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Visual kei and... Oshare?

Lady Blue

Sensitive skin...
20 Nov 2005
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I was looking for a band on the web and I crashed into this term. I know what visual kei is, but, What's "oshare kei"? Could anyone explain?:p
 
Taken from JRock Saga:

Oshare kei
"Oshare" literally means "fashion-conscious" and therefore oshare kei bands are recognized mostly for their snappy dressing styles, usually with emphasis on colorful and cute fashion. Their sound usually matches their visual too, with happy punkish songs and lyrics.
 
Umm.. so, that would be like the known "happy punk" style?? Well, that's just as visual as Visual, but... should we say, the bright, sunny, happy brother of VK.. Mm.. I'm not much into punket style, but, are they as good as usual VK are?
 
Oshare is more cutesy. The best example (that I can think of now) of an Oshare Kei band would be Antic Cafe.
 
Thinking about the music, I cannot say whether oshare kei bands are 'as good as usual VK' because it's difficult to compare; in any music genre there are some good bands and some bad ones and some just in between. :haihai: Personally, the only oshare kei band that I like is Kra; I find that the 'cutesy' vocals tend to be less good than the more deep and resonant vocals of eroguro/angura kei, but that is just my personal taste. 😌
 
I personally love Oshare Kei! Oshare Kei was pretty much the first type of Japanese music I listened to! I know loads of Oshare Kei bands,If anyone wants to hear them :D
 
Some oshare bands are:
Baroque
Panic Channel
Kra
Alice Nine (although their recent style is less oshare)
Antic Cafe
Clavier
Lolita23q
Ayabie
Eimy
Shelly Trip Realize
Bis
Charlotte

(Actually, I do like the music of Ayabie, and Eimy and Clavier are quite good too. 👍 ... although I haven't really listened to enough of their music to call myself a 'fan'. IMO, oshare bands don't tend to be very experimental, but their music is quite fun. ^^)
 
I loved Clavier's music, they were probably my favorite "Oshare kei" band.

T_T

176BIZ is pretty "oshare kei" at times, ne? They ususally wear suits, though, so I'm not quite sure if they should be put in that category.

Oh goodness, I'm confusing myself ... classifications are so useless ...
 
MorganaBloodthirst said:
how many "kei" are there? i have in my head sth like shibuya kei...
Kei just means "type" or "style"---- I don't know what the origin of the word is.

Shibuya kei is a style of music that was made most popular by the band Pizzicato Five.
 
There are quite a few different kinds of keis...

There is also the genre angura kei or eroguro (angura from a Japanized version of the word 'underground', eroguro from 'erotic grotesque'). These bands often get mistaken for visual kei, when they are in fact a different genre from VK. I will now proceed to quote the mighty Jeftones, who not only has as big a bonnet-bee as I do about this mis-classification, but also is a lot more knowledgeable and articulate than I am, so without further ado:

"Angura as an school of thought started with theatre troupes in the sixties, the purpose was to help Japanese find a new unique national identity away from western influence. Eroguro nonsense as a school of thought has its origins sometime in the late twenties. and consist of erotic, grotesque, nonsense. It goes much deeper but i realy dont wanna get into that. Angura and eroguro are closely tied together musically.

It's unfortunate that angura/eroguro is seen by most as a subgenre of vk because it's more then what vk as a whole amounts to.

The visual aspect in angura/eroguro is only to enhance the music and give a more theatrical experience to the audience, and this is because the ideas of angura are rooted in theatre. Most angura bands will even drop the visual aspect because it's not needed, it's extra. The main focus of angura/eroguro bands is music, lyric, and live performances.

Personally I think angura/eroguro stands on it own as a genre because if there was no vk I still think angura/eroguro bands would exist. And angura/eroguro's root date back before vk was even remotely in the minds of its originators."


That's one of the best summaries of angura/eroguro I've read. 👍
Some good eroguro bands are:
MUCC
Merry
Guruguru Eigakan
Cali/gari
Metronome

Nagoya kei is made by bands from Nagoya (well duuhh!) and is usually darker, with more prominent basslines and a touch of jazz here and there. Nagoya kei often has an almost non-visual look, with suits and stuff and maybe a bit of eyeliner or lipstick. Some Nagoya kei bands are:
Berry
Kusse
Lynch
Deathgaze
Deadman
Lamiel
GULLET
Blast

There is also the genre kote kei, which I haven't found a satisfactory description of anywhere, except for a general consensus that it's more 'extreme' than your average VK band - gory, a bit 'dark', showy... ^^

EDIT: Wiki is quite useful here... 😌

Wiki on visual kei
Wiki on angura kei
Wiki on eroguro (which as many of you know is wider than simply music. ^^)
Wiki on oshare kei
Wiki on Shibuya kei
Enjoy! :joyful:

Oh, and really this thread needs moving.... DUTCH BAKA!!!!! 😎
 
Hm, what about spooky kei? I´ve heard that somewhere... I think The candy spooky theater are spooky kei.. But i dunno... o_O
 
Wow. there is more than the ear can hear. jejeje...

That's why you were and advisor, Kinsao. Don't ever leave forever. You left me homework!
 
Homework?! :eek: I'm sorry! ... lol
*puts specs on* Hmmm, I could get into this schoolteacher thing... :giggle:

But, I don't know any of that information for myself - I just quoted what Jeftones said. I don't know much about Jrock myself, I've only been into it for about 18 months.

About 'spooky kei'... I dunno if it's a genre. I mean, TCST aren't the first band to have done things like that, although whether they are the first Japanese band to do it I don't know. Genres can be made up as you go along, more or less... 😌

 
Which only makes it more confusing.

Music can be complicated. Clasifications can't.

It did amazed me too to hear Alice nine as oshare.. doesn't sound as happy to me... Or, am I still confused?
 
Ohh... I really need to sit down and get some information. It is soooo true we let ourselves be dragged by looks.. um.. Some just let you wonder.. I have never heard anything of Psyco Circus... what are they, anyway?

Sometimes I feel like a complete fool while reading threads.
 
I know litte about her. I saw her talking about a word 'obviously' in her lyrics in NHK. She explained it for 'ばればれじゃん'
 
Wow! Kinda confusing....☝ because i thought that Lolita23q are VK but now i read that are oshare kei.All these jrock genres sounds alike so is hard to realize which is which.But thank you very much for the info.I really needed.:)
 
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