Creating Converts

So, does anyone have any good stories about how to convert a non-AKB48 person into a big fan?

I'm currently trying to find someone in my group of friends to love the group with me, but I'm having troubles. Most of the problem is the language barrier, which I don't really understand because I know very few words in Japanese and I don't care, but in general they think the idea is cute.

Any tips/tricks?

 

Lol, funny i try sometimes to make male friends interested cause female ones are harder to do. Although, I have not been really sucessful and they say that they are not int he idol thing i try anyways. My suggestion is just to appeal to their intrest and empasize the attractiveness of the idols.
so one time for my friends bday i sent him the link of Tanjoubi no Yoru performance. Another time we were talking about school girls and i showed the Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru and Keibetsu Shiteita Aijou pvs to illustrate a point of bullying and female pressures. If one of your friends are generally into jpop or other idols then try to relate such as askign to rank who they think are attractive in akb based on group pics. Well sad to say these don't 100% work but it creats some intrest in the group though not enough to make a fan.

 

maybe this will help: (Just my suggestion, no offense. if i did Sorry pls sorry( any one of these might work, 4 u)

1. must be Asian and/or not asian who are a asian freak
2. most of j-pop fan/manga fans are girls.... i see most boys are into hardcore anime...i kinda dont see and boys (manly) who are into j-pop (except me) , but i see gays are into j-pop (like the one who added me randomly on facebook). My friends somtimes look through my song on my ipod. and they see most of my songs are j-pop. and then asked "r u gay?" i said no of course, like wats wrong with it?
3. if you have a Anime club in your school or your area, try to introduce some of ur music, or ask the leader to put some of ur music while waiting for any more members to come. (it worked. i put some C-ute songs hahaha, they did like Ookina ai de motenashite )
4. Just watch anime with ur friends who are not into akb48/j-pop (hahaha like we always do, screw english version, go japanese version with subtutles for opening/closing japanese songs sake)

 

oh oh! i have one!

i brought my friend who is totally not into idols or jpop into the theater one time. he only knew aitakatta because he heard it somewhere. he was kind of doubting at first if he would like akb48 or not.

himawari 1 started, and barely 3 minutes into the show, the question he asked me was: "when's the next show?" with a big grin on his face..

he became an instant tomochin fan. . he did not become a theater regular though. hehe.

 

Yeah, I'm trying out a bit of your guys' tips.

So far, one of my favorites is to add a YouTube video to a Facebook wall post... like when saying 'Happy Birthday,' I add in a link to 'Tanjoubu no Yoru.'

It's not working thus far, but I think I'm progressing a bit.

 

That worked for me too! We met my friend's friend (who is a very... well "non-idol" type of lady) and made her come to the show. She ended up really liking it (and Cindy) and another one converted.

 

well it's not a really big thing, but my friend, female one, she's into J-rock so much and kinda dislike JPop. She's a keyboard player too in her band, plays Larc en Ciel and stuff. So one day i asked her to help me in my band cause we fired our keyboard player recently. We're playing Aitakatta, BINGO! and AKB48. So i gave her the cd to practice by herself, that contains those songs, some Morning Musume and ZONE's songs and some live performances and PVs of the songs. And when we met in the studio to practice, she asked me ,"Can i have some more of those AKB48's songs and PVs and concerts? They're so damn cute."

Success!!!

:mrgreen:

 

well, not sure if it will work, but bringing a friend 5,500 miles to Japan, and going to see some AKB concerts, but first, getting my friend more into the Japanese culture, food, girls, and tons of AKB video clips. Not sure if my friend is interested but atleast he is exposed to them.

 

Three words: Chocolove, Chocolove, Chocolove.

I've hooked like two people onto AKB48 by introducing them to the group through Chocolove. The infamous 'Ashita wa Ashita no Kimi ga Umareru' PV works wonders with the bizarre shock factor.

 

^
I did that a lot too. 'LOOK! THEY'RE BLEEDING CHOCOLATE. ISN'T IT AMAZING?!'

 

I go you acknowledge that at home, it is my brother who is the large fan of Japan and of all that approaches some. One day I heard a music which came from its room, it was Aitakatta. Although I wasn't large fan J-Pop (because I didn't understand anything and that I found that repetitive) this music spoke to me. Then the desire of more passed.
Some week ago of that I heard again Aitakatta and the desire returned. I left to research information (a little hard to France) and I've found some site which proposed to see the clips. I've to look at them and I immediately became fan. My brother had converts me with part of the Japanese culture.

And by chance I'm to fall (without me to hurt ) by chance on this forum. Or now I've discussed with you for a few days.

I don't know anything with the Japanese language but the melody, the music and the voices of these young ladies have to change my vision of the things a little. I would thus say that yes if one can convert somebody, why not.

 

Uhh... I've never manage to convert anyone at all into any kind of J-pop... But I keep shoving it on everybody's faces anyway...

My roomate (and cousin) is kind used to my usual squealing and dancing around to AKB songs, and there are quite a few that she likes. I actually caught her this afternoon listening to my only AKB48 playlist, and even humming to Skirt, Hirari Maybe a miracle has happened?

 

yes...maybe a miracle has happened. I have a friend too, he didn't like J-pop at all and always insulting me when i sang Hello! Project songs. But one day, i didn't know why at all it happened, he suddenly began to like MiniMoni. Ironic, wasn't it? He who worshiped J-rock and visual kei, now fall to the most childish unit of Hello! Project
and from that one point onward, he didn't insult me anymore. Now he likes Hello! Project and AKB48 too

 

For me, I try to advertise AKB48 online rather than try it on actual people. I have tried to convert some of my friends to change but even some hardcore Japanese lovers did not move. SO waht I do is whenever I go on to JPOP fansite or clip showing places, I try to make connection to AKB48 and bring it up.

 

So... I'm going to try to have people watch the Mademaze concert... it's kind of short notice, but I sent this event out to a few friends on Facebook.

I hope it works.

 

REAAALLY COOL advertisement, RSL!!!

 

So, I had my little get together tonight.

It was quaint. I could only invite a few people since it's spring break, and everyone's super-busy doing vacations.

We watched the 2007 Spring Concert. During the MC, we traded my flashcards around, creating 'teams' of girls we supported.

Sayaka was dubbed the 'hot, foreign one.' (Mind you, most of my guests were girls)

Sae and Rina were favored for their hair.

Everyone wanted Nacchi to be on their 'team' before I even said anything about her. Needless to say, I got her.

One of my friends likes Oku Manami.

Another likes Hana and Hitomi.

Haruna was considered the dumb one.

In general, I would consider it a success. I actually 'created' 'subtitles' for it. They consisted of putting all of the translations on a single notepad document, making the window really short, and scrolling. They worked really well.

Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru and Dear My Teacher were hits.

 

^ So cool, RSL! Great job, sounds like it was a success!

 

Yay! I think my friends would fall asleep in the middle of the concert if I tried to do the same XD I'm kind of used to being hte only fan of Jmusic around...

 

^I think that if you try teaching some of they're names and/or personalities, it helps.

Through dance, I've found that watching a bunch of dancers on stage, doing the same thing pretty boring, even if you like the dance they're doing, but, if you know they're names and about them, it's tons more fun.

That's why it's way easier for us to watch an AKB48 concert, than I would guess it would be for people who even know Japanese.