AKB48, others know about them?

So I've been living in Japan for roughly 7 years now and the group AKB48 has basically exploded in popularity during that time. Perhaps some of you know them, but they are a juggernaut of a group that's popularity is almost unrivaled in Japan. There are dozens upon dozens of members and a bunch of sister groups. Even though probably really strange for foreigners you can probably get why they are so big. Dozens of pretty girls, singing bread and butter, unoffensive J-Pop, that are marketing to no end.

But right now though is something I will never understand. On Saturday night prime time, major network TV they are airing their yearly member ranking awards show. This insanely huge event where after months of fan voting the girls are ranked in order of popularity. It's taking place in this massive stadium, with news anchor coverage, no commercial breaks, , cutting to clips of people outside the stadium watching on TVs screaming at the results, over the course of 4 hours! It will be covered on the nightly news after and on the cover of major newspapers tomorrow. The whole thing is just kind of awkward to watch, so much crying, stupid emotional speeches and all for basically a popularity context of young girls. Despite having seen them take over the country stuff like this is still just weird.

Anyone else actually know who they are? They sell tens of millions of records every year so I'm curious if anyone in the west in actually even aware of them.

Never heard of them. I thought you were talking about a gang at first.

I've only heard one or two of their songs, but I'm well aware of their popularity over there, and I recall hearing about the big cuffuffle regarding one of the members shaving her head out of shame for having a relationship awhile back.
But I probably only know about them because I'm studying the language and have been way into Japanese culture for awhile now. Save for what you hear about them on online cross-culture news sites, I don't think they're very well known here in the States at all.

As for the event you were talking about... I'm at a loss. It sounds very awkward indeed.

Did the song 'Sugar Rush' from Wreck it Ralph (the music that plays when Ralph first sees the big 'Sugar Rush' title).

I heard about them... and that's it. Maybe I heard one of their songs and I'm just unaware of it.

By the way, can I hype my favorite J-rock band? (I'm gonna do it anyway.) They are called FLiP.

I actually watched the election on Youtube, it got pretty exciting near the end. It's kind of similar to The X-Factor or Whichever Country's got Talent, if you get into it it can be enjoyable.

I think the most recent CD has sold over 1.8 million copies so far.

I've been an AKB fan for a couple of years now. I know they are always mired in controversy in Japan, but I like their upbeat"kawaii" music. It's cheerful and makes me feel good even though I don't understand more than a handful of Japanese words. They epitomize the Idol System in full force better than any Western music producers ever attempted. Really, Maurice Starr and Lou Pearlman at their most tyrannical were never so controlling as Yasushi Akimoto and company when it comes to their "product". I am also amazed by the insanity of AKB fandom. I'm not talking about the creepy stuff, I am referring to the fans that buy hundreds of copies of a single just to push their favorite member to the center. I admit I have rebought albums in my life but only after I've lost or somehow destroyed my previous copy. I would never buy 50 copies of an album on its release date so the performer can have the spotlight to herself. Having said all this, I don't know one AKB girl from another and I can't tell the different generations apart. I know there are offshoot groups but hell if I know the difference. All I do know is I like a lot of their songs and that's enough for me. Oh, and I liked the AKB0048 anime series. It's in the best tradition of the Beatles, Jackson Five, Partridge Family, and New Kids on the Block cartoons from the 70's and 80's.

My favorite AKB song is The River.

I've heard of them. Back a couple of years ago when I was really into Japan I watched tones of Japanese shows and they were always showing up, after a while when I learned a bit more about them I found it kind of creepy. They are built around getting tones of girls widening the chances of someone liking one and this whole thing of voting for your "favorite" but the girls aren't aloud to have a boyfriend in order to stay "pure" is just kinda weird. And any time you see some man way too exited at a concert of which some of these these girls are pretty young just has this underlying creepiness. I don't know maybe I'm looking too much into it.

But one thing that did really annoy me was all the Sub groups and copy cat groups. When I used to pay attention to charts in Japan it was just so over saturated with these young girls singing cripplingly average Jpop songs.

Fair enough if someone is a fan I don't really have a problem with the group there does always seem to be a controversy, but I guess that would be inevitable with a group that big.

I know them by consequence of reading a lot of Japanese sites, but I couldn't name any of them or anything like that. I feel much more comfortable with the image these girls portray than the girls Western media like to give attention to, I can tell you that much, yes sir. Japanese obsession with celebrities seems much more unhealthy though. Like, some guys don't want to get a girlfriend because they feel they would be cheating on their favorite AKB48 member, shit like that.

I do because of WAHP

@cale: It's not like people reproduce in Japan in the first place; soon all our favorite games will be made by robots.

Its only a matter of time before the AKB48 "music" franchise system comes to other countries other than South East Asia. Structured tiers of roles, tryouts for new recruits, rules and disciplinary actions, senior and junior members. It's the Supreme Aum of J-Pop. I say - Beware!

This thing was on par with the coverage for the SuperBowl. So the nearly 2 hour long post show coverage has just finished. There were 8, yes 8 people, at the news desk to report and comment on it. They had no less than 4 "in the field" reporters to interview a number of different people. They had a shot inside a news room where a major newspaper was designing their front page with the winning girl on it. The winning girl got driving around the stadium on the platform. I saw this on twitter pic.twitter.com/Gik73GUjPj Yup, I'm as dumbfounded as they are. You know I honestly really do try and defend Japan when people say how crazy and weird it is, I will say it's no where near as extreme as people make it out to be. Than Japan you have to go and do something like this and well... be Japan. You're screwing up my defense of you.

The winning girl was apparently a girl that was involved in a scandal with revealing cell phone pics and a guy. I guess the fan base is more forgiving of the girls than I thought they would be. Considering a lot of the garbage these girls probably have to put up with (I for one would think being an idol has to be horrible) glad to see she something like that doesn't wreck them.

@madpierrot: The girl in the twitter picture is actually the ex-center of the group. She's dumfounded at the first place result rather than the gaudy, stupid chariot thing, since she was paraded around on it when she left the group.

I remember seeing their music video pop up in my Japanese practice once. Once was enough to know that I should never listen to their music ever again.

I know who they are, and they kinda weird me out. It seems like it would really suck to try and get in and stay in. Never heard any of their stuff, though, so I can't judge them on how good they are.

I'm also going to take to opportunity to hype my favorite Japanese band:

I am aware of them.

That is all.

Yeah, I'm just not a fan of that particular Japanese mix of cuteness and manic energy. I like the idea of so many cute Japanese girls performing (obviously, if you know anything about me) but their style just irritates me.