Today, the music business in the USA tends to be dominated by a few companies with their chosen songwriters, and which treat their artists like commodities. Many original musicians have chosen to go their own way, releasing their own creations online and through CDBaby (where you can place an order and have an album “burned” to CD and mailed to you) , for example, and not even trying for a traditional contract. (“What? You don’t want us to exploit, limit and dictate to you, use and abuse you?”)
So our radio airwaves are filled with material that mostly sounds the same, while more original songs and sounds are mostly from independent artists you have to go looking for. YouTube, SoundCloud, PureVolume, ReverbNation, CDBaby are possible places. Look up an artist you like on YouTube and they will suggest others they think are in a similar genre. Explore.
Earlier I shared some stuff on Band-Maid. That was the beginning of my learning more about Japanese bands, especially the current wave of all-female rock and metal bands in Japan.
The Japanese music scene has a strong pop presence. Japanese “J-Pop” is big, as is Korean “K-Pop” . But like the USA, a lot of original music happens “underground” - often literally, in basement clubs under buildings belonging to other businesses, usually with performances after their business hours. (Of course, this isn’t new. One of the Beatles’ early venues was The Cavern Club in Liverpool, established in the cellar of a fruit warehouse. And the owners of the Cavern were inspired by the cellar jazz clubs in Paris.)
Metal and metal-influenced rock are very active, with bands forming constantly, and many of these clubs are dedicated to those genres. In a sense, the most creative bands each create their own genre, as it is necessary to distinguish THIS group from the crowd. Typically each will have a particular gimmick, schtick or style for their act. Each member will show themselves as individual, but within that style. Remember how the “Power Rangers” children’s TV show characters had exactly the same outfit, just with different colors? And yet each was supposed to have a different personality. Today’s J-Rock bands aren’t quite that extreme, but everything is about the team, and each personality seen onstage may or may not be the actual private personality of the individual.
I say this to hopefully help you appreciate what you’re seeing in the music videos. Band-Maid’s Miku got the idea for their approach while working at a “maid cafe” and that is where her whole “moi, moi!” audience participation cheer comes from, and much of her other chatter, besides their original outfits (which have gone though considerable changes, at least with Saiki and Misa). Akane was first weirded out by the outfits, but decided it was worth it when she heard the sound they were going for.
Band-Maid and a number of other groups play to some degree (at least to western eyes) on childlike qualities and impression. Then, in the metal and rock genres at least, they blast you with a powerful sound. In real life, the band members of all these groups are typically twentysomethings. Miku of Band-Maid plays the most childlike role of them but she is the oldest, currently 28 I believe. Saiki is the youngest at 24 last I knew.
You can also see this approach in Babymetal, although they are not within the category of all-female bands I’m discussing here; the women of Babymetal are a talented song-and-dance trio fronting a male band, and doing their best to seem like precocious little girls.
Each band here has its own thing going. The vast majority seem to have taken some cues from speed metal, so you will hear a lotta superfast guitar work in there, and sometimes remember to let the bass player shine which is nice.
As a general rule, Japanese artists strive to give everything 200%. Anything less would not be honorable. I mentioned earlier about Band-Maid’s Saiki having to have surgery to remove nodes from her vocal cords, typically caused by vocal strain. When Misa was first learning slap-bass technique, she practiced so intensely she had blisters when it was time to record. She went into the studio and recorded ANYWAY.
And their drummer Akane has voiced her determination to “smash” the perception that women can’t play hard rock. It seems she has lots of company; the all-female bands coming from Japan are technically superb and often inspired.
It would appear that Kurt Cobain’s prophecy that women are the future of rock is coming true, and in 2018 it is led by Japan.
Specific band reviews follow.
J
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