"The Twofold Power of Cuteness in Kawaii Metal, Lo-Fi, and Classical Music"

In April 2018, Netflix’s animation series Aggretsuko took the American audience by storm. The show features a cute fluffy panda, Retsuko, who unleashes her inner rage by chugging beer and screaming death metal songs alone at karaoke bars. Developed by Hello Kitty creator Sanrio, Retsuko is the Japanese conglomerate’s newest kawaii mascot: cuteness gone mad. Five years prior, the Japanese teenage girl group Babymetal first pioneered the genre of kawaii metal by fusing heavy metal and idol pop in their single, “Gimmi Chocolate!”, attracting global attention with its ‘manic ride through lollipop hell’. Meanwhile in America, singer-songwriter Poppy went viral with her performance videos posing as an android doll. Sparse, repetitive, sweet, and unnerving, a cross between chatbot and child, Poppy became a cult-like phenomenon: cuteness turned to sci-fi horror. In another musical realm, lo-fi artist Ambition’s YouTube video “cute songs to help you cope with depression” received over 20 million views and a flood of comments such as, “if everyone in this world was like the people here, the world would be so beautiful”. During the COVID-19 quarantine, 24-hour livestreams by lo-fi artists soared in popularity, offering listeners around the clock a virtual community to gather and listen to “cute” music, chat, do homework, and find comfort in confessing personal struggles.

The popular cultural Japanese term for cute, kawaii, translates to ‘capable of being loved’. Characterized by its “vulnerability, simplicity, charm, and childlikeness”, cuteness as a modern aesthetic has pervaded our contemporary world. Recently, its debate in a vast range of fields has stretched beyond modernity to topics from Christian commodity culture and Shakespeare plays to political figures Kim Jong-Il and Donald Trump. The controversial attention attracted by artists such as Poppy and Ambition has presented the demanding voice of the “cute” as a serious area of study, yet to be explored in the field of music. My research will examine the aesthetic and cultural functions of cuteness as a musical expression in the popular genres of kawaii metal and lo-fi hip-hop as well as in the standard classical repertoire.

Music of the last decade has steered towards the growing tendency across arts, media, and consumer culture to fuse the aesthetic of cuteness with themes of violence, sexuality, surrealism, and dreariness of everyday life.  I will approach the genres of kawaii metal, lo-fi hip-hop, and classical music from two perspectives by investigating the common understanding of the ‘light’ side of cuteness and drawing out its disguised ‘dark’ counterpart that carries aggressive, passive-aggressive, and sexual undertones. My research will study examples of musical cuteness in works by kawaii metal singers Ladybeard and Poppy, lo-fi artists “Ambition” and “My lovely weapons”, as well as classical composers Mozart, Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev. I will identify signifiers of cuteness and apply methods of musical topic theory by associating these signifiers with different genres, styles, and cultural contexts to reveal their broader meanings in music. How is musical cuteness expressed and perceived? What motifs, signs, and figures are “cute”? How do different presentation settings from concert halls to underground bars and private bedrooms contribute to the two-sided power of “cuteness?” My research will investigate musical elements such as melody, rhythm, timbre, texture, form, and instrumentation as well as extra-musical elements such as narrative, intertextuality, visual cues, and social contexts to develop a multidimensional understanding of musical cuteness.

The creation proponent of my research will apply my theoretical understanding of musical “cuteness” to a new composition and performance. I will collaborate with composer Michael Kim-Sheng to co-create the multi-genre work, “Labyrinth of Tears”. Our project will present a musical storytelling of the twofold power of cuteness by combining the forms of operetta and triple-piano concerto and synthesizing the distinctive styles of Kawaii metal, Lo-Fi, and classical music.

The original fantasy storyline of the operetta follows Kanza Nightingale, a shy wizardry schoolgirl and her struggle with dissociative identity disorder. Inspired by the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Woodsman, and the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, Kanza’s three alternative selves embody the aggressive, sexual, and vulnerable tendencies of cuteness - the assassin, the courtesan, and the child. Musically, the operetta will alternate between various vocal styles and the triple-concerto will alternate between piano, celesta, and toy piano to parallel Kanza’s three identities. The contrasting musical forms and genres will highlight Kanza’s multiple personalities and their conflicts, differences, and ultimately coexistence through the link of “cuteness”. The score will illustrate my theoretical research using signifiers of musical cuteness and present the aesthetic and cultural functions of the cute in both classical and popular music.

Advancing Practice

Kawaii metal uses complex musical and performance aesthetics to invoke cuteness as inherently weak, vulnerable, and tied to girlhood while deforming its ‘lighter’ qualities in jarring and unexpected ways, ultimately transforming the cute into a powerfully subversive form. The lyrics, while made less hostile than heavy metal by cutified language and nonsense syllables, often address underlying cultural and social issues. Poppy’s “Computer Boy”, Babymetal’s “Gimmi Chocolate!”, and Aggretsuko’s “Massacre of the Innocents” are disguised satires of internet culture and protests against fat-shaming, bullying, and misogyny.

At the same time, lo-fi hip-hop artists are reclaiming the “light” side of cuteness, using the simplicity, intimacy, and approachability of the diminutive aesthetic to create sounds that are ‘warm, soothing, endearing, and healing’. But why have critics dismissed this microgenre as ‘repetitive, amateur, and clichéd’, categorizing it as passing internet meme? This response is closely tied to the association of cuteness with cheapness and triviality. Long before the age of kawaii metal and lo-fi, cuteness can be traced in music from Mozart’s comic operas to Shostakovich’s horrific symphonies and Prokofiev’s cynical ballets. Classical music has used “cuteness” as an important foil for other aesthetics and expressions, yet it is rarely defined as ‘cute’ due to the former’s association with ‘higher’ aesthetics of the beautiful, tragic, and sublime. How can “cuteness” be recognized in and applied to different genres of music, and what is its function and significance?

I am currently expanding my previous investigation of the “cute” aesthetic in Japanese animation music by examining its role in other genres. My research-performance project on Studio Ghibli’s animation music not only introduced a new subject to musical topic theory, but also encouraged an appreciation for “cuteness” as an aesthetic that can be enriching to our broader cultural values. From this newly expanded research-creation project, I will create an original work to illustrate and share my research with both the academic field and public audience. 

More than providing a historiographic survey of cute music, my project aims to better appreciate cuteness as an important aesthetic category in both traditional and popular genres, allowing for its application to future studies and artistic creation. For the broader public, the original creation will bring a new musical experience to the audience and portray the complex multitude of light and darkness in the cute, ultimately wielding its power to humanize and familiarize difficult issues in contemporary life.

I acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Je tiens à remercier les Fonds de recherche du Québec de soutenir ma carrière en recherche.