Just wanted to chime in on some of the points you raised-especially regarding the voting demographics. Interestingly, only about 4-5% of our users are from Japan, while most of our user comes from the USA and European countries. It’s been amazing to see the global reach of Japanese metal acts like Lovebites, Hanabie and Babymetal, thanks to their dedicated fanbases around the world. We’re thrilled to see the excitement for these bands and the growth of the metal scene overall. Keep up the great discussions!
Thanks so much for posting! We are really glad to see the response from you and the information actually gives a lot of clarity. It would be lovely to know what your thoughts are on the balance of interest in Japanese artists over seas, so by all means, if anyone from your site ever feels up for coming and having a chat online, please do let us know! Eitherway, our great thanks for you checking out the video and clarifying those points! Keep up the amazing work! 😊🤘
This is just me speculation... but I think a missing perspective is: the fans of these Japanese acts have found their favorite bands online in part because they are 'terminally online' and thus also are much more likely to form online fan communities as well. Thus they can crush an online poll much more easily than some establish western band (that's coming from someone who is part of a Babymetal online fan community they are part of basically every single day and I know we crushed online polls in the past because of how active we are online). And I don't know how common it is: fans of up and coming bands are probably more likely to vote in such polls than fans of established band ? To have their band rank high, but also as a bit of a promotional material for the band they love.
Most people who take the time to discover Lovebites all say the same thing, I can't believe how good they are, or something like that. Spotify does not represent true discoverability. If you listen to Heavy metal style music that is most similar to lovebites, Spotify will never, never recommend them unless you continuously listen to power metal with female leads, However if you listen to any random band in metal, Spotify will recommend plenty of bands that are not Japanese. So when people actually hear Lovebites, they are shocked at the level of talent. Some people, like myself (in 2021), resisted giving them a chance because you just see their image and don't believe it is anything to be interested in. Some people just prefer different types of metal music, some people look at Spotify numbers and make their decisions on overall popularity, which goes back to my original point, Spotify auto plays stuff they think you will like and that algorithm has influence by the western record/music labels. If I'm wrong, then we should all give up and listen to taylor swift.
Very nice to see these Japanese all-girls metal bands getting the serious international recognition. Lovebites has good promotion but they did have Miho leaving with Asami and Miyako taking time off to have kids. Slowed the Lovebites love train down just a bit. They are throttling up. Be interesting to see what they do next couple years. Agree about Fuki. She's a freakin' legend. Unlucky Morpheus, Light Bringer, Fuki Commune, Dragon Guardian. Su-Metal has the fiercest death metal stare. An underrated singer is Nana from Fate Gear. I'd take Bruce Dickinson, Rob Halford or Ralf Scheepers over James Hetfield any day of the millennium. R.I.P. Dio!
I think the big reason Japanese music is starting to have a lot of these wins is not only how they mix different styles into their metal, but it's also the messaging in their songs. Then you combine that with their live shows and people really resonate with it. Metal needs a change and Japan is bringing it. On that note, Tatiana is a modern day Siren backed by some masterclass musicians. It's an interesting experience to see Jinjer as a whole put an entire audience into a trance.
Great discussion! I do think the Japanese wave of bands is strong. There is tons of great music from the West, but the Japanese bands aren't afraid to do something new/unusual and i think that resonates with a lot of people! I got the opportunity to see Lovebites and Babymetal in June at Resurrection festival and it was fantastic! 🤘😊
I went to Resurrection Fest this year, that had the three of the bands performing and I can say that I didn't see a bigger crowd than hanabie's the first day; i didn't see a bigger crowd in the second stage as lovebites, the place where they criminally put them instead of main stage, and i saw babymetal and later electric callboy ahving the biggest crowds on the last day . And in the merch queues everyone was buying their merch. 80% of the people i saw asking about the japanese bands stuff. PD: Not surprising the result, the wolfpack does not play games man.
In nearly every Metal Award you see ton of legacy bands where no one knows why they deserved in the given years an award. Metallica, Rammstein why? Last Rammstein album was mid and did not even came out this year. And Lindemann best singer? Come on. I get, why they are popular, and they have an espectular show. But best singer? And at any time I would Yukinas voice put over Su's voice. I have to ask why she even is not nominated?
These groups get into the billboard ratings because their old songs are played on the radio, radio managers do not want to buy records of new groups. And the billboard, for example, first of all looks at the number of plays on the radio, according to the place in the rating, they begin to give out awards
The recent festival performances by Hanabie have helped a lot. They are currently touring North America with Jinjer, which is also helping increase their fanbase. Two days ago, I was at the Born of Osiris/Hanabie/Jinjer show in San Antonio, Texas. I have seen Jinjer live before, so I knew how good they are and they lived up to their very high standards. I had never seen Hanabie live, and was very curious how their songs would translate to a concert stage. They were fantastic. I was exhausted just watching Yukina run around the stage. Most of the crowd was there to see Jinjer, but Hanabie won them over very quickly. The crowd on the floor (I was in the balcony) was rocking to Be The Gal more than any song I saw all night. Everyone was jumping up and down. Lovebites, who I saw live at ProgPower in Atlanta, is winning the vote as best Power Metal Band because they are currently the best power metal band in the world. They are infinitely better than Powerwolf. A power metal band that impressed me in Atlanta was Frozen Crown, although they are not on Lovebites level. Tatiana Shmayluk got my vote for best female metal singer. She would get my vote for best metal singer, male or female. I am a fan of Su-Metal (I will be seeing BabyMetal live in November), but, honestly, she might not even be my favorite singer named Suzuka.
This is absolutely fantastic! Su and Love Bites running away, and Hanabie should win as well. There is no way they have this level of margin without a significant number of western voters voting for them.
I would add to the list the singer Regan from the band Saiseiga, she has really powerful and unique vocals [Official Video] SAISEIGA - JUMBLE - You can listen, it will be clear why I suggested it.
14:10 Number 3 in the powermetal section is Amaranth who have also a female singer : Elize Ryd. Though she is not their only singer. Personally i would have loved to see Metallite there also, great swedish powermetal band with also a female singer, but sadly they are not well know. Else, especially as a german, i'm happy to see "Beyond the Black" in even 2 categories : New Gen #3 and Symphonic #5 🤘🏼🤘🏼 And at last, i don't really understand why the singer of Babymetal is rated that high. I don't think she is really in the same class like Floor, Tarja and Simone or even Sharon Den Adel. Also totally miss Melissa Bonny there. And of course also Asami.
"it depends on your age though :)" Why would age have anything to do with it? All the bands discussed here have a lot of fans ranging from kids to old people:D
@@muto4055 I really don't see it like that. As I said every band mentioned here has a pretty even split of young people and old people in the fandom. Could be Lovebites fandom is a bit older but it's not like it's really a big difference:D
@@Tyyppl “every band mentioned here has a pretty even split of young people and old people” It’s not even close to an even split. On average, the fanbase of Lovebites is much older in age than the fanbase of Hanabie. Having said that, he was wrong to say it depends on your age, as all fanbases have both younger and older fans.
Mayu 💯 %all day and Sunday Su (no contest) Saiki(metal?)more rock/punk,but I don't care,she's going on my list😂 Japan is the new epicenter of metal,I never listened to any metal b4 Babymetal, Nemophila,Lovebites,Hanabie etc,and I still haven't heard any western metal that makes me wanna listen,😂 Ps Hey chaps,hope alls well 👍
Metal Awards is not a prestigious award website. If it had any sort of recognition it'd at least have an Wikipedia page. In fact I do not think there's any reason for it to exist beyond spamming ads at those poor souls without an adblocker. There seems to be no protection against bots and other "cheating" tactics to manipulate the vote, so the results are not representative of anything either. That being said it is perfectly normal the J-metal crowd to "vote harder" in online polls and other such instances, because this music is explicitly made popular through the internet and the fan communities depend on the web a lot more than those of music that is locally popular wherever it is you live.
Lovebites in particular popularity was just taking off when the pandemic hit and their marketing team were a bunch of losers who did nothing for their momentum at that time.Nemophila by comparison started just before the pandemic and their profile skyrocketed because of their covers of high-profile popular HM and rock tracks, with their own personal slant, with originals cleverly placed in between on their website and they got literally millions of views when lovebites in the catalogue on youtube had not achieved such numbers, despite having been out since 216. Lovebites marketing team should have done something similar, to maintain their presence in the Western foxtrot. Ans attention
Rock and HM genres popularity was ruined by reality TV e.g.: the British X Factor and pop Idol brands, were sold all around the Western countries and pretty much ruined grassroots level bands opportunities to be seen, because the younger generations that would have been thinking about trying to develop a band and going out to watch live acts a decade ago, were inside watching trashy reality TV instead.Now eventually they all realised reality TV was Tosh, but when it was popular it trashed any chance for a revival in the West, where hip-hop now is overwhelmingly more popular than other genres
Babymetal are so addictive, listened to them since 2014 but absolutely love there latest album! Metal head for 40yrs and no other band I have heard have their diversity! Bought up on AC/DC,sabbath, and later I got into BMTH and LP who are great but Babymetal seem to have me absolutely hooked which has never happened to me before!
It's always been a thing, if there is an online vote, and Babymetal is in it, they win. And the fact that you can vote every 12 hours, the Japanese fan bases will just vote like crazy. The band I'm surprised not to see on the list, Nemophila. Popular overseas, big fan base, and toured the US.
@@Olkam-w5u Do not disagree, but the same could be said of all the current bands coming out of Japan. It's the old school which are popular in Japan, like X Japan, Hyde, and so on, but they are not that popular overseas.
@@Olkam-w5u They sold out the Tokyo Dome two night (110,000 people) and 10 nights at Budokan and sell out arenas throughout Japan. I'll take that supposed lack of popularity any day.
I think the big point especially in Europe is Metal in itself is not interesting. It is more how and with what do you want to mix. And where can you take non mezal fans zo.
band maid? are you implying they are a metal band, not close, even they say they are not a metal band, maybe it would be nice if you read the topic of the video, here is a hint "Is this the BEST of Metal?"
Just wanted to chime in on some of the points you raised-especially regarding the voting demographics. Interestingly, only about 4-5% of our users are from Japan, while most of our user comes from the USA and European countries. It’s been amazing to see the global reach of Japanese metal acts like Lovebites, Hanabie and Babymetal, thanks to their dedicated fanbases around the world. We’re thrilled to see the excitement for these bands and the growth of the metal scene overall. Keep up the great discussions!
Thanks so much for posting! We are really glad to see the response from you and the information actually gives a lot of clarity. It would be lovely to know what your thoughts are on the balance of interest in Japanese artists over seas, so by all means, if anyone from your site ever feels up for coming and having a chat online, please do let us know!
Eitherway, our great thanks for you checking out the video and clarifying those points!
Keep up the amazing work! 😊🤘
This is just me speculation... but I think a missing perspective is: the fans of these Japanese acts have found their favorite bands online in part because they are 'terminally online' and thus also are much more likely to form online fan communities as well. Thus they can crush an online poll much more easily than some establish western band (that's coming from someone who is part of a Babymetal online fan community they are part of basically every single day and I know we crushed online polls in the past because of how active we are online). And I don't know how common it is: fans of up and coming bands are probably more likely to vote in such polls than fans of established band ? To have their band rank high, but also as a bit of a promotional material for the band they love.
Most people who take the time to discover Lovebites all say the same thing, I can't believe how good they are, or something like that. Spotify does not represent true discoverability. If you listen to Heavy metal style music that is most similar to lovebites, Spotify will never, never recommend them unless you continuously listen to power metal with female leads, However if you listen to any random band in metal, Spotify will recommend plenty of bands that are not Japanese.
So when people actually hear Lovebites, they are shocked at the level of talent.
Some people, like myself (in 2021), resisted giving them a chance because you just see their image and don't believe it is anything to be interested in. Some people just prefer different types of metal music, some people look at Spotify numbers and make their decisions on overall popularity, which goes back to my original point, Spotify auto plays stuff they think you will like and that algorithm has influence by the western record/music labels. If I'm wrong, then we should all give up and listen to taylor swift.
Very nice to see these Japanese all-girls metal bands getting the serious international recognition.
Lovebites has good promotion but they did have Miho leaving with Asami and Miyako taking time off to have kids. Slowed the Lovebites love train down just a bit. They are throttling up. Be interesting to see what they do next couple years.
Agree about Fuki. She's a freakin' legend. Unlucky Morpheus, Light Bringer, Fuki Commune, Dragon Guardian.
Su-Metal has the fiercest death metal stare.
An underrated singer is Nana from Fate Gear.
I'd take Bruce Dickinson, Rob Halford or Ralf Scheepers over James Hetfield any day of the millennium.
R.I.P. Dio!
I think the big reason Japanese music is starting to have a lot of these wins is not only how they mix different styles into their metal, but it's also the messaging in their songs. Then you combine that with their live shows and people really resonate with it. Metal needs a change and Japan is bringing it.
On that note, Tatiana is a modern day Siren backed by some masterclass musicians. It's an interesting experience to see Jinjer as a whole put an entire audience into a trance.
Great discussion! I do think the Japanese wave of bands is strong. There is tons of great music from the West, but the Japanese bands aren't afraid to do something new/unusual and i think that resonates with a lot of people!
I got the opportunity to see Lovebites and Babymetal in June at Resurrection festival and it was fantastic! 🤘😊
Lovebites is awesome on all levels. You are missing out big time
Even with 2 Nightwish singers in the poll, at the present time, Su's total is more than theirs combined.
I went to Resurrection Fest this year, that had the three of the bands performing and I can say that I didn't see a bigger crowd than hanabie's the first day; i didn't see a bigger crowd in the second stage as lovebites, the place where they criminally put them instead of main stage, and i saw babymetal and later electric callboy ahving the biggest crowds on the last day . And in the merch queues everyone was buying their merch. 80% of the people i saw asking about the japanese bands stuff.
PD: Not surprising the result, the wolfpack does not play games man.
In nearly every Metal Award you see ton of legacy bands where no one knows why they deserved in the given years an award. Metallica, Rammstein why? Last Rammstein album was mid and did not even came out this year. And Lindemann best singer? Come on. I get, why they are popular, and they have an espectular show. But best singer?
And at any time I would Yukinas voice put over Su's voice. I have to ask why she even is not nominated?
These groups get into the billboard ratings because their old songs are played on the radio, radio managers do not want to buy records of new groups. And the billboard, for example, first of all looks at the number of plays on the radio, according to the place in the rating, they begin to give out awards
🤟🏻🔥🐺LOVEBITES🐺🔥🤘🏻
📣FOREVEEEEEERRRRR‼️
Y no soy japonés
Soy un fan de Perú🇵🇪
The recent festival performances by Hanabie have helped a lot. They are currently touring North America with Jinjer, which is also helping increase their fanbase. Two days ago, I was at the Born of Osiris/Hanabie/Jinjer show in San Antonio, Texas. I have seen Jinjer live before, so I knew how good they are and they lived up to their very high standards. I had never seen Hanabie live, and was very curious how their songs would translate to a concert stage. They were fantastic. I was exhausted just watching Yukina run around the stage. Most of the crowd was there to see Jinjer, but Hanabie won them over very quickly. The crowd on the floor (I was in the balcony) was rocking to Be The Gal more than any song I saw all night. Everyone was jumping up and down.
Lovebites, who I saw live at ProgPower in Atlanta, is winning the vote as best Power Metal Band because they are currently the best power metal band in the world. They are infinitely better than Powerwolf. A power metal band that impressed me in Atlanta was Frozen Crown, although they are not on Lovebites level.
Tatiana Shmayluk got my vote for best female metal singer. She would get my vote for best metal singer, male or female. I am a fan of Su-Metal (I will be seeing BabyMetal live in November), but, honestly, she might not even be my favorite singer named Suzuka.
This is absolutely fantastic! Su and Love Bites running away, and Hanabie should win as well. There is no way they have this level of margin without a significant number of western voters voting for them.
I would add to the list the singer Regan from the band Saiseiga, she has really powerful and unique vocals
[Official Video] SAISEIGA - JUMBLE - You can listen, it will be clear why I suggested it.
Saiseiga is sadly underrated IMO, and yes Regan is one of the best singer in japanese metal (with Yukina).🔥⚡🤘
14:10 Number 3 in the powermetal section is Amaranth who have also a female singer : Elize Ryd. Though she is not their only singer.
Personally i would have loved to see Metallite there also, great swedish powermetal band with also a female singer, but sadly they are not well know.
Else, especially as a german, i'm happy to see "Beyond the Black" in even 2 categories : New Gen #3 and Symphonic #5 🤘🏼🤘🏼
And at last, i don't really understand why the singer of Babymetal is rated that high. I don't think she is really in the same class like Floor, Tarja and Simone or even Sharon Den Adel. Also totally miss Melissa Bonny there. And of course also Asami.
Floor, Tarja and Simone - this is already the past, but what new groups and singers are there?
My No.1 favorite metal band is LOVEBITES. it depends on your age though :)
"it depends on your age though :)"
Why would age have anything to do with it? All the bands discussed here have a lot of fans ranging from kids to old people:D
@@Tyyppl I mean younger ages loves Babymetal and Hanbi-e
@@muto4055 I really don't see it like that. As I said every band mentioned here has a pretty even split of young people and old people in the fandom. Could be Lovebites fandom is a bit older but it's not like it's really a big difference:D
@@Tyyppl “every band mentioned here has a pretty even split of young people and old people”
It’s not even close to an even split. On average, the fanbase of Lovebites is much older in age than the fanbase of Hanabie. Having said that, he was wrong to say it depends on your age, as all fanbases have both younger and older fans.
I'm 25 and I'm an M&M fan. Yeah I play guitar.🤘
Mayu 💯 %all day and Sunday
Su (no contest)
Saiki(metal?)more rock/punk,but I don't care,she's going on my list😂
Japan is the new epicenter of metal,I never listened to any metal b4 Babymetal, Nemophila,Lovebites,Hanabie etc,and I still haven't heard any western metal that makes me wanna listen,😂
Ps Hey chaps,hope alls well 👍
アンドリューはいつもバンドと連絡を取っていない
I think so :)
Metal Awards is not a prestigious award website. If it had any sort of recognition it'd at least have an Wikipedia page. In fact I do not think there's any reason for it to exist beyond spamming ads at those poor souls without an adblocker. There seems to be no protection against bots and other "cheating" tactics to manipulate the vote, so the results are not representative of anything either.
That being said it is perfectly normal the J-metal crowd to "vote harder" in online polls and other such instances, because this music is explicitly made popular through the internet and the fan communities depend on the web a lot more than those of music that is locally popular wherever it is you live.
Lovebites in particular popularity was just taking off when the pandemic hit and their marketing team were a bunch of losers who did nothing for their momentum at that time.Nemophila by comparison started just before the pandemic and their profile skyrocketed because of their covers of high-profile popular HM and rock tracks, with their own personal slant, with originals cleverly placed in between on their website and they got literally millions of views when lovebites in the catalogue on youtube had not achieved such numbers, despite having been out since 216.
Lovebites marketing team should have done something similar, to maintain their presence in the Western foxtrot. Ans attention
Otherwise, no Mayu? No Nemophila?
"Hanabie" is right when they mix metal with other genres. The future lies in the mix
Rock and HM genres popularity was ruined by reality TV e.g.: the British X Factor and pop Idol brands, were sold all around the Western countries and pretty much ruined grassroots level bands opportunities to be seen, because the younger generations that would have been thinking about trying to develop a band and going out to watch live acts a decade ago, were inside watching trashy reality TV instead.Now eventually they all realised reality TV was Tosh, but when it was popular it trashed any chance for a revival in the West, where hip-hop now is overwhelmingly more popular than other genres
Babymetal are so addictive, listened to them since 2014 but absolutely love there latest album! Metal head for 40yrs and no other band I have heard have their diversity! Bought up on AC/DC,sabbath, and later I got into BMTH and LP who are great but Babymetal seem to have me absolutely hooked which has never happened to me before!
You should try The Warning.
SuMetal MoaMetal MomoMetal ❤ j'ai même là signature de MomoMetal 🤘
It's always been a thing, if there is an online vote, and Babymetal is in it, they win. And the fact that you can vote every 12 hours, the Japanese fan bases will just vote like crazy.
The band I'm surprised not to see on the list, Nemophila. Popular overseas, big fan base, and toured the US.
Babymetal is not very popular in Japan itself. It is more of an export product.
@@Olkam-w5u Do not disagree, but the same could be said of all the current bands coming out of Japan. It's the old school which are popular in Japan, like X Japan, Hyde, and so on, but they are not that popular overseas.
@@Olkam-w5u They sold out the Tokyo Dome two night (110,000 people) and 10 nights at Budokan and sell out arenas throughout Japan. I'll take that supposed lack of popularity any day.
@@Daniel_Colavecchio It was in 2015-2016. Not anymore. Check out Billboard Japan
I think the big point especially in Europe is Metal in itself is not interesting. It is more how and with what do you want to mix. And where can you take non mezal fans zo.
Su sings really well but not on all performances. She has some really bad days.
Band Maid
band maid? are you implying they are a metal band, not close, even they say they are not a metal band, maybe it would be nice if you read the topic of the video, here is a hint "Is this the BEST of Metal?"