Basic Trope: A genre of music based on visual artistry and stagecraft being as important as the music, which originated in Japan but can be and is used by non-Japanese musicians.
- Straight:
- A musician or artist dresses and acts per as expected for one of the listed types of Visual Kei, and incorporates this into his or her stage shows.
- A Visual Kei band performing a show or otherwise engaging in activities.
- Exaggerated: hide, GACKT, and similar artists whose entire life is Visual Kei to the point that it is nigh impossible to determine any line between performance, identity, lifestyle, and more.
- Downplayed:
- "Yeah, they're a bunch of guys in dresses and makeup, but they're just as good as Metallica and Guns N' Roses."
- A Visual Kei band that focuses on musicianship and technical talent far more than it does on the visuals, although the visuals are still there.
- Justified:
- The musician or artist is a fan and admirer of Visual Kei and wants to do it for himself or herself.
- The musician or artist doesn't necessarily like Visual Kei but realizes there is money to be made there. More common in the old days - Visual Kei is most definitely NOT a moneymaking venture in and of itself in most places as of The New '10s. However, VKB48 was an attempt at this.
- The musician or artist is GLBTQIA and noticed opportunities for a not-straight and proud artist in Visual Kei.
- The musician or artist isn't necessarily devoted to or interested in Visual Kei but is performing a tribute show for a Visual Kei artist or is doing a photoshoot with Visual Kei artists or in a magazine generally devoted to Visual Kei.
- The musician or artist wants to experiment with doing something different.
- Inverted: A Japanese rock band that loathes Visual Kei and doesn't think anyone related to it is a "real artist." Sigh and L'arc-en-Ciel would be good examples among others (though both bands have used and are still using visuals), as would the majority of the 80s metal scene such as it was that saw then new bands such as X Japan and SEIKIMA-II as OTT and damaging to the image of "real metal."
- Subverted: A Japanese rock or metal band that simply doesn't care about visuals. Pretty much the stock trade of Nagoya Kei artists.
- Double Subverted: The band that simply doesn't care about visuals looks Visual Kei and arguably does it better than some avowed Visual Kei bands.
- Parodied:
- A non-Visual Kei band dresses in Stylistic Suck Visual Kei and/or puts on a performance that is the very worst possible mockery of Visual Kei possible in order to piss off Visual Kei fans or to give its fanbase something to laugh at.
- A Visual Kei band decides to parody a now-dated style of Visual Kei such as Visual Shock or Kote Kei, or another Visual Kei band. This can be Affectionate Parody or snark. This would be much like Jealkb or the Yoshiki and Toshi impersonators that popped up on a TV show once or twice.
- A Visual Kei band or artist that is so bad that it becomes Self-Parody. COLOR may have been an early version of this, Maria Cross's videos are almost certainly this.
- A Fan Fic or roleplay written about Visual Kei rockers takes the Darker and Edgier things about the scene to the point of Crossing the Line Twice into Black Comedy, either intentionally or unintentionally.
- Zig Zagged: A band that starts out as Visual Kei and/or is widely recognized as such, but that alternates between disavowing the scene / claiming to have no connection to it (as in averted, inverted and double subverted) and marketing to visual kei fans, engageing in events with visual kei artists, supporting the scene, and similar. Examples of such bands would be BUCK-TICK, Dir en grey, L'arc-en-Ciel and Hyde's solo career. Post-Visual Kei bands are highly notorious for this.
- Averted:
- A musician or artist is simply not Visual Kei. He or she doesn't hate or bear a grudge against the genre as in inverted, it's just not his or her style or scene.
- A Visual Kei fan stays just that - an uninvolved fan. They don't adapt anything of the scene to their lifestyle, their appearance stays very normal, they do not even consider joining in as an artist or a musician, or necessarily even supporting one in any way aside from maybe buying some music or going to a show.
- Enforced:
- A Visual Kei band, obviously, though some exceptions exist there - generally toward the Legacy Character side. (If a member of a Visual Kei band is vital to it and chooses to drop the style, he may well remain a member depending on how vital his skills or his name is to the band. Pata in X Japan is a good example of this - saying he is currently Visual Kei is stretching the trope to its limit, but he is the surviving original guitarist, his skills can't be replaced, and he is vital to the band, so most fans are more than willing to overlook that he no longer is technically "visual."
- A club or tour only open to Visual Kei acts.
- Visual Kei labels. Good luck signing to Extasy or Free Will in the late 80s - early 90s or to Under Code, PS Company or Sherow Artist Society in The New '10s if you're not Visual Kei in some way or another.
- A venue or show whose dress code is some form of Visual Kei.
- Lampshaded: "The last time I saw someone in that much makeup was at a club in Shinjuku."
- Invoked:
- A new Visual Kei band forms or debuts.
- An artist debuts as or adopts elements of Visual Kei, as with some Idol Singers and a great many Japanese Pop Music acts.
- Someone asks if a band or artist is Visual Kei. This often invokes backlash as well, so it's not a good idea.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied:
- A band leaves Visual Kei per se, whether or not it continues to use elements from it, and proclaims itself no longer Visual Kei and lists another genre.
- A band that could be considered Visual Kei but isn't (see Double Subverted above) refuses the label and insists it is not.
- An artist or musician realizes he or she has no talent for Visual Kei and quits the genre.
- Discussed:
- A discussion thread on Visual Kei.
- Any meta article written about the Visual Kei scene or Visual Kei bands, especially by an outsider to it.
- Youtube comment sections on a Visual Kei Performance Video.
- A band or artist debating whether to be Visual Kei or not.
- Conversed: Two Visual Kei artists discuss the scene, an upcoming live show, or trade tips on something related to Visual Kei.
- Implied:
- A character in a story is referred to as a Visual Kei artist or acts/dresses as one, but is never actually seen performing or doing anything else an actual artist would do.
- A list of bands for a club's live schedule is displayed, and some of them are Visual Kei bands.
- Deconstructed:???
- Reconstructed:???
- Plotted A Good Waste:
- An actual Visual Kei artist intentionally constructs a persona that is one that fans will feel a specific, visceral reaction to, or writes lyrics or acts on stage in a way to create said fan reaction.
- In a work where a Visual Kei artist is depicted, the character is there as a Shout-Out, because there is quite a lot of drama and intrigue to be explored from his/her life in the scene, or simply to provide someone for the audience to laugh at or be annoyed by.
- Played For Laughs:
- Detroit Metal City's take on Visual Shock per SEIKIMA-II style.
- Jealkb, being a Visual Kei band started to parody other bands.
- A Visual Kei artist exists in a work but only as the butt of jokes. He is the Butt-Monkey of the entire story, with everyone picking on him for some reason or another.
- Most Lighter and Softer treatments of Visual Kei.
- Played For Drama:
- Someone is using Visual Kei to exploit the scene and other artists and fans within it.
- A Visual Kei artist's lifestyle becomes the plot point of a crime drama or medical drama.
- In Real Life, a Visual Kei artist dies of something tragic, especially at a young age.
- A Darker and Edgier or balanced drama piece about someone's or a band's life within the Visual Kei scene.
Get your makeup done and don't use up all the hairspray or drink all the beer, I need some too, because we're going back to Visual Kei now.
