THE WOTA THREAD - For those who enjoy Idol Music....

[kndy]

This is for those who enjoy Japanese idol music. Post if you like idol music, don't post if you dont...

For those looking for communities on idol music, I recommend:

For 70-80's Japanese idols: https://www.facebook.com/groups/6267336 ... ts&fref=ts

For current idols:

http://www.hello-online.org/

http://stage48.net/forum/index.php

[kndy]

I guess I'll kick things off. First off, I am an idol supporter as I have covered and interviewed idols for quite some time. I'm NOT one of the people who scream in unison with hardcore idol fans but I do enjoy idol music and a big fan of Yasushi Akimoto's work with Onyanko Club, Chekikko and now AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, JKT48 and so on...

I am also a fan of when Morning Musume and Hello! Project first started and I have been fortunate to work with the labels in promoting various idols and their work. So, I'll share a few things I have received or purchased and others who are idol fans, please feel free to share your experience.

[kndy]

It's interesting that before AKB48 performed at Washington DC, conservatives tried to get the banned from performing because their Puccho gum commercial "promoted lesbianism". Lol..whatever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukHFhOVuJhw

Speaking of the Puccho...never tried the gum. Worth importing?

I did get the AKB48 Puccho mini-photo books but it's much smaller than I thought it would be.



7-11 were selling these and I see people in Japan were selling them for $35 on eBay. Glad I only spent $10...Bearbrick. Thing is small.

[kndy]

I was going through a drawer and I found my old daily planner and inside was this old Morning Musume keychain I bought in Harajuku back in 1999. In 1999, I can remember going all over Kanagawa, Shibuya and Harajuku...struggling to find Morning Musume merchandise. Ten years later, In 2009, I would be presented with the following gifts as well as interview a few former members of the group That was pretty cool! But wow...I haven't seen this key chain in over a decade.

[greg]

It's interesting that before AKB48 performed at Washington DC, conservatives tried to get the banned from performing because their Puccho gum commercial "promoted lesbianism". Lol..whatever.

The commercial caused some upset here in Japan, too. I personally don't care for using overt sexuality to sell any product. Axe body products for men dehumanize women and make them as sexual objects that are easily aroused like an automatic response to their stupid-smelling products. Those botanical shampoo commercials were also in poor taste, making it seem like the women were having an orgasm while shampooing their damn hair in an airplane toilet room (can't imagine how that's even possible, but whatever).

Chewing gum is cute, so they should make the commercial cute. Sexualizing girls for the sake of marketing is in poor taste. AKB also caused some upset (although whether in Japan, I'm unsure) about this commercial for the same product that transplanted their heads onto the bodies of little girls. To me, this was just something silly to do, and the commercial did not sexualize the bodies of the little girls. However, Westerners seem to disapprove of this. The problem with AKB is that those who promote the "group" is that they apparently do not hesitate to sexually portray the girls so that a bunch of guys can pitch tents over it.

I'm certainly not a professional statistician, but from the classes I have surveyed, the older the kids get, the less the kids like AKB48. So the younger you get, the more the kids like AKB. Very few JHS students like AKB, and neither do 5th and 6th graders. However, little kids (especially girls) get excited about them look up to them. Even my 4 year old daughter's sports day had the kids doing some dance to an AKB48 song. So when the target are little kids, making the girls behave lewdly to sell gum and give boners is not a good thing. Plenty of parents in Japan are upset by this, too.

[Heero]

I'm a fan of "cheesy" pop music so I really like AKB48 and (early) Morning Musume's music. That said, I've never seen either group live (even though I could have if I was a dedicated fan) and I don't buy/collect their merchandise. But I enjoy the music. I also know people working on the AKB0048 anime, so I'm following that one.

[greg]

I saw a glimpse of an AKB48 manga once, but I didn't really see what was inside of it. I think I'd be more interested in seeing the IDOLM@STER manga.

My gripe with AKB is that there are too many singers. It's not a singing group; it's a popularity contest. With that many singers, there is no real soul to the music, resulting in shallow fluffiness. I thought Morning Musume had too many singers, but AKB really goes overboard. It's kinda like how Burger King of Japan came out with a burger that had about 10 meat patties. Sure, the sandwich tastes good, but with that much meat, it's too much to really appreciate. So in the end, AKB48 lacks personality as it tries to appeal to too many people at once. In my opinion, at least. Still, I'd rather my daughter listen to AKB than American oversexualized pop music.

[kndy]

I saw a glimpse of an AKB48 manga once, but I didn't really see what was inside of it. I think I'd be more interested in seeing the IDOLM@STER manga.

My gripe with AKB is that there are too many singers. It's not a singing group; it's a popularity contest. With that many singers, there is no real soul to the music, resulting in shallow fluffiness. I thought Morning Musume had too many singers, but AKB really goes overboard. It's kinda like how Burger King of Japan came out with a burger that had about 10 meat patties. Sure, the sandwich tastes good, but with that much meat, it's too much to really appreciate. So in the end, AKB48 lacks personality as it tries to appeal to too many people at once. In my opinion, at least. Still, I'd rather my daughter listen to AKB than American oversexualized pop music.

It's the Akimoto Yasushi marketing that he did in the '80s with Onyanko Club but the main difference is they have a theater which the perform everyday in different parts of Japan and of course the tension each year with the Senbatsu tournaments.

But what he is doing is working because with the Japanese music industry only selling 40,000 CD singles, aside from the Johnny's groups, AKB48 has been quite a phenomenon as their last six singles have pretty much sold over a million copies. But part of the reason for the high sales is because they release like five different versions of a CD, with each CD having a third different track but the DVD versions also having additional content. Sometimes documentaries are split up on each different CD. But the biggest drive for people to purchase is the limited editions come with handshaking event ticket, the regular editions come with a random photo (which are highly collectible and are expensive for collectors) and the regular normal CD version known as "Theater Edition", gives people a chance to go to theater and select a photo they can keep.

This benefits us in the USA or outside of Japan because a lot of these fans purchase so many versions just for the cards or handshake events that they sell the CD+DVD on eBay for 50%-75% off.

But pretty much for those who are not familiar with AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, etc. Focusing on AKB48, it's best to know that there are essentially three groups within AKB48. TEAM A - Which is more pop based, TEAM B - Which is more idol based and TEAM K - Which emphasizes more on dance.

As for the popularity contest, this is true. Once a year is the senbatsu elections in which determines who will be featured on the music singles, on television and magazines, who performs the coupling song and of course, those who do not rank, only get to perform at the theater.

Senbatsu elections are determined by fans in which people must buy a CD+DVD single which comes with a code to vote. In 2012, they allowed people in America and other countries to take part in the voting and with the growing popularity of the groups in other countries, there has been a fascination with AKB48 fans worldwide and thus the reason why on Japanese television they have been having these "Who are the ultimate AKB48 fans outside of Japan" or "Foreign AKB48 fans vs. Japanese AKB48" fan episodes.

But these senbatsu elections are also televised live in Japan and are stressful because it pretty much affects each members careers, whether or not they will stay in the group or quit if their popularity dwindles. Sometimes its sad to watch because some of these girls look as if they are going to collapse. Some girls go all out in promoting themselves with newspaper ads and posters and the election shows estimated projections from the initial startup, to the middle which allows a member to change their strategy if it doesn't work. But some girls desperately want that top 21 spot. Unfortunately, in 2012...they made it more difficult and now the top 12-15 are featured on CD singles and TV.

Check out Yui Yokoyama's video clip from 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... FM0UlvfuvQ

But one of the most intriguing senbatsu was when Amina Sato was voted into senbatsu in 2009 because it was unexpected (with English subtitles): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM7epxciWCc

Because people felt it was unfair that the Senbatsu election was "popularity" based, this led to a new kind of senbatsu which is the Janken Senbatsu which would give any AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, HKT48 member a chance to be featured in a major CD single, television and magazines. And in 2010 and 2012, two people who never get the spotlight were featured as the "center" of AKB48.

The top 16 of those who quality for Janken senbatsu will be featured on the "High Pressure" CD single coming out on December 5th. 2012 was interesting because it was televised live on Japanese television and even showed people at bars crowding around watching the tournament. But for those wonder what the tournament looks like, here is a video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbO2AoDZ ... re=related

And of course, to heighten the popularity of AKB48 internationally, the folks of Pixar really give AKB48 good music time in their animated film "Wreck-It Ralph" (Some people at Pixar including Lasseter are big J-Pop fans and in "Cars 2" they featured the group Perfume but this time they featured AKB48's "Sugar Rush" in the film and the ending credits).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX9mr7VpkXw

[kndy]

I was just watching the third track on the DVD for Team Dragon from AKB48 (collaboration between AKB48 and "Dragon Ball Z Kai") and the group gets to hang out with DBZ voice talents Masako Nozawa (Goku/Gohan) and Ryo Horikawa (Vegeta) and get to learn how to voice act. That was interesting!

[kndy]

From last night's "Nakai Masahiro no Black Variety" and Morning Musume took part in a English quiz