Your story is almost the same as mine. I saw BabyMetal and BAND-MAID appear as suggestions from time to time. In my prejudice, I thought it was something like The Voice for kids in Japan where they do rock covers or something like that... But one day I happened to click on BAND-MAID. Think it was Puzzle or DICE? The only thing I remember is sitting there fascinated by the drummer's incredible playing. Then I read that her name was Akane and realized that I had heard of her before, everyone said she is incredibly good. Since then, I'm stuck.

I was the same way, but it was only a couple months or so for me. @wave potter kept talking about how much he loved them and I just kept putting them off. For me, part of it I think is that I'm not a fan of Baby Metal. Their music just doesn't resonate with me. I can see the talent and I can see why other people may like them, but they are just not my thing and I wrongly associated Band Maid with what I was seeing from Baby Metal. But after I kept hearing people talk about Band Maid, I finally broke down and clicked on one of their videos and I've been hooked ever since and they've pulled me in to the Japanese music scene. I don't love everything I've heard from Japan, but to name a few that I now listen to regularly: Band Maid, Nemophila, Scandal, Luna Sea, Maximum the Hormone, Gacharic Spin, Polkadot Stingray, 9mm parabellum Bullet, Fern Planet, Rick Rack, and Trident are the ones that come to mind. I like Lovebites and I think they are insanely talented musicians, but I don't listen to them as often. And as far as Band Maid is concerned, if they stopped wearing the costumes today that would be perfectly fine with me. I would probably actually rather they just started coming out in their street clothes to be honest, but I've never really understood the attraction to maid costumes really. Again, just not really my thing I guess.

@@LostAgain1970 Is this supposed to be in response to me? Cause I'm not sure what it has to do with my comment. Anyways, yeah, I know everything you just said, but gap is more about the difference between the outward appearance and the way one presents themselves. In the case of Band Maid it's the divide between their cutesy appearance and their hard rock sound. I haven't come across anything that tells me that Kanami went to music school outside of her music club in high school, but I know that Misa and Akane knew each other from their music school. They are all extraordinarily motivated to succeed with Band Maid from all the interviews I've read and seen, but there is little doubt that Miku and Kanami do a lot of the heavy lifting in the band with Kanami writing constantly and Miku doing lyrics and exhaustively doing appearances and marketing the band. She never seems to stop driving forward. That said, Misa and Akane are my absolute favorite rhythm section in the business and are both brilliant on their respective instruments and Saiki's vocal talent is second to none as far as I'm concerned.

I was same way. Then I wanted to kick myself for not listening to them sooner.

Oh come on. You're definitely fetishizing Ningen Isu. Admit it. Every white person dreams about Japanese men in their 60s.

Very well put.

You Band Maid fans really need to get over Babymetal. It's so little brother.

@@FuglyStick You want people like Finn as fans? They killed punk. All they do is go around ruining everything. I'm very glad he hates Japanese music. Finn is like all the worst people on Twitter.

@@FuglyStick He has a point though, because Band-Maid fans always seem very quick to hate on Babymetal. Even funnier when they try to deny their talent. I say that as someone who actually doesn't care for Babymetal, but I've witnessed it happening many times. Because let's be real here, whether you like their music or not, the KamiBand is made up of extremely skilled musicians and saying otherwise is just hilariously naive. Now I'm not saying that there are no toxic Babymetal fans either, but the Band-Maid fandom seems pretty extreme in that regard.

@@FuglyStick Yeah, that is true.

Thanks, t-shinji! Because of people like you, we literally understand BAND-MAID better👍

Nothing much to add mate, but that Perry was nothing more than a whaler bombarded Commodore who did not have a single interpreter with him landing in a country where at the time 85% of the population could read and write and had enough translators and interpreters to deal with any outsider!

Hell yeah. Saiki’s vibrato and MISA and Kanami’s love of slides and unusual note choice absolutely comes from Japanese tradition.

@@maxmaidiac2237 You should watch “History of Japan” here on KZfaq. It’s very interesting and is only about nine minutes long. It has 72 million views.

America would not produce a band like Gacharic Spin either.

💯

Akane is what reeled me in. "Well made rock'n'roll with aggressive drums? Where have you been all my life?"

I got the vinyls, too.

I agree. The lyrics don't do it for me, but I don't watch with subtitles, can't speak japanese and have no intention to learn anytime soon. But the music... oh my god, Akane and Kanami are some of my favorite instrumentalists. I watch it religiously.

... and Herman Li

Also Rick Neilson of Cheap Trick who also got a picture with the ladies.

@@greylocke100 Wow. I didn’t know that. I absolutely respect Rick and Cheap Trick.

Thx Steve.👍

The guy sounds mildly racist imho. But he certainly comes across as very ignorant and definitely not knowing what he is talking about regarding the Japanese metal and rock scene.

@@Sabundy more than mildly. But he's a Marxist so that is par for the course. That 'orientalism' is straight out of the neo Marxist playbook. I read an article once 'Babymetal through the lense of social justice' and that's what it talked about. That the only reason they had fans was fetish orientalism. It just really sounds like he was regurgitating that article.

Right?!

Yeah, and Saiki's fishnets stockings are repelling. Gimme the music, how they dress is /care.

@@franshendrix1404 You don't see Saiki's non-repelling stockings in the Dommy vid. That's the point...they all look frumpy AF but proves we're there for the music. Miku looks like an effing Christmas tree...she should have worn it for the acoustic concert 🤣🤣

Gracias por el ofrecimiento. Saludos desde España... y Band-Maid por mucho tiempo.

You are spot on, Doc.

Yea maybe we did... but we really wanted to just talk about why we do appreciate the scene, and this gave us a good opportunity. - Champ

Dmmm right

Right with you Doc.

Me too... But then I was "Dice'd"....since then I've been Warned, Fighter'd and Holy War'd.

Naughty! LOL Good joke!

He’s married to a Vietnamese woman. When people brought that up in relation to his racist “yellow fever” comments he basically said that she’s one of the good Asians because she’s not Japanese. Guys a total POS.

@@robert-gillesmartineau1208 It's could be as simple as that...and that is sad.

@pantera gt8 Hahaha!!! Fred Durst fanboy too.

I assure you that there are still plenty of fantastic bands and musicians in the States. They might not always be the ones that filter to the top of radio airplay, and the classic rock w/ guitar solo style may not be in vogue in the west right now, but there's still tons of great music out there. As just one example, I just saw The Airborne Toxic Event live last night -- absolutely fantastic show. Obviously you might dig different bands than me, and that's fine, but I encourage you to not be too pessimistic about local music. Cheers.

I love The Airborne Toxic Event! But they’re nothing like BAND-MAID. We’d love to know about those other bands that are though! -Wave

Yes, there are incredible musicians here. Of course there are. I love Slash and Myles Kennedy, Dream Theater, etc. Maybe I didn’t say it right. . He said if that song was made here in the US, would I listen to it. Yes, I would. It’s the point of you only listen to it, because it’s Japanese. The Warning are great, their Mexico, not Japan, etc. I play drums, my favorite drummers have always been: Peart, Portnoy, Bonham, Derossier, Brann Dailor. But Hideki, Murata Tamu, Haruna, Akane, Gight are right there. It’s that around here it’s all pop, country. Great bands here, but many, getting older in age.

The USA has Michael Romeo and Symphony-X. My favorite Japanese bands are: Lovebites, Wagakki Band, and Galneryus.

This ass hat could not be more wrong. I have been a musician for almost 50 years, when I first saw Band Maid come across my KZfaq feed, I took one look at their thumbnail and said to myself, "I am not listening to this shit." I judged the book by it's cover. My arrogant musician's mind could not conceive that these ladies could play, let alone be outstanding musicians. They looked "too kawaii" "too cute", and "they are girls for crying out loud". I am being completely honest and I am so embarrassed about how I thought. One night during lockdowns, I was desperately starved for new and different music, something I have not heard before. I decided to bite the bullet and checked out Dice. Well I that turned my head around. From there I went to Blooming, I was hooked. Next videos from Shibuya started dropping and realized that these musicians were entirely different from the cartoons of western rock and metal that I was bored to tears with. Band Maid are a breath of fresh air from scowling ugly guys dressed in black showing us everything that they know in 20 seconds. They actually look like they are having more fun than their audience (if that's possible). Also they look like they like each other. They write music in a way that most western bands wouldn't dream of doing, They combine different elements of rock in a way that on paper does not make sense, but sounds quite natural in these gifted musician's hands. No. I do not have a Japanese fetish. I have played in many jazz and prog bands for decades with many great musicians. I am not saying that makes me special, but I know what great musicianship and outstanding song composing is. This little pu$$y is nothing more than a jealous bitter little troll. It proves to me that Band Maid is on their way to greatness and popularity, when little$h!ts like this start squaking. Oh, just for a little dig at this corner pounder, I ain't going to lie, the ladies in Band Maid ain't hard to look at. 😂😂

The hilarious thing about him is that he defends his opinion about Japanese music by saying he has a Japanese wife. As if marrying someone from Japan magically gives you some sort of special understanding of Japanese culture. He's like the racist guy who says, "I'm not racist, I have black friends."

@@saldiven2009 He unironically assumed the reason why metal heads don't like trap metal is because they are racist. He's a clown that hardly knows what he talks about and comes up with dumbass assumptions as if what he's saying is the truth.

Well said, Friend!

This band I follow and know the lead singer The band Lovesick Radio was home working on new songs got a call if they wanted to do a festival in Japan they said not for 1 night. Their agent called back to see if they would go if they got to play 2 times in the festival and the festival would get them booked for a show with one of the other bands. They went and got booked for 2 more festivals when they was over there.

Oh and when they was over there at a bar someone started singing a song from his other band from a karaoke machine.

yup same as you - am i the only one that thinks that 'smokestack lightning' and 'shapes of things' and 'happenings ten years time ago' was the early start of metal ? nothing before it ever sounded like that. and the who were forerunners of punk. still have the 'who sell out' on vinyl. heinz baked beans !

@@thedocofrock1890 Still think their "I'm a Man" is the best version.

@@outwest1014 definitely - a steve winwood song with spencer davis group. but LOVEBITES has everything i'm looking for in a band right now with the MAIDS nipping at their heels.

We all appreciate and understand your comment!

@@GAIJINGUYS thanks for taking the time to reply, most dont

This one got me - Champ

jajajajajajajajajaja👍👍👍

....scene...core...I guess??

@@GAIJINGUYS He'll take us to what a true wonderful music sounds like, hope so. waku waku😁

He is the doppleganger of the Blink 182 drummer, so pop-punk i guess

The back catalogue is like a goldmine

Perfectly said, mate!

Well put, bro. For years I've felt exactly like you - and I think any real musician or music fan would say the same: the vocals are another instrument.

What throws people off about Japanese music is the vocal melodies. They are so strong. It sounds ridiculous at first. I hated Japanese singing for a long long time. But now that is the best part. I love the vocals. It takes some getting used to. Westerners go through that with Anime songs. They hate it the first time they hear it but eventually they love it. They think it's because they like the anime but it doesn't work that way. I like Twin Peaks a lot and I still absolutely hate the music.

Realistically you can't understand what passes for like 80 percent of metal vocals these days anyway.

I think it has to be recognised that some people have a very negative reaction to the maid outfits, usually because they assume the band were forced to wear them (well, technically they were, but by Miku). Most 'get' that it's about creating a contrast between look and sound, but many don't.

@@RevStickleback thank you for your input

If a band in the US played this music, sang in English and didn't' wear the outfits, would I still listen? YES...but I have yet to find one. Rock music is not valued in the US anymore. Which is why I look to overseas for this kind of music, because it IS valued overseas.

No Japanese girl would have him!

It's kind of the reverse of that. He married a woman from Vietnam, and now seems to go out of his way to distance himself from all those guys who love everything Japanese. It's like he feels he has to prove that's not what attracted him to his wife.

He is attention seeking Tony.....And he's getting it.

@@Bodneyblue Lots of it, sadly!

ah yes. The godfathers of Japanese black metal. They where fans of Black Sabbath and got to play at an Oz fest. Shinji Wajima the lead guitarist makes his own effects peddles!!

But promoting it as the truth? He could've taken the middle ground, but... seems like his groundwork was sloppy and lazy. If you make such a video, at least honor your viewers with taking it serious and not play them for fools.

Well said Michael. That's why we were confused when he said "no one could possibly say BAND-MAID is good", and that if you like Japanese music, it's because you fetishize it. It wasn't his opinion anymore. He framed it as "the truth" about Japanese music. So we had to talk about it.

@@GAIJINGUYS exactly.

I would agree with you about everybody having their own opinion but when their opinion has real world consequences for other people's lives It becomes an entirely different matter.... It is like you telling the people living in the valley that in your opinion the dam is structurally sound... If your opinion is wrong they die. If you are telling people that BAND-MAID sucks then you could be depriving them of their success.

Casting a prejudiced advice based on ignorance and superficial ideas is not to be considered as opinion and never deserves to be respected. It’s rather a disgrace inflicted to honestyand rationality.

Hilariously well-said (from another geezer too lol).

LOL, right?!

Those guys are fine though.

Muy bueno🍺🍺🍺

It’s anagram of I talk load of bollocks

Well said.👍 Really, you're French? I'd never have guessed.🙄😏

@@GaryHolloway-810 Lol!😁

具体的にあるあほな人が人気を呼ぶためにBAND MAIDに侮辱だけを伝えた！

@@robert-gillesmartineau1208 そうなんですね！ありがとうございます！

It's on Finn's channel which is linked in the description.

@@GAIJINGUYS got it, thanks.

You tell 'em mami.🙂

@@GaryHolloway-810 Almost everything I wanted to say was said by the Gaijin Guys 😉

Well said, Vladimir!! My oldest memory is seeing The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show when they first came to the US. I grew up with all the great music of the 60’s & 70’s. My oldest brother brought home Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, Deep Purple Machine Head, Uriah Heep The Wizard while the radio played Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Led Zeppelin, CSN&Y, The Doobie Brothers, etc…and yet Motown was just a slight twist of the dial for Marvin Gaye, Ben E Smith, Aretha Franklin, etc…another twist to the Eagles, America, Neil Young’s Harvest or John Lennon’s Imagine. Then I went heavier with Black Sabbath, Steppenwolf, Judas Priest and onto a 40 year obsession with the music of Rush. And 80’s pop & hair metal, 90’s grunge and lots of good stuff since. And even some classical Beethoven, Bach & Schubert, for good measure. I’ll be damned if anybody tells me that I can’t like the music of Band-Maid or I don’t hear and feel it’s excellence. That I’m not uplifted by it or moved to tears by it - or simply amazed by how incredibly good it is to my ears. Screw that dude…whoever he is 🤷🏻‍♂️🤘🏼😎

👍👍👍 Your comment reminded me of your recent review video of Miku's lyrics.

"3rd". I hope people see the absurd irony in that. When Vladimir articulates into words with heartfelt sincerity & no prejudices how he actually feels about B-M & their wider influence it makes me proud to be associated with him (in however a small way). His Miku lyric breakdown vid was one of the most interesting threads i've ever been on & covered such topics as theism, Rinne, & the concept of wabi sabi. There is nothing lightweight or vacuous about BAND-MAID & I've never visited Finn's channel. I wouldn't grace him with my presence I'd feel dirty & tainted :)

@@GaryHolloway-810 Thanks for your kind words, Gary. I think POGO! lyrics indeed speak of such people. I really don't understand what pleasure these guys find in throwing shit at the artists. Miku does not show it often, but these words about "Troll Face" have really struck me as a glimpse of what she really feels. It's not from manga she was reading, not from a movie she has seen. It's from her reading the twits from disgruntled "fans" who tell her that she is a fake guitarist and her Flappy Pigeon is a fake guitar. Our girls are not immune from trolls, of course. They try to keep away from them as much as possible. And we know that there are literally only two or three people out there who come to the comments and vent their sick feelings on us. So, it seems the Japanese approach actually works well. I mean, the approach when the artists don't really communicate with the fans. When Miku liked Peter Lim's twit with his amazing collage, he was in the seventh heaven. But she deigned to react openly, I think, only because Peter Lim is not a regular fan anymore in her mind, since he was doing all those designs for Herman Li/Miku/Kanami interview. People are still full of pent-up aggression, many of them. Just yesterday I conversed with one lady in the chat, who was calling on the world to destroy that 15-year-old boy who won the carting competition and waved his hand in a gesture that looked like a Nazi greeting. He apologized afterwards, and he was almost crying, saying that he is not a Nazi, and he did not mean anything like that. It was just a gesture of a sort "from my heart to you." But no, she said, it looked exactly like a Nazi greeting, and now this boy must be destroyed because, you know, zero tolerance for Nazi gestures. It's absolute madness, what's happening in the world right now. I have shown her that photo of Kanami raising her right hand in a gesture that looks like showing a middle finger. We know that it looks so because she holds a pick, and her index finger is bent because of that. I tried to explain to her who Kanami is, that in Japan, showing the middle finger is not a widespread gesture, it's almost unknown among the general population and people don't use it this way. I even gave her a link to that funny video of "Kanami of BAND-MAID from the Future," and explained a little bit of Kanami's background. No, she was adamant. The middle finger is the middle finger, any person in the audience who sees it, must immediately fight back and trample this girl guitarist into dust. I think many fans of Japanese music actually fetishize these Japanese people because the Japanese music scene is an oasis of purity in the wilderness of modern desolation. We thirsted for years for something like this, a band playing energetic music, but not oozing hate and disgust. It's a unique phenomenon indeed. We all need some positive role models, and those Japanese musicians provide them to us. So, yes, I do fetishize them.

Yeah, he's made plenty of terrible takes over the years.

Ignorance and racism should not be ignored or swept under the rug.

Well he also said that their musicianship was bad...

He said they sounded like a garage band. LOL

Yeah but.... this was fun

@@GAIJINGUYS I know lol. Edited first post to reflect my real intent.

This not really a criticism leveled at you guys, I just more want to discourage other commenters from going to post negative feedback on his video. I would rather see them comment on your videos :)

Most of us are very familiar with nightwish. I am not a fan, it's pomp rock for the easily impressed and floor is scary as shit. Is that a man??

I didn’t know any Japanese bands until I accidentally clicked on a BM video (Dice). There are many amazing Japanese bands as it turns out though. You should check it out.

Lol

Exactly this. I remember reading a review of one of their albums and it included a funny line. Something along the lines of "I thought they were a bunch of hairy German guys before I looked up the band members".

@@cepho8349 if the girls read this, they must have died from laughter. my first song from them was holy war, and have never looked back, but some of their song really make me think of metallica in their early years.