Spending the weekend of Aug. 20 in Chiba for the Summer Sonic music festival felt blissful. In person, the event was a perfect pairing of overseas artists excited to perform in Japan and local fans ready to let loose after the past two years.
My mood changed quickly, though, when I let my eyes drift toward my smartphone. By noon Sunday, two controversies from the prior day were gaining traction on Twitter, serving as a reminder of how online discourse can take shape even when commenters are nowhere near the real-life scene.
The first flare-up came courtesy of Japanese metal band Maximum The Hormone, an outfit that got into hot water with netizens for a fake harassment story back in 2019. The group came under criticism for a bit of crowd work during its main stage set; the members seemingly mocked foreign acts' Japanese pronunciation, and some netizens accused the act of specifically mocking English-Japanese pop artist Rina Sawayama and American rockers The Linda Lindas. Though there is little to no video evidence to back up the claims, that didn’t stop discussion from raging.