(29.11.2014)
Are Tokio Hotel Ready To Return to The UK?
Here at Rockplaylister.com we’ve always been concerned with all things ROCK, it’s rare we deviate from this position at all, indeed metal, grindcore, screamo and even pop punk are at the core of what we stand for. However, an interesting debate on twitter was fuelled by a low-key tweet that was attempting to discover something, (that in the UK has been debated since the mid-late noughties) are Tokio Hotel a real band?
In 2007 whilst working in UK media I, the RP Editor, found myself faced with the first video release in the UK for Tokio Hotel’s ‘Ready, Set, Go’. This was of course the lead single from their first English language album ‘Scream’. The video for ‘Ready, Set, Go’ was a dark, futuristic and ultimately polished pop-rock video and the band were styled in a such a way that the alternative market would embrace them; in many ways their style was not unlike Black Veil Brides. However, I also remember despite the imagery and rock credentials of the single they were rebuffed by much of the media in the UK, largely because they were difficult to place in the market at that time. Tokio Hotel was not ‘rock enough’ for major magazines like Kerrang! and Metal Hammer, neither were they ‘pop enough’ for commercial radio and TV.
Why did they not receive the airplay that many feel they deserved? Let’s first tackle the rock arena in the UK. Here in the UK we’re very quick to judge artists and perception is everything. At this time in the UK My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy were breaking in to the mainstream from a very ‘organic’ (we’ll come to that later) fanbase built from extensive touring including UK dates at flagship music festivals like Download and Reading. The over riding feeling was that these bands have ‘earned’ their place to be treated as a ‘proper’ rock bands and I must say that’s difficult to argue with. In late 2006 and early 2007 the UK charts were seeing more ‘pop rock’ bands rise to prominence and of course, as in the nature ‘music cycles’, labels were seeking to capitalize on this trend by entering the market with their own bands.
Tokio Hotel are clearly a band… early youtube videos (circa 2005) confirm they were very capable of performing live (and well!) not a huge surprise given they formed in 2001. Perception is everything and when news of a new band coming through a major label, with a big budget video and no track record of touring in the UK, the media were suspicious. Furthermore, when it was revealed that Bill Kaulitz had performed on Starsearch in 2003 (reality shows are a big NO NO for credibility in the UK) the rock media were quick to conclude that Tokio Hotel were nothing more than a manufactured pop band.
In the pop world the charts were teeming with Pop and RnB, the likes of Rihanna and Beyonce were dominating the Top 40 and chart music was in a ‘pop’ phase. Tokio Hotel struggled to get their music played on mainstream TV and Radio for the exact opposite reason from the above, they were considered to be too rock!
Why do I highlight the above two points? Simple, the answer to the question is not, are Tokio Hotel a real band? It’s actually why, when they’ve had so much success across the world did it not translate in the UK? Again the answer is clear, the band fell between two genres and media outlets found them hard to place on their networks.
So what next? Fast forward 7 years and RP hear that Tokio Hotel could be releasing again the in the UK. The latest album ‘Kings Of Suburbia’ is a mixture of Rock, Pop and Electronic music and it’s REALLY good. Ok, I have to be straight, it’s not a rock album, but it is an album that demonstrates, well, how their sound has grown over the last 7 years. RP thinks ‘Love Who Loves You Back’ is a great pop song with huge radio potential and ‘Run, Run, Run’ is a beautiful track but may struggle in the UK market because of the pace of the music. If they do decide to release their music in 2015 they have a much greater chance of success…the music is better, lyrically stronger and infinitely more suited to the UK market.
So, we come back to the first question, are Tokio Hotel a real band? The answer is undoubtedly YES but will they come back to the UK and make an impact? I hope so, the new music has great potential and they will no longer have to contend with the previous stigma that surrounded them, they have earned their right to be reviewed by the media without preconception and judged solely on the music…which is what should happen every time.