And here’s an AKB48 post on their sales.
(clearly I need to find better ways to title things…)
I commented on AKB48′s “Everyday, Kachusha” sales in an earlier post and how amazing it was, even if I didn’t like the song. Now they’ve broken the #1 record! Which is super amazing, but it still doesn’t help my opinion on the song (perspective-wise, I like it less than “Ponytail to Shushu,” which means I will probably never listen to it ever again).
I’m not going to type a whole post about “deserving sales” (they have worked awfully hard to get to this point), but you can either read Aimxaim’s post over at Janakya Mottainai or that one I wrote last year around this time in regards to Ponytail‘s sales if you feel kind of iffy as to whether the single actually should have sold as much as it has. If this were any release besides the voting single it probably would have sold about 600,000-800,000 first day. (I think. I haven’t really been keeping tabs on first day sales for AKB48 lately)
Reading back through the post I wrote last year (and finally making those corrections in regards to “senbatsu” and “voting”), this jumped out at me:
I’m hoping that the voting sales just inflated the sales of the song and that this isn’t a mark of the current music trend in Japan. Because Ponytail is really nothing special. It just happened to be the voting single. And with every voting single from now on, I can almost guarantee sales will be inflated. They don’t even have to put out a good song to make it sell an insane amount. That’s the other thing that bothers me. They know it’s going to sell well, so they don’t even try.
On the plus side, the sales were a reflection of AKB48′s popularity and the song didn’t really seem to have an effect on Japan/AKB48′s general music trend (EmEl was right!); on the downside I was right about the voting single thing and that they didn’t have to put out a good song to get the single to sell well.
I wish they’d tried with this release :/ Oh well. I’m looking forward to final election results! (I’m personally rooting for Kojiharu)
H!P fan who likes many J-pop & K-pop artists. always looking for more music.
I have to agree with you on this. At the end of last year when Beginner sold ridiculously well, I understood it because I thought the song was absolutely incredible. But Everyday, Katyusha is really quite bland and the coupling tracks aren’t anything memorable either. I see no reason (other than the election) that this single would’ve performed so well. 942K on the first day; 1.25 million in the first week; and god only knows what the total sales will end up being.
Yeah, I thought Beginner should have sold more, actually (it probably would have if the PV wasn’t changed). Well, the election is almost guaranteed to increase their overall sales, I guess. Total sales… people will keep squeezing to buy a single to vote, but after the voting deadline, I think the sales will taper off somewhat. That didn’t really happen last year, but “Ponytail to Shushu” was catchier than this song.
I was right? Wooo. But I really didn’t think the voting had anything to do with it. But it seems it did. Yesterday, one of the girls I teach was like “oh hey hey hey, did you know that Takamina was number 9 now? Do you know who’s number 4? And guess what place Oshima is?” etc. So I guess they really do care about the results to get all excited about them and want to talk about it.
But lately the kids don’t really like AKB as much. It’s all K-pop now.
More people care about AKB48 this year than last year, that’s for sure. And the yearly voting is always interesting to pay attention to. I honestly like seeing the results. Do they ask you about AKB48 a lot? haha.
Well, there are a lot of K-pop groups crossing over to Japan these days, though I really only care about Kara and F.T Island, and After School, when they debut. (no one in Japan really seems to like F.T Island as much as the other K-pop groups though :( )
Yeah, they often talk to me about AKB after one time they asked if I knew them, and I said yes. But last year they asked about AKB more. This year it’s Shojo Jidai. I always say Kara is better just to annoy them (because all I really know is that I like “Jumping” and I don’t like “Gee”). Well, that’s the girls at least. The boys still seem to like AKB more.
Huh, really? I’m surprised, I thought Kara was more popular in Japan. Maybe it changed.
By the way, you’ve seen the new Momoclo Z video right? Is it a preview of a PV?
Shojo Jidai has always been more popular with my kids. But, as much as 12-15 year old girls drive the music industry, I suppose there’s a far bigger demographic out there that could like Kara more. I just don’t talk to them every day like I do my students, haha.
And yes, that’s a preview for their new single. Here’s a full live version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkpnYlJWWws
(By the way, to combine the two topics, I know MomoClo has made it big because my students know about them know.)
And “now” even.
That’s quite possible.
Oh, hey, after hearing the full version, I like it a lot more. I can’t help thinking that it was only a matter of time before they did a song like this. Hahaha.
That’s awesome! My friends don’t know about them, but then again they don’t listen to J-pop hahaha. Some of them listen to K-pop though… SNSD and Big Bang are the popular ones among them (one of them even went to a Big Bang concert in China or Singapore, I’m not too sure).