Can any groups threaten AKB?

like I said before many k-pops non/fans actually thought that k-pop is dominating Asia. maybe it applies to some countries but in Japan. you got to be kidding. I was laughing my ass-off when KARA fans were gloating on KARA beating Acchan's Bluray-disc record. when it's 4 members vs 1-member of AKB48 original kami-7

 

I think it isn't a domination in Japan but I do think they do have the ability to pose a threat of some sort.

Kara fans were gloating about beating Acchan? haven't heard of that..........

 

Perfume: No, they are not an idol group now. For quality songs, dancing or singles in general, I will choose Perfume's worst single over ALL AKB48's single. But I watch AKB for different things anyway.

Momoclo: They are interesting and strong now. But as being said, they have different format. Simply put, Momoclo lacks "manpower" to compete with AKB

Arashi and Johnny: Since when Johnny's fan girls care about AKB48??????

Kpop: We may talk about this when a female korean group sells over 100k in Japan

Sister groups: As being discussed here http://stage48.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=6363, no groups can surpass AKB

 

you can just search it on the internet. seriously they even said a Kara's Japan domination

 

KARA and SNSD's popularity in Japan decreased a lot since last year. People were into them due to some big hits in 2011 (Mr., Gee,...) and the media buzz at that time but then everything becomes normal. Their popularity is stabilized as their sales is quite good and they can still hold some big concerts but I don't think they can return to their peak soon.I must say it's quite fortunate that their peak happened (their 1st album sales were really crazy - around 500~700k iirc )when AKB was at its strongest, otherwise it would be dangerous now

Same with Perfume. They're no longer the threat as they were.

 

I think its just the quality (or the recent decline of quality) of the new Kpop songs in Japan. Gee and Mr were both addicting, just like heavy rotation. I think that is what the Japanese Pop song market looks for

 

I think it's impossible to ignore that MomoClo and some other idol groups appear to be getting more attention in recent months. Morning Musume's recent appearance on Music Station had an excellent response so who knows? They might be on the rise again soon?

MomoClo is doing fantastically for just 5 members and not having rotations (at least at this stage). The fact they can begin to rival the numbers in the 48 family proves they have something special, but it doesn't have to be a bad thing. Having a few groups as rivals means that the promotional aspects get more exciting :3

AKB went through so much to get where they are today, it's hard to imagine them being dethroned as the top sellers.....but as new debuts they probably never thought they would get to this point of saturation in the Japanese market and be known all over the world! Anything is possible and I won't be surprised if someone like E-Girls or MomoClo or TGS or even MoMusu start to catch up within the next couple of years. They are all worthy adversaries.

 

If the topic is about sales only, I think no group can threaten akb in term of sales. none of the close competition like momoclo or perfume have hundreds of girls doing handshakes to support their sales.

But if this is about popularity, it's different story. I think Momoclo is on the same level of popularity right now or at least just a few step behind.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZOVRaYMHMo[/yt]

 

perfume is also very very close or even equal to AKB's popularity.

 

What is the appeal of MomoClo? I know AKB is catered to Otakus but what market does MomoClo aim for?

 

^
Here's a good article if you curious about that, quite old, but still relevant
http://patrickmacias.blogs.com/er/2011/ ... ver-z.html

 

As for right now, I think AKB is at the top and won't be over throne. What I also think is, AKB's time in the spotlight is going to come to an end. I don't want it to happen, but I still predict it will.

 

This.. I heard fron my japanese friends that rating of fuji tv's or any shows involving kara and snsd has declined very sharply.

and those who buys japanese version of kpop singles are
nowadays either Japanese hardcore fans or international fans of Kara/snsd, which makes up majority. This gives impressions kpop is selling well but actually no.They are having hard time filling concerts seats, even resorts to photoshop to give imprssion they are selling well (these are not snsd or kara though). and nope its not because of decrease in quality (their songs have been so so from the start anyway), its just kpop was a fad that end in a flash lol...

no gangnam tyle was not censored, but they are far from popular there lol... no one cares about GS there
someone here comes from kpop dominated country (sg, id)?

 

@souchan48
you're absolutely right. K-POP appears to be a force to be reckon with in Asia but their not in Japan.
I can't even believe how ambitious those K-POP artist are when they started debuting in America. and don't get me start with Gangnam Style.

 

Major KPop girl groups' latest singles sales:

And boy groups too, though I think they aim for a different demographics than AKB48:

AKB48 sold 1,387,741 copies of 'Koisuru Fortune Cookie'. One might argue that this is because of handshake tickets, but even if you remove one million copies, KFC still beats all of the major KPop girl groups' sales combined.

It should however be noted that during KPop's peak, KARA's album 'Girls' Talk' sold an impressive 777,957 (2011) copies, and Shoujo Jidai's album 'Girls Generation' sold a spectacular 871,097+ (2011) copies. These are their best sales thus far in Japan.

AKB48, by comparison, sold 883,267 copies of 'Koko ni ita Koto' in 2011.

I suppose as the KPop wave starts to cool down now, AKB48 has the obvious upper hand in terms of sales and popularity. But during KPop's golden years (2010-2011), their sales are not that far behind from AKB48's.

Spoiler

KPop's a losing game. They don't make much in Korea and is dying down in Japan, while I reckon their fans in Southeast Asia are too spread out between countries so they can't really focus on one area to milk profits from.

Morning Musume's 'Ai no Gundan' has overtaken KFC's #1 spot on Oricon, by the way.

 

^ yeah i gree. to add on, until mow, KFC has been on #1 Recochoku download chart for 4 consecutive week, one of the few songs which able to achieve this. So the 'gimmick' excuse is invalid. Now which idol group didnt have gimmick? i follow one other jpop group and buy their cds. that group is not really an idol group, but also comes with a bonus like lunch bag for their album, or trading cards. Also,.it has been topping Soundscan figure too ).

wow since I dont live in Korea, I am surprised that it is not elling well in Korea. I thought they still sell well there. When I read news about kpop group here its always about good news, perfect idol etc... (i am in SG, one of kpop islands haha)

@MayuMK - yeah i agree with you.their 'success' is because of massive (almost everyday?) advertisment and some kind of 'propaganda' like 'all people now listening to kpop in korea/asia so u must listen to it also.' or 'they are perfect, let them be your idol' (yeah its a bit ironic haha) at least thats what i see in SG.

 

@souchan48:

Spoiler

It's not that KPop is not selling well per se in Korea; it's more like compared to Japan and the US, they're really not earning that much in terms of revenues (I doubt SNSD could sell 800k+ CDs in Korea). This may largely due to the differences in exchange rate (the mighty Yen pwns Won) or the trend in consumers' spending (I believe the Japanese still buy physical CD sales, while only fans purchase those in Korea). In addition to that, the idol market in Korea is already over saturated. About 60 'nugu' (lit. 'who?') groups debuted in 2012, and they're trying to appeal to the same market that's not expanding, with more or less the same type of music and concepts.

KPop girl groups usually cater to young women, anyway. Seeing the success they've made with reaching that kind of audience, I kinda wished AKB48 would spare a bit more attention to their fangirls *coughmecough* by replacing some of their gravures shot to fashion spreads that appeal to girls or something. More members that are cool like Tomochin that we can look up to would help them gain fangirls as well, I think (a la SNSD's marketing strategy). A wider fanbase would make them more impenetrable to be beaten down as Japan's #1 girl group, no?

 

K-pop declined mostly because of the political issues between Japan and Korea with those stupid islands or whatever. Because of that, K-pop groups stopped being invited to all the music shows that they were invited to just a few months before. Those shows really helped them out a lot, especially the girl groups since they don't have huge fanbases compared to male K-pop groups.

But anyways, K-pop girl groups right now seem to be on a decline even in Korea while boy groups are staying strong. Even a boy group who just debuted last year in Korea has apparently managed to sell 700,000+ albums while the most popular girl groups seem to be disappearing one by one either because of poor management or scandals.

They are definitely no threat to AKB48 anymore. I doubt they ever were.

MomoClo is doing well but they don't have a large amount of members to guarantee a large fanbase like AKB does. The variety of girls in the 48 groups coupled with their immense popularity will certainly draw in more fans since there's a larger variety of girls to pick as an oshimen.

And although MomoClo's songs are popular, I don't think any of them can even match the popularity of some of AKB's best hits such as "Heavy Rotation" for example... [shake]

 

^ehm to be fair, its not that they are not invited.\
but the rating has been declining to the extent that Fuji Tv who previously bombarded
all Japanese with the Hallyu wave propaganda gives up, BEFORE the conflict lol.
Thats why they keep reducing the screentime, then the island problems occur.
Not the otherwise

 

That's complete bs, Girls' Generation and KARA were still being invited to Hey!Hey!Hey! even after the island issue blew up. The one that hurt them the most was Music Station. After they stopped inviting them to Music Station, their sales dropped. You can't tell me that Music Station has no effect on sales because look at what happened to Morning Musume... they were invited to Music Station and their sales increased abnormally from what they usually sell. The same thing happened to Morning Musume the last time they were invited to Music Station with Nanchatte Renai.

Without that exposure, K-pop girl groups can't sell as well since they don't have large fanbases in Japan.