Once upon a time, the hit of K-On! sent guitars and basses flying off the shelves. Temporary though it was, Les Pauls, Mustangs, and lefty Jazz Basses vanished from music stores. Starting an instrument from scratch is a fairly high hurdle, I think. The fact that an anime could let people clear that hurdle so easily made me think, wow, anime really is something (in reality, a few months later, those very instruments would end up for sale on Yahoo Auctions). That phenomenon happened again recently with Bocchi the Rock!, so even people who don't know the K-On! days might be able to get a sense of that atmosphere. But sticking with an instrument is an even higher hurdle than starting one, and on top of that, both K-On! and Bocchi feature original songs that the characters play at a high level of difficulty, so it's no surprise people give up before reaching a level where they can actually play them. Recently, though, in Futsuu no Keion-bu (Just an Ordinary Light Music Club), serialized on Jump+, existing bands' songs are depicted as in-show music (and this, too, is wonderfully wide-ranging, from the 00s to recent tracks, and conveniently just somewhat major yet pleasingly minor, the kind known only to those in the know). I'd been thinking how grateful I was that a manga ranking first or second in awards like "The Next Big Manga" and "Kono Manga ga Sugoi!" was shining a light on rock like this. But at the same time, I also felt an anime adaptation might be a tough ask. And yet, this anime, Rock Is a Lady's Modesty, pulled it off. I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't know the original manga, so Rock Lady was my first encounter with the work via the anime. But in episode three, just before the performance scene, in the moment where the two choose the song they'll play, I caught a glimpse of the words "the Sakuban" and had a hunch. With the very first chord of the intro, I realized, it's YOUTH by mudy on the 昨晩, how nostalgic! And along with that feeling came the thought, they can actually play this! So through this anime, the best band will become known not just to music fans but to anime fans too! Amazing!
Anime used to be subculture. Music was mainstream culture, but...
Lately, I think music has become disposable. There's no doubt that the quality of the songs themselves, and the sheer compositional calorie-count, keeps rising. With songs like the old days, with a long intro, then verse, pre-chorus, chorus and so on, and the same melody safely playing again in the second verse, listeners apparently get bored and skip ahead at that point. So recent songs are devised to keep you listening to the end, and are often structured to build excitement early. Many songs key-change again and again mid-track so you don't get bored. Seamlessly adding these kinds of touches to a song is no easy feat. Even so, people keep craving new songs, and the moment they feel even a hint of boredom, they mercilessly skip. I won't say that the way of enjoying music by buying a CD album, reading the lyric booklet with excitement, pondering the meaning of the lyrics, savoring the connections between tracks, and listening all the way through is the "correct" one, but I'm certain that, at the very least, music held a higher status than it does now. By contrast, anime used to be the prime example of a hobby to hide. Talk about anime at school and your spot in the school caste would come tumbling down in no time. But that prejudice has almost entirely disappeared now. If anything, it seems like someone who can talk about anime is more popular than someone who knows nothing about it.
Can rock return to being something the masses enjoy?
Now, back to Rock Lady. The soundtrack has many classical, flowing tracks that evoke an exquisitely delicate lady, and because of that, the contrast makes the in-show songs shine all the brighter. It's a great example of a soundtrack reinforcing the original work's intent. In fact, comments on the YouTube upload of "YOUTH," the song used as in-show music, exploded, and its view count climbed considerably too. If this work becomes an even bigger hit, "rock," which lately has come to be enjoyed by only a small fraction of people, will surely get renewed attention. I don't know whether these ladies can bring rock back to the masses, but I hope this anime keeps charging forward just as it is.
Quoted from the official site https://rocklady.rocks/
