[Discussion] Help or hinderance?
GACKT is, for lack of a better phrase, a sex symbol. He has a reputation and image of being beautiful and cool, and with the body to match. He’s always featured in those “best body”, “best looking”, “most beautiful man” polls and is usually voted for by more people than just his DEARS.
If I say to someone, here in Japan, that I’m a GACKT fan, the initial reaction is always that he’s cool. Or that he has a pretty face. It’s never that he’s a good singer, or that his music is good. The music always seems to be an afterthought with him, doesn’t it?
So, is GACKT’s reputation and image of being beautiful a help or hindrance to his career as a singer now?
By now, I mean literally now. In the year 2011.
When he first joined Malice Mizer and first went solo, his looks would have been a bonus. A frontman of a band like that can’t be ugly, and a solo singer marketed the way he was can’t be either. He has, without doubt, used his looks and played on people’s perception of him in order to help him get where he is today.
I’m equally sure that he likes the attention he gets for being pretty. He covets it. He works hard to get that attention, to be seen in that way and to have the girls fall for him not only because of the ego boost, but because he’s savvy enough to realise that it will result in increased record sales. If he can hook them with how he looks, then that’s half the battle in getting someone to listen to him and then in turn, buy a record.
But, despite all of this, he’s also an artist. And one that obviously takes great pride in his work.
He never half asses things. He puts his all into his music, he’s constantly trying to improve his music and his shows, to try something different and give us all a reason to stick with his music. Just watch the DIABOLOS documentary and see how much work GACKT and his staff put into that one show. Sure, it was the Tokyo Dome, but every VISUALIVE tour has that amount of work poured into it. Watch a couple of YFC shows and see how insanely rehearsed, planned and choreographed they are, purely because GACKT wants to give the best show he can. Every performance of Nemuri Kyoshiro was recorded and watched back by GACKT so that he could see where improvements could be made and with the amount of staff cameras around the venues in Europe, I wouldn’t be surprised if he did the same with the YFC Europe shows.
So, as someone who puts all of this time into his music (and acting and everything else he does), do you think the lack of acknowledgement he gets for it all is annoying to him? How many awards does he win for his music compared to how many he wins for his looks? Even his fans, his DEARS, seem to spend more time talking about his face, his hair or the contents of his pants than his music.
I’m not ranting and saying we should only talk about his music, and nothing else. I can get dragged into (kicking and screaming against my will XD) the perverted chats on Twitter just as easily as anybody else can and there’s nothing wrong with those. As I said, he does encourage it. But I do feel that sometimes, there’s too much emphasis on that, and not enough on the music.
After all, it’s the music that bought us all here, right?
I must admit that if I had seen GACKT before I’d heard him, I don’t think I ever would have given him a chance. I come from many years of listening only to hard rock and heavy metal and it’s kinda pushed into your brain that prettiness equals no musical talent whatsoever. I’d have seen GACKT and thrown him into the “can’t sing, can’t write, can’t play but looks good” category and would never have even listened to him. Honestly, that’s kinda frightening to me, that I could have done that if things had worked out differently. I'd have missed so many wonderful things and never met so many wonderful people. But, I wonder how many others dismiss him because of that… If he wasn’t as pretty, would more people give him a chance?
There does seem to have been an increase in discussing him purely in sexual terms. Again, nothing wrong with that, but when it’s all that is ever spoken about, it makes me feel like asking if people have ever actually heard him sing at all.
Because ultimately, the sexiest and most beautiful part of GACKT is that wonderful voice, IMO. I’ve never heard a singer who can just drag me into their world as easily as GACKT can. Even when I didn’t understand a word of Japanese, I could feel every note. I think GACKT was the first artist who truly made me believe that music can transcend language and cultural barriers.
Sometimes it appears that his voice and music are being ignored in favour of incessant magnum jokes and hair discussion (and again, in moderation, there's nothing wrong with either).
I hope that nobody takes offence at this little ramble of mine. I'm not saying that we can't have fun at GACKT's expense with GACKT, it just seems sometimes that his music is being taken for granted. I think everyone should choose their favourite album, sit back with their eyes closed and just listen. It sounds so wonderful, right?
Never forget how wonderful it sounds XD
Now to lighten the tone slightly, here's GACKT doing what he does best - being pretty singing.
If I say to someone, here in Japan, that I’m a GACKT fan, the initial reaction is always that he’s cool. Or that he has a pretty face. It’s never that he’s a good singer, or that his music is good. The music always seems to be an afterthought with him, doesn’t it?
So, is GACKT’s reputation and image of being beautiful a help or hindrance to his career as a singer now?
By now, I mean literally now. In the year 2011.
When he first joined Malice Mizer and first went solo, his looks would have been a bonus. A frontman of a band like that can’t be ugly, and a solo singer marketed the way he was can’t be either. He has, without doubt, used his looks and played on people’s perception of him in order to help him get where he is today.
I’m equally sure that he likes the attention he gets for being pretty. He covets it. He works hard to get that attention, to be seen in that way and to have the girls fall for him not only because of the ego boost, but because he’s savvy enough to realise that it will result in increased record sales. If he can hook them with how he looks, then that’s half the battle in getting someone to listen to him and then in turn, buy a record.
But, despite all of this, he’s also an artist. And one that obviously takes great pride in his work.
He never half asses things. He puts his all into his music, he’s constantly trying to improve his music and his shows, to try something different and give us all a reason to stick with his music. Just watch the DIABOLOS documentary and see how much work GACKT and his staff put into that one show. Sure, it was the Tokyo Dome, but every VISUALIVE tour has that amount of work poured into it. Watch a couple of YFC shows and see how insanely rehearsed, planned and choreographed they are, purely because GACKT wants to give the best show he can. Every performance of Nemuri Kyoshiro was recorded and watched back by GACKT so that he could see where improvements could be made and with the amount of staff cameras around the venues in Europe, I wouldn’t be surprised if he did the same with the YFC Europe shows.
So, as someone who puts all of this time into his music (and acting and everything else he does), do you think the lack of acknowledgement he gets for it all is annoying to him? How many awards does he win for his music compared to how many he wins for his looks? Even his fans, his DEARS, seem to spend more time talking about his face, his hair or the contents of his pants than his music.
I’m not ranting and saying we should only talk about his music, and nothing else. I can get dragged into (kicking and screaming against my will XD) the perverted chats on Twitter just as easily as anybody else can and there’s nothing wrong with those. As I said, he does encourage it. But I do feel that sometimes, there’s too much emphasis on that, and not enough on the music.
After all, it’s the music that bought us all here, right?
I must admit that if I had seen GACKT before I’d heard him, I don’t think I ever would have given him a chance. I come from many years of listening only to hard rock and heavy metal and it’s kinda pushed into your brain that prettiness equals no musical talent whatsoever. I’d have seen GACKT and thrown him into the “can’t sing, can’t write, can’t play but looks good” category and would never have even listened to him. Honestly, that’s kinda frightening to me, that I could have done that if things had worked out differently. I'd have missed so many wonderful things and never met so many wonderful people. But, I wonder how many others dismiss him because of that… If he wasn’t as pretty, would more people give him a chance?
There does seem to have been an increase in discussing him purely in sexual terms. Again, nothing wrong with that, but when it’s all that is ever spoken about, it makes me feel like asking if people have ever actually heard him sing at all.
Because ultimately, the sexiest and most beautiful part of GACKT is that wonderful voice, IMO. I’ve never heard a singer who can just drag me into their world as easily as GACKT can. Even when I didn’t understand a word of Japanese, I could feel every note. I think GACKT was the first artist who truly made me believe that music can transcend language and cultural barriers.
Sometimes it appears that his voice and music are being ignored in favour of incessant magnum jokes and hair discussion (and again, in moderation, there's nothing wrong with either).
I hope that nobody takes offence at this little ramble of mine. I'm not saying that we can't have fun at GACKT's expense with GACKT, it just seems sometimes that his music is being taken for granted. I think everyone should choose their favourite album, sit back with their eyes closed and just listen. It sounds so wonderful, right?
Never forget how wonderful it sounds XD
Now to lighten the tone slightly, here's GACKT doing what he does best - being pretty singing.