Whats visual kei?

Visual kei (visual style) its a musical movement and subculture created in Japan since in mid-80s.The term "visual kei" is said to have originated from X JAPAN's slogan: "PSYCHEDELIC VIOLENCE CRIME OF VISUAL SHOCK". 

But where does it all starts?

Vkei started in mid 80s with bands like Xjapan,Seikima-ll,D'ERLANGER etc inspired by glam metal,rock and gothic movements.Visual kei became very popular in japan with the help of two record companies: extasy records in tokyo and free-will in osaka. Free-Will is still very popular today for dealing with visual kei bands while Exstasy Records has a US office producing and signing American artists.

In 1992 Xjapan try to enter the American scene with Atlantis Records with their new album but it fails.

In the late 1980s to mid 1990s, visual kei grew in popularity in Japan, and the album sales of visual kei bands began to hit record numbers. The most famous bands at that time were Xjapan, Luna Sea and BuckTick.

During the same period the most "mainstream" bands became Kuroyume, Malice Mizer and Penicillin.

By the late 1990s visual kei was in decline due to the disbandment of the band Xjapan over the death of guitarist Hide in 2000.

Even after this decline the visual kei scene continued to have very popular bands like dir en grey, The Gazette and D'espairsRay who started playing overseas as well

 In 2007, visual kei was revitalized by Luna Sea with a performance and X Japan officially reunited for a new single and

 world tour.

whats visual kei music like?

Visual kei has no specific characterization but contains a heterogeneity of styles incomparable to any other genre.

while remaining in the realm of rock, visual kei is heavily influenced by heavy metal, hard rock, grunge, dark, hard rock, glam, punk, electronica, and also by classical music.

a fusion of several types is often sought to create a theatrical effect

whats the visual kei bands look?

Visual kei bands are very theatrical and take great care of their visual and scenographic aspect but their aim is not only that of their image but also to create a balance between their image and their music.

sitography:wikipedia and visualkei encyclopedia