Why Babymetal is the Most Important Band in Music Right Now
Before we get into the meat of this article, let’s just review what, exactly, is “Babymetal.”
Got that? WTF, right? Well, hold on. There’s something happenin’ here. From an Irish site called The Arcade:
The last decade has been a pretty interesting time for the music industry. First, the twin swords of piracy and Apple exposed just how draconian their business models actually were, and, as if that wasn’t enough, while every label in the world was struggling to adapt, this new format had blown open the doors on marketplace predictability. People were able to access everything. Immediately. And, understandably, that changed the way they consumed everything. Immediately.
In the past, labels could rely on a pretty solid cycle of mass market trends to keep ‘em rolling in green. Drag an underground music scene into the spotlight, market the shit out of it until it’s not cool anymore, then find something else and repeat. It might sound cynical, but that’s pretty much how it happened. Nu-Metal, Pop Punk, Hip Hop, Dubstep; all counter-culture movements eventually castrated by the very platform that brought them their popularity. iTunes brought to mass market the idea that everything could be accessible by anyone anywhere and with the blinkers off, audiences saw past what the majors were pushing. Rather than following trends, we started to create them. Better yet, we created them with a tool that even the most pig-headed music executive just couldn’t ignore; our wallets.
