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Masculinity in Popular Japanese Music

Varying Tolerance in Gender Roles

Written by: DJ Clae

5/25/03

Westerners, upon viewing popular male Japanese musical artists such as Gackt, T.M.Revolution, and Psycho le Cemu, are often struck most by one aspect of these artists' appearance -- Their apparent femininity. Yet Gackt and T.M.Revolution are unquestionably heartthrobs in Japan, attracting mostly female audiences. These men are considered "dream guys" to these women, a model of the ultimate man. However, these men are often perceived to have feminine characteristics by Western audiences, in some cases causing laughter or disgust. Why then are these seemingly feminine men worshipped by teenage girls in Japan? Clearly Japan's music industry, and indeed their very culture, has different standards of masculinity or what makes a man a man, than these Western countries. Bands like Psycho le Cemu and Shazna are allowed to experiment with the boundaries of masculinity while still selling records.

Malice Mizer. Mana is second from left.

Easily one of the most popular male idols in Japan, Camui Gackt, or just plain "Gackt", as he is usually called, does many things that would be considered practically unheard of in Western markets. Though you may be able to find a much more eccentric star in the West, chances are it won't be someone with nearly the mass market appeal and exposure of Gackt. Telling his fans that he was born in 16th Century Norway, Gackt frequently makes his rounds to most of the popular music shows in Japan, confronting hosts with a soft-spoken demeanor and an awkward, intriguing sense of humor. He makes himself lovable on camera by acting as an innocent bystander who never gets involved in the hijinks that can often ensue on Japanese variety shows. His build is extremely skinny, almost frail. The introductions to his concerts regularly boast dramatic stories in which Gackt collapsed and had to be hospitalized because of how hard he worked on his music. The reliability of these accounts is uncertain. Gackt had operatic vocal training, rendering his current music excessively dramatic and highly emotional. He is not afraid to sing with a high, beautiful, and perhaps even effeminate voice. He wears jewelry and seems to make every effort to give himself a beautiful appearance. I have had American friends catch a glimpse of Gackt on my computer screen or in magazines and mistake him for a woman on a number of occasions. Since I am accustomed to Gackt's appearance, he seems not only certainly a man, but quite reasonably masculine to my eyes, so it is difficult for me personally to immediately understand how my friends could mistake Gackt for a woman.

Before Gackt was a solo artists, he was the vocalist of the band, Malice Mizer. Malice Mizer could be considered the "poster child" visual-kei band. "Called 'visual' because of a heavy emphasis put on flashy appearance and style, visual[-kei] bands are made up of all men who dress up in fashionable clothes, sport wild and colourful hair and often wear makeup. All of this results in an androgynous look that takes some getting used to..."¹ Though Malice Mizer was never widely known in Japan, because they consistently pushed visual-kei to its limits, they came to epitomize what visual-kei is, gaining much attention from Japanese rock fans outside of Japan. Most notable is the band's guitarist, Mana. Mana always wore a woman's dress, white makeup, and long hair in all of the band's videos, making him quite indiscernible from a genuine female. In fact, to this day the band's fans don't really know what Mana looks like without his dress and makeup. The look can be quite disconcerting for Westerners who have never been exposed to visual-kei.

Takanori Nishikawa, better known in the music world as "T.M.Revolution", is a pop artist who isn't afraid to show his feminine side. Often performing extraordinarily dramatic techno music, he wears makeup, long hair, and jewelry. Yet, the majority of his fans are female. He fits into a category of famous Japanese males who are not afraid to look 'beautiful'. To most people he seems unrecognizable as a man on the cover of his 1999 album, "The Force".

Left: T.M.Revolution. Right: Cover of T.M.Revolution's "The Force" album.

Izam in the "Pink" video.

Izam, the vocalist of Shazna, takes the feminine look to a whole new level, combining not only the female image, but also a feminine singing style that goes beyond what even many Japanese rock fans are able to comfortably tolerate. In the video for the band's "PINK" single, Izam dresses as a fairy in a purple robe, practically displaying the most feminine, gentle, nurturing tone conceivably possible from anyone. This display is so intensive that it can take on a sarcastic tone, however. Whether the song and promotion video were meant to be taken seriously or not, it is likely that people of any culture will laugh at this display. Simply because this music was able to reach the Japanese music market on such a wide scale, I will make the argument that Japanese viewers were more tolerant of this video than an American audience conceivably would be. In the case of Izam, many viewers actually thought that the artist actually was gay, and not just pretending. Because of the coincidence of dates, it is arguable that the band gained some popularity with homosexual fans looking to support such work, but then lost some popularity when Izam came out as heterosexual.

A Mana cosplayer.

Because of the visual appeal of many Japanese bands, fans have taken to 'cosplaying' the band members, much in the same way that anime fans cosplay their favorite anime characters. This adds to the cult appeal of visual-kei style in the West. Unheard of and probably thought of as quite odd by most Americans, visual-kei cosplayers can take pleasure in openly defying the conventions of their own society, a society that may already make them feel ostracized for listening to Japanese music in the first place. Mana of Malice Mizer seems to be one of the most popular cosplay choices. Fans may try to imitate their music idols. Take this message board contributor for example: "I actually dyed my hair pink for hide Day [...] I used real, PERMANENT hair dye! And it cost me 80 bucks to get it cut, colored and styled!"² This female fan may have disregarded her Western society's opinion of the style, openly defying it in order to identify with the Japanese artist she loves. Red hair may also be associated with the punk movement in the US, but this fan dyed her hair in order to identify with a Japanese artist instead. The Western cosplayers illustrate a willingness to embrace the Japanese music style, including its differing standards of masculinity, after they have become accustomed to it.

For Westerners unfamiliar with Japanese music, the visual style can be a bit too much of a shock at first, sometimes even causing them to dismiss the artist in question entirely. A member at J-Fan Message Boards commented, in a discussion about introducing Japanese music to non-Japanese people, "I heard Malice Mizer before I saw them. That is why I could accept them [...] If I saw them first, I would have been turned off. But when I think of it, their visual style is so... charming."³ This person clearly had a hard time accepting Malice Mizer's appearance, and only did after getting used to their music first, allowing the chance to gradually accept the band without knowing what they looked like. This writer didn't mention it here, but it was likely assumed by the other contributors that the aspect of Malice Mizer's appearance the writer found most difficult to grasp was their presumably feminine qualities.

For a counter viewpoint, let's visit an editorial titled "Those Damn Japs" on a gentleman's web site. Whether his viewpoint is meant to be sarcastic or not, it provides a rather good stereotypical look into the Western view of such artists I've discussed above. In reference to visual-kei bands he says, "They are abominations. Are they male or are they female? [...]This coupled with the natural effeminate nature of Japanese males increases their estrogen level to that of a typical Japanese female."⁴ Though imprudent, the comments offer insight into a potential Western interpretation of gender in Japanese music. Male artists who openly display traditionally feminine characteristics may be thought of as unsavory, unnatural, undesirable, or laughable.

Gackt's musician engages in activities on stage with Gackt.

Of course an obvious Western interpretation of the so-called feminine clothing and behavior displayed by male Japanese musicians is that the artists are homosexual. In fact, in some cases the artists' actions do support this. Gackt often engages in sexually explicit behaviors with his male support musicians on stage during his concerts. He has pulled down the pants of a male guitarist and climbed on him on stage during an early tour, for example. At first fans didn't seem to know what to think of this during the first concert tours, but now they often give an excited cheer when Gackt gets dirty with his support members on stage. Gackt has even posed nude in photos, some of which show him in intimate positions with one of the same support musicians. Yet on music shows like "Utaban", the hosts have asked Gackt what kind of women he likes, making the assumption that he is heterosexual. It seems that even after all of these obvious displays of homosexual tendencies, whether they reflect Gackt's actual preference or not, an artist is innocent until proven guilty in the Japanese music scene. Artists can behave this way and still be considered masculine and heterosexual by the masses.

Nude photo of Gackt with his support member, Masa.

The cultural discord between Western and Japanese standards of masculinity may be traceable back to earlier traditions. For example, the males who played female characters in kabuki theater, known as "onnagata", either illustrate Japanese society's willingness to accept men in female roles, or perhaps set precedent for later trends. Also, it is acceptable in traditional Japanese society for men to have long hair. Long hair was an important symbol to samurai. Cultural differences certainly are at work here, and it is highly possible that current standards are a product of past ones.

One more important aspect of masculinity in Japanese music is, obviously, the sound of the music itself. I have already talked about this briefly in the sections about specific artists above, but now I want to focus specifically on the pitch and style of the vocals. Generally in Japanese rock bands, the vocalist can regularly reach quite a high pitch. This is in stark contrast to many of the punk and metal bands popular in the US today, in which low, sometimes almost growling, vocals are considered the true masculine sound. A great example of these Japanese bands with generally high-pitched vocals would be Ryuichi Kawamura, the vocalist of Luna Sea, or hyde of L'Arc~en~Ciel. These two vocalists both regularly sing at a pitch that I've found can be surprisingly high, and sometimes almost uncomfortable to American ears for that reason. I found the tone strange myself when I first started listening to these bands, before I was used to Japanese vocal standards. Also, vocalists often generally seem unafraid to use a very gentle, beautiful, highly emotional style in their singing, and hyde is an excellent example of this. Other than that, I don't believe that any compelling generalizations about the actual sound or the style of the music in relation to gender can be made.

Many contemporary Japanese musical artists are able to openly display characteristics that have been traditionally associated with femininity in both Western and Eastern contexts and are still thought of as idols to be worshipped by screaming female fans. Perhaps the artists who push gender roles to a lesser extreme, such as Gackt and T.M.Revolution, are not redefining gender, but are simply displaying gender boundaries that are different in Japan than they are in most Western countries. In other words, Gackt is not going out of his way to play with gender, but is only doing his best to 'look cool' and give the fans what they want. In this case what the fans seem to want is a 'beautiful man' who can display high levels of emotion and sensitivity when he sings. Bands like Malice Mizer, Shazna, and Psycho le Cemu play with these boundaries, a trend that seems to be acceptable in a Japanese market, where their videos and those of many similar artists have been aired regularly. While artists like Boy George have made a splash with 'gender-bending' in the U.S., it seems to be treated more as a novelty not to be taken seriously, rather than a mainstay in the U.S. music scene. Varying cultural values and levels of exposure can affect our ability to tolerate such art forms. 'Beautiful men' like Gackt show a discrepancy between Western and Japanese standards of masculinity, while visual-kei bands like Malice Mizer show a openness to gender experimentation in Japan's entertainment industry not found in the Western analog.

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