How Does Japan Do Metal?

Ozzy Osbourne just rolled over in his grave... What? He's not
dead?... You sure?... Has anyone checked his pulse lately?

The answer is that they they do it like they do everything else, kinda weird with a splash of cuteness. I am talking about an odd new trend called baby metal. A friend of mine who is now living over seas suggested that I investigate this new music styling, and I thought it might be worth a blog post. I'm always up for a challenge. Before I begin let me clarify something, Babymetal is the name of the band that started this genre, sometimes called baby metal or kawaii metal (cute metal.)

The band, Babymetal consists of three girls, Moa Kikuchi, Suzuka Nakamoto, and Yui Mizuno. Suzuka is the frontman (front-person?) She is the oldest of the group (she will be seventeen in December,) and from what I can gather this whole craze stems from her. In Japan, she was an Idol, a contestant on Japanese Idol which is exactly what you think it is. However, Japanese Idol is not like American Idol (from what I can gather,) as the Japanese version seems to feature various groups competing together. Those groups can then break off into sub-groups, (because you know... Japan.) For instance, Suzuka was a founding member of the idol group, Sakura Gakuin, which is the larger group. The girls in that group then formed so-called clubs, smaller groups, that still associate with the larger unit. One of those smaller units formed by Suzuka (or more appropriately her record label, Amuse, Inc.) was a heavy metal group that was named Babymetal, in 2010. (Also she changed her name to Su-metal when the group was formed.)

Now fast forward to 2013. Suzuka graduated from junior high school, and by the laws of Japan (or her record label... It's not clear which), she was no longer allowed to be in the idol group, Sakura Garkuin, because it was a group for just preteen girls. Don't worry she was given an appropriate graduation concert to celebrate the milestone. That also should have meant that she aged out of being in Babymetal, because that group was just a sub-group of Sakura Garkuin, but instead she said, "F#ck it," (direct quote) and the group broke away from its parent group, and kept on rocking, despite Suzuka's advanced age of sixteen.

The group's sound is a mix of American metal and Japanese pop, and the comments on their YouTube videos range from praise to hatred to perversion, (because you know... the Internet.) Comments like, "This isn't metal. This is sh*t," or "This is a disgrace to the throat-screeching/roaring heritage my forefathers fought for," often seem to be in direct competition with comments such as "This is the most awesomest thing that ever awesomed," and "This is my guilty pleasure," (which also may fall under the perverted category, for anyone keeping score.)

One of their hit songs, Megitsune

Really people (and by people I mean Americans) just seemed fascinated by this trend and those like it that come out of Japan. Hell the Internet holds the entire country up as some kind of mystical fairyland where anything crazy is not only possible but mandated by law. This is a complex image that arose for several reasons, most of which has more to do with us than our friends across the Pacific. After all, when we look across the ocean we see a culture that resembles our own: free, capitalistic, and modernized, but with a divergent history and culture hidden below its surface. It is a funhouse reflection where things look the same but still different, and the "other" dressed in westernized clothing can sometimes scare people more than Hitler wearing a bow-tie. However, the stereotype of what Japan "is" also tends to amplify anything like baby metal to absurd proportions for us poor confused Americans. In actuality it is not anything different than what we have in the US.

Stylistically, they fuse two genres together, but really that's nothing new. We have fused everything from rock to rap to country to whatever Kayne West claims to be today. This is just another link in that chain. Some people have a problem because the girls are very young, but if that's your gripe take it up with Justin Beiber, prepubescent Michael Jackson, or anyone at the Disney Corporation. If I am offended by any aspect of the trend of baby metal, it is that the aforementioned group is really more of a construct of a record company than any one single artist. The girls don't write their own songs, they are performers, which if you are keeping score is a formula they got from us, (because you know... America.)

We often like to point at things like baby metal or vending machines that dispense used panties and stare in anime-like-wide-eyed wonder at the Japanese, when the truth is that in Japan those are considered the same kind of societal fringe behavior that they are here. Its judging a culture based on what they put on the Internet. It would be like Japan pointing at America and saying we are all porn addicts with an unhealthy love of kittens and Jennifer Lawrence. Baby metal is as much a fad in Japan as pogs were in America. If you don't believe me, listen to someone who has lived there. I am an admitted admirer of Japan. It is a country steeped in culture, history, freedom, and sushi. It defines and breaks our stereotypes all the time. Also, once you listen to the songs a few times (as I have during the researching of this article) Babymetal is kind of catchy.

Chocolate, this may be my new favorite song.