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I would start with bands people already know from anime soundtracks and whatnot, then go over some of the best-known bands like THE BACK HORN, Ajikan, GING NANG BOYZ, (ex-)NUMBER GIRL, Quruli, etc.



Indie bands could be explained in terms of the "scenes" they form:

- There's the lighter punk crowd like 10-FEET (also pretty big right now), SHACHI, GOOD4NOTHING, etc.

- The ska kids are close to that circle. POTSHOT, GELUGUGU, Oreska, Chubu Track, etc.)

- There's also a darker metal side that I know next to nothing about. I think the user Abusive Mana posts about those. sweatdrop

- VK. The indie vk bands are quite isolated from the other scenes, and they have a pretty distinct following. I'd talk about bands/artists that started out here and ended up major, like Gackt, Dir en grey, MUCC, Miyavi, D'espairs Ray, etc.

- There are definitely emo, hardcore, etc. scenes too, but I'm not too familiar with those, sorry D:



History is a pretty difficult thing to talk about, so you might want to leave that alone. Just mention that X-Japan wasn't even close to being "the first Jrock band" (Man, even Gargoyle were around back then lol.)

You should also talk about bands that tour outside of Japan a lot (or based outside of Japan, like Peelander-Z): Polysics, Gito Gito Hustler, 54 Nude Honeys, Mono, EES, etc. (Plus events like SXSW Japan Nite. I think there was some girl-bands event thing too. And I'm guessing since CBGB closed, Japunks won't be happening anymore :/)


Hope that gave you some ideas :3

There's no such thing as oshare-kei.
It's just a Japanese word meaning ...dressed-up/stylish, but I've never seen any Japanese fan use it in reference to the bands (the way kids use it here.)

And Nagoya Kei, Eroguro, etc., those all fall under VK.
Since she's got 15-30 minutes, it doesn't make sense to go so deeply into such a tiny area of Japanese rock.

Exactly my point.

I think MadTiger's idea of starting with the familiar is great. Im assuming this panel will be at an anime convention?

Like MadTiger said, starting things off with artists and songs they've already heard of from anime and what not is a way not to totally turn off the audience, even if you aren't talking about their favorite pretty boys.

As much as I don't like Japanese music being defined for a Western audience via Naruto ("OH YEAH! They're that Naruto band, right?! I LOVE THEM!!" "Uh...they have a name...and they've been performing for 20 years, where have you been?" ), its a good way to begin talking about a wide variety of artists and musical styles.

So that might be a good way to not drive them all away from discussion of non-VK music.

VK can be discussed, but I just think you have to be careful not to make it the ONLY focal point and to steer discussion onto more varied topics.

And most people out there already HAVE that idea in their head, and nothing else. The trick is trying to change that and not fueling the ignorance.

The first jrock panel I've ever see was at a Very Big Con, and all it consisted of was videos of Dir en grey, LUNA SEA, Gackt, Penicillin, Malice Mizer, and just about NOTHING else. You don't want to give them info that's all over LiveJournal or Gaia. :/

It's going to be very difficult because I'll only have half an hour to an hour, and I'd like to cover j-pop as well as j-rock. Yes, this will be at an anime convention, but it's only a one-day event, and actually, for a lot of them, this will be their first introduction to the music. I do want to talk about VK, because this program is geared for 12-18 year olds, and we all know that's a ripe age for fangirlism, so I have to talk about VK, but I definately do want to mention other jrock bands/artists.
It's just so hard to figure out who's the most important/most interesting to mention with the limitations I have.

Act like it doesn't exist.