‘Cute Metal’: the genre that Japanese group Babymetal would like to create. If you haven’t heard of Babymetal, they are a group of young teenage girls who perform choreographed dance routines to a backing band that plays metal. It’s a strange mix of J-pop attempting to meld with metal, with mixed results depending on whom you ask. While they have been around for some time now and have gained a reasonable amount of internet exposure, it appears they have recently impressed the UK with a performance at Sonisphere.
I haven’t decided what to think of Babymetal. Watching videos, I’m not sure whether to feel confused, amused or some other mix of emotions. It’s weird to see what are essentially little girls running around in tutus while a band in corpse paint plays in the background. Something like this only seems plausible as having began in Japan, and shouldn’t come as a surprise I suppose. Adding pop vocals about generally nonsensical things doesn’t really work for me, but others seem to like it. The idea of ‘cute metal’ doesn’t exactly work for me either, as I was never drawn to metal because it was ‘cute’. Nor do I really think metal should be cute. There are certainly metal heads who won’t ever accept ‘cute metal’, or Babymetal.
While I can’t see myself ever getting into this band, I think it will be interesting to watch what kind of following they manage to garner. It will be interesting to see what others think, and to what extent they are accepted by the metal (and wider musical) community. The young girls in the group have said that they want to expose younger teenagers and children to metal, which is noble enough in itself I suppose. I guess if you don’t like it, don’t listen. If you do like it, listen. Either way, it won’t harm anyone. I just find this idea to be a manufactured, yet intriguing, experiment. More time will tell what the results will be.
An article with videos:
