Re: [SINGLE] AKB48 - [RIVER] - 2009/10/21 ^ That's true, Kpop groups live and die on PERFORMANCE, that's all they have. AKB48 on the other hand is more about personality, I'm pretty sure most fans are well aware that AKB48 is not the best dance group or anything.
Re: [SINGLE] AKB48 - [RIVER] - 2009/10/21 To me it seemed like the Korean audience was just trying to be respectful and hold any applause/screaming/noise until the end. That's not unusual. I've seen Kohaku performances where the audience looked dead except for some clapping, but I always assumed that it was a showing of respect.
Re: [SINGLE] AKB48 - [RIVER] - 2009/10/21 ^ For the other performances, they seemed really in to it and were clapping and stuff. Just compare their reactions in this video to AKB's. =/ I don't know why their reactions matter anyway. They're not performing in Korea, so who cares? =P
Re: [SINGLE] AKB48 - [RIVER] - 2009/10/21 I think it's obvious that the Korean stars did not want to associate themselves as liking AKB48. There is a TON of bad feelings Koreans still hold for Japan, especially the older generation. It's not blatant, but when it comes up watch out. Anybody else catch allkpop.com saying "it seems Taecyeon likes sushi"? As for Taecyeon, he was just counting them and at the end he just smiled for the camera. He doesn't have any interest in AKB48 or was embarrassed that he was caught counting. People are just trying to make drama or make him look cute. He does read One Piece/Bleach though. Anybody have the total number of sales for RIVER thus far? I'm wondering if the single is a legit heavy hitter.
Re: [SINGLE] AKB48 - [RIVER] - 2009/10/21 ^ ^Ouch. I don't know if I'd go that far. Koreans do like sushi, you know. The bad feelings between the two countries are mostly held by the older generations. Think of all the Japanese and Korean dramas that have appeared in both markets, not to mention the increasing number of Japanese dramas that have been adapted for the Korean market. Japan is a legitimate market for Kpop stars. There are Korean singers already in Japan doing quite well. As someone mentioned earlier, AKB48 is as much about personalities as it is about performing, and that's what made them successful. The Kpop idol groups that I am familiar with have pretty good singers and their choreography tends to be more precise and generally more fun to watch. But in some ways it's hard to compare the two. Kpop idol groups seem to be inspired by American R&B and Pop music; Jpop idol groups seem to be a Japanese invention. So I enjoy both. Nothing wrong with that, right?
Re: [SINGLE] AKB48 - [RIVER] - 2009/10/21 Don't be ridiculous. The only reason why no one was reacting was because most people in Korea haven't even heard of AKB48. Their popularity is only just beginning so it'll take some time for that to spread to other countries. The reason why people reacted to the other performances is because: 1) unlike in Japan, most of these singers, groups (boy and girl groups), bands, and celebrities are all friends and fans of each other. They do lots of collabs, interact with each other on tons of shows, even pretend to date each other and wed on the silliest of the shows. It's no doubt they're supportive of each other. 2) Their songs are much more popular, so new remixes, collabs, and the song itself is fun to hear again and again. If you watch Gackt's performance from two years ago, you'd see that most of the celeb audience sat just like that, gawking at him because it was something different, something new, and out of reverence they wanted to focus on the show. let me learn you. When MM went to Korea back in 08, they had a warm reception. Why? Because they'd been popular in Japan as a girl group for nearly 10 years. It's a no-brainer that the name would incite some excitement (if not as much these days). Plus, people knew they were coming. IF AKB had a fanbase in Korea, they weren't notified about the event to nearly the same degree. Usually, there're tons of entering/exiting pics at airports for groups. But AKB was really stealth about it. At any rate, I'm sure some people liked the performance and no doubt there will be some repercussion in some fanbase growing there. I don't see why anyone would have to be fazed by a few stone faces.
Re: [SINGLE] AKB48 - [RIVER] - 2009/10/21 everyone? it's a general statement towards those people who believed there was "hostility" against AKB in Korea anyway.
Re: [SINGLE] AKB48 - [RIVER] - 2009/10/21 Don't try to pass this off as innocent by claiming that there's a secret Korean celebrity club or something. Any audience member (celebrity or otherwise) with a sense of decency, regardless of nationality, should not sit there stonefaced like that unless they are offended or something. It's pretty obvious that they thought the performance was either ridiculous or boring (which I doubt is the case here), or that there were some deeper issues behind their reactions that I would rather not bring up, but you can probably guess exactly what I'm getting at. A group doesn't need to have a large established fanbase in a country to get a good reaction at a show like that, but what they do need is a receptive audience. And MAMA certainly didn't provide that for AKB48. It's strange how all the other groups didn't have the same problem, isn't it? I'm willing to bet that if a lesser known Korean group were to perform in Japan at an awards show, they wouldn't get such a rude reaction.
Re: [SINGLE] AKB48 - [RIVER] - 2009/10/21 ^ Exactly. If they liked the performance, their reactions would have showed that. They didn't ask disinterested because AKB was new, it was because they obviously didn't like the performance. Them being new didn't have anything to do with it. And like I said before, I don't know why it matters what they thought about their performance anyway...
Re: [SINGLE] AKB48 - [RIVER] - 2009/10/21 Well it bothered me a little because I could imagine the girls feeling humiliated performing and getting that sort of reaction. Apart from that, the opinions of some people at a random Korean award show (it's about as Asian as the World Series is international) has no real bearing on AKB48 or the Japanese music industry in general, so you're right, it doesn't really matter either way.
Re: [SINGLE] AKB48 - [RIVER] - 2009/10/21 But not everyone who posted expressed that belief. You must not have read my post... Why would anyone expect an enthusiastic response for AKB48 at MAMA? As Malachite pointed out, the Mnet Asian Music Awards is pretty much a Korean music awards show and AKB48 is not well known in Korea. (http://mama.mnet.com/2009/AwardVote/AwardVote.asp) To make matters worse, AKB48 performed via satellite, and on a small stage. Was it even a live feed? With no real audience-performer interaction, I don't think the audience response is that surprising.
Re: [SINGLE] AKB48 - [RIVER] - 2009/10/21 I think we had enough discussion on MAMA event and Korean celebrities/fans reactions [wonder] Keep in mind this is a thread for the song [RIVER] [speechless]
Re: [SINGLE] AKB48 - [RIVER] - 2009/10/21 Since people were posting some of the dance covers, I thought I would post my cover group's attempt at this song (Mods, if this is not okay, go ahead and delete my post) [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRQvBXiKEWg[/yt] I'll probably post this in the theater as well, but this is the first time that my group actually covered something while it was still hot. This song is incredibly, incredibly hard. In case anyone is wondering, yumestarlet and Pan-chan are in here too with me.
Re: [SINGLE] AKB48 - [RIVER] - 2009/10/21 this week: 2,363 (42# Weekly) total so far: 211,819 (21# Yearly) beat kinki kinds this week. Yamapi outsold us, and LANDS didn't outsell us just for some copies, will do next week. no more important releases for the rest of the oricon year, the only way to get into the yearly top 20 would be beating Tohoshinki (14k ahead) and Shuchishin (21k ahead) so yeah, not happening. top 25 is still huge! congratulations, girls
Re: [SINGLE] AKB48 - [RIVER] - 2009/10/21 Thanks for the update aakun. I'm surprised they are still in the daily chart at #22.
Re: [SINGLE] AKB48 - [RIVER] - 2009/10/21 yep. and you have to consider also that their nationwide tour is not yet over: tour stopovers: Dec. 6 (Sunday) at Aqua Park, Nagoya Dec. 12 (Saturday) at Selcy Mall Dec. 13 (Sunday) at Hawkstown Mall, Fukouka let's see how the single performs after their tour and tv show appearances promoting RIVER.
Re: [SINGLE] AKB48 - [RIVER] - 2009/10/21 Wow your voices are incredible, thats a very great cover !! [rock]
Re: [SINGLE] AKB48 - [RIVER] - 2009/10/21 I don't really care how Koreans react to AKB48 perf for MAMA. But I enjoyed it a lot. I can see some nervous faces from them and one of them is Acchan. I'm not sure why but at one point Acchan seemed distracted with something. Overall, they did a great job for MAMA. I wish Koreans can see talents in AKB48.
