Babymetal & promotion (outside Japan)

Hep! (Sorry if Jägermeister seems to affect too much, but I just have to post this somewhere. Sorry if there are some bad grammar...  )

I have followed this Babymetal-thingie somewhat from the beginning and I just couldn't close my eyes from the fact that this "odd sidestep of SG" could use some more promotion outside Japan.
It's very natural way to promote your band through your own country of course, but still it seems very near-sighted to promote this heavy metal act only in Asia. In Europe there are deep roots, when it comes to metal, but there are very broad audiences to promote to. Can't say if America has as broad view as Europe has (but I doubt it, since it has two lolis and female lead. That could be a real dealbreaker for local heavy metal listeners(?))

Basicly I'm questoning the Japanese production company here. Do they not realize their potential here, or is it too much to think outside Asia overall? What I have apprehend, is that Japanese companies do not like to move things outside their operating area (which basicly is Japan or only part of it).
As far as I have observed, this band have been well noticed around the world. Even here in Finland they have posted the links around. This could be a very big steppingstone for band, so I've been quite devastaded beacuse of lack of promotion.

Any thoughts?

I understand your thoughts. I'm an American that currently lives in Japan so yeah, while I can see Babymetal and such NOW, if they're still around in a few more years when I have to move, I won't be able to see them forever.

Japanese celebrities don't seem to think outside the box that is Japan very much. There's so many artists that have never been outside of Japan, some have, but maybe only a few times max. Most Japanese artists that I've seen outside of Japan have generally been via anime conventions. With the many, many options out there for anime conventions to invite, plus the fact that people could say no because they're busy doing something else, it's very difficult. Singapore has only gotten Babymetal for this reason - they went via an anime convention (AFA).

For Europe, Japan Expo in Paris is probably one of the largest anime cons. They would have the money to pay for a Babymetal calibur guest (anime cons have to pay the guest to appear and pay for the hotel and pay for the airfare and pay for the guest's food generally). Would Japan Expo get them? Who knows. There's so many possibilities for them to invite. The problem with Japan Expo too is it's the beginning of July. They haven't announced it yet, but there's an extremely high probability there will be a Babymetal concert in Japan at the end of June to celebrate Yui and Moa's birthdays, plus (at least year they did) they go to many summer rock festivals in Japan, so they might be too busy, unfortunately.

Babymetal popularity is exploding right now here in Japan. I don't think it's at the peak of popularity yet. But it's so crazy that anything Babymetal sells for a lot of money. People are selling their tickets for the upcoming Babymetal concert for more than double what they paid for them, people are paying high prices for the Apocalypse version of the new album... it's insane. I think even managing the Japanese fanbase's demand is going to be hard right now!

But I do hope they go outside of Japan and Singapore. Babymetal has a lot of foreign fans too. I saw a surprising number at the Su-metal birthday concert back in December. Normally I'm the only foreigner at the (non-Babymetal) concerts I go to in Tokyo. It was maybe only 20 or so, but that is still a huge enough number that I even heard some Japanese people in line commenting about it. If Babymetal went outside Japan more often, I'm sure they'd have tons of people waiting to see them!

I think there is a natural growth limit for idol groups with this type of age structure. The girls still go to school, don't they. So it's hard to jet set around the world with them and do promotions and concerts. Especially when the home marked works very well. There even could be some legal issues like working hours restrictions for minors and such.
And it literally takes much time to fly to Europe or America and back. Since the time for the Babymetal concept is limited, I can fully understand why they don't go outside their comfort zone.

The only possibility I could see them doing a concert in Europe would be either through the Japan Expo  (they managed to get Momoiro Clover Z to Germany and France) or through a sudden extreme rise in popularity.

...forget everything I said

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samohT wrote:The only possibility I could see them doing a concert in Europe would be either through the Japan Expo or through a sudden extreme rise in popularity.

...a sudden extreme rise in popularity...

Yep, that will do it. Thanks to a silly little song about chocolate. :D