X Japan - Musical Style

Musical Style

X Japan's music developed in the wake of American and British glam and heavy metal music and is characterized by driving power metal compositions with symphonic elements (e.g. "Kurenai", "Silent Jealousy") and emotional ballads (e.g. "Endless Rain", "Forever Love"). Many of the group's songs make use of orchestrated passages, particularly on longer tracks such as the ten and a half minute "Tears", "Crucify My Love", and the twenty-nine minute "Art of Life". The majority of the band's lyrics are in Japanese, the band's native language, however many instances show the lyrics alternating from Japanese to English and back. Examples of this include the spoken-word background vocals during the bridge of "Rusty Nail", multiple lines (including the entire prechorus) of the song "Week End", and the entirely-English "Alive" and "Drain".

The majority of the band's catalog of music was written by Yoshiki with relatively little composition from the other members. hide contributed several songs, including the single "Scars", while Pata's only claim is "White Wind from Mr. Martin ~Pata's Nap~". Toshi's contributions are limited to lyrics for a few songs. Taiji contributed music to a couple of songs, notably "Voiceless Screaming" on the album Jealousy where he plays the acoustic guitar. Heath's only writing credit is the instrumental song "Wriggle" on the 1996 album Dahlia, which he wrote with Pata. Only one song is credited as a full band collaboration, "Easy Fight Rambling" on the 1989 album Blue Blood. In 2010 it was reported that Sugizo has written some songs, though no further information was given.

Yoshiki's composing style tends to make use of chords in sequences of eights or more with riff-based motifs or call-and-response style phrasing. He has maintained this style for the majority of his career as a composer. Having played classical piano since he was 3 years old, Yoshiki claims to be as influenced by classical music as he is by rock, a claim which is evident when considering the breadth of music released by the band. While also serving as the main songwriter Yoshiki has production credit on much of X Japan's later material.

During live performances the band relies, for the most part, on its members (with drummer and pianist Yoshiki and guitarist and violinist Sugizo switching between their instruments) and prerecorded tracks for orchestrated strings, spoken word passages, and more recently, some of hide's guitar parts.