J-rock

[ShinyaXDie]

I live in the United States, and I have had the pleasure of being able to see D'espairsRay, and Dir en grey live. ^_^ I love a lot of the J-rock bands, and I try to buy thier cd's, and dvd's whenever I can. (I've also cosplayed, as Shinya from Dir en grey) J-rock in the US isn't all that popular, but its growing. So, is it really popular in Japan, or do most people perfer J-pop?

[Teiraa]

I love Dir en Grey. I'm planning on seeing their concert as well.

[Ulver_684]

I love both, JPOP and JROCK Rules!

[WCR91]

B'z is my favorite J-rock band! Great for all occasions, whether you're rocking out to loud guitar riffs, or singing softly about some sad occurrence, B'z has a little something for everybody.

Go check them out!

http://www.bz-vermillion.com

There's a good english version of the website, but the Japanese version offers much more.

Edit: The origin of the name B'z is from the original idea of the band's name A'z (depicting that the bad used all styles from A-Z) but that sounded too much like AIDS. Hence, the name B'z was birthed.

[chi-chi-chibi]

I love J-rock as well. ^-^
My favorites are Dir en Grey, L'arc en Ciel, Gackt, 12012, HYDE, and Asian Kung-fu Generation.

I was gonna see Dir en Grey in concert in Feb., but all the tickets sold out before I could get'em. o-o I couldn't belive it! TToTT

Anyway, in response to your question, J-rock is popular in Japan, but I think alot of Japanese people like American music. o-o I have several Japanese friends and, when I asked them what bands they liked, they answered with American bands. xD; Also, alot of bands tell you what bands inspired their own. Alot of them mention at least 1 American band. o-o

[metal_lloyd]

Hi,
I'd recomment High and Mighty Color: modern rock/metal with girl vocals.
For Iron Maiden fans out there: On-myoza.

Lloyd

[atomsk]

http://www.myspace.com/quaffjapan

[shungen]

X JAPAN~~~~~TOSHI, HYDE, YOSHIKI~~~~~~神様～～～

[senoroctober]

I have seen a bunch of concerts since I have been here. I really like Ua and Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra rock the house down all the time. Big difference between J-Rock and J-Pop though

[Lotty Sama Ai]

I saw Dir en grey in London a few weeks ago. They were AMAZING.

My favourites are, Diru, Gazette and Alice nine.

[Fedgrub]

Both are pretty great.

[jemstone]

i like the sounds of gazette and 12012. my girlfriend often import their dvd concerts.. =D and i get to enjoy the sounds. ^_______________^

[markystar]

hahaha, i didn't realize so many foreigners like Dir en grey. personally, i don't understand the whole "visual rock" thing. seems like they spend more time dressing up than writing good music.

but it's fairly popular here, mainly with young girls between the ages of 15-22 but not nearly as big as j-pop. a

actually, this thread made my girlfriend really happy. she loves Dir en grey so much. she literally sees every show they do in japan. she loves them so much she now works for their record label, Free Will.
what can i say? opposites attract.

[Daniel_san]

I love J-Rock! In fact, it's all I've been listening to in the last weeks.

I remember that I read something about "this new 'visual kei' thing" in a heavy metal magazine, but I didn't care much. Then, some weeks later, I saw a Hyde CD (666) in a record store and gave it a try.

End of the story is a grand total of 14 CDs of Hyde, Gackt, D'espairs Ray, Anna Tsuchiya, Ayumi Hamasaki and Olivia Lufkin, with another one on the way (€69.99, 3 weeks delivery time, no regrets) on my iPod and a couple of colleagues that I "infected". One of them went to Japan this summer and gave me a Lolita No.18 CD he bought. But that's not so much my taste...

[Rizu]

Listening to X Japan right now!

Also like D, D'Espairs Ray, hyde, Vidoll, Luna Sea, High and Mighty Color, among others.....

I enjoy a lot of JPop too. I just realized that over the last 5 or so years, I've mainly listened to Japanese music and have pretty much fell out of the loop with American music. But eh, I've enjoyed Jrock, Jpop, etc, so much more!