This is a really cool discussion, sorry to say i'm a kinda new fan so i guess i don't know much about "older" visual kei. I do know who Hide is though!
Anyways, i agree that a lot of bands start to sound the same after a while, but i think that there are still a lot of good bands out there. I do love Alice Nine, Ancafe, Gazette, etc. and i would say they are very fangirl-based, but i don't think people like them just for their looks, or at least i know i don't. I think they make good music. Of course, everyone has a different opinion on what that is.
This thought i had kind of fits in to this discussion, i hate it when people are like, "oh i hate ancafe cause they are all gay trannies, etc" just because it's not "cool" to like them, as opposed to say, either some band no one's heard of, or even like the Gazette or Mucc or something. If you don't really like them cause of their music, whatever, but i hate people who are like anti-something just cause it's cool. Sorry, I'm kinda rambling...
