Visual Kei

Visual Kei (ヴィジュアル系,

Visual Kei (ヴィジュアル系, vijuaru kei^?, literally "visual style") refers to a movement in Japanese rock which started in the 1980s and became widely popular in Japan by the 1990s.

Some fans believe that the visual kei movement was started "almost single handedly"^{[citation needed]} by X Japan, however a rising trend of utilizing visual shock to gain membership in the independent scene was well in effect by the time X went major; they may be seen in this sense not as a catalyst for the movement, but a mechanism to involve dominant Japanese popular culture with it.