The BABYMETAL Thread \m/ No Metal, No Idol 337 replies to this topic Started by aine , Dec 01 2013 06:05 PM ·

[strawberryjam]

The girls seem to be in the nascent stages of blowing up globally. I'm seeing more and more posts about BABYMETAL in my FB feed from friends who've never listened to JPop.

Same here..

I'm happy for them. There seems to be polarising camps though - either they're not metal or WTF is this, it's awesome. I think people would find them less jarring if Moametal and Yumetal just danced. Sumetal is a great vocalist, but the little girls ruin it to an extent. I could see normalfags not being able to handle it.

 

My favorite song of theirs is Headbanger which doesn't look like has benefited from this new attention. Still only 700K in views. Come on people!

I watched GImme Choco yesterday and it was at 2.5mln views. Today it's already at 2.7mln!

 

 

I'm putting together an outfit to wear to the Babymetal concert... Such is my life.

[JPope]

Yeah, I think people assume that "Gimme Chocolate" is their debut or something, and most of the western media articles are heavy on "OMG! The music apocalypse is upon us! WTF Japan?! LOLZ!!!" and woefully light on actual content about the group. My favorite song is still "Ijime,Dame,Zettai," and I've been making a point to link to that video whenever someone posts about them on FB. Such an epic song and video.

[aine]

The girls seem to be in the nascent stages of blowing up globally. I'm seeing more and more posts about BABYMETAL in my FB feed from friends who've never listened to JPop. The cool thing is that, while it's clearly picked up the past week, it has actually been happening on a smaller scale for about six months now lead by actual metal fans who legitimately like them, and now the more mainstream music fans and bloggers seem to be turning them into the hot new novelty. Which will mostly pass quickly, but I think they might have more staying power than, say, Psy, based on the fact that BABYMETAL's novelty is based around the mesh of musical genres, as opposed to one specific viral video. At the very least I think they'll get a proper world tour out of this before it's all said and done.

Remember, they did have their mini-boom a while ago with Doki Doki Morning. It got picked up by a decent lot of Western music and Japan-oriented media, but it didn't really stick in the long run. And I did have similar worries about them going down Psy's way, but they seem to be regarded more as proper artists rather than a one-off gimmick (which in all fairness is rather unfair to Psy). At least people do seem to be discussing their entire discography on serious metal websites. It's rather hilarious seeing die-hard metalheads try to make sense out of them.

I looked up some stats for their channel and it sure enough was a steady growth, but the actual viral explosion only happened on and after March 1st, that is the first Budokan day:

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Yeah, I think people assume that "Gimme Chocolate" is their debut or something, and most of the western media articles are heavy on "OMG! The music apocalypse is upon us! WTF Japan?! LOLZ!!!" and woefully light on actual content about the group. My favorite song is still "Ijime,Dame,Zettai," and I've been making a point to link to that video whenever someone posts about them on FB. Such an epic song and video.[/size]

"What does the fox-god say?"... I don't really blame the mainstream media for being shallow, that's what they are. And I stopped keeping track of them, but I saw mentions of BM in nearly all major outlets over the last week. Music media do focus on their actual music content though, so that's good.

Speaking of IDZ, I think I mentioned it before and I'm still not 100% sure, but I do think we visited the site where they shot the PV when we were in Japan. It sure does look a lot like it:

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[JPope]

That looks a lot like the place. What is it?

[aine]

That looks a lot like the place. What is it?

Oya Mine Museum near Utsunomiya, we dropped by there on the way to see an MM concert.

[JPope]

Dom Lawson gets it:

 

The most startling thing about Babymetal's self-titled album is how ridiculously entertaining it is. I should hate this, I thought to myself as I first assailed the neighbours with the glitterbomb savagery of inexplicably-titled sing-along anthems like Gimme Choco!! and Doki Doki MORNING… and yet, I think I've already fallen in love with this, erm, band. Unlike the vapid cut'n'paste postmodernism that has infected the metalcore scene in recent times – check out the frankly hideous Issues for a cackhanded pop/metal hybrid that leaves a truly foul taste in the mouth – Babymetal's songs are imbued with an exhilarating sense of innocence and joy that may yet still enrage Slayer fans to the point of apoplexy, but that I can only hope will introduce a generation of hyperactive toddlers (doubtless via their otherwise embittered middle-aged music journalist parents) to the wonders of brutal riffs, ribcage-shattering kick drum flurries and, best of all, how truly, wonderfully deranged Japanese pop culture can be.

 

Go read the whole thing. It's the best write up of BABYMETAL by a western writer I've yet seen.

 

[strawberryjam]

Agreed it was the best coverage so far.

 

I wish people would understand that it isn't meant to be taken SO SERIOUSLY. It IS a gimmick to some degree, but with good music.

You kinda get the point when you watch IDZ. The PV is laughable and the girls are obviously not playing the guitar..but it's all in the fun if that makes sense.

 

A lot of people with their virgin eyes are thinking that the girls are supposed to be serious artists or like a new Britney Spears of some sort..

[JPope]

The one constant I see in nearly every mention of the group outside of Japan -- including the Lawson piece to a lesser degree -- is the "I bet metal-heads are poking their ear drums out LOLZ!!!" theme. And while there are a lot of metal fans who hate BABYMETAL, there are also a lot who love them. Which makes sense, seeing as a good portion of foreign Jpop fans are metal-heads. 

 

Which got me to thinking how cool it would be if there was a remix community that put BABYMETAL vocals over classic Jpop arrangements. Kind of like the opposite of Evil Morning and the like. 

[Banana]

YOUTUBERS REACT TO BABYMETAL

 

[Mukuro]

Omg I must watch this but I'm at school and I won't get home until late! Nooo

[strawberryjam]

It's cool... but they made them listen to pretty much the worst songs in their discography...

[Banana]

Yeah. I expected that, though, because I know they want to get a certain reaction out of them. 

[Samantha]

YOUTUBERS REACT TO BABYMETAL

 

ugh need to watch this YT react is basically one of my favorite things.

 

edit: yaas Swoozie and SUP3RFRUIT need to watch this after dinner

[Shiroi]

I hope the UK is on the list for their European tour :)

[NekoKai]

I finally watched that, and I'm proud of the Smosh boys, especially Anthony.  I didn't know who any of the other youtubers were, though.

[aine]

I had high hopes for the date 14.4.4, but the day came and went and no announcement of a European concert/tour was made. Kind of a bummer. I hope they give enough of a notice so that holiday and travel arrangements can be comfortably made.

I have no idea who those people in the Youtubers React video were. For all I care it could be called Random Overly Fashion-Obsessed People React to Babymetal, hah. But that point aside, it wasn't too bad. I do agree that the choice of the songs wasn't ideal though and I wish they selected at least one of the less gimmicky ones (namely, IDZ). Also, whoever makes those videos didn't do their research right - typing "Line" instead of "Iine" is a bit embarrassing.

Which got me to thinking how cool it would be if there was a remix community that put BABYMETAL vocals over classic Jpop arrangements. Kind of like the opposite of Evil Morning and the like. 

This is a brilliant idea! If I had the skills I'd be chugging away at it as we speak.

[Star]

Yesterday at lunch my cousin asked me if I knew what BABYMETAL was and I started having a spaz attack and said yes. Then he said "Can you please tell me what the fuck they're saying?"

[cadmonkey]

I had high hopes for the date 14.4.4, but the day came and went and no announcement of a European concert/tour was made. Kind of a bummer. I hope they give enough of a notice so that holiday and travel arrangements can be comfortably made.

 

You should have waited a few hours to post: http://sonisphere.co...-for-babymetal/

 

I have never heard of this, so I don't know how convenient it would be for you.  Although I'm sure you won't let any inconveniences get in your way.

 

Worst part (for me), it's July 4-6, so that rules them out for Anime Expo.

[aine]

I had high hopes for the date 14.4.4, but the day came and went and no announcement of a European concert/tour was made. Kind of a bummer. I hope they give enough of a notice so that holiday and travel arrangements can be comfortably made.

 
You should have waited a few hours to post: http://sonisphere.co...-for-babymetal/
 
I have never heard of this, so I don't know how convenient it would be for you.  Although I'm sure you won't let any inconveniences get in your way.
 
Worst part (for me), it's July 4-6, so that rules them out for Anime Expo.

Hahaha, are you fucking kidding me? This is kinda cool. But also kinda sucks. Actually it sucks all kinds of ass when I think about it.

Sonisphere is a really huge event here and it's crowded. I've never been to one, but I can only imagine Babymetal being shoved onto one of the side stages among other novelty or no-name acts. They will probably only play a relatively short set, 45 minutes would be the norm. And the crowd will suck, being composed of a small handful of actual fans, a whole lot of closed-minded metalheads booing them out, and the rest made up of people too pissed to care what they're watching. Never thought I'd say that, but I'd so much prefer a small venue packed full with weeaboos than a huge festival full of intoxicated Brits.

I watched a good few Dir en Grey gigs at festivals in Europe (mainly Rock am Ring) and they would always get a daytime slot and the audience would be maybe 30-40 fangirls and a whole field of people not giving a shit. And Dir en Grey has a way stronger claim to metal fame than Babymetal, no need to kid yourself about that.

Finally, a single day ticket to the festival is 85 GBP. I was prepared to swallow about this much, but including flights and all. I'm having a hard time justifying the trip to myself when it's gonna involve a whole day of wandering around and twiddling thumbs while bands I don't care about play only to watch a short BM show in a less than pleasant company...

Regardless if we end up going or not, I pray that they bring the real band over and not the fake playback one, otherwise they will fall from their fame much faster than they achieved it.

[Al Kusanagi]

Even Time Magazine is talking about BABYMETAL.

[Shoujo Q]

Cuca joined the Babymetal bandwagon. 

[Star]

I love Cuca even more now!

[Anderei]

Babymetal world tour

 

The world is Japan and three European countries.

 

• 01/07/2014 : La Cigale, Paris, France
• 03/07/2014 : Live Music Hall, Cologne (Köln), Germany
• 07/07/2014 : Electric Ballroom, London, United Kingdom
• 14/09/2014 : Makuhari Messe Event Hall, Chiba, Japan

[Star]

So its not a world tour, its a Europan tour.

[Anderei]

Oh no. It is a WORLD tour. The flyer says so.

 

[Valerie]

Apparently Europe is the world. :P

[aine]

You people are so petty. ¯\(O_o)/¯ Go enjoy your Morning Musume in New York, and don't forget to sing God Save The Queen as the encore call.

They also changed their Sonisphere date from July 6th to July 5th, moving from one of the side stages to the main one at the same time. It's a nice upgrade I guess, but a pain in the ass for people who bought the July 6th only tickets to the festival (like me). I'm nervous about how forthcoming the organizers will be about refunding those, and I'm just glad I put off buying flights for it.

[NekoKai]

Hopefully they'll refund them, I imagine they knew it was a possibility that people would only come for one group.

 

I might be going to the concert in Köln.

[aine]

The World Tour Trailer

In fact it's some 8 minutes of the Budokan footage. Don't think I said this before, but watching the Budokan footage in morning news clips I was pretty worried about the quality of it. It seemed like a lot of their cameras were shaking way too much from the sound system. From the trailer it seems they did a pretty good job fixing it, or maybe just used different footage for it. In any case, the inevitable Budokan Blu-Ray will be glorious to watch and blast to the whole neighbourhood.

I might be going to the concert in Köln.

You better get the tickets fast then, the original London ones sold out in under 24 hours. They now switched the venue to a bigger one and added more tickets to the pool, but they're a pretty hot stuff from what it seems.

I missed the first London round of tickets because it timed really badly with our coming back from holidays and going to work a few hours later the next day (we learned of the tour during a flight layover). Cursing my fate I bought the Paris ones instead (would much prefer to go to Köln tbh but there aren't convenient enough flights from here), but now with the upgraded venue I got the London ones too. I know I shouldn't even consider it and get rid of the Paris ones asap, but I'd lie if I said I wasn't tempted to go to both shows...

[aine]

Apparently Babymetal are shooting something in New York right now?

https://twitter.com/...8/photo/1/large
https://twitter.com/...0/photo/1/large

ETA: http://instagram.com/p/n8txxkPajC/