Similar Bands: Best Bands Like Band Maid (JRock)
If you stumbled across Band Maid and you fell in love, you may be looking for similar bands that sound like them. Lucky for you, I’ve gone down the jrock rabbit hole and have poured hours and hours into listening to all the best jrock under the sun. Here are the top 5 bands you’re going to want to check out if you’re a big fan of Band Maid:
One OK Rock
If you like jrock and you haven’t heard of One OK Rock, I’m not quite sure what to tell you. They’re super famous, so you should probably go listen to them right now and get up to speed. It’s sort of like a younger, Japanese version of Incubus if Incubus had a bunch of Christian rock influence. To get you started, I highly recommend We Are as the quintessential One OK Rock song, followed by Jibun Rock for ‘old’ One OK Rock.
Lie and a Chameleon
Lie and a Chameleon is a fairly small time rock band, but when it comes to bands that hit the same hard rock itch that Band Maid scratches, they’re a great band to be aware of. They haven’t made much of an impact outside of Japan, so you can impress all your nerdiest friends by having heard of them. The introductory song to listen to is Saredo kijutsushi wa sai o furu. They’ve recently released some new music including the simply titled 0.
Polkadot Stingray
Polkadot Stingray is a lesser-known band on the label A-Sketch. They have a jrock style that’s combined with jazz fusion to make a sound all their own that few other bands come close to replicating. On top of that, they have a series of excellent music videos with high production values that are well worth watching. It’s probably my personal favorite jrock band.
Babymetal
Babymetal is well-known worldwide right now and even though they’ve lost an integral member in Yui-metal and their guitarist Mikio Fujioka has passed away, they’re still out there making music. I’m not sure they’ll ever recapture the magic of Gimme Chocolate and the associated self-titled album “Babymetal”, which also includes the vast majority of their memorable songs like Megitsune, but it’s still a surprisingly polished act.
Scandal
In a lot of ways, Scandal is the precursor to Band Maid. It’s not quite hard rock in the same way that Band Maid is, and the girls are from the previous generation, but it’s pretty clear that Band Maid takes a lot of influence from the band Scandal. Similar to Band Maid, it’s an all girl rock group that plays songs with a lot of aural similarity to the hooks that Band Maid’s songs use.
If you like Band Maid, you’ll most likely find something to like about each of those similar jrock bands. If not, they can be a starting point to kickstart your YouTube algorithm into pumping new jrock your direction. If you’re just getting started listening to jrock, you might want to read this article introducing you to the basics of jrock.
