Gackt Camui |
Japanese Rock /
J-rocker
 | When I think of a famous artist that is not just unique,
but also unusual, has an awesome voice, and can write his own music and
lyrics one artist comes to mind: Camui Gackt. What else can I say? There's just not too
much about Gackt that I don't like.
Gackt usually comes off as the cool quiet type, but then I see Gackt's interviews on Utaban and Hey!Hey!Hey talk shows and I just can't believe his, er, openness with the public. Gackt is a Japanese Rock artist that's popularity has reached worldwide. |
I first saw Gackt a few years back and wasn't aware too much of his talent,
but I read some of his song lyrics. A few lyrics intrigued me and I saved the link
to the site. Some nine months later I caught him on TV on Hey!Hey!Hey! and sat down
to watch. It was a billiard match, Gackt v. the host. It was serious, yet funny, and
Gackt caught my attention right away. At the end of the billiard match Gackt
emerged the victor and went on to do a live performance of a song I had read the
lyrics to, "Lu:Na". It took my breath away. This seemingly quiet, emotionless
person was projecting his voice like I had never heard before and his agility on
stage was amazing.
After that performance I went on to read up on Gackt and download some of his music. All of his songs were amazing and each and every one unique to a certain mood. In addition to his great music, he writes all of the lyrics himself and composes all of the music, as he is an accomplished pianist as well as many other instruments.
 | Reading up on him on a normal bio will give you the hint of his unique persona right away. He claims to be over 400 years old born July 4, 1540; prefers candle light to electric lights as they hurt his eyes; he wants to be the best at everything he does; he takes extremely good care of his body; and his hometown is Kyoto (OK, so that last one isn't quite unique unless you live somewhere other than Japan). The rest of any bio you find on him will have answers he has given to extremely odd questions. For example, to the question "If you could have an item that nobody could get, what would you want?" Gackt replied, "A black hole." This is part of the unique charm I like about him. |
In addition to his musical talent, Gackt has very unique taste. Since
downloading his music I have started viewing his music videos as well. Each music
video I have seen as of yet has been more about emotions or visuals then a story.
With his song "Oasis", you see Gackt standing out in cracked, dried depleted land
with him alone in a large brown cloak. He let's his own powerful performance carry
the video with little help from other scenes and people. This is the case with
several other videos. I have only found one exception to this. Gackt's September
11th music video song tribute with the song, "12Gackt no Love Song" featured New
York city during the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade where they went around asking New
Yorkers to write their messages of peace on a large tablet. Gackt was only seen
three short times in this video as it focused more on the people of New York. The
song has now become a Christmas single called "December Love".
Gackt stands out and shows people it's OK to be unique. I admire his fearlessness of being and saying whatever he wants and using his music, fashion, style, and mannerism to express himself. Gackt is a highly talented artist that is different from any others in his industry (or at least that I've seen or heard to date).
Thank you to Ryuujin & Roujin of
Story: the Gackt Fan Website
for random information.
This was originally used as part
of my English Final project,
but revised and re-edited 2
years later for this site.