Babymetal

Babymetal were a girl band in the truest sense of the word. That is to say that when the group formed in 2010 all of its members were all about pre-teens. Those individuals would be Suzuka Nakamoto (aka Su-metal), Moa Kikuchi (Moametal) and Yui Mizuno (Yuimetal).

Babymetal released their first album, which was self-titled, in 2014. That project along with their next two albums, “Metal Resistance” (2016) and “Metal Galaxy” (2019), were all international successes, faring impressively not only in Japan but outside as well. For example, all three made an appearance on the Billboard 200, and “Metal Galaxy” (which produced the hit song “Pa Pa Ya!!“) even reached as high as number 13 on the list. Indeed it marked the highest a Japanese album ever reached on the Billboard 200. And it also made history for being the first of its kind to top Billboard’s Hard Rock Albums’ list.

Indeed as their name implies, Babymetal specialize in a genre call Kawaii metal. This is a mixture of heavy metal and Japanese-pop music. In terms of the latter, it is heavily infused with what is referred to as Japanese idol imagery.

Outside of the band’s success, the most-notable occurrence in the first 10 years of Babymetal’s history has been Yuimetal going on hiatus in 2018.