[LMB] AKICOTL: goth, emo and jrock

[Azalais Aranxta]

On Mon, 17 Dec 2007, Rachel Ganz wrote:

>
>  On Sun, 16 Dec 2007, Becca Price wrote:
>
>  > I've just been informed (rather scornfully) that my daughter
>  > isn't goth, but that her personal style is more accurately
>  > called jrock.
>
> malfoy responded....
>
>>  ARGH.  I cannot tell you how much I hate the term "jrock".  It's
>>  a horrible Americanism.  Kids who use it betray the fact that
>>  they know next to nothing about Japanese music.

It depends on the instance, but I can explain again why I find
this one so vile.

> Given that J-rock is not a Japanese word and doesn't describe a
> Japanese phenomenon, what is it that you find so offensive?

Because it *is* meant to describe a Japanese
phenomenon--visual-style rock bands--and it does so in a way that
is dismissive of every kind of Japanese rock other than
visual-style, including all *my* favourite bands.

J-Rock, which is an abbreviation for "Japanese rock", is used by
American fangirls, primarily yaoi fangirls, to mean "the Japanese
bands that American fangirls like".

And if you say you like Japanese rock, and mention anyone that
doesn't fall into this category, they look at you like you have
fallen out of the sky, because rock music that most Japanese
people listen to (and by this I mean actual rock, not the
bubblegum sound of idol singers) doesn't in their minds qualify
as "J-Rock".

If they're going to only talk about visual bands, then they
should call it by its proper bloody name, "visual-kei" or
"visual-style".  I'm tired of being dissed by teenies and
tweenies because I like Ozaki Yutaka, Southern All Stars and
Nagabuchi Tsuyoshi.  If they aren't rockers I don't know what
they are.

Now of course they're using it to describe a clothing style.

I do like some visual bands, but not very many and not very much,
so I am considered, "not a J-Rock fan" by this branch of fandom.
I'd like to know how many of them ever got their own stalkers
(ugh) on Japanese-language music BBS's or dated Japanese record
industry people.

It would be like if you went to a foreign country and the only
rock bands they were willing to call "rock" were heavy metal,
gothic and industrial bands, and they insisted all the American
music you like wasn't important because there wasn't any onstage
boykissing and there were people over 30 in the bands.  (OK,
maybe they make an exception for L'Arc~en~Ciel who were around in
the beginning of visual style...)

And I mean it would be exactly like that.

~malfoy :/

****************************************************************
Azalais Aranxta (~malfoy)
ataniell93 on LiveJournal and Vox
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/malfoymadness

"I know the true world, and you know I do. But we needn't let it
think we all bow down." --Christopher Fry