[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Aliene_Mariage1_6812.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: A fine group of... [[AmbiguousGender men?]]]]


Visual Kei, or Visual Style, is an artistic movement among Japanese musicians that is characterised by the use of make-up, [[AnimeHair elaborate hair styles]] and flamboyant costumes, often, but not always, coupled with [[{{Bishonen}} androgynous aesthetics]], in the style of David Bowie. It came about in the early 1980's, spearheaded by bands such as Music/XJapan and Music/BuckTick, and has existed in various forms ever since. (You can see more of the history over on the UsefulNotes page, if you like.)

It is often considered a sub-genre of J-rock (a term referring to Japanese rock in general), with its roots in glam-rock, punk, metal and Kabuki Theater, though its use outside of Japan is making this somewhat an outdated definition. As is usual amongst more theatrical musical genres, the aesthetics are supposed to be as strong as the music in order to complement and enhance it, and although there have been many trends over the years there is no defining sound.

In the current scene, for instance, the most commonly used genre is hard rock (except for within the Oshare subgenre, which favours [[PopPunk pop-punk]] or electronic dance music), but there is also horror punk, PowerMetal, GothicMetal, [[ElectronicMusic electronic]], pop rock, [[NuMetal nu-metal]], {{Industrial}} and Music/HeavyMetal. Exactly which genres are used often depends on the time period: In the 80's rock and glam metal were popular; and in the 90's a heavy goth influence came in and many bands developed a softer or more experimental sound, with the use of synth becoming common.

Despite the [[ViewerGenderConfusion highly feminine appearance]] of many VK musicians, the majority of band members, as with other rock genres, are male.

Visual Kei is often broken down into subgenres, the most common being:

* Angura Kei: characterised by an emphasis on traditional Japanese culture, with band members often wearing kimonos, and occasionally Geisha style makeup. Music/HeavyMetal and HardRock are the most favoured genres. Example bands of this style would be Music/{{Kagrra}} and HeiseiIsshin. Music/{{Miyavi}} went through a phase as this and still has some elements of it.
* Kote Kei: arguably the oldest and most established form of VK after genres began to split off from Visual Shock, it is characterised by incredibly striking clothing and hair. A common theme is to have every member of the band dye their hair a different color. There are two main forms, 'Black Kei', which is faster, and 'White kei' which is more melodious. Example bands are pretty much too numerous to name any one individual band, though this is arguably what both Music/LunaSea and Music/DirEnGrey began as, though they would change to other styles... and this is what Music/{{Versailles}} was said to be before it broke up, and its reformation as "Jupiter" seems to be similar.
* Oshare Kei: Characterised by a more cheerful sound and brighter aesthetics, with softer colours and materials being favoured. Most bands play pop-punk or soft rock. Some example bands would be Music/AnCafe, LM.C or [[=SuG=]], some of the early works of Music/{{Miyavi}} would qualify, though he was always on the fringes.
* Lolita: As in the [[UsefulNotes/LolitaFashion Lolita]] style of dress, not anything related to the infamous book or its subject material. This is harder to define, but the general consensus is that bands in this genre have a more goth-rock influenced sound, although AlternativeRock and PowerMetal also feature in. Some bands may incorporate SymphonicMetal or, in rare cases, ThrashMetal overtones. The visuals tend to focus on elegance and the costumes are often more OTT than in other subgenres. Also, Lolita musicians are far more likely to deliberately invoke ViewerGenderConfusion, going out of their way to be as feminine as they possibly can be. Anything connected to Mana (including Music/MaliceMizer while he was in that band and MoiDixMois) is a good example. Music/{{Versailles}} takes some inspiration from this but isn't entirely it.
* Eroguro Kei: Combines ero and guro together, in the veins of Music/AliceCooper and Music/MarilynManson; a lot of emphasis on both HotterAndSexier and BloodierAndGorier, combining FetishFuel with NauseaFuel. Music/DirEnGrey was once this before they toned down their visuals (though it didn't take long before they returned to being eroguro with the release of ''UROBOROS''). Music/TheGazette is this all throughout their career.
* Nagoya Kei: Is defined by a gloomy, dark or harsh sound, and usually grim visuals. Darker than Lolita and less in-your-face than Eroguro, black is very much a favoured colour, and growled or barked vocals are common. There tends to be less importance placed on visuals in this subgenre than in others. The term has become the subject of misuse, with ignorant fans often applying the label to any dark and heavy J-metal group regardless of origin or musical genre, such as the case with Music/LunaSea, despite not being from Nagoya. Music/DirEnGrey also gets misclassified as this. "True" Nagoya kei bands, however, include acts such as Music/{{Kuroyume}}, Music/{{Deathgaze}} and Music/{{Lynch}}.
* Visual Shock (aka Veteran Kei): The arguable parent subgenre from which the others branched out, as pioneered by Music/XJapan and the other Extasy Records bands, Music/BuckTick, and COLOR in the late 1980s and early 1990s. ThrashMetal band Music/SexMachineguns also belongs here. (It also includes SEIKIMA-II, though simply because SEIKIMA-II fits nowhere else). It contains and can use any and all elements from these subgenres and arguably gave birth to them all, but ViewerGenderConfusion is a near-constant as are EightiesHair, AnimeHair, and YouGottaHaveBlueHair. Few new bands would fall into this genre, though cover bands and the occasional new band that doesn't fit elsewhere may try.
* Ex-Visual Kei/Post-Visual Kei: These are bands that started out as visual or tried to appeal to visual fans and then left the genre, either in disgust with its tropes or in an attempt to reach a wider audience. Good examples are L'Arc-en-Ciel (started out as Visual Shock, but referring to them as visual became a near BerserkButton for them) and Music/DirEnGrey (started out as Black Kote Kei, became Eroguro, and is now DeathMetal or deathcore). Some post-Visual Kei bands may re-apply visuals, a trend that can be seen with some bands in recent years.

There are always exceptions to this though. Many bands straddle genres and some don't really fit into any at all. Other bands start off visual and then leave the subgenre. Also, as there are no real rules to Visual Kei besides the fact that you have to put effort into a quirky appearance, there are often debates amongst fans as to which bands count as visual in the first place.

In recent years, Visual Kei has begun to be used by non-Japanese bands.

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Some Visual Kei labels and associated organizations:

* Creator/ExtasyRecords - [[Music/YoshikiHayashi Yoshiki]]'s label, and probably the first specific Visual Kei label.
* Creator/FreeWillRecords - DynamiteTommy's label. TheRival to Creator/ExtasyRecords, and the rivalry has ranged from open fighting between artists (early on) to mostly friendly, since it is the only active of the two labels (currently).
** PeaceAndSmileCompany - Sub-label of Creator/FreeWillRecords which heavily leans toward Oshare bands (with Music/TheGazette being a notable and pretty much the only exception) and has stricter rules.
* {{Lemoned}} and LemonedPlant: labels once ran by [[Music/HidetoMatsumoto hide]] but which are now ran by Hiroshi and are mostly defunct as actual "labels" as {{Lemoned}} is more of a fashion and merchandising venture.
* SherowArtistSociety: Began by Kamijo of Music/{{Versailles}} for Versailles, MatenrouOpera, and associated artists, now only hosts MatenrouOpera
* UnderCode: Began as a sub-label of Creator/FreeWillRecords but became its own label, ran by {{Kisaki}} until it went bankrupt in 2012.

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Media inspired by or making major references to Visual Kei (Visual Kei or at the very least Visual Kei artists are anything from a plot point to making a recognizable on-screen appearance)

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* Manga/DetroitMetalCity: The bands in it are arguably inspired in equal parts by X and SEIKIMA-II.
** It is worth noting, however, that DMC itself is never explicitly referred to as Visual Kei, but their bassist, Jagi, joins a visual band as a side project in one story arc. The band, Karisuma, is portrayed quite differently from DMC, and appears to be based on more recent Visual Kei. [[FridgeBrilliance Could well be an intentional comparison]] between Visual Shock and modern Visual Kei, in that everything from fan behavior to stagecraft has changed and morphed into a form almost unrecognizable from the beginning. [[hottip:*:While this isn't a place for debate on whether those changes were good or bad, just compare an 80s-early 90s video of XJapan or SEIKIMA-II to a more modern one of [[=SuG=]] or Uchuu Sentai Noiz. Also, unlike in Western genres where new generally overtakes old, the old Visual Shock bands and more modern Visual Kei bands tend to co-exist for a variety of reasons - and also tend to share from the same pool of talent.]]
* Anime/TheLegendOfBlackHeaven, the protagonist's band.
* Manga/LoveLucky features a character, Tsunami-san, who was once in a Visual Kei band.
* Manga/{{Otomen}} has characters that are part of a Visual Kei band called "fra-fra."
* Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei has a teacher who is a fan of the RealLife Visual Kei band Nightmare.
* Manga/SketDance features Kiyoshi Date, who is voiced by Visual Kei artist Music/{{Gackt}}, and is a huge fan of Visual Kei as an AffectionateParody.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* "Bus Stop," which featured a two guys at a bar scene... one of the guys being [[Music/YoshikiHayashi Yoshiki.]] Barely counts, since it was filmed during a time in his life when his style was more "cool rich guy" than specifically Visual Kei - yet he was recognizable on sight enough to make it count.
* The live-action version of ''Manga/DetroitMetalCity'', see the anime and manga example above.
* "Maebashi Visual-Kei!" A 2011 Japanese film about a young man that left his rural life to become a famous VisualKei artist. Known best for [[TheThemeParkVersion its romanticization and sanitization of the realities]] of Visual Kei, as well as [[WTHCasting casting Johnnys Jimusho actors for everyone involved]] never mind that casting actual indies Visual Kei artists at least as extras could have easily been done.
* "Oresama," a semi-autobiographical fictional piece written by Music/{{Miyavi}} and including him.
* "Tokyo Pop," a 1980s film that is actually the first appearance on film both of Music/XJapan (then known as X), and of Visual Kei in any media outside itself.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'': One of the characters you can pick up in your LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters journey (and one that is arguably fairly plot-important) is Nikki, a Visual Kei bandleader and guitarist who is equal parts shoutout to [[Music/HidetoMatsumoto hide]] (he's a redhead with eye makeup very much like hide's, and plays a yellow heart guitar) and Nikki Sixx from Music/MotleyCrue. In the Japanese version he was named Slash instead of Nikki, which made him a shoutout to the Music/GunsNRoses guitarist and to hide.
* In ''VideoGame/SagaFrontier'', Virgil is based on Atsushi Sakurai from BuckTick.
* Music/{{Vocaloid}} features Gakupo (based on Music/{{Gackt}} and voiced by him) and arguably Len.
** Visual Kei Band Vanan'Ice (consisting of Gakupo, Len, and KAITO).
* A main character in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 2}}'', Eikichi Mishina, is a leader of a rock band whose appearance and personality are based on visual kei.
* [[spoiler: Sergei]] from ''AsurasWrath'' is [[spoiler:reincarnated as a Visual Kei artist in TheStinger of DLC ep 22 part Iv: Nirvana.]]


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The Visual Kei musicians and the Visual Kei scene provides or has provided examples of the following tropes:
* AlwaysMale: Pretty much, as in most rock genres, though there are a few exceptions: [[LuciferLusciousViolenoue Fiction]] and LuciferLusciousViolenoue from older VK, and the modern bands Music/ExistTrace, DESTROSE, and Danger Gang are all female, as is the Website/YouTube Music/XJapan cover band called SOX Japan. There are some individual artists too: the drummer Hina (who works now with the late Music/TaijiSawada's band which was and is otherwise all male) is one; Inugami Kyouko, the vocalist from Inugami Circus-dan, is another.
** Inverted by the fans. It is not unusual for Visual Kei bands (even in the HardRock and Music/HeavyMetal genres which are usually heavily male for non Visual Kei acts) to have more female fans than male fans on average, or an almost even split of fan gender.
* AmbiguousGender: Many Visual Kei artists have made this their "hat," as noted above, and some seem to have chosen it as their gender presentation onstage and offstage alike. A couple of examples would be [[Music/HidetoMatsumoto hide]] from Music/XJapan for old Visual Kei, and Hizaki from Music/{{Versailles}} for new.
* AnimeHair: More common in modern Oshare Kei. Older Visual Kei (especially Visual Shock) tended more toward EightiesHair at its most extreme, though the two did merge at points as both anime and Visual Kei developed side by side.
* ArtisticStimulation: Very much so. Alcohol could be argued to be almost the lifeblood of Visual Kei because almost all performances are at bars, many band events center around drinking and drinking parties, and the amount of artists who are or who are close to TheAlcoholic or OffTheWagon or FunctionalAddict are too numerous to count. Most Visual Kei artists also smoke, although many have quit. While recreational drug use in general aside from alcohol and tobacco is VERY much frowned upon openly due to Japan's attitudes toward drugs in general, methamphetamine abuse is also an open secret among some artists and has figured in the burnouts and/or deaths of some.
* AtomicFBomb: Common in some lyrics...
* TheAtoner: Many members of older bands will fall into this trope, becoming social activists or at the very least very nice people to make up for [[HairTriggerTemper the]] [[SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll excesses]] and sometimes even criminal acts of their early days.
* AudienceParticipationSong: Visual Kei is a genre very dependent on audience participation. Most bands will have at least one image song like this, complete with specific "furi" (hand gestures or dance moves) to go along with it.
* AxCrazy: Some bands (generally Eroguro or Visual Shock bands, but Nagoya Kei sometimes as well) take posing as this trope UpToEleven, at least for specific members, and many songs go around people with the theme. Occasionally someone is offstage - Wataru from the band 12012, who ended up in court for choking somebody after a night of heavy drinking, is one famous case.
* The various types of {{Badass}} clothing. BadassCape, BadassLongcoat... it will be worn by someone in some band somewhere.
* BarBrawl: Arguably somewhat less common now (though still engaged in by indies and unpopular bands and between fans), this was common for a while among Visual Shock bands in the 80s and early 90s.
* {{Bishonen}} and {{Biseinen}}: Almost all Visual Kei artists to some degree, at least onstage.
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Invoked by some bands and artists. Jasmine You of Music/{{Versailles}} made this a joke, as did hide from Music/XJapan, and being "alien demons" was the entire hat of SEIKIMA-II.
* CarefulWithThatAxe: Some Visual Kei vocalists are absolutely famous for this. Kyo from Music/DirEnGrey is the most well known, though he learned from the late Ume from Music/TokyoYankees.
* CharacterTics: Nearly every band member has one of these that makes him stand out. Funnily enough, for the ones that specifically don't, that itself becomes a character tic: for example, Pata of Music/XJapan is so quiet and focused on his instrument that that IS predominant of his CharacterTics.
* ClusterFBomb: Somewhat less common than the Atomic and Precision varieties but a lyrical device...
* ContemptibleCover: Most common among Visual Shock and Eroguro bands, though it mostly tends to be Contemptible PerformanceVideo now. Also sometimes subverted by solid black covers or, by "grotesque cute" covers.
* CoolShades: Rockers love their sunglasses, and Visual Kei artists are no different.
* CoverVersion: Most VisualKei bands start out by covering ([[{{Plagiarism}} or occasionally outright ripping off without credit]]) other VisualKei bands. More established bands will also still do covers, usually as tributes, for cover albums, or as a [[TheAtoner belated form of credit]] for past plagiarism.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to pretty much all other output of the Japanese music industry. Averted by Oshare Kei (see LighterAndSofter below), which developed as a backlash to the domination of Music/HeavyMetal and {{Goth}} in Visual Kei and a way to make the genre more "accessible."
* DoubleEntendre: Common with the earlier works or "marketable" works of Visual Shock bands, mostly done as a form of GettingCrapPastTheRadar or RefugeInAudacity. Still in use by Oshare bands, for similar reasons of marketability. Averted by Eroguro bands, which generally are far more direct with sexual and violent imagery and lyrics.
** Most bandmen will use forms of DoubleEntendre or other wordplay to communicate being gay/bi/trans or communicate drug use, if asked about such subjects in an interview or other context without actually saying it. This plays into Japanese culture, where admitting, say, that one finds one's own gender attractive would be seen as crass and outre - so to say one is "embarrassed" by their reaction to a man flirting with them, or to vaguely mention "taking pills" to refer to drug use or to refer to a mental breakdown as "nervous exhaustion," are ways to convey the meaning without being too public.
* DramaticShattering: Fairly common way to do something "shocking." Pioneered primarily by Music/XJapan whose band members liked to smash things onstage and in PerformanceVideo (and [[BarBrawl elsewhere]]), picked up by pretty much everyone.
** As a matter of fact, one of the US-English sites covering VisualKei is called "Shattered Tranquility," in a form of LampshadeHanging.
* DudeLooksLikeALady: Very, very common. Occasionally inverted by female artists who will try to look [[LadyLooksLikeADude male or]] [[{{Bifauxnen}} masculine-androgynous]].
* EverybodySmokes: Almost everyone, at least to a certain point in time anyway. This trope was in full effect in TheEighties and TheNineties. Some well-known artists began to quit smoking (or at least publicly claim to do so and conceal the habit as they continued on) as of TheNoughties and TheNewTens.
* {{Fanservice}}: Pretty much the stock in trade of Visual Kei. Started with the original Visual Shock bands (Music/XJapan and Music/BuckTick are masters of fanservice of various forms, and Music/YoshikiHayashi of Music/XJapan was [[OldShame a worker in a host club at one point early in the band's indies days]]) and whatever form of fanservice you are looking for, it will generally be provided by some Visual Kei band or artist somewhere. Subverted, somewhat, by Lolita artists who do not like to be touched or touch fans, and by Eroguro artists who serve up NightmareFuel and NauseaFuel in equal parts to the FetishFuel.
* FemaleGaze AND MaleGaze: Most Visual Kei bands to some extent. The most well-endowed men will generally tend to show off, providing lots of eye candy for women and gay/bi men alike...
* FluffyFashionFeathers: A common part of some Visual Kei costuming.
* FountainOfMemes: Visual Kei is one of these.
** In Visual Kei, "meme" has two meanings. The first is the usual, the second is anonymous communities called "hate memes," which are basically the Western attempt at Tanuki, mentioned later.
* GenreRoulette and GenreShift: Fairly common, especially among the older bands that have lasted. Also a fairly common reason for bands breaking up or changing members.
** Arguably makes sense due to some deep divisions in the scene, for example, a Black Kote band consisting mostly of hardcore metalheads is not going to be pleased if the singer suddenly decides he wants to go Oshare and claims Avril Lavigne as his greatest inspiration. This is why the bands that have survived GenreRoulette and GenreShift usually either survive with different members, or when all of the band is in agreement about the change to some degree.
* GossipEvolution: Tanuki, a splitoff from the Japanese 2Channel ImageBoard, originally created to discuss Visual Kei. It managed to become a discussion of Visual Kei and the hard rock / heavy metal ''artists'' that cross over with the community and ''each other'' by their [[GroupieBrigade groupies]], [[MoneyDearBoy mitsukano]], assorted [[DaydreamBeliever fantasists]] and [[{{Hatedom}} haters]], and [[PolishTheTurd eventually]] [[AttentionWhore themselves]] and [[GreenEyedMonster their]] [[TheRival competitors]]. Sadly, this means that much information that is not, to some degree, BlatantLies or AstroTurf has at least undergone this to some degree. Others have launched via MemeticMutation.
* GossipyHens: See the above entry for Tanuki, the 2ch community for bangya, mitsukano, tsunagari, bandmen, fantasists, haters, and {{Troll}}s. Anonymous memes for the VisualKei or jrock scene elsewhere attempt to approach its level of nuggets of truth mixed in a massive shitstorm of insane vitriol, but can barely compare.
* GothRock: Lolita and Nagoya artists, and both Music/XJapan and Music/LunaSea have gone in this direction on occasion.
* GratuitousEnglish: Depends on the band. Some artists in the scene have incredible English (and other language) skills despite having accents: Demon Kogure from SEIKIMA-II, Music/YoshikiHayashi from Music/XJapan and Yama-B ex Music/{{Galneryus}} are among those few. Others have learned English very badly if at all, and the result shows up in their lyrics, stage patter, interviews, and nearly everywhere else.
* GroupieBrigade: Visual Kei bands often have the organized version, their respective fan clubs. Outside of the fan club (and often including it) the front row/pit can become this, and if a band is popular enough, the GroupieBrigade tends to pop up anywhere the fans are.
* HairMetal: Visual Kei is what happens when HairMetal is taken to extremes, allowed to mature, and become experimental in nature, both musically and in terms of aesthetics. While some hate is directed towards the movement, due to it being the SpiritualSuccessor to its parent genre, many VK artists are accepted by purists as legitimate rock and metal groups.
* HarshVocals: Some Visual Shock bands (Music/TokyoYankees became famous for the late Ume's vocals). Became primarily the province of Angura, Eroguro, and Nagoya, with the best representative being ex-Eroguro Music/DirEnGrey vocal Kyo.
* HeavyMeta: Some songs are meta or snark on the scene itself, or even TakeThat directed at other artists or styles or songs.
* HoYay: One of the most common forms of onstage fanservice.
* ImprobableHairstyle: One of the things that defines some forms of VisualKei, specifically Visual Shock and Kote Kei.
* IndecipherableLyrics: Often found among Eroguro and Nagoya bands, and pretty much any band that heavily uses GratuitousEnglish or certain substances. Also used to obscure the actual words of songs in a form of GettingCrapPastTheRadar.
* InterplayofSexAndViolence: Some bands. No more shall be said.
* LighterAndSofter: Oshare Kei. It's also TheScrappy of Visual Kei, as in it's the genre most likely to be hated/not taken seriously by other VisualKei artists and by fans of any other genre.
* LongHairedPrettyBoy: Many, MANY Visual Kei artists early on. That said longer hair is out of modern fashion and is more likely to be seen now with non-Visual Kei heavy metal bands or with Visual Shock bands.
* ManInAKilt: Skirts are a common fashion item for Visual Kei bandmen...
* ManOnFire: Visual Shock bands (and some modern bands) tend to use a lot of pyro. Combining pyro with the amounts of flammable hair products + costumes + props can occasionally result in this. One notorious incident in the 90s led to major burns on the side of [[Music/HidetoMatsumoto hide's]] face during one of his solo performances, and a close brush with it occurred during Music/XJapan's 2010 Yokohama show when a pyro went off too close to two band members, surrounding them with smoke and soot.
* TheMerch: Merch is a very large portion of the Visual Kei experience. Every band has a fairly large (and sometimes strange) range of branded merch. Sometimes, the amount of merch can lead to a band being accused of "selling out."
* MetalScream: VERY common for the more metal-oriented bands, obviously.
* MisogynySong: Unfortunately...
* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Visual Kei bands can range anywhere from one to eleven, often with this kind of variance among a single band's discography. Generally (though this is very much a generalization), Angura, Nagoya, and Eroguro bands tend to be higher, whereas Lolita and Oshare bands tend to be softer. Visual Shock and Kote Kei bands, on the other hand, often tend far more toward having this variance in their own discography - good examples being Music/XJapan, a Visual Shock era band which has songs that range from one to eight or nine, Tokyo Yankees, another Visual Shock band with songs at the higher ranges of the scale, and Matenrou Opera, a NewTens Kote Kei band with songs ranging from two to eight.
** The second wave of Visual Kei bands display more variance than their predecessors. Music/Versailles has songs that range from 1 to 8, with live versions played so loudly that they reach the 9-10 range. Music/AnCafe has songs that are in the 2-5 range, with some songs reaching as high as 8 or 9. Music/DirEnGrey did '''''everything''''' from a 1 to an 11.
* MurderBallad: A common subject for Visual Kei bands.
* NauseaFuel: Some of the imagery produced by Visual Shock, Kote Kei, and Nagoya Kei bands handily qualifies, especially depending on what {{Squick}}s you personally, but this has become the true expertise of Eroguro bands, whose express purpose is creating a mixture of this, FetishFuel, and NightmareFuel - and which are not welcome for discussion here.
** Unintentionally created by bands or artists glorifying [[ImperialJapan Imperial Japanese]] or [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi]] imagery or atrocities.
** To a lesser degree, sometimes unintentionally created by GlamourFailure or SpecialEffectsFailure. Good examples of this are when severely unflattering information about an artist's appearance, behavior, or fetishes leaks to fans, especially when photographs are involved.
** To a breed of Website/YouTube commenter who shares a combination of Western MisplacedNationalism and homophobia, Visual Kei is itself NauseaFuel, as well as [[InternetBackdraft Rage]] [[{{Troll}} Fuel]].
* NiceHat: A common fashion accessory. Use was pioneered by Toll from Music/BuckTick and Music/TaijiSawada from Music/XJapan (at the time X), and now the NiceHat is almost as ubiquitous as showing hair, especially for bandmen who have day jobs, are balding, or have other reasons that none of the hair tropes can be put into effect.
* NobodyLovesTheBassist: Hugely averted. Two of the most memorable figures in Visual Kei history are late bassists: Jasmine You of Music/{{Versailles}} and Music/TaijiSawada (formerly of Music/XJapan). Bassists tend to be highly noticed in general, if only that usually the person picked for bass tends to be one of the most attractive members of the band. And when he's musically capable too, as You and Sawada were, you have legends ready to be made.
* NoodleIncident: Almost every band has one somewhere in their history. Some more public than others.
* PerformanceVideo: Almost every band has at least one, and it's almost always best to check out a few of these (especially lives) before you decide whether you like a band or not, because some bands with admittedly lackluster recordings are great live performers or have incredible videos. Other times, the videos are crappy while the music is good, and other times it is all crappy...
* PlayingToTheFetishes: Some bands do this.
* PrecisionFStrike: A common lyrical device for many bands, along with the aforementioned Atomic and Cluster varieties.
* PromotedFanboy: One of the reasons Visual Kei came into existence was the amount of Music/{{Kiss}} fanboys that decided to take their favorite band's tropes UpToEleven. Music/XJapan and SEIKIMA-II were such bands. As the scene developed, many fanboys (and some fangirls) developed musical acts and bands of their own, and in some cases were actually signed or even took over for the artists they admired.
* PuttingOnTheReich: Unfortunately common in early Visual Shock and in some other bands, though becoming less so over time as bands tour in countries where NoSwastikas has the force of law, get negative feedback for Nazi-themed costuming from fans, and as some educate themselves. Some artists have been direct aversions of this: Music/{{Sugizo}} in particular is known for his anti-fascism, left-leaning political views, and disgust with glorifying ImperialJapan or NaziGermany.
* RearrangeTheSong: Early on, most retakes/rearrangements/remixes/demos were released with the "studio version" or "primary version" as b-sides or "special presents" or similar. Remixes/rearrangements took on a life of their own as VisualKei grew, and many artists and bands will release entire albums consisting solely of remixed and rearranged songs.
** This is also the work of the rising amount of DJ type artists within the scene, although many are original artists as well - the idea of DJ/beatmaker as solely remixing and playing others' work is ''not'' much wanted in a scene heavily dependent on live shows, so DJ s and beatmakers and the like working within VisualKei ''have'' to be capable of their own original electronic works and/or at least some form of truly unique appearance and style.
** Taken UpToEleven by Music/DirEnGrey, with rearranged songs being considerably harder than the originals (some even going as high as 10 or 11 in terms of hardness). They've also released ''The Unraveling'', an entire EP of rearranged songs, save for the title track.
** Music/XJapan has translated and rearranged several of their non-English songs into English. Some that were primarily Japanese with English lyrics at points were also flipped to be mostly English but with a few Japanese lines. Among them are ''Kurenai'' ([[OlderThanTheyThink which actually had a complete English version as early as 1987]]) and got a new retool as of 2009, ''Rusty Nail'' (2010, complete English version), ''Rose of Pain'' (2010, half the song was redone in English). Combined with Toshi's much improved English over 2008-2011, the effect is sometimes jarring for those used to the older songs, for good or for ill.
* RockstarSong: Most bands have at least one.
* RuleOfCool: Why Visual Kei exists and is popular..
* SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll: Technically, the drugs part is very much frowned upon in Japan and even ''marijuana possession'' is highly stigmatized to the point that all of a band's music and merch can be pulled from shelves and boycotted, and arrested users are often kicked out of bands or their bands go on hiatus. That said... it's definitely around to a huge degree, it's just not to be discussed except in lyrics.
** Played straight by indies bands, bands not on labels associated with major record companies, or established overseas artists, some of whom have far less fear of such societal punishment (or might even take it as a badge of honor) - and can, therefore, somewhat openly support marijuana use and legalization - therefore playing this trope straight and averting the "no drugs, really, we swear it" rule..
* WidgetSeries: While it is rooted in HairMetal and other styles of music an fashion, the VK archetype is a uniquely Japanese development that is [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm difficult to explain through ordinary means]]. It has [[GrowingTheBeard matured]] so much and tied together [[GenreBusting mutliple styles of music]] in a way that makes it uniquely awesome.
** Marty Friedman once commented about Visual Kei, saying that it's "[[HairMetal glam]]-meets-[[GothicMetal goth]]-meets-[[CostumePorn really, really extravagant]] heavy metal...Not Music/TwistedSister guys [[StylisticSuck wearing their moms' clothes kind of feminine]]...it's beautiful.
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