AKB48 and Real Life Relationships

Yeah .. 2 friends and 1 cousin to be exact. But to be honest, they're not my close friends. Just "casual" friends.

My close friends wouldn't make that kind of comment. When I showed them AKB stuff, they go "Uh huh .. cool ..." That's about it .. lol. They ask some questions sometimes but they don't really get into it. I think their reason is that there are too many girls and they can't remember the girls ... Most of them just know Acchan and Yuko, that's all.

EDIT: Oh yes, one of my cousins seems to be interested in Tomochin.

One close female friend I showed Heavy Rotation to was shocked ... bad move, I learned the lesson now.

 

Haven't had too much luck converting anyone to AKB but at least I get get good acknowledgements about them. Showed a work friend Team K's 転がる石になれfrom AX2011 and she was shocked at good the performance and the audience noise was

I guess best thing is I got one of Malaysia's popular bloggers listening and loving Gondola Lift & KazeFu, but other than that and knowing Tomochin, that's the extent I can get her into AKB so far

 

I'd never try to convince one of my friends using Beginner, RIVER or the Majisuka series. Beginner and RIVER are quite far from their typical songs, so they might feel disappointed later. Besides, the Beginner PV (and I mean the uncensored one) is the worst choice possible (even worst than Hebirote) because many people would think it's disgusting and get a bad image of the group. And Majisuka may be cool when you know they are just acting and they are far sweeter than that, but it's not a good choice when the person doesn't know about the members (besides, I have to admit I liked the series only because I knew the members, otherwise I would have watched some minutes and left...) Anything about watching the members acting in a natural way (tv programs, idolish PVs, interviews, the documentaries...) are good choices for me (just my opinion, of course)

 

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Yeah .. TV shows with subtitles is probably best .. since they are usually darn funny. You know .. especially the prank ones.

 

Wow! I never knew there was an uncensored version of the Beginner PV. I just saw it! I must say it is pretty cool lol.

 

You Know I really think they way to introduce people to AKB etc is through SKE, well, probably not Kataomoi, but the rest of it, 1,2,3,4 / Banzai Venus, stuff like that, simple fun and exciting, it's a really good place to start I think!

 

Yes, I guess that would work, too (but don't be too surprised if those people become only SKE fans... )

 

More SKE48 fans = good.

But why not Sakura no Ki ni Narou? That's a slow song but the PV is quite moving, and there are not that many girls to confuse. Or show the top three to five songs in the Set List Best 100 concert.

 

How about Anata ga ite kureta kara. Its just so heart breaking anyone would be curious about them. It might even be a panacea to those who saw Skirt, Hirari first or anyone who didn't like AKB48 clad in short skirts.

Suggestion:

The topic has been, "How to convert your friends to AKB fans'. Maybe we should create another thread for that since its kinda interesting if we pool all of our opinions on how best to get converts. Anyone wanna make one and organize on how the thread is gonna run, I'm kinda busy to think about it.

 

I convinced my brother & his classmate while they are having dinner with us by delivering this massage (AKB48 have a diffrent kind of songs) , & I show them first Anata ga ite kureta kara, Dreka no tami ni & then Sakura no Ki ni Narou, & then I started to change the mood with RIVER & Beginner, then Yasai Sister & Namida seesaw game. & I think it worked on them & my brother become a new born Wota , & the other became speechless [rock] , but some of them don't like to listen to the songs they don't understand.

 

Oh you'd better believe it alright.. Some of his received FB comments are deadly.

 

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You know what .. I think it's time I delete those "friends" from my Facebook.

 

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Yeah you better delete those kind of friends from your FB [nod]

 

Even I question it sometimes.. Regardless, those were some hilarious responses your friends gave.

 

Good job!!! (and good strategy) [clap]

Yes, that happens too often... :dunno:

 

that sounds really horrible, havin friends who would tell you that you have no life, it's just hurtful and demoralising. Thank god i have friends and family who don't judge at all.....or maybe they just don't care

 

When people ask me how I can listen to Japanese music and not understand what they are saying, I simply say, "Consider voices to just be another instrument. You don't have to know how a violin works or how to play one for it to sound beautiful. Same goes for voices, just because I can't understand what they are saying, doesn't mean that it still doesn't sound amazing."

 

Well said!!! Many people love instrumental songs but when they listen to a song they don't understand they begin to complain about it... Besides, sometimes it's just a matter of prejudices... [worried]

 

Yeah.

As karles48 says, instrumental music stands on its own. When I'm not listening to AKB48, I'm usually listening to instrumental music. Even for most of the music I listen to that does have English singing, I couldn't tell you what any of the lyrics are. Only for those songs that I really, really like do I even notice the lyrics.

Which is also kindof why I don't get why everyone is always talking about getting Aki-P to write more songs, because I don't care about the lyrics. But I hear that he does give feedback to the actual songwriters.

 

There's also the argument that English language music is listened to around the world and those overseas may not necessarily understand English, but they still listen to it regardless...

On converting people into AKB fans, I found success with first showing friends the documentary. One of the differentiating points of AKB is its 'human'/'idols you can meet' factor (which I feel Aki-P expand upon, especially in regards to attracting a US market - values of hard work/self-made man and what not line up nicely with AKB). After I've created interest in the group, I can then move onto the music. Liking the group makes it easier to like its songs. Iiwake Maybe is what I used to get one of my friends into AKB. Mariko is her oshimen!