Babymetal – Akatsuki (City Pop Version) – Not AI!
What if… Babymetal were an ’80s City Pop group? Imagine, if you will, it’s 1983 in an alternative universe not entirely unlike our own, except that, in this timeline, the members of Babymetal were all born 35 years earlier! Following the success of his Midnight Cruisin’ album, City Pop star Kingo Hamada approaches his record label, Alfa Moon, with an idea. He has written a number of songs that don’t really suit his voice, but which he still thinks have strong commercial potential, and he proposes putting together a City Pop girl-group as a vehicle for his writing. The label is enthusiastic, and following a round of auditions, Suzuka Nakamoto, Moa Kikuchi and Yui Mizuno are recruited for the project.
The band is named by combining one of the words most often heard in western pop (‘baby’) with the principle material used in constructing the gleaming cityscapes that inform the mood of the group’s music (‘metal’), and their debut single, a smooth-yet-heartfelt bop titled ‘Akatsuki’ is soon released, to immediate success and acclaim. The group remain at the forefront of the City Pop scene for the next few years, maintaining their popularity even when an unwell Mizuno is forced to retire from the group, eventually being replaced by Momoko Okazaki.
However, as the popularity of their signature slick style wanes towards the end of the decade, the girls are increasingly drawn to the heavy stylings of bands like X-Japan and Seikima-II. Hamada has not interest in pursuing this direction, so the girls decide to go it along, forging ahead with a sound that fuses their emlodic pop sound with the the power and bombast of the emerging Japanese metal scene!
Written by Nakametal/Tsubometal
I do not own the rights to the song, Su’s vocals, or any of the clips/images used. Backing track arranged, performed and produced by me, using GarageBand, and whatever instruments I had to hand. NO generative AI used, ever.
For a companion video with related discussion and recording/arranging insights, please click here: https://youtu.be/KpvfnGwg4O4?si=uE4LRLCstIWCVfQ2
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