Kawaii Power! The Phenomenon of Cuteness in Music

And that’s a (95-page) wrap! 

This dissertation has been 5+2+1 years (DMA+MM+GDP) in the making. It has been not just an extensively challenging research paper, but also a wonderfully fun, derpy, silly, heartfelt passion project. It has led me to places I would have never expected - so many creative experiments, collaborations, concert performances, and much more to come~ (horror-anime opera with Alice Ping Yee Ho still in the works!!!)  

I have too many people to thank for supporting me on this journey, but especially to my advisors - Lloyd Whitesell, Patrick Hansen, and Kyoko Hashimoto. 

Now I’m officially Dr. “Cute”! 

The thesis will be published shortly on the Library and Archives Canada  and McGill’s repository eScholarship@McGill! 

Next up, Windwood 2025 and lots of other exciting updates to be shared soon <3 

xoxo, 

Tong 

//

Abstract

“Cuteness” is an aesthetic quality that has pervaded contemporary Western society, and music of the last decade has also steered towards the growing tendency across arts, media, and consumer culture to embody the many different personas of the “cute”. More than just being sweet, charming, and childlike, our modern experience of cuteness has become increasingly fused with nostalgia and sentimentality as well as darker qualities of manipulation, aggression, sexualization, and surrealism. The cute is slowly evolving into the monstrous, grotesque, and uncanny while simultaneously attempting to remain vulnerable, innocent, and endearing.

My research explores cuteness as a musical expression in Japanese animation, kawaii metal, lo-fi hip hop, city pop, and classical music. How can “cuteness” be recognized in different genres of music, and what is its function and significance? After developing a set of cluster categories that signify the light, dark, and ambivalent sides of cuteness, I will identify examples of cuteness by translating these signifiers into musical expression and interpretation. Using elements such as melody, rhythm, timbre, texture, form, instrumentation and musical topic theory, I will develop a basis for an understanding of musical cuteness. This understanding will allow for audiences as well as performers and theorists to further explore the significance of this increasingly relevant aesthetic in our culture today.

Table of Contents

Abstract 4

Introduction 6

Chapter 1. Soft Yet Sharp, Clever Yet Foolish: Cute, Kawaii, and Hisaishi 9

1.1 The Etymology of “Cute” 9

1.2 Cuteness in Japan 10

1.3 Historical Overview of “Kawaii” 12

1.4 Types of Kawaii 14

1.5 Kawaii in Joe Hisaishi’s Music 15

Chapter 2. Cuteness Speaks up to Cynicism: Musical Cuteness in Kiki's Delivery Service 20

2.1 Cuteness as a Postmodern Aesthetic Category 20

2.2 The Japanese Animated Films of Studio Ghibli 22

2.3 Joe Hisaishi’s “Symphonic Suite” from Kiki’s Delivery Service (2019) 23

2.4 Musical Signifiers of Cuteness 24

2.5 Musical Examples of Cuteness 28

Chapter 3. Weakness as Power: The Dark Side of Cute in Babymetal 34

3.1 Kawaii Metal as a Deviant Genre 35

3.2 When the Sweet gets Uncanny: Babymetal’s“Megitsune” 36

3.3 Musical and Performative Cuteness in “Megitsune” 38

Chapter 4. A Musical Cuddle: Lo-fi and City Pop 43

4.1 Mistakes are Cute: A Brief History of Lo-Fi Aesthetics 44

4.2 Lo-fi hip hop: Ambition’s “cute songs to help with depression” 46

4.3 City Pop and Lamp: A Musical Hug 48

Chapter 5. Innocence and Nostalgia: Cuteness in Fauré’s Dolly Suite 54

5.1 Gabriel Fauré’s The Dolly Suite, Op.56 54

5.2 Musical Analysis of “Berceuse” and “Mi-a-ou” 56

5.3 Perceptions of Childhood 63

Chapter 6. Kawaii Battle: Babymetal versus Mozart! 66

6.1 Mozart’s “Papageno and Papagena Duet” from Die Zauberflöte 66

6.2 Musical Analysis of Mozart 68

6.3 Performative Cuteness 70

Chapter 7. Horrifically Cute: Shostakovich’s Allegretto Finales 72

7.1 Shostakovich’s Grotesquely Cute 72

7.2 Violently Cute: Piano Trio No.2 in E minor 74

7.3 Musical Analysis of the Piano Trio No.2 in E minor, IV. Allegretto 75

7.4 Deliriously Cute: Cello Sonata (1934) 78

7.5 Piano Quintet — V. Allegretto 81

Conclusion 85

Bibliography 89