I try not to form stereotypes about other cultures but… well, there’s no denying Japan produces some really, really weird popular culture. Japan’s penchant for weirdness was out in full force this week when Japanese heavy metal girl group Babymetal went on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert this week and ripped into their new single “Gimme Chocolate.” The result was as bizarre as you’d expect.
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Here is the full video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZApf9c8Tes
A few things really stand out here:
- I love how the song has very metal verses that are followed by choruses that sound like they’re from a Max Martin-produced pop hit with an unusual amount of double bass drum pedaling.
- The girls can’t seem to decide if they want to look menacing or adorable. And this is actually very fitting seeing as how their sound is equal parts menacing and adorable.
- It’s nice that we can actually hear the lyrics through the vocals, which is something that you can’t hear in most metal songs. I mean, have you ever listened to Cannibal Corpse’s “Hammer-Smashed Face?” We can assume that the lead singer is singing about smashing someone’s face with a hammer, but we can’t know for sure because he sounds like an evil version of Cookie Monster trying to stuff five bags of Oreos into his mouth at once.
At any rate, these songs are shockingly catchy even though they’re patently ridiculous. I must now go listen to some other music so I don’t have “Give me the chc-co-late, the cho-co-late!” ringing in my ears all day.
