There are times when we stare at the sullen sunset and feel tremendously hollow within, but then a small flame, like that of a matchstick, ignites inside us, burning on. This flame takes on various forms to different people. To some it’s their faith. To others, their ideology. To us, this is the flame of visual kei—and you could probably say it’s our faith, our ideology, and more.
Over here we are not quite interested in the meaningless exercise of offering you dictionary definitions of visual kei. If you happen to have absolutely no idea what it is (in which case it is mildly intriguing how you got here in the first place), you might want to google/wiki it for starters. However if you have a hazy idea of what it might be about, but can’t really put your finger on it, then you have it where we want. Precisely because visual kei is about so many things, harboring so many impossible contradictions, yet strangely making sense, all at once—a rigorous definition becomes not only unthinkable but also irrelevant.
Let’s dig a little deeper. Quite literally visual kei probes anything and everything around us. I always liked to imagine visual kei as a mirror that reflects the world around us: it lets us see the world as we know it, not mimetically but one that's slightly skewed and off-coloured. In doing so the mirror also reflects us—our self transposed onto a different dimension, in a different light. Effectively it behaves as some sort of a timeless, formless link. A bit like the Victorian novel as Italo Calvino once put it: it brings together the world we inhabit and the world that inhabits us.
But visual kei is also about something else, a stage perhaps, that is quite divorced from the world of reality. It is about artifice, performance and artistry. When you see the jrocker who is your life on the stage, you can’t help but feel a bit of yourself in him and assimilate a bit of him into you. The result is so powerful that it drives individuals who can’t salvage the tiniest bit of inspiration or will from reality otherwise. And who can say that’s a bad thing?
So we have it: the Mirror Stage.
Incidentally (or not), the ‘mirror stage’ in Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory (albeit a different 'stage') deals with a formative period in an individual’s development which would later become the scaffolding for his/her self-identification and Imaginary. Is that not what visual kei is all about—growing with us, into us, eventually becoming an inextricable part of us?
Welcome to the Mirror Stage and have a great time.
The Webmasters
The webmasters are college friends in Singapore who are both wildly passionate about visual kei, J-rock and some J-pop. We hope that you enjoy your stay at the Mirror Stage, and would be delighted if you are kind enough to leave comments or feedback for our blog.
You can reach us via email: please have a look at the 'Contact Us' page and feel free to send us a message anytime. About anything at all.
The Webmasters
The webmasters are college friends in Singapore who are both wildly passionate about visual kei, J-rock and some J-pop. We hope that you enjoy your stay at the Mirror Stage, and would be delighted if you are kind enough to leave comments or feedback for our blog.
You can reach us via email: please have a look at the 'Contact Us' page and feel free to send us a message anytime. About anything at all.
ご挨拶
The mirror stage へようこそ。
ヴィジュアル系が自分の生活に欠かせない部分だと高校生の頃に気付いて以来、この10年間にわたって振り返ることなんて一度もありません。
他のヴィジュアル系が好きな方や単純にヴィジュアル系に少しでも興味のある方と出会えることをきっかけとして、2012年5月にこのブログを作成することにしたのです。
The mirror stageを通じて、ヴィジュアル系ならではの音楽の深み、華美なスタイル、独特の世界観等を熱心なファン以外にも多くの方に伝えるのを心がけております。
ご覧いただいている間に感想やコメントをお残しいただければ大変嬉しく思いますので、皆さんのご参加をお楽しみにしております。
メールにてご連絡いただく際には「Contact Us」に掲載されているあて先までお願い致します。どうぞお気軽にメッセージをお送りください。
それでは、今後とも宜しくお願い致します。
