Promotional videos (PV) from Japanese girls group AKB48, titled “Sakura no Hanabira Tachi” (桜の花びらたち; literally ‘petals of cherry tree’)…
AKB48 supposedly consist of 48 female member, divided into three groups (A, K and B) with 16 members each. The number is rarely precise though; they debuted in 2006 with 20 members and at one point with 53 members… at the moment they have 44-45 members.
Sakura no Hanabira Tachi was AKB48’s first single, expressing the nostalgia of high school memories during the school graduation. The above video is actually a remake in 2008; below is the 2006 version during their debut…
48 members?!! this has to be a world record isn’t it?? lots of pretty faces, and the singing not bad. some of the girls look really young, are they really school girls?
one of the girls look like sohee from korea’s wonder girls. and the ‘kiss’ on 3:45 and 4:00 look so cute haha!
Not sure if it’s world record, but for pop group, AKB48 is definitely close up there in terms of numbers.
Most of them are teenagers; the company will groom them when they are young, and let them ‘graduate’ from the group when they are around 21. Those that are popular would probably carry on with their solo career, while those who don’t make the cut will need to look to something else.
I think I know which girl you are talking about (that looks like Sohee)… just a bit though.
cute and young girls!
i especially like their uniforms.
but i hate it when music companies make these huge groups.
imo, these huge groups don’t really end up doing much.
it’s just that the large amount of group members would attract people’s attention because some might want to compare who’s prettier/cuter, etc…
but to me, it’s such a waste of money and time.
why don’t they just focus on a few girls who are more outstanding?
in the end, some people (like me) might not even bother to get to know these girls because there are too many of them, too confusing…
Well, they can’t go wrong with the numbers… there must be a few members among the dozens that would attract interest from the public, and those few is enough to carry on the whole team.
This business model actually works in Japan, reminds me of Hello! Project and Morning Musume etc. I guess their entertainment market can afford some pop varieties.
probably so many girls audition they just couldn’t bring themselves to turn so many pretty faces away, lol. So despite who actually had any talent they just figured, lets just forma group with all of them.
Ha ha, Japanese never have been wastefull. Good thing for all of those pretty girls the music biz is probably still mostly run by men who appreciate a pretty girl.
Maybe :)
yeah, i guess this works in japan and probaly korea too.
it also depends on the type of people they’re trying to attract.
i personally do like girl groups, but i think any group with more than 10 members is too much for me. i’m too lazy…
i guess this business model doesn’t really work in the chinese music industry. maybe it might in taiwan, but once there was this girl group with 9 members formed in hk and they disbanded in a year to form a smaller group with 4 members. the rest of the 5 didn’t even stay in the industry anymore. and now, those 4 members are solo too. that company’s reason for the disbanding is because they can’t really afford so much time and money for the girls. and only a few of the girls in the group really stand out.
lol, i wonder if this would work in america.
I guess the HK group you mentioned is Cookies? I am not too fond of larger pop groups as well… I can’t recall more than half of Korean pop groups SNSD (9) and Super Junior (13), let alone AKB48 lol.
I think it’s fun to watch large group in performances though, especially when it comes to dance performances.
yeah, i was talking about cookies.
i think snsd and sj are okay though.
for some reason, their members are easier to recognize.
i think sj-m are quite popular in china now and they have 7 members.
but akb48 just has too much…how many cars do they need to fit everyone?
lol, dance performances can be fun to watch, but if the group doesn’t really dance well, it will look pretty messy.
i remember cookies was like that.
they were also bumping into each other too when they danced.
You are probably better than me in remembering names then.
Akb48 just need one… BUS.
i remember cookies. they were quite popular, but the company didn’t train them well enough.
a bus might not be enough for 48 girls you know?
They need a huge bus obviously… two perhaps :)