It just sounds so twisted, doesn’t it? Like a bad trip through Harajuku. But Strawberry Syndrome (Twitter), mentioned yesterday in the context of petit pas!, is not just a real thing: It’s like an alt-idol B-roster supergroup. They have 59,000 followers and have tweeted twice!
Take it away, Idol 2.0:
TGU has even more goods:
Ichigo Rinahamu Unveils Yume Kawaii Band Strawberry Syndrome! https://t.co/5edFgl5Ffo @stsyn_info pic.twitter.com/CMxDEe1tD8
— Tokyo Girls' Update (@TGU_JAPAN) April 25, 2016
You know that at least two of them are armed.
And for a bit of background on Rinahamu, she’s literally the first ex-BiS member, which makes her kind of uniquely special. But more importantly, she’s half of the very cool BPM15Q that I will not be convinced to add to this site.
I am, however, feeling more and more stuck between a rock and a hard place on the “no bands” thing. Because the HATEGLEAMs of the world fronting full bands with idols as a single unit, and the Screaming Sixtieses playing live with bands, and the bands composed entirely of idols … yeah, I need a nap.
Concerning the “No Bands” thing: I’m curious as to why.
You state in the FAQs that this is a “site about idols”, and it is…but maybe that definition of where band ends and idol begins isn’t relevant to the idols that we know and love. Hell, we bounce between saying “band” and “group” when referring to a named set of people that make music on this site anyways. But no one would call a pure set of idols, like Sakura Gakuen, a “band”, and it sounds weird to call The Screamin’ 60s a “group”.
Isn’t breaking boundaries what this genre of ours is all about? If so, then let’s get rid of the strict “no bands” rule. Look at the attitude of the members to determine if something should be on here. For instance: Band-Maid, as much as I completely enjoy them, are not for this site. They aren’t really idol-y in any way, shape, or form (in fact I bet if that label were applied to them Saiki and MISA would just walk out of the room while Miku danced around happily). But bands like Hategleam DO belong here, because they have that feel of an idol-fronted band. Hell, so many of the groups that we like tour with actual bands sometimes, and sometimes they don’t.
Your site, up to you, but I think it’s time for a lessening in the self-imposed restriction of what makes a group a “band”
I originally had a knee-jerk kind of reaction here because you get right to why there’s a rule, and it’s so I don’t wind up with a LiSA fan site; those kinds of things already exist. I also want to get away from the kind of alt-idol coverage that exists elsewhere — I want celebratory reveling in violent, weird, culture-bending music being made by people who are turning a modern cultural motif into modeling clay.
BUT, that being said, my original reaction is kind of silly because we’re ultimately getting to the same conclusion. Part of it is an issue of nomenclature — in English, there are two common terms for plural musical performances attached into a unit: band and group. One is usually applied to instrumental and one to vocal/dance. What we need is a good term that really gathers what a creative force like OYSM or a performing force like Babymetal or a reimagined traditional model like Zekkyou60 or a horrorshow like Kamen Joshi really is, because any of those things can be several things at once or even NO THINGS that we otherwise have in our experience. It’d just have to be a term that would actually communicate that term to people, would not be seen as tongue-in-cheek and could gain wider acceptance. Like, I’d love to use “murder” because it connects well conceptually and VERY ACCURATELY describes BRGH, but come on. Nobody’s going to talk about a murder of idols except on the nightly news.
But if there were a term, that’d solve that whole problem. “This has to do with idols blowing the door off of things, gotcha.” Ipso fatso lorem ipsum.
Also, for the time being at least, I really am just kind of calling them like I see them. That’s easier.
Also-also, I’d reckon that I’ll not make much mention of Strawberry Syndrome in the future, at least not here. I did this post mostly because the new formation includes people we’ve been mentioning lately AND out of general respect for Rinahamu.
Yeah, I think we are getting at the same thing. Or, we can just ignore nomenclature all together, and just kinda know that those words of “band” or “group” don’t hold their strictest of meanings when dealing in the circles of the idol-metal scene.
Also, good, because until we do get a more fitting term, it’s gonna have to be a case-by-case call on coverage inclusion.
Also-also, I second the group this post is ACTUALLY about. Another group that I need to scrub away after listening to with some good ol’ Norwegian Black Metal (^^;