Music Column: H!P vs. AKB

Today I might be doing one of my most difficult blog posts EVER.

I am going to talk to you guys about H!P vs. AKB, which might be one of the biggest fights among idol fans I have come past. Let's start of this post with the next few statements:

1. I love Hello!Project and AKB48. 

2. This is my opinion on the matter.

3. Tsunku and Aki-p are friends, so no hate!

Hello!Project was the first actual form of Japanese Idols I ever came across. I fell in love with their songs, their preformances and everything around it. I officially got into Hello!Project just before Kusumi Koharu left (2009). I had actually liked Kirari and Buono! for way longer, but that's not important right now. I loved Hello!Project and I spend a lot of time remembering names and faces. Around this time I had never ever heared of AKB. It was around that time I also got into fandubbing/covering and I covered a lot of Hello!Pro. I was a member of quite some cover groups and one of them also did AKB48. I remember asking someone on a forum what AKB was and they linked me Ponytail to Shushu! (which must have been about a year after Hello!Pro caught me). I was about 16 and pretty shocked to see girls my age dancing in Bikini's, I mean the song was catchy, the girls beautiful, yet I saw all these comments calling them sexy and well other things that shocked my innocent mind. A lot of people on that same forum were complaining about AKB: "They are only selling because they show so much skin" and "They are so fake, especially Maeda Atsuko."

I didn't really spend to much time thinking about AKB though. I was struggeling with school and trying to keep up with Hello!Pro. Somewhere two AKB songs did kind of get into my favorites playlist: Aitakatta and Sakura no Hanabiratachi were the first two AKB songs I actually listened to for ages. 

So when did I get into AKB? Around Eien Pressure and So Long! I came across a preformance of Eien Pressure and Paruru kind of lured me in. After seeing how adorable Yuuko and Acchan were in Heavy Rotation, I was hooked. Sasshi's first General election win was the first I followed and understood what happend. While watching this I actually remembered seeing a thing on a japanese tv program about the 2nd Acchan General Election (the one where she cried: hate me, but don't hate AKB). AKB became a regular group for me to check and their music became part of my idol routine. 

Now that I have been a fan of both groups for quite a while, I will tell you some of my opinions about the whole H!P vs. AKB and other populair/unpopulair opinions about the groups.

Let's get the first thing out: Yes I do think AKB has a lot to thank to them being the more daring group, Their songs (Skirt, Hirari, Seifuku ga jama wo Suru). their music video's (Heavy Rotation, Ponytail to Shushu) and their gravure shots. AKB shows way more skin that Hello!Pro. Yet let's not forget that Hello!Pro also tries the same tactics with their sexy songs (Kimagure Princess, WANT, Rock Erotic), music video's (Mystery Night, GAM and V-u-den) and let's not talk about their gravure shots (ManoEri). Both groups try to lure in men (and women) with their members.

Yet I want to point out that both have worked really hard to get where they are now. AKB just has a smarter way of making their fans feel heared. I think that AKB's General elections are the biggest sales point AKB has. The opinions of their fans are heared to these elections. The girl with the most fans (or richest fans) wins and get to be Queen of AKB for a year. The importance of this must not be underestimated. Fans want to buy for their favorite member.

Another thing that might boost AKB's popularity are their singles. AKB sells, just like H!P, their singles in different version. BUT the main difference is that each song has different members and all songs (for a while now) have MV's. This makes it more worth it to buy several versions of one single. H!P mostly sells singles with all the same songs, but different covers, bonusses or MV's. 

Than we also have the fact of AKB's concept. The whole idea of AKB is to get close to your idol. AKB has "small" venues where they hold shows almost every night (correct me if I am wrong please) and a lot of handshake events. They are quite easy to meet, if you compare it to H!P. 

Something else I have been thinking about is the way they produce singles. AKB has a lot of groups (AKB48, SKE48, etc) and each of these groups sells their own singles and albums. The AKB48 singles however also feature populair members of the sistergroups (like Sashihare from HKT and Matsui from SKE). So the AKB48 singles are actually singles with a lot of fans their favorite members. Hello!Project never really does this. We have about two single that feature all members, which didn't really sell that well. Will a single with the "populair" H!P members sell? I think it will. 

To the question: which group is better? I have a simple answer: AKB sells better, which would make it the better group sales wise (DUH). Yet I think both groups are amazing, they both worked hard to get where they are now and both groups have amazing songs. 

I would really like it if the fandom could come togheter and just enjoy the AKB and Hello!Pro music togheter. A lot of the members are actually friends or fan of eachother. So why should we as fans choose who is better? Why should we fight, while they don't even fight?

So this might have not been the VS. article people might have been hoping for, but this is it from me. I love both groups so much <3 I will never stop loving their music!