gekiteki 9 : akiba kei
Akihabara style = akiba kei. Music from the anime subculture can be gekiteki because people do acting: they pretend to be batman or whatever. . . they wear costumes and perform "in character." Within "akiba-kei", there's a whole genre of wanna-be teen idols that just sing one anime theme song after another, but the people [...]
5 comments
gekiteki 8 : burlesque and cabaret
Burlesque is definitely a part of gekiteki – especially when there is rock music and instruments involved! Unfortunately I have no idea of most of the burlesque / cabaret crews in Japan, and no idea of the "lines of influence" between them. So anyone who can help, please leave a comment!
情念 (jounen)
MEANING : : passion
CITY [...]
gekiteki 7 : retro japanese pop
Besides war nostalgia and religion, another way to be "wayou" (east meets west) is to fuse rock with old-timey Japanese music.
Minyou kyoku= folk songs
kouta = early Meiji era : traditional short, fun songs
roukyoku = also early Meiji : dark, manly ballads about duty and honor
Ryuukouka = 1920's music that sounded Eastern
Kayoukyoku = 1920's music that [...]
gekiteki 6 : noise/performance art
I'm putting in noise bands that have a theatrical aspect – props, costumes, interacting with the audience, etc. Of course the theatrics come from performance art moreso than Shakespeare-type "theater"!
非常階段 （hijokaidan)
MEANING : : emergency exit
CITY . . : Osaka
ERA . . . : late 1979~
SOUND . . :
JAPANESE TRADITIONAL INFLUENCE :
CLIQUE . . . [...]
gekiteki 5 : militarist
These bands are "theatrical" because they are inspired by the pomp and bombast of – to say nothing of the shock value of – Japanese military culture from fascist era (roughly '31 – '45)
Any discussion of militarist Japanese rock has to start with "the nazi thrash epidemic" of the late '80s: a sort of 'arms [...]
gekiteki 4 : pagan
Religion is another way to mix up East and West. Some of these bands are serious, deep Buddhists, and some are metal-heads who embrace Japanese pagan or shamanic stuff in order to reject Christianity and Christian Rock (this is a common theme of metal worldwide ever since Norwegian rockers started wearing Ren-faire garb and singing [...]
2 comments