5/10
Babymetal
@ Fillmore
OH SHIT
you know this is J-pop not Kpop
I actually often prefer JPOP over KPOP. The beats tend to be cleaner and more polished and the songs are more mature and developed. Right now, Korea is just rolling out new bands like an assembly line, and while most of them are still consistently catchy as hell, there's a template of sorts that most follow. And while there are outliers, most of the new acts aren't really deviating from the template.
Japan has its share of newer, still developing/generic artists but the ones I really prefer -- Capsule, Perfume, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Momoiro Clover Z -- have been around awhile and have taken the KPOP model and expanded on it greatly. It's next to impossible to sort out the differences between Girls Day, Girls Generation, Your Girl, etc., but the JPOP artists I like are very distinguishable.
Babymetal is a great example of this. They're far from my favorite group, but I do like how they added some "metal" elements to their music. It doesn't always work, and I can think of about a hundred other bands I'd rather be playing here, but I'll take what I can get.
Now can we just get a goddamn Capsule/Perfume/Girls Generation/Crayon Pop/T-ARA all-day KPOP festival at RFK or what???
