j-rock is basically a convenient way to refer to japanese rock. that definition is too broad, but that's actually very convenient to this site, because that means i can pick up anything from the all-encompassing rock genre and mention it here without compromising the site's motto.

i would have to say that i am mostly a fan of visual kei, occasionally stumbling into some hard-rock, metal or punk acts. and this is what you will find mostly on THE J-ROCK SAGA!.

but what's visual kei, might you ask?

very succinctly, visual kei is a musical movement originated in japan – although it has spread to other asian countries – that finds its roots in western rock from the 70's and 80's. it is called visual because of the emphasis the bands put in their look. the word 'kei' has different meanings and as far as i'm concerned they're all up for discussion. i have heard everything, from 'group' to 'type' to 'influence'. to avoid the semantics, i'd say the 'kei' refers to the visual aspect of the bands. unless you're picky, that's all you need to know about the usage of 'kei' in this context. the japanese by the way, have many uses for the 'kei' kanji. in music, you can find many sub-genres [kei] like angura kei and shironuri kei. the differences between them are often very slight, and may apply to certain aspects of a band's music or image. it can [and will] get confusing sometimes.

but back to the familiar grounds of visual kei. typically, visual rock bands have a very ellaborated image, shifting between a variety of styles, like goth, punk or glam, many times receiving influence from manga/anime [some of those fictional universes are influenced by visual kei as well]. some visual bands have a lighter look, some are darker and scarier. there's also a big tendency in visual kei: when bands are signed to a major label, they quickly drop the visual look they had while they were indies. that's not necessarily true for every artist out there, but it happens to a lot of them, mostly because they try to adapt to a more acceptable mainstream image.

because of their willingness to experiment with their image and taking it to great extremes, visual rock artists are often mistaken for women [by unsuspecting westerners at least]. it's a fact. but the truth is that most visual bands consist of an entirely male line-up – some visual bands assume a very androgynous, feminine look, and cross-dressing is not uncommon. japan has a long standing tradition of cross-dressing in entertainment that goes all the way back to some of the traditional japanese theater genres, where the female roles were interpreted by men. other factors to keep in mind are the traditional gender roles in japan and also, the catholic/christian influence present in the western thought and morality which is inexistent in the buddhist/shintoist japanese society. lastly, you could also consider that these artists craft their look in such a fashion simply because it looks cool. but putting it as such, it's easy to understand why, at the height of its popularity, the visual movement was able to breach into the mainstream culture with relative ease. despite this, visual kei's audience is comprised mostly of young people; older folks tend to stay away from it.

but still on the topic of gender roles, one interesting point to observe about the scene is the ratio of female recording artists in j-rock when compared to j-pop; particularly in the visual genre. there's only a handful of women in visual rock, which kinda makes you wonder, since the vast majority of the fans of that genre are female...

as far as visuals go, some non-visual bands are frequently put under the 'visual kei' label. but since this is a general j-rock site after all, this isn't a problem. of course that i'm a visual kei fan, so many of the bands listed here have a strong visual component. there's also the fact that some visual bands aren't really rock or metal acts and are actually washed-out pop, but they hop onto the visual carriage. this is often very debatable, so i won't get into it... but don't worry, you aren't very likely to find them mentioned on this site anyway.

if you want to read up some more on visual kei, click here for an interesting [albeit somewhat grouchy] article.

to wrap this up, if you're new to japanese rock, i suggest you read the rest of this guide. i wrote it mostly with new fans in mind, but maybe old fans will find something of interest in it too.