Everything I’ve learned that’s worth knowing, I learned either from The Simpsons or from Pro Wrestling.
But, seriously, Scott Hall’s Hall of Fame induction speech has one of the best, most profound philosophical statements I have ever heard.
RIP, Razor.
Original footage via WWE.
Today’s Music to Write Realmgard to is no exception.
To quickly recap, NXT is WWE‘s developmental brand. NXT’s major events were branded as Takeovers from 2014 to 2021. The tenth Takeover was called “The End”, a name which caused no small amount of confusion at the time, but was ultimately meant to refer to the fact that it was the last Takeover held at Full Sail University — where, incidentally, Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Dave Arneson taught at the end of the aughts.
To get where I’m going with this, one of the theme songs for the event was the song Karate by Japanese Idol Group Babymetal.
I will allow Wikipedia to explain Idols at the most basic level:
An idol (アイドル, aidoru) is a type of entertainer marketed for image, attractiveness, and personality in Japanese pop culture. Idols are primarily singers with training in other performance skills such as acting, dancing, and modeling. Idols are commercialized through merchandise and endorsements by talent agencies, while maintaining a parasocial relationship with a financially loyal consumer fan base.
Basically, the Idol’s stage persona is at least as important as musical talent. I think the closest equivalent that would be familiar to English-speaking audiences is something like the Backstreet Boys or Spice Girls.
Incidentally, Ya Boy Kongming! sort of offers a glimpse into the Idol industry in Japan circa Current Year.
Also, acclaimed recent anime (adapting a slightly less recent manga) Oshi No Ko is basically a scathing denunciation of the Japanese entertainment industry in general and Idol culture specifically. Though, be warned, it’s actually incredibly dark despite the perky promotional art and has a few jarringly violent moments. For reference, it’s categorised as a Seinen series, which is the next age bracket up from Shonen, basically at least university-age.
The band consists of the Idol girls themselves, backed by a um, backing band of anonymous session musicians — well, they don’t keep their identities a secret (there’s a whole list of them on the Wikipedia article), but they all wear masks during performances, presumably not to upstage or distract from the Idols.
As I understand it, the appeal of Babymetal is the incongruity of cute girls (though, at this point, all three of the main members of the band are in their 20s) doing Metal. In fact, there’s a whole genre based on that premise now. It’s called Kawaii Metal, which basically means “Cute Metal”…
And, in fact, plenty of “real” Metal fans absolutely hate Babymetal for apparently making a mockery of the genre. Though, on the other hand, actual luminaries of the genre including Rob Zombie and Rob Halford of Judas Priest have publicly defended and even performed with Babymetal.
Though, of course, Rob Zombie of all people would understand a musical act highly dependent on theatrical stage persona…
Of the two Babymetal songs I’ve listened to for any meaningful length of time, I probably prefer Megitsune as a piece of music, but Karate was a good choice to hype up a Pro Wrestling event. Especially one featuring a Japanese woman as the Women’s Division’s Unstoppable Forever Champion — incidentally, never defeated for the title; she vacated the NXT title after getting injured, then got called up to the main roster.
I don’t have enough grasp of musical theory to be able to definitively say things like “Karate is a simplistic piece of music”, but the lyrics do repeat themselves a lot and, like I’ve established already, an idol group’s persona is at least as important as their actual music.
Incidentally, none of the English translations I’ve checked have translated “seiya”, “soiya”, or “ossu”, so I’m inclined to believe they’re just martial arts sounds rather than actual words. Which, of course, is perfectly on-brand for a song called, you know, Karate.
Still, it’s fundamentally a song about being badassful and persisting in the face of adversary. I guess by Karate-fighting it…
[OSSU]
Lyrics via Genius.
Even if tears spill from our eyes
[Ossu]
Let’s confront it!
Single-mindedly, seiya soiya, let’s fight on
More with our fists, more with our spirits
Refining it all
[WOAH WOAH WOAH]
Now, I do genuinely enjoy it, and not even in the ironic, “look at the fourteen-year-olds” (like I said, they’re all in their twenties now, but the song is 7 years old) sense. Again, I don’t have the knowledge of music to judge its qualities as a piece of music, but I don’t really have anything bad to say about it beyond “I guess it could be a little better”.
Plus, the music video actually has a pretty cool visual style:
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