Wednesday 15 October 2014

Chocolatey Twerky Metal!

Well it looks like the metal scene is trying to be a bit more inclusive as of late, which is weird because until only a few years ago metal sort of just kept to itself. However, with the late September release of American metal band, Mastodon's new video "The Motherload" we see some new moves thrown in with the traditional Headbanging. People could argue that this is just reverse Headbanging but the dancers in this video are most definitely twerking. 

Now twerking has become a huge cultural phenomenon which has been part of many music scenes for years now but only really caught the eye of mainstream media when Miley Cyrus let loose at the 2013 VMAs. (And if you've been living under a rock for the past year, here is the performance in question.) In light of this video, all I can say is, here's hoping for a Mastodon/Major Lazer collaboration! 

Now what's even more inclusive is Japanese "Idol Metal" band, BABYMETAL! BABYMETAL is an attempt at combining the Japanese "Idol" genre with that of metal. Now for those of you who don't know, I did some research into "Idol" and found that it is something we have very prominently in the West, but we just don't have a name for it. "Idol" refers to a manufactured group or solo act of young (Sometimes very young) attractive stars or starlets who sing and dance. These groups are very similar to our Boy Bands or Girl Bands like One Direction, The Backstreet Boys or Atomic Kitten (Man I used to love Atomic Kitten!)

BABYMETAL started out in 2010 and only in early 2014 did they release their debut self titled album "BABYMETAL". Their sound has been designed to make Metal appeal to the teen and preteen Idol/J-Pop audience, and they seem to have done a damn good job of it peaking on charts across the glob and even reaching Number 1 on the US World Album Bilboard charts. The market reasoning behind BABYMETAL is that this is a completely untapped market. I kinda remember the Adult Swim show "Metalocalypse" doing a very similar thing... But for fish.


In BABYMETAL's live music video, "Gimme Chocolate" we can see exactly what the band is all about, but at the same time it raises more questions like, is that Mary in the background? What on earth could 3 teenagers have to say about chocolate for an entire 4 minute song? And what are the backing band wearing?

I personally think the video is great and I really hope it blows up on the web the way Gangnam Style did. I'm also loving the new Mastodon video, if not just for it's weirdness. Here's a link to a great article where one of the dancer's gives her insight into what it was like to actually be in the video and of course the controversy surrounding the video. Because you know how metal heads don't like change.

Thanks a lot for the read, if this gets any attention I'll try and return my interests to this blog and maybe make something really cool out of it.

For those of you who didn't get my hilarious Major Lazer reference, watch this but be warned, it's kinda fucked up. Major Lazer- Pon De Floor

Xtian Zzyzx


1 comment:

Blog Ping Tool