Oricon Style wrote a new report about BABYMETAL to try to understand why they are popular overseas. Oricon goes in depth about their beginnings, their concept and sound, Kami Band and Lady Gaga. Read their article translated below.
Oricon Style: "BABYMETAL, The Universal Charm"
The female group BABYMETAL, which released simultaneously worldwide the album "Metal Resistance" has reached #39 in the Billboard US Albums chart, entering in the Top40 after Sakamoto 53 years ago. They have also attracted 12.000 spectators in a single performace at the Wembley Arena in the UK, making the start of its third World Tour in this same performance. What are the reasons why they have become popular overseas? Let's explore -again- their charm.
-Lovely girls dancing and singing to full-scale metal... The gap of popularity in overseas market.
BABYMETAL originally was a trio who derived from the growth period limited to third grade of Junior High School Idol group Sakura Gakuin. Sakura Gakuin's theme is "School Days & Club Activities", like Cooking Club, Baton Club, and the prototype of BABYMETAL. Its concept is "Fusion of Idol and Metal". Although often it's said that "It is just novelty", in fact, it was born from a wide variety of styles of the Japanese Idol scene, Rock x Idol was absolutely uncommon. Alice Juban (Kamen Joshi) were also called a "Metal Idol Unit", Hime Kyun also had the vision of that sound contrary to the group's name. Party Rockets received a music offer by Eric Martin from the original MR.BIG.
However, Rock in these groups follows the basic line of the Idols. The Idol fan is not distant to this, so the surprise has been removed. The activities of BABYMETAL on the other hand are contrary to its mother, Sakura Gakuin. The Idol-ness correspondingly demostrate that there the club activities are appropiate for its course. Of course, conforming to the style of metal, the performances include headbanging, and above all the sound is authentic. Its "Kami Band" (God Band) is made up with musicians with top class technique from Japan.
The intense metal sound contains the appreciation of several bands layers that have been listened, such as Iron Maiden and Ozzy Osbourne. Then, pretty girls come dancing and singing, from the familiar Japanese Idol; it was mainly received as something fresh abroad, as there such thing was unexistent. Their video 'Gimme Chocolate' exceeded 47 million plays and many English comments.
-Not disputed in the actual market, clever strategies that ganied support with presence.
Su-Metal, the vocal force, Yuimetal and Moametal, the Dance force. Styled as typical Japanese Idols, the three girls are 18 and 16 years old; their young age seems to reflect a surprise to foreigners to their performances. In addition there are traists in Yuimetal and Moametal that are similar, creating a certain feel of mystique. The God Of Metal depicted as "Kitsune-Sama", adds an exotic factor and a pretending Karate style in the recording of "KARATE" from "Metal Resistance" was also added. As a result, it has spread to overseas fans and has been recognized by many artists who are not from their country.
In Japan, their reputation in these foreign countries has been caught as form of reverse imports. The center of current fans are not Idol fans, besides the core from the Sakura Gakuin era. In the live venues also happen to be Walls Of Death and Circle Moshpits, specific metal movements. Safe to say, there are not only metal fans. The crowd at Tokyo Dome will be diverse. The general feeling is that BABYMETAL is "interesting".
Such sense, leads also to the situation where Momoiro Clover Z breaks the subculture existence. However, the opportunity for rock fans to know the fun style of BABYMETAL, came from the buzz of serving as opening act for Lady Gaga's Tour.
In addition, some artists have become new fans, proudly are saying "I'm a fan of BABYMETAL". Rather than being in the middle of the pie of foreign markets, in Japan, BABYMETAL has support from a collection of fans. And the attraction of the perserverance of the girl's pure brilliance, seems to be universal.
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Article by: Oricon Style
Translation by: Hitoshi Sugioka.
Grammar Editor: Daniel Fuentes.
Read: Oricon report about Kami Band, click here.
Read: Oricon report about Sakura Gakuin the healthy Idol group, click here.
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