Pop has eaten itself and has a sugar high

February 28, 2014 8:14 AM

Give me Choco! (SLYT) is the new single/video from Babymetal. Babymetal is what you get when a J-Pop Idol group goes full Death Metal. As the wikipedia article drily remarks, "none of the three members knew what metal music was before the inception of the band." Ear-meltingly metal and eye-meltingly kawaii, in a disturbingly perkygoth way, you can find more here, here, and here.

(I am now waiting for the inevitable Babymetal/Hatebeak line-up. Because everything — even J-Pop/metal — is better with parrots. (SLYT))

posted by cstross (52 comments total)

That was fantastic and is going to send me back down the Shibuya shaped hole that spent most of the 90s in. Thanks!
posted by merocet at 8:20 AM on February 28, 2014

Is that a big ol' statue of Jesus behind them?
posted by postcommunism at 8:22 AM on February 28, 2014

Dammit, I have a half-composed Babymetal post on my laptop!
posted by skycrashesdown at 8:22 AM on February 28, 2014 [3 favorites]

I am glad I live in a world where this level of artistic ability exists.

Seriously, I really love this. The contrast of moods and the musicality, along with the sidehanded social implications are amazing.

There should be a museum with just this youtube video and nothing else on a projector with megaspeakers surrounding you.

I wish I could read any of their Amazon Page to buy the album and support them
posted by bbqturtle at 8:23 AM on February 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

Is that a big ol' statue of Jesus behind them?

In the second-to-last video, one of the singers steps off of a crucifix.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 8:24 AM on February 28, 2014

Spoilers!
posted by postcommunism at 8:24 AM on February 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

Babymetal videos had become a kind of copypasta on another site I frequent: Posting one was a guaranteed way to derail whatever argument or discussion was going on.
posted by ardgedee at 8:24 AM on February 28, 2014

Unbelievable. My mouth was hanging open then twisting into a grin throughout. I expect this rapidly gets irritating but for now I am in the sweet spot of explodey-brain awe.
posted by RokkitNite at 8:24 AM on February 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

Their most recent album is in the iTunes store (not just on amazon.jp).

At risk of parade-raining, I would like to note that this band is as artificial as Dick Cheney's heart (and the band members are only just older than the 21st century). While it's all deeply amusing, I can't help feeling a little weirded out whenever I think about the marketing minds behind the sound stage.
posted by cstross at 8:27 AM on February 28, 2014 [9 favorites]

I think it should be called Tickle Metal.
posted by srboisvert at 8:38 AM on February 28, 2014 [3 favorites]

I saw my first Babymetal video back in 2011 - Doki Doki Morning - and thought they would either be a flash in the pan gimmick band, or else go on to greatness. Glad to see they've gone all-in and embraced the "goth-lolita-headbanger" vibe, and have become popular.
posted by jazon at 8:59 AM on February 28, 2014

This is the best thing that has ever happened.
posted by signal at 9:01 AM on February 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

sort of related from a few weeks ago: Stop Stop Winny
posted by kliuless at 9:06 AM on February 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

This isn't "good" but it's interesting to me to see what the next wave of popular music is going to be and this is a crazy mashup of the group band dance move stuff the heavier guitar sounds. I don't think I'd watch it again, but I'm glad I saw it.

And the Virgin Mary is a nice touch.
posted by josher71 at 9:12 AM on February 28, 2014

What do the lyrics mean?
posted by Paul Slade at 9:19 AM on February 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

Lyrics? They want chocolate I think. And who could blame them?
posted by davros42 at 9:25 AM on February 28, 2014 [3 favorites]

What do the lyrics mean?

The lyrics are nothing to write home about, but given the context they're pretty amusing.

So, that said, can anyone shed any light on what "mosh'sh" (from the message at the end of the first video) is? Otherwise, I'm pretty content assuming that it's the name of the monster that lives in the pit.
posted by caaaaaam at 9:25 AM on February 28, 2014

All style, no substance
posted by smackwich at 9:31 AM on February 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

This is magnificent. I'll have to give that album a spin.


While metal by nature is best when played by scowling Scandinavians (arguably our main contribution to world culture), I've always thought a Hello Kitty themed metal band (come on! The band could have matching instruments (admittedly, perhaps the drum kit is a mite small)) would be just the thing, but this combination of two different brands of high energy music is highly amusing.
posted by bouvin at 9:33 AM on February 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

While metal by nature is best when played by scowling Scandinavians

I'm holding out for Babymetal's cover of Mayhem's "Chainsaw Gutsfuck", that shit will be epic!
posted by MikeMc at 9:38 AM on February 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

The best description I've seen of this is "Adorably brutal" ...
posted by cirhosis at 9:56 AM on February 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

Didn't Marty Friedman (formerly of Megadeth) do a Jpop-Metal hybrid with "Death Panda?"
posted by jonmc at 10:05 AM on February 28, 2014

So, that said, can anyone shed any light on what "mosh'sh"

The mosh pit is where you get the real heavy dudes dancing, or moshing. If you know punk, it's a lot of pogoing and slam dancing, you know, up the white people can't dance but can move their limbs around energetically factor up a 100, then let people good naturedly crash into each other deliberately.

Three cutey-cute tiny Japanese women in that?

Yeah, could work.
posted by MartinWisse at 10:23 AM on February 28, 2014

All style, no substance

That's fine with me,"[thing] is an attitude, maaan" is pretty hoary nowadays. Music is how it sounds.

I like that music is going in this direction, and by all measures is only beginning. Depending on how you feel about this (I think "Choco" is the most exemplary), things are definitely going to get worse/better.
posted by rhizome at 10:33 AM on February 28, 2014

All style, no substance

True of most metal.
posted by ultraviolet catastrophe at 10:40 AM on February 28, 2014

Every time they start singing I'm disappointed by the lack of some serious primal scream vocals; the setup, the aesthetic, the music; all of those just... lead up to wry amusement, instead of visceral thrills.
posted by ChrisR at 10:42 AM on February 28, 2014 [3 favorites]

... that said, wow. Just... wow. I love mashup culture sometimes. Great post!
posted by ChrisR at 10:42 AM on February 28, 2014

All style, no substance

Very style, much subtext

The costuming is brilliantly right/wrong
posted by maggieb at 10:45 AM on February 28, 2014

I thought that the song from The LEGO Movie was going to be stuck in my head for weeks...but I was mistaken, so mistaken. ^_^
posted by trackofalljades at 11:04 AM on February 28, 2014

They got nothin' on Melt Banana.
posted by gcbv at 11:06 AM on February 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

True of most metal

Wait, so you're telling me that silver horses did not bring us here to the edge of the universe?
posted by rhizome at 11:10 AM on February 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

They got nothin' on Melt Banana.

What, because they're both Japanese? They aren't even trying to do the same thing. If you want to go apples-to-apples, one of the things I like about this is that it parodies what wound up ruining Iron Maiden.
posted by rhizome at 11:14 AM on February 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

That might be the worst thing I have ever heard. Noriega would have surrendered much faster if this music was available back then.
posted by bh at 11:18 AM on February 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

You know, I'd be all about this if this was a bunch of people enthusiastic about an absurd idea making a band together. In the meantime it's just another idol band thrown together by a talent agency, this time aimed at whatever market intersects between Idols and metal and folks that'll buy it based on pure novelty. Its sounds about as hollow as you'd expect to boot.

In contrast: This is more exciting not simply because its absurd, but because someone's enthusiastic about what they're making. There's something neat in that.
posted by ThrowbackDave at 11:45 AM on February 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

<CBG>This is clearly thrash, not death metal.</CBG>

If you want some ear-bleach, head a few threads down.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 12:03 PM on February 28, 2014

Every time someone complains about manufactured bands, I get "Daydream Believer" stuck in my head. So keep it up!
posted by darksasami at 12:15 PM on February 28, 2014 [4 favorites]

Every time someone complains about manufactured bands, I get "Daydream Believer" stuck in my head.

Goddamit!
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 12:31 PM on February 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

Daydream Believer? Japanese girl groups? Ah you must mean Shonen Knife.
posted by merocet at 12:56 PM on February 28, 2014 [5 favorites]

While it's all deeply amusing, I can't help feeling a little weirded out whenever I think about the marketing minds behind the sound stage.

Oddly, I thought it all sounded like the kind of thing a science fiction writer would come up with to show you that it's The Future.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 2:53 PM on February 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

Cute. I want them to grow up to be eX-Girl.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 3:02 PM on February 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

I love it, I love it, i love it, i love it, I LOVE IT!!

This music causes me to have a big goofy grin.
posted by Faintdreams at 3:09 PM on February 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

cirhosis: "The best description I've seen of this is "Adorably brutal" ..."

I think adorabrutally is the new depressarific.

I saw that Doki Doki song that jazon posted sometime this past month, and I reposted on FB, but didn't think too much of it, I mean, sure, it's kinda catchy, got a hook, but, eh...

But the tracks on this post definitely had me take more notice. I also saw a couple friends of mine posting this.

I want to hate it, I really do. But it's so goddamned good, and the fact is, the metal just makes shitty j-pop sound soooooooooo much better.

I don't know if I really want this to be a full blown genre, and I'd be quite happy if it was just this one band doing their thing instead of a trend. Crossing my fingers nobody crosses that line.

Also - for some reason, I keep thinking that Jesus statue is wearing a backwards baseball hat, a la Kevin Smith dirtball stoner style.
posted by symbioid at 6:57 PM on February 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

The skintight skeleton suits on the instrumentalists remind me of Devin Townsend's video for "Vampira."
posted by Schlimmbesserung at 11:32 PM on February 28, 2014

As the self-professed "King of All Things Weeaboo", that sucked. Sorry, it's just an industry-fashioned pop band, with no soul, no creativity whatsoever driving it. Complete dreck. And I was so excited at the start because I thought I was going to get to see a trio of Japanese girls all doing the Cookie Monster voice. Now that I would watch.
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 1:09 AM on March 1, 2014

I...
Uhh…
What…

Today, March 1, 2014, I am officially old.
posted by eriko at 6:54 AM on March 1, 2014

I thought I was going to get to see a trio of Japanese girls all doing the Cookie Monster voice

Me too. But here's a death metal scream for you.
posted by illongruci at 7:42 AM on March 1, 2014

Those girls must be meth'd to the gills to hop around that energetically that much.
posted by Samizdata at 9:46 AM on March 1, 2014

MartinWisse: Oh, yeah, sorry if that was unclear. I know what a "mosh pit" is, but I have no idea what a "mosh'sh pit" is. I guess I'll have to go find out...
posted by caaaaaam at 11:23 PM on March 1, 2014

So much Jpop already had a temple similar to much intense metal, so all they had to do was swap backing tracks with some heavier guitar, and a drum kit for most of the synth beats.
Everything else was kept the same.

Still, I think I am more shocked that it took someone this long to work this angle.
posted by Theta States at 9:41 AM on March 3, 2014

it parodies what wound up ruining Iron Maiden.
Janick Gers?
posted by Wolfdog at 2:34 PM on March 3, 2014

Sorry, it's just an industry-fashioned pop band, with no soul, no creativity whatsoever driving it.

I love this argument! Of course, since there was "no creativity" involved in putting this together, we can point to myriad other examples, right? Also, since there was no creativity involved, the music sounds exactly like industry-fashioned music of decades past. Ah, nostalgia! Babymetal really does harken back to simpler times of yore.
posted by rhizome at 11:47 AM on March 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Janick Gers?

Nah, some time before that, but estimates will differ. Gers is certainly in the survey options.
posted by rhizome at 11:48 AM on March 4, 2014