This paper discusses the shifting mediality and fan practices of Japanese visual kei scene post-COVID fan hierarchy between the Japanese and international fans. The Japanese visual kei scene typically followed a traditional sense of liveness pre-COVID: during the performances fans were prohibited from making recordings or taking photographs; some artists would not upload their music or other content on free-to-use platforms, such as YouTube. In fact, some bands did not even make their content available on music streaming platforms, such as Spotify. Most of the online content that existed was only available on subscription-based platforms, which made it difficult to access for anyone that did not have a paid subscription. It also made it very difficult to share and spread the content across platforms. Additionally, international fans, or fans living outside Japan, had limited access to events and content, reinforcing a hierarchical structure within the fandom. However, once the pandemic started, visual kei artists had no choice but to start using online platforms to survive and so a shift began within the scene. Many artists turned to social media and online platforms to do online events, and eventually started making their content and music available on free-to-use platforms as well as music streaming platforms. This digitalization increased the visibility of international fans and began disrupting the established fan hierarchy. Today, many visual kei performers are utilizing a mixture of these two types of platforms. Through ethnographic observations at online and in-person events, this paper examines these shifts in mediality, performances, and fan hierarchies. It focuses on a concert held by the visual kei band 0.1g no gosan in July 2023 at a live house in Tokyo, exclusively for foreign fans. The analysis shows that this event was different from regular visual kei concerts in terms of mediality, performance style, and fan-performer intimacy. The cameras present were focused more on the international audience than on the performance itself, and there were close-contact interactions such as one-on-one conversations, handshakes, and hugs. The concert was also shorter and free to attend. These elements suggest that 0.1g no gosan may have been experimenting with new performance styles or seeking to create greater harmony between international and Japanese fans in the long run.
Gamze Kelle (Mon,) studied this question.