Looks Like Robo-Musume is Here to Stay

It started with the Dubstep music of Renai Hunter, slightly altered to a more electronic sound. Then One Two Three came along as full-blown electropop, Autotuned to hell and everything! Some fans loved it, others hated it. I myself didn't mind as a someone who's a fan of Kyarypamyupamyu and of course Perfume so the sound wasn't anything new to me, just more like very unrefined technopop. But I could understand for some fan why the style may have seemed wrong for Morning Musume. After all, it was their first real dabble into electropop despite the genre now being a little overused and outdated today. Don't worry, one day they'll catch up with the trends! When I say that I mean never. But what did this mean for the Morning Musume we knew and loved? Was this just a one-time experiment, the shitty one-night stand of their discography? Well, they just released a dance rehearsal for their newest single and I think that will answer those persistent questions. And I'm here to write that no, One Two Three is not the last you'll get to here of Robo Musume.

Wakuteka Take a Chance is yet another electropop release from the group. And if you hated One Two Three with the passion of the August heat, then you're probably going to hate this song too.



Honestly I'm not surprised. One Two Three sold well so that indicates their is a decent sized portion of people who liked it. Naturally the next step would be to release more music in the vein of One Two Three. Now, promotion factors also need to be taken in and the fact that it was Momosu's 50th single but regardless, in business terms if a song sells well, then the next step is to duplicate the style of said song and hope its successor has the same good sales. So I listened to the song and from the start, I liked where it was going. It had an electro sound but it sounded much better than One Two Three! I was interested to see how the whole song would sound! And... then the vocals came along. I guess UFA was stupid enough to think the only reason One Two Three sold well was because RiDOS and Reina sang all of the song and decided to continue the formula! You know, it's times like these I can't help but admire the stupidity of UFA; it really takes one truly dim-witted agency to think as idiotically as they do! It must take a unique set of ears to think RiDOS sounds like a heavenly siren gently crafting each of her notes so that it's a godlike diamond of fucking godlike proportions. I'm sorry, I just can't like her. I dislike her voice, her personality, and her stage presence... I always have and nearly two years later that still hasn't changed. She always looks bored and/or smug, and that voice it just... I can't stand it. If UFA just gave it time to develop instead of giving her so many solos and adding vocal strain, then her voice wouldn't sound so wrung out. But it does, and I really can't stand it. And yeah, I know she's a good dancer as someone who could care less about dancing if it ain't Perfume, her one strong point loses itself on me. All right, I'll get off my soapbox; I bitch too much about her already. Besides at least a few other members get solos! Like there's a lovely rap sequence with Sayumi and Mizuki and I think I hear a few minimal solos from Mizuki and Ayumi! Yay! Good singing! The vocal distribution's much better than One Two Three and The Matenrou Fail but it could still be miles better.

Oh well, poor vocal distribution is nothing new. I don't even know why I complain about it now since UFA obviously can't hear me or everyone else who thinks the same thing. It's like yelling at a brick wall and thinking it'll listen to you. I know I spent a whole paragraph just bashing the vocals but I actually do like this song! I even think it's better than One Two Three! My problem with One Two Three was the awkward electropop and gratuitous Autotune. With Wakuteka Take a Chance, the music is much smoother and that electro sound it strives for flows more evenly. The song is still catchy but not as much as One Two Three, not that I'm really complaining about that. I'm just happy they were able to do a pretty nice electropop song! So is this the direction Morning Musume is taking from this on? Probably. I wouldn't be surprised. We'll have to see how the eleventh generation factors into all this though. I think with yet another boatload of newbs we can figure out what we can expect from this group now. If they do end up sticking with this electropop style from now on... I guess I'm pretty okay with that. As long as they use Autotune in a way that doesn't sound like they're trying to cover up bad vocals (or you know, USE THE GIRLS WHO CAN ACTUALLY SING) and manage to craft instrumentals that don't come across as tired and overdone this might be a good genre for Morning Musume. Again, I say this as someone who's been listening to electropop/technopop for several years so it all depends on your style. If you don't like this kind of music... you can always turn to AKB48! I kid, I kid. But seriously, you're in for a rough time if you can't like electropop. I won't (and I can't exactly...) force you to like it but I'd strongly recommend at least attempting to like it.

Is Morning Musume to become nothing more than a poorly Autotuned electropop group like Perfume? Well no. Not in my eyes at least. But I definitely think this is an indication of what we can expect from their future releases. Now it's time to pop some popcorn and see how the fans react to this!