below you can find a list of j-rock related words explained. from specific terms, to common-places to famous bands and people you might hear about. use the index menu or scroll to read the list.

and please don't forget to read the information at the bottom of the page.


CURRENT LIST OF WORDS:

alice auaa
Designer Yasutaka Funakoshi's fashion house, alice auaa is known for collaborating with different musicians, including Dir en grey, L'arc-en-ciel and Merry go round. [official site]


Anarchist records
Indies label ran by Kenzi, the Dead Pop Stars' drummer. Among their acts are The Piass, d.p.s, Anti-feminism, Misery, Mesumerian and Werkmare.


Angura kei
Angura is a shortened form of the english word "underground". Angura was a cultural movement in Japan which dated back to the 1960's and had a great expression in independent theater. The movement was born as a reaction to both classicism and western influence in japanese culture, as small but enterprising troupes attempted to redefine a unique national identity through their art. In more recent times an angura musical scene started to develop. The angura genre shares some similarities with visual kei. It also has some ties with the eroguro genre. Generally, angura kei has dark themes and the image of the bands usually has a distinctly traditional (japanese) feel to it. [read more about angura kei]


Arena37°C
Japanese music publication, mostly covers major acts. [site]


ba-tsu
A well-known fashion brand. [official site]


BUCK-TICK
One of the "father figures" of jrock, BUCK-TICK have been around for a very long time. While perhaps not the most popular of them all, they are noted for their longevity and musical skills, having influenced many other artists in the scene [official site]


cali≠gari
Eroguro band, founded by Ao and Katsumi, their origins go back to 1989, but they only became a full functioning band in 1993. They have suffered several lineup changes, which has reflected in their changing music style. Currently on an indefinite hiatus [official site]


Cosplay
The assimilation of the words "costume" and "play". Costume play is basically a dress up game/hobby. Fans usually buy or make costumes to recreate the likeness of their idols and parade around in the streets, at concerts and conventions. They are often found posing for the camera, making silly faces, dramatic poses and of course, the ubiquitous V(ictory) sign. Cosplay didn't originate and isn't limited to visual kei, for example, many cosplayers dress up like their favorite anime/manga/videogame characters. Check the links section of the site for some cosplay resources.


Dada
Co-founder and vocalist of Velvet eden, known for his rich, deep voice and his heavy gothic image. Currently withdrawn from the music scene, Dada designs and models for his ID-Japan affiliated fashion brand, Arachnophobia.


Devil's Night
A music magazine, focuses mostly on visual indie bands. [official site]


Dir en grey
One of the most well-known major rock acts in japan. Founded in 1997 from the remaining members of La:sadies [see also, kisaki]. They started out as a visual indies band; they're not very visual anymore but are still pretty popular. [official site]


Dynamite Tommy
Vocalist of the bands Color and Sister's no future. Also runs Free-will.


EGA / EGL
Elegant gothic aristocrat / elegant gothic lolita. Terms coined by Mana, refering to the gothic lolita look. The gothic aristocrat look is more mature and less child-like. See moi-même-moitié's site for more info.


Eroguro
Short for "erotic and grotesque". It's also a music (sub)genre, popularized by bands like MUCC or Merry and especially by cali≠gari. Eroguro nonsense bands revive the spirit of this japanese 1920's-30's cultural movement. As the name indicates, eroguro nonsense themes are centered in shocking horror and bizarre sexual imagery with dark humorous overtones. For some obscure reason, some eroguro bands have started to be labelled as angura kei. [read more about eroguro]


Extasy records
yoshiki's label, founded in 1986 [official site]


Fanservice
Onstage interaction between band members, usually involving hugging, caressing, fondling, kissing and sometimes even simulated sexual acts. This gimmick is performed purely for audience entertainment, although I'm sure most musicians are enjoying themselves at it too!


FC
Fan club. In case you're wondering, most official band fan clubs don't allow foreign applicants.


FOOL'S MATE
A rock magazine, initially covered european new wave/gothic music and later focusing mostly on japanese visual bands, covering both majors and indies. [site]


Free-will
Management company that handles a lot of major and indie acts, ran by Dynamite Tommy. Recently, they have opened an european branch. [official site]


Fruits
A japanese magazine with street fashion photography. There's also a fruits book available. Check their website here.


Full
Founder and vocalist of Guniw Tools.


Furi, furi-tsuke
Hand moves performed by the fans/bands to the music. [see para-para]


Gackt
A very popular singer in Japan, Gackt was the second vocalist of Malice Mizer. In that period they became very famous. He left the band to work as a solo artist and he was quite successful at it. You can find Gackt in a LOT of advertisements. It's practically an established fact that sticking Gackt's assets on any product will help sell it [official site]


Glay
Rock/pop band formed in 1988 by Takuro, Teru, Hisashi, and Jiro. Glay's music and visual is difficult to classify, because they are too pop to be rock, while at the same time not fitting into the usual conception of pop music. Despite this, they are a very popular band. [official site]


Gothic & lolita bible
A popular magazine publication, dedicated to gothic & lolita fashion. It often features musicians posing as models, sometimes promoting their own fashion brands, like Mana with Moi-même-moitié or Dada with Arachnophobia. [click here for the Index Magazines group's Kera site]


Gothic lolita
The darker and gloomier version of the lolita style. Mana popularized this particular fashion.


Guniw Tools
Alternative rock unit, started in 1990 as Full's art/music project under the name of Guniw. After Jake joined Full they became Guniw Tools. They were discovered and signed to the Victor Entertainment label from the start, having never performed in the indies circuit. Later their support guitarist Asaki became part of the band. After Jake decided to quit, Full and Asaki continued to produce music until they announced they would be taking a break in 2001. Full has since then started a new project called nookicky. [official label site]


h.naoto
Naoto Hirooka is a popular fashion designer, known for his collaborations with different musicians. H.naoto's brand site can be found here.


Hair&make
Refers to hair styling and makeup (eg: hair&make staff, who are responsible for turning your average jrocker into a flawless, fair-complexioned demi-god).


Harajuku
A well-known shopping district in Tokyo, known for clothing, as well as cosplay in and around Yoyogi park.


Henry Lee Euro
Vocalist of the band Speed-ID and founder of the Key Party label.


hide
One of Japan's most proeminent guitarists, hide was in legendary visual band, x-japan and later as a solo artist, forming his music project hide with spread beaver and taking part in Zilch. Hide passed away in 1998. [official website]


ID-Japan
Fashion label well-known for designing costumes for many popular visual kei bands. [official site]


Indie
Refers to an independent record label or an act signed to such a label. Indie labels are by nature smaller than major companies and house some of the obscure acts in the underground music circles. The term can be used to refer to unsigned acts as well.


IZAM
Ex-vocalist of Shazna, once known for his extremely androgynous/feminine image. He is a bit of a "jack-of-all-trades", as he now performs as a solo artist, acts, designs clothes and god knows what else. [official site]


J-rock, jrock
Short for japanese rock. This term isn't really used by japanese people, but by everyone else to refer to rock music from Japan.


Kaisan
Japanese word for break-up, refering to a band terminating their activities and splitting up. [see also last live]


Kanji, kana
Different sets of characters of the japanese writing system. Kanji are the ideographic characters the japanese imported from china. Kana refers to katakana and hiragana characters; hiragana was originally used only by women (and called "onnade" or "woman's hand") and is basically a set of phonetic signs which have no meaning by themselves and are used along with kanji. Katakana consists of simplified versions of kanji radicals and is tipically used for foreign words or onomatopoeia. For more information on this subject, click here.


Key Party
One of the "original" visual indies labels, ran by Henry Lee Euro of Speed-id fame, which signed bands like Aliene Ma'riage, Speed-id, Noir fleurir, Eliphas levi, Missalina rei and Noi'x. Key Party was assimilated into the Enamell records group, which has since then disappeared.


Kisaki
Figure-head of the visual indies label, Matina. Also famous for being in several different bands, including La:sadies (from which would later spawn Dir en grey), Mirage and Syndrome. Since Matina closed its doors, Kisaki is now in charge of Under Code's operations.


Kuroyume
Visual rock band formed in 1991 by Kiyoharu, Hitoki and Shin. After Shin left the band they continued their activities as a duo, until they disbanded in 1999. Kiyoharu went on to form the band SADS [official sads site]


L'arc-en-ciel
Popular rock band formed in 1991. Their lineup suffered a few changes, the present formation being Hyde, Tetsu, Ken and Yukihiro. Laruku's members are currently found doing their own thing, in separate projects, but the group hasn't actually disbanded. In fact they recently held a series of lives. [official site]


Lareine
Visual band formed in 1994 by Kamijo and Mayu. Lareine's line-up suffered a few changes through the years, and their activities came to a full stop in 2001, as the band members started to work on different projects. However, Lareine have regrouped in 2002 and are in activity again. [official label site]


Last live
The final live of a band before kaisan.


Loli
Abbreviation for lolita.


Lolita
Fashion style that is unique to Japan, and well patent in visual kei band costumes, and which aims to create an image of childlike innocence. The expression "dolled up" takes a whole new meaning when appplied to the japanese lolita style, as some lolitas resemble living dolls in their laced dresses. Click here if you'd like to know more about this fashion movement. [see also gothic lolita and gothic&lolita bible]


Loop ash
Indies label ran by Michiru, home to bands like aioria, Sinkro, As'real and kagerou (although kagerou are no longer on that label). [official site]


Luna Sea
Visual band originally formed in the late 80's by J and Inoran, under the name of Lunacy. The band's formation was complete in 1989 after Sugizo, Shinya and Ryuichi joined. They changed their name to Luna Sea in 1990. They were quite popular until they disbanded in 2000. After break-up, each of the band members focused on their individual projects [official site]


Major
Refers to a large recording company or to a music act signed to such a label (the big and popular artists, like Dir en grey or Gackt, are usually found under the larger companies). [see also indie]


Malice Mizer
Popular visual band, founded by Mana and Közi in 1992, Malice Mizer had a moment as a major act and suffered a few line-up changes until they switched back to Mana's indies label, Midi:nette. Disbanded in December 2001. [official site]


Mana
Guitarist for Malice Mizer. After the break-up of the band, Mana started to work on a new music project called Moi dix Mois. Mana is a very famous figure in the visual scene; he is also popular for his gothic lolita image. [official site]


Matina
Visual indies label fronted by Kisaki from 1997 to 2002, which featured bands like Madeth gray'll, Syndrome, Mirage, Das:vasser and Vidoll. Immediately after Matina closed down, Kisaki started a new label, Under Code.


Michiru
Head of the Loop-ash indies label, has also been involved in a number of different bands, like L'yse:nore, Aioria and S to M. Seems to have a fondness for starting music projects following the '_ + _' structure (S to M, M to K, M to W) and breaking them up shortly after.


Naoto
See h.naoto.


Omnibus
Usually refers to a various artists compilation cd. Generally, an omnibus is an anthology of some sort.


Oneman
A concert with only one band playing on the bill. Usually a good sign of a band's rising popularity. An event with two bands would be called a two-man, with three bands, a three-man and so on.


Oricon
short for "Original confidence". The music top chart in Japan. [official site]


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.


Para-para
Simple choreographies, usually consisting mostly of hand/foot moves, performed by the fans during live shows. Normally, different para-para routines apply to specific songs. [see furi-tsuke]


Pierrot
Major band, initally very visual, Pierrot were formed in 1994, by Hidelow, Kirito, Jun, Kohta and Luka. Some time after their first album release, Hidelow and Luka decided to leave the band. Kirito, the lead guitarist, then became their vocalist and Aiji and Takeo joined the formation. They became major in 1998, when signing to Toshiba EMI. The band ceased their activities when Kirito decided to go solo. [official site]


Plastic Tree
Major band. Started out in 1994, just another name on the bustling visual indies scene, but soon became more popular after going major in 1997. The band line-up suffered a couple of drummer changes, the current line-up being Ryutaro on vocals, Tadashi on bass, Akira on guitar and Hiroshi on drums. Plastic Tree are a long way away from their visual days, but most of their music, despite their most recent incursions through pop, remains linked to the alt-rock genre. [official site]


PV
"Promotion(al) video". Usually, the video clips aired on TV, but they're often released straight to video/dvd.


Romaji
Word from the japanese, literally meaning "roman character". It refers to the system of correspondence of japanese sounds/characters into the western alphabet. Among music fans, the coloquial term "romanizing" is sometimes used to describe the act of transcribbing japanese lyrics or song titles into western letters, so they can be understood/read/sung by those who have no knowledge of the japanese language or who are unable to display japanese characters on their computer.


Rouage
Visual band, originally formed in 1993, by Kazushi, Rika, Rayzi, Kaiki and Shono. Their sound ranged from gothic to rock. Their bassist Kaiki left the band (later joining with sexy and starting the Soleil label) right before Rouage became major in 1996. Yuki then stepped in to take his place. Unfortunately he decided to leave. Some time after Rika called it quits too. The remaining band members changed their name to Stray Pig, but soon after Shono retired. Kazushi and Rayzi then changed the name again, this time to Stray Pig Vanguard. Rika on the other hand went on to form the band Dibs.


Shazna
Visual band, formed by IZAM and Niy in 1993. A.O.I. joined them later, while their ex-drummer Katsura left to join the band Baiser. Shazna were signed to BMG and became an extremely popular band, especially after releasing the song "melty love", but as IZAM started to work as a solo artist, Shazna stopped their activities.


Shibuya kei
Named after the trendy Tokyo district of Shibuya, this genre was born from a mix of different western pop music references that were largely unknown in Japan. Irreverent and fun, artists like Pizzicato 5 managed to break out of obscurity and brought shibuya kei to mainstream audiences.


Shoxx
Popular japanese rock magazine, usually covers visual acts, both major and indie. [site]


Soleil
Defunct indies label, founded by ex-Rouage bassist Kaiki in 1996, closed its business in 2002. Bands like La'mule, Vasalla, S and Birushana were among its signed acts.


Under Code
Kisaki's post-Matina label. [official site]


UV
"Ultra Veat". A japanese music magazine. [site]


Velvet eden
Gothic/electronic band originally formed in 1998 by Dada and Kalm. Kalm decided to leave in early 2000. The line-up then suffered some changes, with new members joining and leaving (of note: Hora from Rudolf Steiner/Schwarz Stein was one of them) until in 2002 Dada didn't appear at one of their lives, forcing the rest of the band to take turns singing. Supposedly he bailed out because he wasn't happy with the rockish sound that the band had taken up. This marks the end of Velvet eden, however, the remaining band members regrouped as The Velvet. There have also been some rumours that Dada wanted to team up with Kalm for a new project, but nothing has materialized so far. [label site]


Vicious
A jrock magazine, featuring both major and indie acts. Out of print [official site]


Visual kei
Music genre spawned in Japan. Visual bands usually have a strong focus on image and sometimes theatrical performance. Musically, they can play any style, ranging from rock to metal to goth and industrial. The word "kei" refers to the visual aspect of the bands' image. This style had it's height around the mid-90's; today some say that visual kei is dying, especially on the "major league", but on the underground scene it's still thriving.


X, X-Japan
Probably the most well-known jrock band of all time, who helped bring visual kei into the mainstream culture. Disbanded in 1997, after vocalist Toshi decided to quit the music scene to supposedly join a religious cult. Members hide, Yoshiki, Pata and Heath devoted themselves to their own solo projects. [official site]


Yoshiki
Former drummer of X-Japan and founder of the Extasy records label [official site]






INFORMATION:

this isn't meant to be the ultimate source for jrock lingo, it's simply an attempt to list some common terms that new fans of the genre might not be familiar with.

this list is still a work in progress, but i think i've finally got the basics covered. i tried to stick to the facts, but i'm a very silly person who has the bad habit of opinionating too much, so some parts of it are personal opinions and occasionally you might see some nonsensical/snide remarks. please take that into consideration.

in an effort to improve this glossary, i would like to ask for outside input [read: additions, corrections, different insights]. also, if you'd like to add a new entry to 'the lexicon', please let me know.

i would also like to thank the following people for contributing some of their time and knowledge to the making of this glossary: agent apelsin, amasanin, anji, audrey m., case, emirufish, go, halley, insanity, julie, kimi, lauren, silver, suzanne, 'tony' and zoi no miko.

finally, i hope you find this list useful, maybe you'll learn a thing or two with it. remember what will durant said: 'education is a progressive discovery of your own ignorance'! ^^