Cognitive Dissonance: Aldious
Can a Band that looks like this be metal?
In the late 1960s and 1970s, a number of Western rock bands toured Japan, including the Beatles, Stones, Deep Purple, Kiss, and AC/DC. They started a revolution in Japanese popular music, eventually leading to an explosion of hard-rock bands. Today, Japan has taken over as the home of rock and roll, with the greatest concentration of talent and the most dynamic scene in the world.
Japanese rock music started off imitative, but quickly diverged from Western rock, incorporating traditional Japanese musical elements and adopting a wild variety of aesthetics. Japanese bands also focused intensively on technical skill and sophisticated composition, resulting in the best bands having a dense and highly polished sound.
The most important divergence was that women took a leading role in Japanese rock. The trigger was a 1977 tour by the Runaways, America’s (and the world’s) first commercially successful all-woman hard rock band. Though they were only modestly successful in the U.S., they were greeted with Beatlemania-like excitement in Japan.
Inspired largely by the Runaways, a generation of girls picked up electric guitars (or drumsticks) and never looked back. Today, women largely dominate the Japanese hard rock and heavy metal scenes. This may seem odd given the strong element of machismo in rock and the stereotype of Japan as a patriarchal society. Many things about the music scene there defy Western norms and expectations.
I have previously posted on Show-Ya, the godmothers of Japanese metal, founded in 1981 (yes, even before Metallica). Leveraging their success, Show-ya actively mentored a whole generation of younger musicians, which helped set the stage for a boom in women-led bands. Gathering momentum in the 1990s, this movement exploded in the 2000s.
Aldious were among the first of the new wave of Japanese heavy-metal girl bands. Others included Destrose, Cyntia, and Exist Trace, about whom I have posted or will post. All of them are, first and foremost, metal bands, though they have explored other styles and genres.
Here is where the cognitive dissonance comes in: Aldious re-imagined metal as something unabashedly feminine despite being loud and technical. Where Western “metal chicks” have generally adopted the tough, angry, leather-and-spikes persona of some of the major male bands, Aldious went in the opposite direction.
Their aesthetic started off as a mix of gothic and glamour, though it evolved toward all-out glamour— they look like they are dressed for a boudoir-style photoshoot or maybe the prom. Their songs are about love, romance, and heartbreak, typical of mainstream singer-songwriters.
One of their guitarists shreds a jagged Flying-V guitar that would be macho, except it’s hot pink. The entire package is calculated to induce whiplash.
…….
“Dominator” (MV)
(Translation by JPopAsia:)
If there’s no love, then move away these trembling hands
At this stage, I realize it’s an unreturned love…
The instinct to attack right away I constrain
For this is the love to the degree of wanting to drink all of you
The moonlight shedding through the leaves I gaze at
The pain of my chest which starts to be riotous
Before the sun shows its face, I want to suck all of you
The uneasiness increases
Pave bunches of red roses that match my beauty
Please kiss me in bed…
The emotions about to come alive I kill
For this is the love to the degree of wanting to drink all of you
Like this, every single thing of you,
I can’t help adoring it so much
The uneasiness I stabilize
Some day…Even if there’s no love,
I will still sniff out your trembling shadow
So that you and I can become one
愛しい男 “Kanashii Otoko” (live MV)
I love the contrast between the overdriven guitar tones and her smoky, sultry vocals.
(Translation by JpopAsia)
Hey, even if I struggle any further, I’ll just get tired
Hey, even if he sheds tears like this, he won’t be a man
As time passes and times change your heartbeat
Glittering to blend in with the city
wearing clothes I don’t know
Ah…you are the number one in this world
A foolish, selfish and lonely dear man
I can’t feel you anymore
Even if I crouch down, you won’t even give me a kiss on your cheek
LOVE Someone sang that love is a game
Yes, I can forget your gaze if I fall in love
As time passes and life ends
Put an end to my love
Glittering to blend in with the city
Wearing clothes you don’t know
Ah…you are the number one in this world
A foolish, selfish and lonely dear man
You can’t even tell a good girl apart
No wonder! I’m more worried than jealous
The day I met you smells the same
It’s gonna rain tonight
Is a woman’s intuition right?
Ah…you are the number one in this world
A foolish, selfish and lonely dear man
It’s too late even if you cry now
You’re looking at me a little too sweetly