Babymetal and the ambivalence of cuteness

This article examines the recent emergence of the genre of ‘cute metal’ through the Japanese teen girl group Babymetal. Drawing on Sianne Ngai’s theories of cuteness, I explore notions of cuteness on two levels: Babymetal’s cute, and at times childish, vision of metal that evokes cuteness’s intertwining with violence and aggressiveness and the critical, yet ambivalent, reception of Babymetal by some in the global metal community as inauthentic or suspect. The critiques and affective responses to Babymetal’s music reveal the inherent power of cuteness to make viewers feel as if they are being duped. As I argue, Babymetal’s complex performance aesthetics invoke cuteness as inherently weak, vulnerable and tied to girlhood. At the same time, however, they deform these qualities in jarring and unexpected ways, ultimately transforming cuteness and the genre of cute metal into a powerful and subversive affective form