J-Pop Write-Up

Hi, all! In today’s post, I’ll talk more about Ayumi Hamasaki’s latest singles Moon and Crossroad and their relation to the Visual Kei genre (disparate as the two seem).

Recently, I’ve been talking a lot about Ayumi Hamasaki here. But, I also am really interested in other genres, like Visual Kei. I like to think about the various themes that make up our expectations (or stereotypes) about Visual Kei.  Rose images appear frequently in Visual Kei.  If you know a little about Visual Kei, or have seen videos or photos of these artists, you know that those groups love to adorn their outfits, sets and lyrics with references to roses of all colors. Particularly prominent is the red rose image, romanticized in the ’70s shojo anime, The Rose of Versailles¹.

Let’s look at the ways that Visual Kei has branched out into more mainstream J-Pop in the past decade. Several bands have softened their image to fit into a more mainstream market, while retaining some elements of their Visual Kei personae². Most famously, the singer Gackt moved from VK frontman to idol-like celebrity status. In addition to this, some already mainstream J-Pop artists have embraced their VK side.  One recent example of this is Ayumi Hamasaki.

We all remember April’s “Rock and Roll Circus” with its “dash of commercial J-rock”⁸. How could we forget Ayu-chan’s über-embellished black dress from the “Microphone” PV³?  At once, it melded the sophisticated look of Hizaki⁴ with the fiesty get up of Amuro Namie⁵ and over-the-top postmodernist Lady Gaga⁶. Of course, only Ayumi Hamasaki could pull off this dress. The rock sound of the single matches the fashion perfectly, and so we get the hybrid-taste that Hamasaki has been delving into recently.

This hybridity is further explored in MOON. The look has been toned down quite a bit. Instead of hard rock goth, we get a more romantic stylization.  The colorization of the MV is gorgeously subdued. Ayumi appears in a white dress on a red leather love seat. The set is filled to the brim with gothic artifacts (crystal cups and vases, gloomy busts, red roses, cherries, red velvet drapes, etc. etc. etc.), and everything clearly fits into the black/white/red theme. The porcelain-like figure of Ayumi goes through several anguished poses and looks of exasperation, moving to a cadence at「震える声で聞かないで愛している？」(“In a wavering voice, ‘do you love me?'”).

How is Ayumi Hamasaki able to seamlessly mold herself into various genres? I don’t know for sure, but part of the answer lies in the production of idol entertainers and the strong demand for conformity. In some cases, this conformity presents itself in a “cutesy” style. This has to do with the industrialization of character creation: “there is a point in which [idol trainees] embrace the cute character as part of themselves. That’s when they really grow”⁷. Idol trainees must sacrifice their individuality for market demands, and this is exactly where the pro, Ayumi Hamasaki, excels.  If market research done at Avex points to a large community of Visual Kei fans (especially online, where information is readily accessible), then Ayumi will take on the role she needs to play to optimize her success. She approaches her performances with professionalism, and is able to instantly adapt to global trends. In this way, she has been able to revitalize her career from her high-point earlier this decade.

In short, what we see in the “Ayumi Hamasaki” and “Visual Kei” fusion is a perfect, polystyrene package of current industry trends, market research and pre-packaged chord progressions. Ayumi has no trouble pulling it out of her sleeve convincingly, but her higher ups aren’t doing a good enough job of really grasping these markets.  Visual Kei fans value a certain kind of authenticity (it’s not just wigs, make-up and special effects). It’s like loving of B-movie: forgetting about the corniness/shoddiness, and relishing the “small-scale” freedom. If anything, the quasi-gothic stylization of today’s Ayumi gives a little nod toward the Visual Kei crowd, and those guys (and girls (and girly-guys)) should give themselves a pat on the back!  If Ayumi Hamasaki is taking up Visual Kei, then we know the genre is here to stay!