So I wanted to provide an update in case Sakura isn't able to get back to this topic: - It's believed the reason the album was never released was due to internal issues between band members, mainly Yoshiki and Toshi. Toshi has erased his involvement in X Japan for a long while and way back then, Pata had once said in an interview that his contract with X Japan wasn't renewed. All of this was hinted at for years, but didn't fully become the "assumed" reason right until the infamous no-audience show (as fans call it). - Yoshiki has been doing different projects for years now, the most recent one being a project called 'The Last Rockstars" as well as his own brand promotions. He does at times make it clear that X will return, but so far nothing. - X Japan did drop a new song called "Angel", but it seemed to just be a Yoshiki song with the X Japan name. - Tragically near the end of 2023, bassist Heath (who replaced the highly beloved Taiji) passed away due to what was later on revealed to be cancer. Despite Yoshiki making it clear he wanted to continue X in memory and dedication to Heath, still nothing has come up since, and he and Toshi still were on bad terms even during and after Heath memorials. So quite honestly, X Japan probably is never going to release that new album they teased in the 2010s..
@@oAPXo Lmao 🤣😂 I take it you have never heard Keeper of the seven keys by Halloween? Bc in my ears these guys was all highly Influenced by that band specifically. X is legit just a glam power metal band.
@@oAPXo then again both bands came out around the same time lol but they sound too similar for X to not be considered to be in the same genre. To me tho Visual Kai started as an off shoot of power metal.
@@dangalangman7379 I have to hard disagree here. I think early X is more Trash, Speed and Heavy Metal than Power Metal. Only from Jealousy onwards could I call X Japan power metal with good conscience, but even then it's a stretch imo. Metal genres are often defined by their lyrics too. X Japan never really ventured to Power Metal territory in their lyrics. If anything Visual Kei started as an offshoot of Glam Metal.
Your comment just made me remember a music video some emo kid sent me a link to in the late 00’s that I’ve been trying and failing to remember the name to for years. I still don’t know the song title, but it was 100% The Gazette. I’m gonna go searching for it now, thank you!
@@okayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy try Cassis, Reila, Zetsu, or Filth in the Beauty. They probably had more videos in the 2000s, but I can't remember them all.
When yoshiki did his classical Tour I went to see him and actually met him in front of his hotel after a few hours of waiting there lol. We had a little chat, took a photo together and he hugged me. He was very polite even tho he just arrived and it was about 2 in the morning in Berlin. Such a kind hearted person and maybe the best smelling human I've ever met. I'll never forget this.
Genuinely great band who made the most of the glam rock aesthetic. Somewhat of a shame that their glory days came to a close right around the same time the internet took off.
X-Japan had a bit of a falling out after the last live, HIDE also had a very large following for his solo career. They did a last live around that time and sort of politely bowed out of the scene. They've done a few concerts since then and the band lead (and drummer) Yoshiki is still active on social media and does quite a number of classical music concerts. Recently he and a few other popular rock artists have formed a temporary band called The Last Rockstars. A couple notations: Japanese rock bands don't typically follow western ideas of bands. There's not a considered lead guitarist and the lead isn't always the singer.
I always loved how they brought a clearly Japanese aesthetic to glam, too, which in turn spread globally. Their makeup and hair, especially early on, clearly take cues from Kabuki. Just as an aside, a lot of what's weird or unique about Japanese pop culture has its roots in kabuki. The crazy hair, striking weird poses to punctuate what you said, having a passionate hothead character paired with an intellectual introvert, all kinds of sound effects and vocalizations, it all comes from kabuki. From the 1910s through the 1950s it was the most popular genre of entertainment on TV and radio. Especially before industrialization, it was typical for cityswellers to get off work and go to a play, where they could socialize/drink while checking out the show (which were often multipart, 12 hour sagas). When new forms of entertainment and media starting rolling out im the postwar era, it built on the vocabulary and style of kabuki It had imprinted itself onto mass media and pop entertainment, as something that everyone was familiar with.
@@elwiwi4638 I wouldn't really say that it's a pun (at least not one made by me). If you're talking about the word "ecstasy" in relation to musicians, it's far more likely that you're talking about the drug rather than sexual euphoria, especially in the 90's. The band EMF (best known for the song "Unbelievable" ) literally stands for "Ecstacy, Mother F***er".
Nabashin avatar, you my dude are a man of true class. Excel Saga is truly under appreciated these days and I think we could use a little bit more " quack experimental" anime in our lives.
@@WeWillAlwaysHaveVALIS Excel Saga, definitely one of the best things I ever witnessed in my whole life. A great source of inspiration back in my teen days.
I haven't seen a comment about it, but the influence of X Japan is so big, they were a big inspiration on the early days of KPOP. Apparently, Lee Soo Man (SMent founder and former CEO) was a big X fan, and wanted to replicate X's success in Korea. Actually that was the main goal when he formed TRAX, and got Yoshiki involved in great part of the project. Truly amazing.
True! Ex-TVXQ's Jaejoong is still a huge fan and posts pictures of meeting them, and Changmin amazingly covered "Rusyt Nail" during a concert (I think he's one of very few people who can actually hit the same notes as Toshi)
Seo Taiji ended up meeting hide’s family and PATA. He even got one of hide’s signature guitars from them too. ruclips.net/video/fWOazSyzS60/видео.html&feature=shared
It makes me so sad Hide passed. Personally I prefer his solo music over X’s music, and it makes me so depressed that he had so many more things to do. He is my favorite member and a big inspiration for me as a guitarist. I love Hide so much. I only discovered him a month or two ago, but I instantly became obsessed. I had heard about X Japan many times before since I have been a fan of visual kei for two years, but I didn’t really start listening until recently because a friend of my mine really liked Hide. When I first heard about Hide’s passing it made me sad as a visual kei fan because I knew many of my favorite musicians looked up to him. Now it makes me much sadder as a fan of him as well. Thank you for making this video I hope more people learn about X Japan.
@@Sperminski whoa, wait just a minute there! Music and musicians never get stale, especially when they craft music that spans the decades! Show some respect!
Yoshiki has been through a lot. He just recently lost his mother this year and had to cancel some concerts because he needs to grieve and was talking about it on his twitter account.
Finally, a good video on Visual Kei that isn't sensationalizing! I pretty much live, breathe Visual Kei and so many people on youtube get the genre wrong
I thought VK wasn't a set genre, but more so multiple genres that evolved overtime where members of a band would focus on the visual aspects of their appearance to stand out
@@Blue_XIII You’re absolutely right. Visual Kei is a fashion movement made to stand out and look as shocking as possible. There’s no specific music genre linked to it, though it is mostly different types of rock/metal. Most fans (especially newer ones) for some reason don’t acknowledge or even know that.
I saw X Japan live in London and they literally didn't want the concert to end. It was the most encores I've seen in my life. Very memorable experience
In my opinion and what I've heard, Taiji had a lot of musical differences to what they have been producing. He did compose and produce some of their songs like Xclamation, Voiceless Screaming, and Desperate Angel. You can kinda hear the differences. Taiji also wasn't talkative much unless you knew him well. He never really talked on interviews nor interacted with it much. Yoshiki and him were not on the best of terms, so he refused to talk to Yoshiki on an interview, which involves calling Yoshiki. That's all I know, but yeah 🤷♀️
Excellent video! I started listening to X Japan in high school (aging myself, around 2006) and I went down the rabbit hole then. It was great to get a refresher on this band. RIP Hide. Also, Yoshiki and Sugizo are now a part of the new collaboration with Hyde and Miyavi, The Last Rockstars. They tour next year.
This is such an amazing video, thanks for putting this together. I was able to meet Yoshiki in a Q&A while he was touring during the release of "We are X", and you can tell how humble, genuine and cool he is. Even followed me on Twitter after posting a video and tagging him while he was entering the auditorium after the documentary ended. After their recent single release I hope they finally release a full album. Can't get enough of them. Also talking about cool anime videos with X Japan songs, "Rusty Nail" is definitely my favorite and if people reading this is just getting into the band, I highly recommend it.
X Japan might be one of the most influential groups in Japanese (and asian in general) pop culture as a whole, not just music. Their impact was immense beyond anything words could describe.
I got to see X Japan play live in Toronto when I was a teenager, and it's still one of the most incredible events I've ever been to. Yoshiki is a musical genius
Speaking as someone who's obsessed with rock history and band lore, you did an amazing job on this especially considering most of your videos don't seem to be music related. I've wanted to get into X Japan for a while, but I'd always been unsure of which songs or albums to start with and intimidated by a band with such a long career and so much drama and so many different members to learn about. This is a PERFECT way to get introduced to them. Great work!
I loved X growing up, hide was my favorite I even wanted to dye my hair pink because of him. When he died I was so heartbroken I blacked him out until like 10 years later when I saw him on RUclips in 2008 and all the sadness i remember came back.
I remember there was a Taeyang doll made of Hide and at the time, I had no idea he was based off someone from such a surprisingly influential band! Awesome video! I think I'll give their music a shot!
Something I really loved during the revival was that everytime the band would perform "X" (the song) they'd do the introduction of the band members naming everyone, with footage of both Hide and Taiji, even playing a weird ass chant Hide would say everytime when playing that song before resuming. Makes me cry everytime I revisit those concerts.
This was such a trip down memory lane! I'm going to date myself here, but I remember hitting those high notes in "Forever Love" (downloaded that from Napster) while singing along in my dorm room in the early 2000s. It's so dramatic and I love it. Rintaro did his best with the X/1999 movie but you're right that it's meh at best. But it did get a lot of anime fans of my generation into X Japan, so a lot of good came of it.
Man, I did not expect that segment about Hidei’s death to hit me so hard. I’ve never listened to X Japan before (at least not consciously, Its likely I’ve heard something before without realizing its them), but I used to be a huge Linkin Park fan, I’ve listened to them my whole life, and Chester’s suicide still affects me to this day. I was talking to one of my closest friends just a week ago or so about it, she got into the band after me but became a *hardcore* fan; I told her how she was the first person I thought of when I heard the news of Chester’s passing, how I wanted to make sure she was okay, and we talked about how even though its been a couple years we both still deal with these complex feelings about him being gone. She informed me about this solo album another Linkin Park member made after Chester’s death that’s all centered around his own grieving process - I haven’t listened to it yet because I know it’s going to mess me up. There have been a lot of celebrity passings over the past few years, and while I’ve felt shock and sympathy and sadness, nothing’s ever felt as personal as this, that was the first time I truly mourned the loss of somebody I never personally knew. Its weird, but at the same time seeing that footage of all those openly grieving fans I *felt* that. I really don’t know how I feel about going to someone’s funeral with the intention to self-harm, though, that’s the first I’ve heard of this phenomenon and that’s really worrying.
Hides death definitely leaves you feeling very empty and grief-stricken. I first saw that footage of the grieving fans about 7 years ago and it hit me pretty hard. Hide was such an integral part of X and his absence left this gaping hole of grief that is very difficult to look past now. Chester’s suicide was another awful incident. Both of these deaths could have been prevented or stopped and I feel like that makes thinking about it even more sobering.
@@SakuraStardust I highly doubt that both suicides were preventable, considering that Hideto "Hide" Matsumoto was a chronic Alcoholic and Workaholic (an extreme workaholic even by Japanese standards, a nation infamous for having a distinctively heavy crunch culture that has killed many a Mangaka over the decades by the insane overwork itself) who once had a set of four nightclub gigs in ONE NIGHT (on the 26th of August 1997, just before X Japan disbanded 4 months later). Chester Bennington had marital disputes (he was a former divorcee and sired a son from a previous relationship in the mid-90s) and a history of substance abuse caused by a childhood affected by a rather traumatic incident where he was sexually molested as a child from the age of 7 to 13. Despite having a father who was a policeman who was assigned to cases where children were sexually assaulted, Chester refrained from confessing due to his fear of being possibly outed as a homosexual for speaking out about his assault in the environment of 1970s-80s Arizona, a deeply Conservative State that remains conservative to this day. One thing about musicians (something that non-musicians don't and will not understand, not due to any sense of a "hardwired refusal" to understand, but a cultural language barrier that persists between musicians and fans who are NOT musicians), particularly musicians who tour constantly, is that the sheer effort of one gig takes a toll on their physical and mental health. This is exacerbated by the fact that since the Isle of Wright and Glastonbury Festivals of the 1970s, record labels favour this inhumane cycle of "Record, Tour, Crunch, Repeat" due to the El Dorado levels of wealth you can milk from these escapades. It's here, where you'll see many North American, North European, British and Irish musicians turn to drugs, and in the case of East and especially Northeast Asia, an area that is very, VERY Anti-Drugs in domestic and foreign policy, you'll see musicians, particularly Japanese musicians turn to alcoholism, both hedonistic actions destroy what little mental faculty existed in the past, let alone what Drugs and Alcohol already do in causing damage (with some of that physical damage being terminal) to the Human body. Just to keep the music alive at the expense of keeping themselves alive. And even in the case of Bennington, who got clean in the end, was still left with the mental damage of drug abuse, made worse by the extensive touring Linkin Park underwent for the best part of 15 years, including several world tours and the case of Linkin Park themselves, even had yearly tours under the "Projekt Revolution" moniker across North America, the UK and Mainland Europe. Only recently have there been published studies from Peer-Reviewed Journals that have looked deeply into the mentally degrading potential that crunch culture has on musicians, particularly festival tours and long recording sessions, and by "recently", I mean in EARLY-MID 2022, as most studies pertaining to the matter and subject of crunch culture have primarily focused on construction, office work and most frequently, Computer Game development. In fact, with this in mind, I can argue that both Hideto Matsumoto's and Chester Bennington's suicides were inevitable, if not, then they were readily expected and predictable.
@@ECW5320 Look at David Carradine, you can totally kill yourself in such a fashion, especially considering that he was drunk at the time and was mentally addled with the whole collapse of the band and crunching his arse off with nightclub tours which are known for destroying multiple musicians mentally. Plus, Hide was alone at the time of his death, he had no mistresses or assistants at hand.
@@DR3ADER1 Carradine's death reads like auto erotic asphyxia gone bad. The towel was under Hide's chin, not around his neck nor was there bruising on his neck. Hide even said in an interview the day before his death that when drunk he couldn't sleep, so he'd find something to do until he'd randomly pass out. Hide did have a girlfriend at the time of his death, her identity is unknown, but it's been speculated that it was his stylist.
I have never known about them before I found out about Buck-tick. I saw Yoshiki in a few interviews with them and Sakurai and also other visual kei musicians. So this video was incredibly helpful!💖 It's sad that their fate was so cruel, but I guess good things don't last long.
32:42 What's crazy is, Yoshiki, Sugizo, and Miavi formed a new group 15 years later, The last rockstars. This time, HYDE is the vocalist. Kinda interesting fact. 2022 skin.
I feel like comparing Toshi's ex-wife to Yoko Ono is unfair to Yoko, since she actually loved John & wasn't trying to drag him into a money-grab cult. EDIT: Okay, taking it back cuz apparently there's a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that Yoko pulled that I didn't know.
I don’t know, Yoko was also pretty awful to Johns son from his first marriage. Despite the sincerity of their marriage, I don’t think Yoko Ono was well-liked by many people (especially George lol)
Yoko-ono tried to insert herself every where into Johns work and life, being not only a nuisance to the band but also woulf behinder him At his work (like the infamous John screaming during a recording session) It sometimes felt for me like she loved more his artists persona then him as human, due to disrespecting boundaries so much often and being a famous example of being "that girl" when people refer to troublemaker gf's that probably caused the band to split up due to her inserting themselves into the band.
It makes me pretty happy to see someone talk about this wonderful band even to this day. You told us everything with great details! Thank you for your dedication! Greetings from Brazil.
Gee, if only RUclips had thought to put this video in front of me before this morning! Sakura, you did a great job at conveying such a complex history in a very approachable way without getting bogged down in all the gorier personal drama. (Though those would be great material for a follow-up video!) I'm not somebody who cares much about bands, or even particular kinds of music (weird, I know). X Japan is the one exception. Their story and the intensity of their fandom are what drew me into them initially, but they've got something all their own that keeps me interested. Yoshiki and hide in particular may be two of the bravest and most fascinating people who ever lived. Sadly, I was born about two months or so after hide's passing. It's been on my bucket list for years to go to Japan and leave pink flowers on his grave. He definitely deserves the tribute.
I’ve been listening to X Japan for over two years now (since I got into Japanese music) and I’m a huge fan of X, Hide, and Visual Kei in general. This video is very informative and I’m surprised that I learned some new things about the band! X is so influential and important to Visual Kei and J-Rock in general, thanks so much for making this video. Awesome work :)
I’ve been listening to this band since I was very very young thanks to my uncle having friends in Japan and I always looked up to Hide. He’s the reason I picked up guitar and I didn’t find out about his death til I was about 13 when my uncle finally told me. Still breaks my heart
I forgot to comment! X is one of my favourite bands but I wasn't aware of how these events actually went down and I was very little when hide died so this was very illuminating regarding their cultural impact and the tragedy and you presented it all in a very elegant and respectful way. They've been through so much. Great video!
Such a great video! I was waiting for this one. I think it is hard to compress their history in less than 50 minutes, so good job! Nice that you included pictures of COLOR and AION since they all came out around the same time X started to look like what only later would have been called "visual kei" (at least, the look of visual kei's first wave in the 80s). KISS inspiration was fundamental to Yoshiki in the 70s when he formed his proto-X bands before 1982. Having being obsessed with X in the 2000s, becoming also a crazy X collector during my university days, I have some clarifications (just for the sake of precision): 6:22 Taiji joined briefly joined in 1985 but soon left. He rejoined in late 1986 replacing Hikaru and became the third official member. 33:19 All rumors about the reunion have been confirmed on the official website some days before the I.V. shooting on the rooftop. I was following the entire thing daily at that time (yes back then I was so obsessed ah ah). Also, 6:51 That's Taiji :D 8:41 That's Pata
One thing you forgot to mention is that early X was heavily inspired by KISS. When I saw KISS live a year ago I could definitely see the inspiration. Also, I've never watched the Last Live. Ever. Even after being a fan of the band for over five years now I haven't watched it. I just can't bring myself to. I would just get too emotional.
I'm not very familiar with Japanese music outside of some anime OPs and EDs that I keep in my playlists. I had never heard of this band before and it was fascinating learning about them. I just went to listen to some of their songs and I was blown away, these guys are awesome! I wish I had discovered them back in the day, but there's just no way I could before the 2010s.
I happened to come across X Japan thanks to one of the premium movie channels showing the X/1999 OVA in the early 00s. "Forever Love" instantly *broke* me. Not many bands or songs do that to me. Rare enough my mother liked to tell people about it. I followed Yoshiki on Myspace for years after I found him on there. Edit: I partially blame Yoshiki's self-professed perfectionism for that untitled album basically becoming lost media
Great video, learned a lot of new things even though I was a huge fan of the band when growing up. I think worth mentioning is that Hair Metal/Glam Metal wasn't a completely new thing in Japan when X came around. The band Loudness had been huge in Japan previously and even somewhat broke into US markets in the early 80s. Ofc X Japan took their visuals to whole another level, but I think Loudness played a big part in the whole jrock lineage. Taiji even later played in the band briefly after leaving X. Also you didn't mention hide's other band Zilch at all. The band consisted mostly american musicians together with hide and I.N.A (also from spread beaver). I'd recommend that band to anyone who likes hide and the spread beaver. It's a bit more alt/industrial compared to hide's previous work, but really cool.
Excellent video! X Japan was a big inspiration for a lot of other VK bands I got into through the years (especially ones like Janne Da Arc, DEG and the GazettE). You should do a video on PIERROT/Kirito if possible. I think you'd do it justice! 😊
I lived in Japan from 2005-2010 and went to local shows every single weekend from random local Japanese bands to tool to mindless self indulgence. I befriended many band members in bands like Chokesleeper and Silence Iz Mine. I even dated a drummer from a band called Laugh Life. Japanese music scene is amazing and so fun
they brought me to Dir En Grey, particularly... but what's strange is I started checking out Japanese metal because of Vomit Remnants, my all time fave and sadly a very niche band even for its main genre... And man, Yoshiki's drumming is so underrated that it felt like it was a crime comparing them to the western "counterparts" in this video... it hangs in the fringes of extreme metal, the guy even slips in a few blast beats here and there for something they made in the late 80s - early 90s
This is seriously one of the most underrated channels on RUclips - you do so much in depth research and your passion and respect for your topics is evident. Keep up the good work!
Watching this brought back so many memories, I got into Visual Kei and japanese culture because of the swedish band Seremedy and then Yohio, I just wished someone would remember Yohio today as his music is great with both his solo career and his bands Awoken by silence and DISREIGN!
Not sure how, why or why now but lately I've been seeing a looot of jrock/visual kei related documentaries here on youtube and boy oh boy do we need this kind of content. Well structured, amazingly narrated and properly researched, thats the kind of shit we need.
I was first introduced to X Japan through the movie version of "X", "Forever Love" was the ending theme for that movie & I was absolutely obsessed with it. Through the years, X Japan has been such a monumental influence to me musically, especially Toshi for his vocals & Yoshiki with his songwriting & lyricism being the core to my own pursuit of music (e.g. I'm a budding Vocaloid producer, but lyricist first). I can't say anymore than what has already been said about the band, they're unique, their music is both beautiful & full of strength; It was their music that gave me the willpower to face my Mother's death, to change myself to be a better & stronger woman over the years. Their music, their presence has done far more to comfort me & inspire me than anyone else in my life has. I'm incredibly grateful to exist in the same era as X Japan & I'm glad to have met Yoshiki briefly told him my thoughts (even if he pisses me off sometimes about that album we're never gonna get, lmao)
The first time i heard X-Japan was "Endlless Rain". It was a weird Japanese movie on VHS tape. Sort of Medieval movie....a girl in kimono with a gun, a bit like cowboy and a guy who's always half naked like a native running around the Island. No idea what is was all about, lol. When the ending comes, it shows the Island from a distance shot and "Endless Rain" plays....i was like WOOOO...What is this song! It's so beatiful! I kept rewinding the tape and play that song so many times!
I felt so emotional when they had reunion concert playing songs like Kurenai with HIDE VCR… i SOBBED. Also, i adore Yoshiki and Toshi’s friendship. They met at 4, studied tgt and one happened to be a great vocalist and the other happened to be a great producer,lyricist and instrumentalist??? Like what r the odds
Thank you for one of the best researched and accurate "biographies" of X Japan I have ever watched, you have done an amazing job! I'm sad they didn't win over the US earlier, as a fan from America, I only learned about X very late, but thanks to the internet and RUclips they are my favorite band of all time. I'm not a young woman (a grandmother) and have seen many good bands in my time, but NONE have excited me the way X Japan has and for such an extended time. I am extremely disheartened by Yoshiki's constant refusal to release the album he has promised the fans for so many years. I have resigned myself that it will never come in my lifetime so I will continue to treasure the fantastic music this band has already released. God bless hide-san and Taiji-san, they will always be part of X Japan, will always be missed, and will never be forgotten.
I was in Japan briefly in 1997 and had picked up a music magazine with X Japan featured in it - I remember the glam makeup and hair. Now I have to dig through my travel stuff...
i've been a fan of them for 15 years, saw them live for the first time in 2017, they're amazing. went to their album signing as well and i had full eye contact with heath, his smile sdjkshjkfdhjfdjkfjfs dying just thinking about it
this was such a good vid :) i always always look towards u to make some rlly good informative and respectful mini docus on subjects relating to japan and japanese musicians... im super into it and im happy u take the time to research for vids like this!! i look forward to u hopefully covering more jrock or vkei bands in the future .........
Awesome seeing one of my favorite RUclipsrs talk about one of my favorite bands. Taiji is my hero and his influence changed the way I play bass forever!
30:48 I gotta admit, I squealed over here! TRAX!! My favorite Korean band ever!! Just discovered your channel and I've been binging it. Never knew X Japan's history was so complicated (not even the Hide's passing, for some reason I always thought or had a Mandela effect where I read he passed from a motorcycle accident). BTW, Yoshiki composed and I think he was TRAX's early producer, as their inital sound and look was indeed Visual Kei and also wrote some the Japanese version of their early songs. Jay's rendition of "Tears" is a gem. And Jungmo always held Hide as his inspiration. Great video! I dunno if this might be plausible but an interesting topic would be the amount of new wave religions that appeared in Japan, especially after WWII, there are a lot and each are quite interesting.
crazy to see so many old VK and general jrock fans here! since the early 2000s, these genres carried me from childhood and through my teenage years, going to go back through my brain and make a playlist of all the stuff I loved and see what the genres are up to now!
X Japan helped me get through a very dark place in my late teens. Thanks to them I fell in love with music again. I want to give the piano and guitar another chance. My heart breaks over their lost and wishes them the best. Im so proud how far they've got and will always be supporting X
Thanks for exploring the topic of Taiji, which many fans seems to kind of ignore since most are only familiar with their ballads. However Taiji's contribution to the band is unreplicable. His songwriting, insane bass skills, stage appearances all make him one of, if not the best Japanese bassist ever. With respect to Heath, its such a shame this insane bassist only stayed in X for 5 years. After his departure the bass is inaudible, and the metal / hard-rockness all vanished from the band.
This has been such a trip down memory lane! I got into X Japan and VK in the early 00s and I remember the fandom and genre still reeling from the band split and hide’s death
There's a new update on the activities of X Japan members. Yoshiki and Sugizo joined up with Hyde and Miyavi to form a new band called The Last Rockstars which had a debut performance on Kohaku (the new year's show) a few days ago!
The fact you post this not even a week after the annoucement of The Last Rockstars (basically S.K.I.N's line-up but with Hyde from L'Arc-en-ciel instead of Gackt.. .poor Gackt can't sing anymore apparently), very amusing lol. As someone who was into visual kei from 2002 to around -2008 (and restarted recently), I knew how legendaries they were but never learned much about them so I'm really thankful for this video,
That's sad... Gackt was one of the first Japanese Rock singers I started listening to, and it was all because of some random website called Project-J that hosted a bunch of random songs by Gackt, Dir en grey and The Pillows. This was back in 2003....
I watched this video almost a year ago and didn't think much of this band at first, and I put the band's albums on my "to listen" list. Last month I started listening to them and now I'm a huge fan. So I come back to this video to say a huge THANK YOU for introducing me to this band. I'm more keen on their early power metal days but their entire discography is amazing. I'm in love with hide's albums and even found some rare Toshi gems published under the cult's label. Listening to their music made me come back to learning some more of their history, I must say that it it quite moving. My knowledge of X Japan is recent but there's a profound feeling of loss from hide's death.
Thank you so much for this comment 😊 Back when I made this video, I wanted to do so because there wasn’t a dedicated video on their story and all things this band went through. I’m very happy that this video lead to so many people discovering X Japan and appreciating their music. I absolutely love when I can introduce viewers to different Japanese mediums. They’re such a talented and influential band.
I love visual kei. There’s a visual kei band called Malice Mizer, whose guitarist Mana helped popularize gothic lolita fashion which has also been super influential in Japanese pop culture. He’s a really cool and mysterious figure- he’s known for never speaking, he’ll either just nod/shake his head in interviews or speak through another person as an interpreter. Idk, it’s kind of cheesy but also I admire the dedication to the ‘persona’
I was very hesistant to watch this video because I knew you would mention other bands like Gazette and I am/was too invested in them but this was a great video.
This video takes me back. I was there at J-Rock Revolution, a 2 day concert in Los Angles, where Yoshiki made the announcement where SKIN would be performing their first show with the new super group. I was also there for their one and only show, they were 2 hours late but they brought down the house and I caught 1 of Yoshiki drum sticks!
I would just like to say I’m so glad I came across your channel! For someone who is a fan of Japanese music, I really like your insight on certain artists & the mysteries/controversies behind them!
I can definitely see hide being the core center of the band with anger prone personality bc he’s very chill and cool. I like his demeanor and his effortlessnesses
this is my favorite band of all time. Hide is my inspiration and favorite, I hold him dearly in my heart. I was very lucky to see them live in SP back in 2011. Best day of my life, we all cried together, even the members. It’s such a shame that yoshiki decides to do other irrelevant things instead of reuniting his awesome and legendary band before they all retire. I love yoshiki, I care and im always worried abt him but im also very angry at him.
even as someone barely into visual kei, had to pause the vid for a bit during their reunion with hide's unreleased guitar playing. it just... wow. it's really touching.
I was looking forward to this video, as X Japan has been one of my favourite bands since elementary school (yes i found them through fricking yoshikitty), and all i gotta say is that its excellently executed (well except for the multiple parts at which i was ready to bawl my eyes out-) I loved the way you presented the WHOLE thing whether it be the good, thr bad, the ugly or the downright ridiculous- 💀 It was also pretty nice to see other vkei/ jrock artists be included in this video along with Hide's solo music who imo doesn't get as much attention as it deserves. Hope to see many more videos from you, keep up the great work!! 🤍
Aww thank you so much!! Making sure I covered everything correctly was definitely a daunting task but I’m so glad it came out good! Got a lot more videos videos planned, and I hope you enjoy those as well!
I don't know much about Japanese bands, so this video was great! This taught me a lot about a band I never knew existed! I can't wait for your next upload!
Excellent doco, they are such a great band and you gave information on them that I did not know as I live outside Japan. Thanks for your video...Long live X !!!
So I wanted to provide an update in case Sakura isn't able to get back to this topic:
- It's believed the reason the album was never released was due to internal issues between band members, mainly Yoshiki and Toshi. Toshi has erased his involvement in X Japan for a long while and way back then, Pata had once said in an interview that his contract with X Japan wasn't renewed. All of this was hinted at for years, but didn't fully become the "assumed" reason right until the infamous no-audience show (as fans call it).
- Yoshiki has been doing different projects for years now, the most recent one being a project called 'The Last Rockstars" as well as his own brand promotions. He does at times make it clear that X will return, but so far nothing.
- X Japan did drop a new song called "Angel", but it seemed to just be a Yoshiki song with the X Japan name.
- Tragically near the end of 2023, bassist Heath (who replaced the highly beloved Taiji) passed away due to what was later on revealed to be cancer. Despite Yoshiki making it clear he wanted to continue X in memory and dedication to Heath, still nothing has come up since, and he and Toshi still were on bad terms even during and after Heath memorials.
So quite honestly, X Japan probably is never going to release that new album they teased in the 2010s..
Pinning this so people can get all the updates until I get around to remaking this video! Thank you 😊
@@SakuraStardustyou're wrong about x Japan
@@kimberlyvuong6396 Shut it pal.
X Japan is legit one of the greatest and most influential Power Metal bands of all times not just for Japan.
Too true
Power metal? Not sure about that ma'am. The first album or two is that but then they went just pure rock/metal with all those ballads.
@@oAPXo Lmao 🤣😂 I take it you have never heard Keeper of the seven keys by Halloween? Bc in my ears these guys was all highly Influenced by that band specifically. X is legit just a glam power metal band.
@@oAPXo then again both bands came out around the same time lol but they sound too similar for X to not be considered to be in the same genre. To me tho Visual Kai started as an off shoot of power metal.
@@dangalangman7379 I have to hard disagree here. I think early X is more Trash, Speed and Heavy Metal than Power Metal. Only from Jealousy onwards could I call X Japan power metal with good conscience, but even then it's a stretch imo. Metal genres are often defined by their lyrics too. X Japan never really ventured to Power Metal territory in their lyrics. If anything Visual Kei started as an offshoot of Glam Metal.
Keep in mind that this band inspires many others that we know, such as FLOW, Miyavi, The Gazette, and more.
Your comment just made me remember a music video some emo kid sent me a link to in the late 00’s that I’ve been trying and failing to remember the name to for years. I still don’t know the song title, but it was 100% The Gazette. I’m gonna go searching for it now, thank you!
Count Ayabie in im a big fan
@@okayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy try Cassis, Reila, Zetsu, or Filth in the Beauty. They probably had more videos in the 2000s, but I can't remember them all.
Nightmare too I think
Dogma??
When yoshiki did his classical Tour I went to see him and actually met him in front of his hotel after a few hours of waiting there lol. We had a little chat, took a photo together and he hugged me. He was very polite even tho he just arrived and it was about 2 in the morning in Berlin. Such a kind hearted person and maybe the best smelling human I've ever met. I'll never forget this.
Best smelling human? :) How is that? Did he wear some fancy cologne?
@@manufabydumbrava yeah he did lol. He smelled like roses and other flowers lol
@@Sougiziou Oh my. LOL
@@Sougiziouwow ❤❤
You….waited in front of his hotel??? 🤨
Genuinely great band who made the most of the glam rock aesthetic. Somewhat of a shame that their glory days came to a close right around the same time the internet took off.
X-Japan had a bit of a falling out after the last live, HIDE also had a very large following for his solo career. They did a last live around that time and sort of politely bowed out of the scene.
They've done a few concerts since then and the band lead (and drummer) Yoshiki is still active on social media and does quite a number of classical music concerts. Recently he and a few other popular rock artists have formed a temporary band called The Last Rockstars.
A couple notations:
Japanese rock bands don't typically follow western ideas of bands. There's not a considered lead guitarist and the lead isn't always the singer.
I always loved how they brought a clearly Japanese aesthetic to glam, too, which in turn spread globally. Their makeup and hair, especially early on, clearly take cues from Kabuki.
Just as an aside, a lot of what's weird or unique about Japanese pop culture has its roots in kabuki. The crazy hair, striking weird poses to punctuate what you said, having a passionate hothead character paired with an intellectual introvert, all kinds of sound effects and vocalizations, it all comes from kabuki. From the 1910s through the 1950s it was the most popular genre of entertainment on TV and radio. Especially before industrialization, it was typical for cityswellers to get off work and go to a play, where they could socialize/drink while checking out the show (which were often multipart, 12 hour sagas).
When new forms of entertainment and media starting rolling out im the postwar era, it built on the vocabulary and style of kabuki
It had imprinted itself onto mass media and pop entertainment, as something that everyone was familiar with.
I remember them being quite popular on fantom sites in the early days of the Internet.
@@hyperleap4876 And now it's all about Babymetal and Dir En Grey.
*X Japan:* "We're very much against drug use!"
*Also X Japan:* names their label "Extasy Records"
funny pun
@@elwiwi4638 I wouldn't really say that it's a pun (at least not one made by me). If you're talking about the word "ecstasy" in relation to musicians, it's far more likely that you're talking about the drug rather than sexual euphoria, especially in the 90's. The band EMF (best known for the song "Unbelievable" ) literally stands for "Ecstacy, Mother F***er".
Nabashin avatar, you my dude are a man of true class. Excel Saga is truly under appreciated these days and I think we could use a little bit more " quack experimental" anime in our lives.
@@WeWillAlwaysHaveVALIS Very true
@@WeWillAlwaysHaveVALIS Excel Saga, definitely one of the best things I ever witnessed in my whole life. A great source of inspiration back in my teen days.
I haven't seen a comment about it, but the influence of X Japan is so big, they were a big inspiration on the early days of KPOP. Apparently, Lee Soo Man (SMent founder and former CEO) was a big X fan, and wanted to replicate X's success in Korea. Actually that was the main goal when he formed TRAX, and got Yoshiki involved in great part of the project. Truly amazing.
True! Ex-TVXQ's Jaejoong is still a huge fan and posts pictures of meeting them, and Changmin amazingly covered "Rusyt Nail" during a concert (I think he's one of very few people who can actually hit the same notes as Toshi)
I discovered X Japan through one of TVXQ concerts...Changmin covered Forever Love at thier Begin Again concert at Nissan stadium.
as a tvxq fan yes I ageee
I first fet to know yoshiki accidentally th. After finding twice searched more
That’s awesome to hear, it makes since why tvxq had those looks as rookies
Seo Taiji ended up meeting hide’s family and PATA. He even got one of hide’s signature guitars from them too.
ruclips.net/video/fWOazSyzS60/видео.html&feature=shared
Rest in peace Hide and Taigi.
rip heath
It makes me so sad Hide passed. Personally I prefer his solo music over X’s music, and it makes me so depressed that he had so many more things to do. He is my favorite member and a big inspiration for me as a guitarist. I love Hide so much. I only discovered him a month or two ago, but I instantly became obsessed. I had heard about X Japan many times before since I have been a fan of visual kei for two years, but I didn’t really start listening until recently because a friend of my mine really liked Hide. When I first heard about Hide’s passing it made me sad as a visual kei fan because I knew many of my favorite musicians looked up to him. Now it makes me much sadder as a fan of him as well. Thank you for making this video I hope more people learn about X Japan.
That’s pretty weird idolizing a guy who’s been dead for 20+ years and who could’ve been your dad 😂.
@@Sperminski whoa, wait just a minute there! Music and musicians never get stale, especially when they craft music that spans the decades!
Show some respect!
@@mainstreetsaint36 That’s not what I said. Learn to read.
I absolutely love Hide so much and am so sad he passed away. It was a shame to the world
@@Sperminski People still idolizing Bruce Lee and MJ...so?
Yoshiki has been through a lot. He just recently lost his mother this year and had to cancel some concerts because he needs to grieve and was talking about it on his twitter account.
And now unfortunately looks like heath has passed out too.....
Fun fact about Gackt, he's currently resides in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Gackt is a good guy. Did a security gig for him like 17 years ago.
I hope that he’s doing better.
@@Dodong0 what do you mean with security gig? you were his bodyguard?
@@pipeliner8969 Yep, this was like in 2006, I think… ages ago
@@Dodong0 pretty cool!
Finally, a good video on Visual Kei that isn't sensationalizing! I pretty much live, breathe Visual Kei and so many people on youtube get the genre wrong
I thought VK wasn't a set genre, but more so multiple genres that evolved overtime where members of a band would focus on the visual aspects of their appearance to stand out
@@Blue_XIII You’re absolutely right. Visual Kei is a fashion movement made to stand out and look as shocking as possible. There’s no specific music genre linked to it, though it is mostly different types of rock/metal. Most fans (especially newer ones) for some reason don’t acknowledge or even know that.
I actually came upon X Japan when I was in my Clamp-days. never knew that this band had come a long way 😭♥️
I saw X Japan live in London and they literally didn't want the concert to end. It was the most encores I've seen in my life. Very memorable experience
2 biggest mysteries of X JAPAN:
1. why Taiji left/fired
2. when they gonna release the album
Considering how much of a perfectionist Yoshiki is, I'm sure you'll be totally enjoying that album with your great-great grandchildren.
In my opinion and what I've heard, Taiji had a lot of musical differences to what they have been producing. He did compose and produce some of their songs like Xclamation, Voiceless Screaming, and Desperate Angel. You can kinda hear the differences. Taiji also wasn't talkative much unless you knew him well. He never really talked on interviews nor interacted with it much. Yoshiki and him were not on the best of terms, so he refused to talk to Yoshiki on an interview, which involves calling Yoshiki. That's all I know, but yeah 🤷♀️
Excellent video! I started listening to X Japan in high school (aging myself, around 2006) and I went down the rabbit hole then. It was great to get a refresher on this band. RIP Hide. Also, Yoshiki and Sugizo are now a part of the new collaboration with Hyde and Miyavi, The Last Rockstars. They tour next year.
This is such an amazing video, thanks for putting this together. I was able to meet Yoshiki in a Q&A while he was touring during the release of "We are X", and you can tell how humble, genuine and cool he is. Even followed me on Twitter after posting a video and tagging him while he was entering the auditorium after the documentary ended. After their recent single release I hope they finally release a full album. Can't get enough of them. Also talking about cool anime videos with X Japan songs, "Rusty Nail" is definitely my favorite and if people reading this is just getting into the band, I highly recommend it.
X Japan might be one of the most influential groups in Japanese (and asian in general) pop culture as a whole, not just music. Their impact was immense beyond anything words could describe.
I got to see X Japan play live in Toronto when I was a teenager, and it's still one of the most incredible events I've ever been to. Yoshiki is a musical genius
I love x Japan. Hide is probably my favourite guitarist of all time
Same bro
Lowercase h.
Speaking as someone who's obsessed with rock history and band lore, you did an amazing job on this especially considering most of your videos don't seem to be music related. I've wanted to get into X Japan for a while, but I'd always been unsure of which songs or albums to start with and intimidated by a band with such a long career and so much drama and so many different members to learn about. This is a PERFECT way to get introduced to them. Great work!
I loved X growing up, hide was my favorite I even wanted to dye my hair pink because of him. When he died I was so heartbroken I blacked him out until like 10 years later when I saw him on RUclips in 2008 and all the sadness i remember came back.
I remember there was a Taeyang doll made of Hide and at the time, I had no idea he was based off someone from such a surprisingly influential band! Awesome video! I think I'll give their music a shot!
I knew and bought three of them. They are very collectible today.I won’t sell them.
@@thaismatsumoto I was able to get the "Sari hide", last year...I won't give it up either!
Something I really loved during the revival was that everytime the band would perform "X" (the song) they'd do the introduction of the band members naming everyone, with footage of both Hide and Taiji, even playing a weird ass chant Hide would say everytime when playing that song before resuming. Makes me cry everytime I revisit those concerts.
This was such a trip down memory lane! I'm going to date myself here, but I remember hitting those high notes in "Forever Love" (downloaded that from Napster) while singing along in my dorm room in the early 2000s. It's so dramatic and I love it. Rintaro did his best with the X/1999 movie but you're right that it's meh at best. But it did get a lot of anime fans of my generation into X Japan, so a lot of good came of it.
Man, I did not expect that segment about Hidei’s death to hit me so hard. I’ve never listened to X Japan before (at least not consciously, Its likely I’ve heard something before without realizing its them), but I used to be a huge Linkin Park fan, I’ve listened to them my whole life, and Chester’s suicide still affects me to this day. I was talking to one of my closest friends just a week ago or so about it, she got into the band after me but became a *hardcore* fan; I told her how she was the first person I thought of when I heard the news of Chester’s passing, how I wanted to make sure she was okay, and we talked about how even though its been a couple years we both still deal with these complex feelings about him being gone. She informed me about this solo album another Linkin Park member made after Chester’s death that’s all centered around his own grieving process - I haven’t listened to it yet because I know it’s going to mess me up. There have been a lot of celebrity passings over the past few years, and while I’ve felt shock and sympathy and sadness, nothing’s ever felt as personal as this, that was the first time I truly mourned the loss of somebody I never personally knew. Its weird, but at the same time seeing that footage of all those openly grieving fans I *felt* that.
I really don’t know how I feel about going to someone’s funeral with the intention to self-harm, though, that’s the first I’ve heard of this phenomenon and that’s really worrying.
Hides death definitely leaves you feeling very empty and grief-stricken. I first saw that footage of the grieving fans about 7 years ago and it hit me pretty hard. Hide was such an integral part of X and his absence left this gaping hole of grief that is very difficult to look past now.
Chester’s suicide was another awful incident. Both of these deaths could have been prevented or stopped and I feel like that makes thinking about it even more sobering.
@@SakuraStardust I highly doubt that both suicides were preventable, considering that Hideto "Hide" Matsumoto was a chronic Alcoholic and Workaholic (an extreme workaholic even by Japanese standards, a nation infamous for having a distinctively heavy crunch culture that has killed many a Mangaka over the decades by the insane overwork itself) who once had a set of four nightclub gigs in ONE NIGHT (on the 26th of August 1997, just before X Japan disbanded 4 months later). Chester Bennington had marital disputes (he was a former divorcee and sired a son from a previous relationship in the mid-90s) and a history of substance abuse caused by a childhood affected by a rather traumatic incident where he was sexually molested as a child from the age of 7 to 13. Despite having a father who was a policeman who was assigned to cases where children were sexually assaulted, Chester refrained from confessing due to his fear of being possibly outed as a homosexual for speaking out about his assault in the environment of 1970s-80s Arizona, a deeply Conservative State that remains conservative to this day.
One thing about musicians (something that non-musicians don't and will not understand, not due to any sense of a "hardwired refusal" to understand, but a cultural language barrier that persists between musicians and fans who are NOT musicians), particularly musicians who tour constantly, is that the sheer effort of one gig takes a toll on their physical and mental health. This is exacerbated by the fact that since the Isle of Wright and Glastonbury Festivals of the 1970s, record labels favour this inhumane cycle of "Record, Tour, Crunch, Repeat" due to the El Dorado levels of wealth you can milk from these escapades. It's here, where you'll see many North American, North European, British and Irish musicians turn to drugs, and in the case of East and especially Northeast Asia, an area that is very, VERY Anti-Drugs in domestic and foreign policy, you'll see musicians, particularly Japanese musicians turn to alcoholism, both hedonistic actions destroy what little mental faculty existed in the past, let alone what Drugs and Alcohol already do in causing damage (with some of that physical damage being terminal) to the Human body. Just to keep the music alive at the expense of keeping themselves alive.
And even in the case of Bennington, who got clean in the end, was still left with the mental damage of drug abuse, made worse by the extensive touring Linkin Park underwent for the best part of 15 years, including several world tours and the case of Linkin Park themselves, even had yearly tours under the "Projekt Revolution" moniker across North America, the UK and Mainland Europe.
Only recently have there been published studies from Peer-Reviewed Journals that have looked deeply into the mentally degrading potential that crunch culture has on musicians, particularly festival tours and long recording sessions, and by "recently", I mean in EARLY-MID 2022, as most studies pertaining to the matter and subject of crunch culture have primarily focused on construction, office work and most frequently, Computer Game development.
In fact, with this in mind, I can argue that both Hideto Matsumoto's and Chester Bennington's suicides were inevitable, if not, then they were readily expected and predictable.
@@DR3ADER1 Hide's death doesn't read suicide to me. The traction theory makes more sense than a suicide based on what I've researched.
@@ECW5320 Look at David Carradine, you can totally kill yourself in such a fashion, especially considering that he was drunk at the time and was mentally addled with the whole collapse of the band and crunching his arse off with nightclub tours which are known for destroying multiple musicians mentally. Plus, Hide was alone at the time of his death, he had no mistresses or assistants at hand.
@@DR3ADER1 Carradine's death reads like auto erotic asphyxia gone bad. The towel was under Hide's chin, not around his neck nor was there bruising on his neck. Hide even said in an interview the day before his death that when drunk he couldn't sleep, so he'd find something to do until he'd randomly pass out. Hide did have a girlfriend at the time of his death, her identity is unknown, but it's been speculated that it was his stylist.
I have never known about them before I found out about Buck-tick. I saw Yoshiki in a few interviews with them and Sakurai and also other visual kei musicians. So this video was incredibly helpful!💖 It's sad that their fate was so cruel, but I guess good things don't last long.
32:42 What's crazy is, Yoshiki, Sugizo, and Miavi formed a new group 15 years later, The last rockstars. This time, HYDE is the vocalist. Kinda interesting fact. 2022 skin.
after watching this video i checked out their music and i’m ASCENDING they’re so good omg!!!!!
I feel like comparing Toshi's ex-wife to Yoko Ono is unfair to Yoko, since she actually loved John & wasn't trying to drag him into a money-grab cult.
EDIT: Okay, taking it back cuz apparently there's a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that Yoko pulled that I didn't know.
I don’t know, Yoko was also pretty awful to Johns son from his first marriage. Despite the sincerity of their marriage, I don’t think Yoko Ono was well-liked by many people (especially George lol)
Debatable
Only John liked her, and John was an asshole himself but people see him as saint
Yoko-ono tried to insert herself every where into Johns work and life, being not only a nuisance to the band but also woulf behinder him At his work (like the infamous John screaming during a recording session)
It sometimes felt for me like she loved more his artists persona then him as human, due to disrespecting boundaries so much often and being a famous example of being "that girl" when people refer to troublemaker gf's that probably caused the band to split up due to her inserting themselves into the band.
have you seen that clip when Yohoe took part in a show? and she kept shrieking? JESUS WHAT.
It makes me pretty happy to see someone talk about this wonderful band even to this day.
You told us everything with great details!
Thank you for your dedication!
Greetings from Brazil.
Gee, if only RUclips had thought to put this video in front of me before this morning! Sakura, you did a great job at conveying such a complex history in a very approachable way without getting bogged down in all the gorier personal drama. (Though those would be great material for a follow-up video!)
I'm not somebody who cares much about bands, or even particular kinds of music (weird, I know). X Japan is the one exception. Their story and the intensity of their fandom are what drew me into them initially, but they've got something all their own that keeps me interested. Yoshiki and hide in particular may be two of the bravest and most fascinating people who ever lived.
Sadly, I was born about two months or so after hide's passing. It's been on my bucket list for years to go to Japan and leave pink flowers on his grave. He definitely deserves the tribute.
I’ve been listening to X Japan for over two years now (since I got into Japanese music) and I’m a huge fan of X, Hide, and Visual Kei in general. This video is very informative and I’m surprised that I learned some new things about the band!
X is so influential and important to Visual Kei and J-Rock in general, thanks so much for making this video. Awesome work :)
Thank you so much!!
I’ve been listening to this band since I was very very young thanks to my uncle having friends in Japan and I always looked up to Hide. He’s the reason I picked up guitar and I didn’t find out about his death til I was about 13 when my uncle finally told me. Still breaks my heart
I was lucky enough to see them live at Wembley, amazing band even to this day
holy fuck. finally someone made a good, long form video on X. I fucking love these guys, absolutely awesome band
I forgot to comment!
X is one of my favourite bands but I wasn't aware of how these events actually went down and I was very little when hide died so this was very illuminating regarding their cultural impact and the tragedy and you presented it all in a very elegant and respectful way. They've been through so much. Great video!
Such a great video! I was waiting for this one. I think it is hard to compress their history in less than 50 minutes, so good job!
Nice that you included pictures of COLOR and AION since they all came out around the same time X started to look like what only later would have been called "visual kei" (at least, the look of visual kei's first wave in the 80s).
KISS inspiration was fundamental to Yoshiki in the 70s when he formed his proto-X bands before 1982.
Having being obsessed with X in the 2000s, becoming also a crazy X collector during my university days, I have some clarifications (just for the sake of precision):
6:22 Taiji joined briefly joined in 1985 but soon left. He rejoined in late 1986 replacing Hikaru and became the third official member.
33:19 All rumors about the reunion have been confirmed on the official website some days before the I.V. shooting on the rooftop. I was following the entire thing daily at that time (yes back then I was so obsessed ah ah).
Also,
6:51 That's Taiji :D
8:41 That's Pata
hey there, Bisso! 😆
One thing you forgot to mention is that early X was heavily inspired by KISS. When I saw KISS live a year ago I could definitely see the inspiration.
Also, I've never watched the Last Live. Ever. Even after being a fan of the band for over five years now I haven't watched it. I just can't bring myself to. I would just get too emotional.
I've suspected Queen was a big influence as well.
you HAVE to
When you’re ready, you should watch The Last Live. It’s beautiful and an amazing performance.
@@autohmae there's quite a number of influences. If you look at some of HIDE's styling you can pick up on some Stevie Nicks styling.
In the X Japan documentary, one of the KISS members praised YOSHIKI.
I'm not very familiar with Japanese music outside of some anime OPs and EDs that I keep in my playlists. I had never heard of this band before and it was fascinating learning about them. I just went to listen to some of their songs and I was blown away, these guys are awesome! I wish I had discovered them back in the day, but there's just no way I could before the 2010s.
As a guy who loves Hard Rock/ Metal Music and youre Videos ,this is just beyond awesome 🤘
I happened to come across X Japan thanks to one of the premium movie channels showing the X/1999 OVA in the early 00s. "Forever Love" instantly *broke* me. Not many bands or songs do that to me. Rare enough my mother liked to tell people about it. I followed Yoshiki on Myspace for years after I found him on there.
Edit: I partially blame Yoshiki's self-professed perfectionism for that untitled album basically becoming lost media
Great video, learned a lot of new things even though I was a huge fan of the band when growing up. I think worth mentioning is that Hair Metal/Glam Metal wasn't a completely new thing in Japan when X came around. The band Loudness had been huge in Japan previously and even somewhat broke into US markets in the early 80s. Ofc X Japan took their visuals to whole another level, but I think Loudness played a big part in the whole jrock lineage. Taiji even later played in the band briefly after leaving X.
Also you didn't mention hide's other band Zilch at all. The band consisted mostly american musicians together with hide and I.N.A (also from spread beaver). I'd recommend that band to anyone who likes hide and the spread beaver. It's a bit more alt/industrial compared to hide's previous work, but really cool.
Excellent video! X Japan was a big inspiration for a lot of other VK bands I got into through the years (especially ones like Janne Da Arc, DEG and the GazettE).
You should do a video on PIERROT/Kirito if possible. I think you'd do it justice! 😊
I lived in Japan from 2005-2010 and went to local shows every single weekend from random local Japanese bands to tool to mindless self indulgence. I befriended many band members in bands like Chokesleeper and Silence Iz Mine. I even dated a drummer from a band called Laugh Life. Japanese music scene is amazing and so fun
So happy i met them when they were on tour
I have lived in japan now for 15 years and I still learn and love every new vid that comes out on this channel
You did such a great job on this! What an excellent crash course on X
they brought me to Dir En Grey, particularly... but what's strange is I started checking out Japanese metal because of Vomit Remnants, my all time fave and sadly a very niche band even for its main genre...
And man, Yoshiki's drumming is so underrated that it felt like it was a crime comparing them to the western "counterparts" in this video... it hangs in the fringes of extreme metal, the guy even slips in a few blast beats here and there for something they made in the late 80s - early 90s
Yoshiki is the Japanese Dave Lombardo, just pure power and speed. Unbeatable.
hide is one of my fav musicians, love his solo work and zilch so much :)
This is seriously one of the most underrated channels on RUclips - you do so much in depth research and your passion and respect for your topics is evident. Keep up the good work!
I agree but she's almost at a hundred thousand now which is cool.
watched a x-japan documentary at comic con lisbon back in 2018 and kinda fell in love with their music, super hyped for this
Watching this brought back so many memories, I got into Visual Kei and japanese culture because of the swedish band Seremedy and then Yohio, I just wished someone would remember Yohio today as his music is great with both his solo career and his bands Awoken by silence and DISREIGN!
Not sure how, why or why now but lately I've been seeing a looot of jrock/visual kei related documentaries here on youtube and boy oh boy do we need this kind of content. Well structured, amazingly narrated and properly researched, thats the kind of shit we need.
I was first introduced to X Japan through the movie version of "X", "Forever Love" was the ending theme for that movie & I was absolutely obsessed with it. Through the years, X Japan has been such a monumental influence to me musically, especially Toshi for his vocals & Yoshiki with his songwriting & lyricism being the core to my own pursuit of music (e.g. I'm a budding Vocaloid producer, but lyricist first). I can't say anymore than what has already been said about the band, they're unique, their music is both beautiful & full of strength; It was their music that gave me the willpower to face my Mother's death, to change myself to be a better & stronger woman over the years. Their music, their presence has done far more to comfort me & inspire me than anyone else in my life has. I'm incredibly grateful to exist in the same era as X Japan & I'm glad to have met Yoshiki briefly told him my thoughts (even if he pisses me off sometimes about that album we're never gonna get, lmao)
The first time i heard X-Japan was "Endlless Rain". It was a weird Japanese movie on VHS tape. Sort of Medieval movie....a girl in kimono with a gun, a bit like cowboy and a guy who's always half naked like a native running around the Island. No idea what is was all about, lol. When the ending comes, it shows the Island from a distance shot and "Endless Rain" plays....i was like WOOOO...What is this song! It's so beatiful! I kept rewinding the tape and play that song so many times!
11:44
🎉
🎉
I felt so emotional when they had reunion concert playing songs like Kurenai with HIDE VCR… i SOBBED. Also, i adore Yoshiki and Toshi’s friendship. They met at 4, studied tgt and one happened to be a great vocalist and the other happened to be a great producer,lyricist and instrumentalist??? Like what r the odds
Thank you for one of the best researched and accurate "biographies" of X Japan I have ever watched, you have done an amazing job!
I'm sad they didn't win over the US earlier, as a fan from America, I only learned about X very late, but thanks to the internet and RUclips they are my favorite band of all time. I'm not a young woman (a grandmother) and have seen many good bands in my time, but NONE have excited me the way X Japan has and for such an extended time. I am extremely disheartened by Yoshiki's constant refusal to release the album he has promised the fans for so many years. I have resigned myself that it will never come in my lifetime so I will continue to treasure the fantastic music this band has already released.
God bless hide-san and Taiji-san, they will always be part of X Japan, will always be missed, and will never be forgotten.
I was in Japan briefly in 1997 and had picked up a music magazine with X Japan featured in it - I remember the glam makeup and hair. Now I have to dig through my travel stuff...
i've been a fan of them for 15 years, saw them live for the first time in 2017, they're amazing. went to their album signing as well and i had full eye contact with heath, his smile sdjkshjkfdhjfdjkfjfs dying just thinking about it
this was such a good vid :) i always always look towards u to make some rlly good informative and respectful mini docus on subjects relating to japan and japanese musicians... im super into it and im happy u take the time to research for vids like this!! i look forward to u hopefully covering more jrock or vkei bands in the future .........
hurried here , aaaaaah im so glad you did a video on X japan, they are my fav forever, my hair is always paying homage to hide
Loved the mention of clamp’s X! One of my favorites, I feel like not enough people know about it
I miss Hide. He could have gone so far in the years following Last Live
this was SO kick-ass! never heard of these guys, but I absolutely LOVE their aesthetic!
Awesome seeing one of my favorite RUclipsrs talk about one of my favorite bands. Taiji is my hero and his influence changed the way I play bass forever!
RIP Heath (1968-2023), hide (1964-1998) and Taiji (1966-2011)
My 13-year-old, visual kei-obsessed, “X poster hanging up in my room”-self loves you for this video, thank you 💛
30:48 I gotta admit, I squealed over here! TRAX!! My favorite Korean band ever!! Just discovered your channel and I've been binging it. Never knew X Japan's history was so complicated (not even the Hide's passing, for some reason I always thought or had a Mandela effect where I read he passed from a motorcycle accident).
BTW, Yoshiki composed and I think he was TRAX's early producer, as their inital sound and look was indeed Visual Kei and also wrote some the Japanese version of their early songs. Jay's rendition of "Tears" is a gem. And Jungmo always held Hide as his inspiration.
Great video! I dunno if this might be plausible but an interesting topic would be the amount of new wave religions that appeared in Japan, especially after WWII, there are a lot and each are quite interesting.
crazy to see so many old VK and general jrock fans here!
since the early 2000s, these genres carried me from childhood and through my teenage years, going to go back through my brain and make a playlist of all the stuff I loved and see what the genres are up to now!
I will be touring Japan in December. My drummer is the son of Hide's drummer on Hide Your Face. Looking forward to this tour. :)
Thats awesome!! I hope you have a wonderful time there!!
@@SakuraStardust thank you!
This was one of the most fascinating and well-researched videos I've ever seen you make. Please keep heading in this direction. truly incredible.
X Japan helped me get through a very dark place in my late teens. Thanks to them I fell in love with music again. I want to give the piano and guitar another chance. My heart breaks over their lost and wishes them the best. Im so proud how far they've got and will always be supporting X
Same;) they saved me in many ways
Thanks for exploring the topic of Taiji, which many fans seems to kind of ignore since most are only familiar with their ballads. However Taiji's contribution to the band is unreplicable. His songwriting, insane bass skills, stage appearances all make him one of, if not the best Japanese bassist ever. With respect to Heath, its such a shame this insane bassist only stayed in X for 5 years. After his departure the bass is inaudible, and the metal / hard-rockness all vanished from the band.
I love Heath a lot, one of my favorites. But you are right about Taiji. I started playing bass because of him. RIP Sawada-san
Wake up babe, new Sakura Stardust upload just dropped
This has been such a trip down memory lane!
I got into X Japan and VK in the early 00s and I remember the fandom and genre still reeling from the band split and hide’s death
There's a new update on the activities of X Japan members. Yoshiki and Sugizo joined up with Hyde and Miyavi to form a new band called The Last Rockstars which had a debut performance on Kohaku (the new year's show) a few days ago!
The fact you post this not even a week after the annoucement of The Last Rockstars (basically S.K.I.N's line-up but with Hyde from L'Arc-en-ciel instead of Gackt.. .poor Gackt can't sing anymore apparently), very amusing lol. As someone who was into visual kei from 2002 to around -2008 (and restarted recently), I knew how legendaries they were but never learned much about them so I'm really thankful for this video,
That's sad... Gackt was one of the first Japanese Rock singers I started listening to, and it was all because of some random website called Project-J that hosted a bunch of random songs by Gackt, Dir en grey and The Pillows. This was back in 2003....
I watched this video almost a year ago and didn't think much of this band at first, and I put the band's albums on my "to listen" list. Last month I started listening to them and now I'm a huge fan. So I come back to this video to say a huge THANK YOU for introducing me to this band. I'm more keen on their early power metal days but their entire discography is amazing. I'm in love with hide's albums and even found some rare Toshi gems published under the cult's label. Listening to their music made me come back to learning some more of their history, I must say that it it quite moving. My knowledge of X Japan is recent but there's a profound feeling of loss from hide's death.
Thank you so much for this comment 😊 Back when I made this video, I wanted to do so because there wasn’t a dedicated video on their story and all things this band went through. I’m very happy that this video lead to so many people discovering X Japan and appreciating their music. I absolutely love when I can introduce viewers to different Japanese mediums. They’re such a talented and influential band.
kurenai is one of, if not the best, visual kei songs ever released imo. one of my favorite songs ever
I love visual kei. There’s a visual kei band called Malice Mizer, whose guitarist Mana helped popularize gothic lolita fashion which has also been super influential in Japanese pop culture.
He’s a really cool and mysterious figure- he’s known for never speaking, he’ll either just nod/shake his head in interviews or speak through another person as an interpreter. Idk, it’s kind of cheesy but also I admire the dedication to the ‘persona’
Watched this on the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto. Good work!
Happy Birthday to Yoshiki!!
I was very hesistant to watch this video because I knew you would mention other bands like Gazette and I am/was too invested in them but this was a great video.
This video takes me back. I was there at J-Rock Revolution, a 2 day concert in Los Angles, where Yoshiki made the announcement where SKIN would be performing their first show with the new super group. I was also there for their one and only show, they were 2 hours late but they brought down the house and I caught 1 of Yoshiki drum sticks!
Excellent video!!!! Just one thing: you mixed Whitesnake with Def Leppard in the pictures at 3.27 😉😊
Gosh dang it XD I blame google images
Although viv Campbell from whitesnake did join def leppard after Steve died., so not completely wrong ha ha. Great video
@@sharonbrowne3442 🤣
I would just like to say I’m so glad I came across your channel! For someone who is a fan of Japanese music, I really like your insight on certain artists & the mysteries/controversies behind them!
I can definitely see hide being the core center of the band with anger prone personality bc he’s very chill and cool. I like his demeanor and his effortlessnesses
I've been a fan of xjapan for 7 years now and their music has healed in many ways I can remember. We are X!
this is my favorite band of all time. Hide is my inspiration and favorite, I hold him dearly in my heart. I was very lucky to see them live in SP back in 2011. Best day of my life, we all cried together, even the members. It’s such a shame that yoshiki decides to do other irrelevant things instead of reuniting his awesome and legendary band before they all retire. I love yoshiki, I care and im always worried abt him but im also very angry at him.
Alex you're 6k away from 100K congrats your meteoric rise has been amazing!
I know!! I’m so excited!! Thanks for the support, btw!
At last.
I've been waiting for this.
Now to get educated and perhaps traumatized or horrified
even as someone barely into visual kei, had to pause the vid for a bit during their reunion with hide's unreleased guitar playing. it just... wow. it's really touching.
If you like other visual kei bands I would love to see more videos like this about other bands.
I was looking forward to this video, as X Japan has been one of my favourite bands since elementary school (yes i found them through fricking yoshikitty), and all i gotta say is that its excellently executed (well except for the multiple parts at which i was ready to bawl my eyes out-)
I loved the way you presented the WHOLE thing whether it be the good, thr bad, the ugly or the downright ridiculous- 💀 It was also pretty nice to see other vkei/ jrock artists be included in this video along with Hide's solo music who imo doesn't get as much attention as it deserves. Hope to see many more videos from you, keep up the great work!! 🤍
Aww thank you so much!! Making sure I covered everything correctly was definitely a daunting task but I’m so glad it came out good! Got a lot more videos videos planned, and I hope you enjoy those as well!
I don't know much about Japanese bands, so this video was great! This taught me a lot about a band I never knew existed! I can't wait for your next upload!
Overall, very informative and comprehensive. Not much about Pata and his struggles with alcohol though
Was going to add that but forgot when researching his 2016 hospitalization 😓
Excellent doco, they are such a great band and you gave information on them that I did not know as I live outside Japan. Thanks for your video...Long live X !!!
Thank you for this video, I literally knew nothing about X other then I like some of there songs
this was a GREAT video, my wife really likes X Japan so I'm glad to learn more about them, and also to share the vid with her.
So many memories watching this. Amazing effort on this project.