn't say they were) before X appeared:

- Visual Scandal (1979)
- Murbas (1981)
- Shock (1982)

In fact, Murbas used to use this phrase "Visual Violence" on their logo... it is funny, look at the band names, and now check the 2 "names" that Yoshiki put on X: Sexy Scandal Love Violence and then Psychedelic Violence Crime of Visual Shock

Interesting... maybe Yoshiki wasn't as original as we thought... or maybe he was just making a tribute to the bands he was inspired to "create" and make Visual a marketing stuff.

Bleh, for that reason and many more, I hate Yoshiki Hayashi.

haha, who is bob Dylan? In terms of equivilants, thereis no such thing in my opinion. like people sayhide is the Japanese version of that guy from Nirvana - NOT TRUE. They were completely different, and both as good as eachother.

kinsey87 said:

Yeh, X was a major influence on current japanese artists and groups of the genre.

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then again, who influenced X? I think this would lie in American bands. Well, we know hide was a fan of kiss, who wore make up and costumes etc.

Yokan said:

then again, who influenced X? I think this would lie in American bands. Well, we know hide was a fan of kiss, who wore make up and costumes etc.

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Ehm, X was formed in 1982 and hide joined in 1987

By the way, X was influenced by bands like Deep Purple, Loudness and Led Zeppelin, I'm not making this up, in fact, they made covers of this bands in some early bootlegs from 1982-1983. And going years before (1978) Mr. Yoshiki used to play punk songs.

And where did they take their Visual look?? just read above my messages... X was influenced by those bands I've mentioned (eventhough they didn't want to accept that...) and as you said Yokan, hide was very influenced musically by European bands (mostly) and the image of bands like Kiss and Alice Cooper, you can see that in his first band Saver Tiger (1982-1987) where they adopted a Glam look.

See you!!

tnks Sakevi, you really gave us a good prespective on things.

ill try 2 make a project out of this.
too find how jrock was created and wich bands came first.
and witch bands gave what 2 jrock.

ahh, loudness was before their time? I really love that band, they have resemble guns 'n' Roses a little, or at least they seem the same very much so. The first Basist of X Japan, Tiuji (ARGH can't spell it) was once in loudness I think, and went onto work on Wild 7 as well.

Yup, Loudness is playing since 1975, and Yoshiki used to make a cover of In the Mirror, it sounds kind of funny, in the end, they were just 16-17 years old... and also, Toshi sounded more girlish in that year, I don't know how he reached those vocal levels =/

And as you said, Taiji joined Loudness after he left X, he played about 1-2 years and then went into a lot of bands (even hip hop bands... ) like Cloud Nine, D.T.R., Kings.... and before X, Taiji used to play in bands like Trash (hehehe, it was actually a punk band from 1981...) and Dementia (1983)

Well, see you later!