That you landed on this site probably means that you don't know muc about Visual Rock yet, but want to know more. Yep, I will try to introduce you a little bit... Visual Rock is a form of J-Rock (not everything what is J-Rock is Visual Rock! There are also "normal" japanese rockgroups, for ecample B'z or The Yellow Monkey) and was created in the 80s; pioneer was the band X Japan that formed a totally new style. Men who walked around with much make-up, crazy hairstyles and haircolours and made music. Androginity has already been the ideal of beauty for men in japan for a long time; but in the music szene this hasn't been yet. X Japan confess to have been influenced by the american group KISS; though, these don't try to look feminin. You can of course difference between different styles: Some bands, like Glay for example, have a pretty sober style, bot much make-up, short hair and so on. However, other groups like Malice Mizer, X Japan, Luna Sea (at the beginning) and Dir en grey have a totally psychedelic style (you can't say otherwise; beside, the motto of X Japan has been "Psychedelic violence, crime of visual shock), they wear much make-up, and some you can't believe at the first glance that they are men (look at Mana from Malice Mizer or Toshiya from Dor en grey and you know what I mean ^^). Above all, Indie Bands (= bands who release under small record labels like Matina or Soleil) often have this style (Syndrome, Madeth Gray'll,...) Here come some examples for both directions: first Glay, L'arc en ciel and Lucifer:
Glay	L'arc en ciel	Lucifer
And now the "other" direction:
Dir en grey	Malice Mizer	Aliene Ma'riage
Okay, survived the visual shock fine? ^_^ Generally spoken mostly Indie Bands have the "exreme" style; on the other hand, Dir en grey are "Major" too and have maintained this style.. Malice Mizer have been major too, but after their former vocalist Gackt has separated from the group for starting a (successful) solo career, they are indies again now. And now the next (and in the princip more important ^^) point: the music. Naturally the fans outside japan mostly have their first contact with j-rock through photos, but also the music plays an important role (who would want to hear bad music?). Here too are enormous differences, in fact you can hardly compare the bands. Every style is there, at the example of X Japan even in one band; from pop, soft rock, punk, ballads 'till heavy or speed metal, everything is represented. Many peoply say that the music which Indie bands "produce" would only be noise; but you can't say this at all, because Indie bands as well as Major Bands are really good in their metier. There are also bands which you can sort in only very bad or not at all; Malice Mizer is such a band. Their music is described the best with the atmosphere of vampire-films, it sounds very mystically and secretly. However, X Japan you can't sort anywhere at all, too. They simply unite too many different styles in their songs: There are soft, depressive ballads (Crucify my love, Unfinished, Endless Rain), hard, but still melodic Hard Rock (X, Standing Sex, Blue Bloos), even songs which let a little bit remember to Gospel (Desperate Angel). On the other hand, Luna Sea's music is mor pop, although there are also many rock-influences (Hurt, Sweetest Coma Again); in general, their songs sound more optimistic than X Japans', which really sound depressive or angry. This was my little introduction to Visual Rock; I hope it helped you a little bit and interested you more!! ^.^