He sure puts a fair deal on his own plate, that's for sure - but I think it's kind of cool for Yoshiki to do that. It certainly makes me respect the man more, few other musicians of his status would be willing to "put it on the line" as much as he does.
I'm pretty sure anyone musical can be accused of this, Yoshiki is definately included in that. I can tell a "Yoshiki" composition from a mile away, his chord sequences usually stick to a similar descending pattern which in itself stinks of his influences, such as J.S.Bach - not to mention his constantly used (in X) double kick drum rhythm which in itself is fairly rudimentary.
I can agree with you there, but that is entirely dependant on what you regard as a cheap marketting trick. Some people could say that in X's earlier days when Yoshiki was desperate to move units of his Extasy bands the entire "Crime of Visual Shock" and "Sexy Scandal" images were just mere marketting gimmicks. Yoshiki chose the road of gaining attention by shock tactics against the clean image of the "norm" much like the Sex Pistols. I wounldn't say it's any better than TK using sex appeal to sell records - if anything it shows that Yoshiki was much more opportunistic, he made his move at the right time - something which can't really be repeated often once it has already been done.
