No more Scandal
I can still remember my thoughts when I stumbled upon the masterpiece that is Gimme Chocolate!! by Babymetal, some twelve years ago.1
My train of thought went something like this:
Oh god this is so cringe
Those crazy Japanese, eh
...
This is the best thing I've ever seen
Opinions in the comments on the site whose link I followed were... divided. I personally felt I had come to an important crossroads in life: I could either close the tab and go on with my life as if nothing had happened, or I could pull on this thread and follow it as far as it went.
I believe I chose wisely.
The magic of related videos first led me to Stereopony. Stand By Me is still one of the first tracks I play when I get a new bit of audio equipment, but they had already disbanded when I discovered them.
The first Scandal song I came across was Harukaze. I immediately disliked it.
As I went on my random walk through the related videos, I came upon all sorts of things: many, many over-produced interchangeable teenage girl groups2, some more interesting off-beat teenage girl groups, all kinds of excellent heavy metal, near-future electro-pop, and Reol, who continues to defy description.
And yet, every so often Scandal would keep popping up.
Somehow, after a while, I realised I knew the names of every member. There are Western bands that I have been listening to for decades and I don't even know how many members they have, never mind what their names are.
I have been lucky enough to see them perform live in Europe three times. Alas, there will not be a fourth time, as they have now announced they will be retiring next year.
It's hard to blame them, really. After twenty-one years, I can imagine playing Scandal Baby gets a little old.3
Downloading a new Scandal album every once in a while has been a reliable pleasure for the last decade, and I'm sad that this will come to an end. But mostly I'm grateful for having them around in the background of my life for so long.
The world of Japanese popular music has given me so much.
My Japanese is terrible and probably always will be, but there are many words that I can trace back to the exact song that I first heard them in, and that will always imbue them with a little magic.4
It has reminded me that the world is large and has many beautiful things in it that are waiting to be found.
It has taught me that some ridiculous things are worth doing as long as you do them with total conviction and to the best of your ability.4
It has led me to many places and allowed me to meet important people who I never would otherwise have met.
And above all, it has taught me that when Mami smiles at you, you stay smiled at.
I have to admit I was embarrassingly late to this party -- my hipster credentials are usually impeccable, to the extent that I can genuinely say that I prefer Angine de Poitrine's earlier stuff. Relatedly, many years later it was Captain Disillusion who introduced me to Atarashii Gakko, who had somehow managed to slip under my radar.↩
Never listen to anything with a number between 46 and 48 in the name, is my motto↩
Of course in recent years Tomomi and Mami have been amusing themselves by trying to get Haruna to break while singing, with frequently adorable results↩
Also not a bad description of Angine de Poitrine really↩