Jen's Review

Gackt Camui

Many musicians and bands find a genre that they stick to until the cruel end. They stick to this genre despite the lyrics and message they are wishing to portray and never break the mold. Instead they find a way to adapt their meaning around their set sound. That is what makes the single artist, Gackt Camui, stand out from all the rest. With an ever-fluctuating style that is unprecendented in the music world, Gackt's songs find a way to convey a deeper emotion and touch people's souls.

Many artists often find themselves pressured to write songs that have little to no meaning due to record companies demanding that they produce. This often resualts in the same sounds and the same words, which makes the meaning of the overall song...disappear. It just doesn't touch the heart of the listener because it is not fully from the heart of the maker. When people listen to a beautiful song that truly touches them, it is a song that has a meaning to it. A strong song doesn't fit a set mold. A strong song is one that's main top imporance was to convey ane emotion and experiance to the audience, not one that's main function was to soothe the record companies for a little while. When an artist can overcome the challenges of pressure from the record companies and the expectations of anxious fans, they are able to break the mold. Breaking this mold resualts in an overall better experiance for the artist and audience, as well as the channeling of a truly deeper meaning to their music. This being said, it is a known fact that Gackt has pushed back deadlines so much as four months despite the record company telling him to get it done. In fact, the album Moon took eleven months to complete all together. This is because he refuses to write songs that don't effect anyone. When he tries to write songs under pressure, he says that it "simply doesn't come" to him. All his songs are stories, or as he says, "like letters to the listener" in which he shares his experiances. Some of these stories are said to have "hit [him] in the back of the head" on late night drives. Proof of their story-like resemblance lies in the album, Moon. Each song on the album tell a part, or chapter, of an over-all story. When they are put all together, it puts the audience in that story almost as if they are reading a good book. The audience can really feel like they are in this world that Gackt creates and they can relate to it better that way. Gackt feels that even if his words are "just a memo written on paper" that if it touches the audience even just a little bit then that memo was meant to be there. He makes his lyrics just that, an experiance that the audience can take and experiance.

Gackt has never fit a mold. He has a belief that "music should never pressure people to fit a mold." That music should be flexible. The important thing to him in music is the message he is trying to convey to the audience, not the record company's orders. In fact, Gackt has broken the mold before with his changing of style for the betterment of the quality of the the message. When he was part of the famous Visual Kei band, Malice Mizer, he began to write lyrics that were not the norm for the band. He not only changed their type of music, but they also switched from a dark imposing image to one of a Gothic Aristocratic style. Such a great change was caused by Gackt artistic opinions on a flexible form of music that was more about message than "just looks" as most Visual Kei are. After leaving the band at the height of their success, Gackt moved on to continue changing his style to suit the meaning of his song. Take for example the song "Returner ~Yami No Shuuen~", a single released June 20, 2007, and the song "Another World" from the Moon album (released September 5, 2001). Both have reached the top music charts in Japan upon release and yet have completely different styles and stories. "Returner", which hit Oricon's "#1 Pick" on both Daily Singles and Weekly, is about a woman waiting the return of her beloved who is on the battlefeild. The lyrics are from the woman's prospective and speak of dreaming that the husband would die and longing for him to come home unharmed. The song itself uses traditional Japanese flutes as well as a beautiful guitar and drum rhythm in the background. These three instruments encompass Gackt's vocals which are in their lower range but hit a higher range during the most emotional parts of the song. In contrast, the song "Another World" has an atmosphere that can be described as light and bouncy. It is joyful despite the fact that the song is speaking of the longing to be out of bad conditions and hoping to be in another world. It primarily uses guitars that accompany the vocals which sing from the view of a close friend in the same situation that wishes to get out...but feels that they don't need another world because they are together. The lyrics themselves are completely different in their set-up and rhyme. Instead of how most lyrics are set up to convey one thought and then go to the next line, Gackt puts a thought out there to give snippets of the scenery that the "characters" of the song are living in. Instead of making it a precious thought, it is made into snippits and little flashes. For example, the beginning of the song says "yaburisuterareta Magazine yogorenaki tamashii / eiga no you na One Scene anata nara anshin," or in English, "A ripped up magazine An untarnished spirit / A movie-like One Scene You are safe." He does this several times through the song to indirectly give the listener an idea of how they are living. It really puts the listener there rather than just observing. Instead of using the emotional voice he uses in "Returner," Gackt uses one that's just as bouncy as the guitars and that conveys hope which is what the song is all about.

What really makes Gackt stand out from other artists is the way he performs on stage. When he performs, he puts his whole being into it. He doesn't seem to wear down as the show goes on, but rather keeps the same strong integrity that he starts with. It is as if the message and song have taken over and he is no longer a human up there singing but rather is completely the link to channel between it and the audience. His mood and actions on stage reflect the song so entirely that even non-Japanese speaking listeners can get the gist of what the song's emotion is. They can tell whether it is revealing a deep sorrow or filled to the brink with a happy hopefulness. With that, they can feel the message without even having to know what the message has said. Of course, many artists can move their audience during a performance. However, unlike Gackt, they begin to lose energy as the show goes on because it is not easy to be up there on stage performing. This loss of energy can make the true essence of the song watered down and lose its effect of truly touching the audience. When you get an artist like Gackt up there who doesn't lose his endurance and stays completely in tune with the meaning of the song, the quality of the music and the message begin to syncronize and the audience leaves the show feeling as if they have experienced something much more than just a concert.

It is because of these principles above that Gackt is different than other musicians. Yes, his style and genre is ever changing and can almost never be fully classified as "J-Pop" or "J-Rock." However, despite this, Gackt's music brings the audience into a new world and gives them an experiance of living the story that the song is of. It touches the soul rather than the short-term memory. As such, his songs, although different than each other, will always find a way to enthraw the audience and become not just another experiance but rather a part of their own soul.

SOURCES:

"Jihaku" by Gackt Camui

("My Confession") ; An autobiography by Gackt

"Returner ~Yami no Shuuen~" by Gackt

"Another World" by Gackt

Japanese - English Dictionay by Seigo Nakao

For Gackt's Website Click Here