V-host kei is a term coined by Men's Spider magazine (Leed publishing, 2008), a publication shining a light on the growing convergence of hosts, visual kei and gyaruo. The above photo is of model Hisashi Inaba. It also states that vkei band Megamasso will feature.

Even though it's considered an obscure style in the west today, the history of v-host kei is really interesting. Sujimori was adopted into host clubs from visual kei bandmen who were also hosts (ie Sena from the Raid), and many bangya - fans of jrock and vkei - also visited host clubs, creating a cross pollination. The now iconic hairstyle then spread to the general gyaruo population, since many hosts were also gyaruo too.

I covered the history of hosts in the host kei page, so I'll use this one to dive into the visual kei side. But definitely read the host page too.

1990

Ziggy, a proto-vkei band and huge influence on pioneers of the genre, on the cover of SHOXX.

Seiichi Hoshiko, who worked at a magazine publishing house, sees X JAPAN live at the Budokan and is so inspired that he launches SHOXX magazine to feature similar artists. He uses the tagline, "Visual & Hard Shock Magazine" after X JAPAN's Blue Blood album catchphrase, "PSYCHEDELIC VIOLENCE CRIME OF VISUAL SHOCK" after hearing Hide shout, 'Visual shock' on stage. At the time, the scene was called okeshou kei, but Seiichi hated it, so he started writing in articles, 'It's not okeshou kei, it's visual kei'.

1991

1992

1993 - Bandmen working as hosts

Aiji, guitarist of Pierrot/LM.C, has said the term visual kei was used in the live music scene since around this time.

Gackt works as a host in Kyoto and joins the vkei band Cains:Feel. This is my earliest documented example of a visual kei bandmen also working as a host. It's unlikely I'll find many earlier than this, host work was considered very corny and unappealing at the time so most guys would naturally be tight lipped about it.

1994 - Soft visual appeal

Some vkei bandmen begin to soften their visual aspect, wearing less makeup, cutting off their long hair, and wearing more toned down outfits. This often included making their music more palatable to the general public. It's said that the first sofubi band was Glay. Everyone has their own reason for doing so, like shifting the band's aesthetics to gain a wider mass appeal or in some cases, the bandmen grew out of flashy clothes or didn't really like wearing makeup in the first place. (A good indicator is if they revisit their crossdressing/make-up wearing roots later in their career, or if they drop it entirely.)

1995

October - Gackt moves to Tokyo and joins Malice Mizer. Glay have their major debut. As we can see, the soft visual type of vkei blends almost seamlessly into the fashion that many hosts will later adopt. Hosts, after all, must copy the current trends of the time to maximize their appeal to the customer.

1996

L'Arc~en~Ciel in 1996, after shedding their ethereal shiro kei look.

1997 - Vkei bubble starts

As the 'big four' of visual kei rise to fame (Malice Mizer, Shazna, La'Cryma Christi and Fanatic Crisis), the term visual kei takes hold in Japan. Meanwhile, X JAPAN disbands. Many 'soft visual' bands became popular during this time as they were introduced to a national audience through the TV show 'BreakOut!'. Many bands were inspired by Shazna to adopt the sofubi dress style.

1998

Rock band KIDS ALIVE begin activities in Hokkaido. This is relevant as the vocalist will later become a host and a big player in the visual kei x host boom.

X JAPAN guitarist Hide passes away. This is a huge moment for the visual kei scene and no doubt had a big effect on its decline.

1999 - Host boom begins

Gackt leaves Malice Mizer to begin solo work. Yasu's band, Janne da arc, get their major debut and begin to style themselves in sofubi.

For various reasons I cover in the host page, the image of hosts as a suave prince rather than a sleazy playboy improves. Hosts begin appearing in advertising and media, and the host boom officially begins. This coincides neatly with...

2000 - Vkei's decline

Despite reaching the height of its popularity just recently, visual kei is now seen as garish by the general public and popularity plummets. Looking at the fact that host clubs simultaneously began to shoot up in popularity as visual kei declined, I now wonder if becoming a host was almost like a survival strategy for bandmen in this period.

2001

KIDS ALIVE move activities to Tokyo. Their single Bokura no Bouken reaches number 30 on the Oricon charts.

2002

> I heard that 'Rose' actually began activities in 2002, but I need to look into it..

2003- First Visual Host Band

In January, Kaori Yuki's manga Blood Hound begins serialization. The subject of the manga is a host club where the hosts are vampires. Kaori Yuki is a huge fan of vkei bandmen like Hyde and Atsushi Sakurai, and many of her characters were inspired by them. We can see around this period that the seeds of vkei x host culture are starting to emerge.

November 26 - The hosts that will soon feature in visual kei host band 'Rose', begin solo activities with a performance at the Rokumeikan. Unfortunately, I don't think it was the actual Rokumeikan but a club... A host from Mesia came on stage with a bottle of Dom Perignon, 'performed the club's famous Dom Pérignon Call' and served it as part of the performance'. They have over 100 attendees!

This is the oldest example of hosts with a visual kei concept that I have found so far. So I'm pretty stoked. The members are: Vocal社長 岩崎義弥, Guitar幹部補佐 杉原由希弥, Guitar破月 丈～じょう～, Bass主任 涼 , Keyboard行逝～ゆい～, Drums相談役 天羽瑛二

Cure, a popular visual kei magazine, launches.

Rock band KIDS ALIVE release a single, then go on hiatus and vocalist Yuuga becomes a host.

the GazettE, one of the most famous visual kei bands with sujimori hair, in 2003.

This English source suggests that sujimori hair boomed in the host scene from 2003, but I think 2004-2005 is more accurate going by the earliest source I have found so far (G-Style magazine, January 2004).

2004 - Neo visual kei boom

Neo visual kei begins as the scene makes a comeback.

Vol.2 of Men's Knuckle: There are photos of hosts singing and dancing to visual kei music. At this point, these regular hosts don't have sujimori hairstyles yet.

The visual kei band 'Rose' launches, and all the members are employees of Club Mesia. I found little info on them outside of an ad for Club Mesia in the back of G-Style magazine that was so stikingly similar to vkei that I had to look them up. Turns out my hunch was right. Anyway, check their website for some... interesting song name choices, including their first mini album 'Horny, Rock-Hard Host' (発情ガン勃ち色ホスト) for just 2000 yen, tax included. You can listen to that here. There's also two music videos.

Sujimori hair is already big in visual kei. If we look at Hizaki's band Schwardix Marvally (2004) for example, it really resembles the early sujimori hair featured in Koakuma Ageha x Nuts (2005).

2005

May 5th - Visual kei host band Rose changes their name to 'Kabukicho Knight'. All of the members are employees at the Kabukicho Knight bar in Shinjuku. Their last live performance was August 2006 due to one member leaving the bar. The band is described as "neon kei" (ネオン系) - cannot currently confirm what part of them is neon? They have a vk.gy page.

2006 - Visual Host gains popularity

'Visual kei host' band AcQua EP from Club AcQua begin activities under the production of Kiyoharu, a very famous figure in visual kei who has been active since 1986. In the few articles I found, I get the feeling they're marketed as the pioneers of hosts with a visual kei concept, but of course it goes back further than this.

Alice Nine in 2006 sporting a very visual host look. There are rumours that at least one member worked as a host.

2007

Yasu's solo project Acid Black Cherry debuts.

Host and former vocalist of rock band KIDS ALIVE, Yuuga (also known as Yuta) opens Club Prince and debuts CLUB PRINCE as a pop group with a visual kei look.

Visual kei band Kagrra produce the movie 'Kaggra no su'. "Episode 43 is Nao's special. He went to Club Prince and learned how to become a host with Yuuga". Aired on April 2007.

Around this time, you can really see the host influence on visual kei artists. For example, HEAR have a very Koakuma Ageha type aesthetic. I even now wonder if the kirakira kei genre was partly host/hostess inspired.

A live schedule of Kabukicho Knight from 2007, I guess this refutes the prior info that they disbanded in 2006. This source actually suggests they were active since 2007. Maybe they came back as a duo?

2008

Men's Spider, a host and visual kei magazine produced by Yuu Ayukawa (owner of Club EDEN) begins publication. The magazine immediately coins the term 'v-host kei'.

Hyde collaborates with Hide's ex-guitarist Kaz to form VAMPS. Yasu and Hyde both become faces of the jrock x host x gyaruo crossover. Many bandmen are either hosts or customers of hostess clubs, creating a natural ecosystem.

Yasu's band Acid Black Cherry release the album Black List, which contains a song named Murder License. This could be a coincidence, maybe he's just a huge fan of Murder License Kiba, but considering his ties to the industry and culture it's sus.

Club Prince feature in Boy's Hunter Vol.2, a currently very obscure and htf host magazine by gyaru photographer Rin Ayase who identifies herself as a visual kei kyabajo.

Club F-ever visual kei host band begins in May (and disbands in April 2009).

2009

Men's Spider Vol.2, January 2009.

By now, jrock and visual kei are regularly mentioned in kyabajo magazine Koakuma Ageha.

Men's Spider Band debuts, working together with Kisaki from the Under Code label (and basically anything vkei, that man has his fingers in every pie). The members of the band are: Makoto Ichijou (Club GLOW), Suzuka(Club EDEN), Yuu Ayukawa (Club EDEN), Rui Matsuoka (Club Dolce), Yuushi (Since You...). Kisaki is the producer.

A livejournal entry notes that the huge surge in visual kei x host may be due to Men's Spider getting involved with Kisaki.

Daigo's band Breakerz in 2009, known for their visual host look.

Visual kei styled Club Secret host from Rin Ayase's magazine Boy's Hunter.

Some v-host looks from Host Galaxy Vol 1 which was published in July.

2010

Sixh. x Men's Spider fashion show live in May featuring visual kei artists. By this point Makoto Ichijou is the producer of Club ONE and Sena Satsuki is the producer of RIA -osaka-.

2011

Sena Satsuki retires from host life and forms the visual kei band 'the Raid.'.

2012

Some v-host looks from 2012. It feels like this may be the last year that gyaruo was part of v-host.

November - Visual kei event at Club FIDUCIA in Yokohama.

December - Fool's Mate magazine ceases publication.

2013

Some v-host looks from 2013. Totally visual, this seems like the visual kei side has exploded. Lots of really crazy hairs.

2014

Men's Spider continues to release, but by this point it can't really be called a gyaruo magazine anymore. It's basically just visual kei and probably hosts.

Some v-host looks from 2014. The last guy is wearing Lone Ones/Leonard Kamhout and the Alex Streeter Angel Heart ring that Hyde famously wears. These kind of clues are a good indicator of if a host is into vkei/jrock. Even though gyaruo is basically dead by this point, the visual kei aspect is still present in some hosts. The tan and culture of gyaruo is totally gone while sujimori remains.

2015

This is what hosts looked like as of 2015. As you can see, the visual kei styling and sujimori is almost entirely gone.

2016