It's so obvious that what's being marketed about AKB48 are the handshake events and the sense of control and ownership like those election tickets. The songs and PVs are just a front.

^So that's why they are also topping the digital charts amiright?

Oooh burn

Does akb have significantly greater sales digitally than other artists that have good digital sales? I don't follow digital charts lol.

^They're up there with Kana and EXILE
http://aramatheydidnt.livejournal.com/4494307.html

I see, that makes more sense. Well I feel like that shows their high standard popularity. The physical sales are kind of crazy though. But I guess they must be worth the buy to people.

I don't think their digital chart can be compared to the physical chart though. And looking at those 2nd hand shops/ auctions, people are throwing the new release for dirt cheap price.
The reason is they only wanted the tickets for handshake session/voting and bought multiple copies.

That same thing literally went through my mind as I read that comment lol

LOL!

Very nice thought, there.

I have listened to AKB48 a couple of times...I don't understand it...why are they so popular? I mean, I know people have different tastes...but...:shakehead

Everything they do seems so fetishy to me...

AKB48 is a perfect example of what's wrong in this society.

^ you can start a war here with statements like this, but I agree 100%

I agree with this. I think AKB48 is so.......bizarre....

.................................................

:tconfused

I expected this moment to come, sad..

Congrats to AKB48! But... is this really fair...? As in, AKB48 girls will never be old, they will just keep changing the members inside... Eventually ayu will retire one day, but, it doesn't seems AKB48 will need to (Kinda like morning museum) cause the members will just forever be young...

Then... sooner or later, they will be breaking the 50 million mark...

Anyhow.. still glad that namie still holds on to the best selling single of all time! ^^

Most of the comments here sound so... butthurt? lol

Anyway, AKB sells a lot thanks to gimmicks, yes. But you have to understand some of the group before jumping to conclusions.

The group was first marketed as "idols you can meet" because you could go to the theatre and then high-five them on the way out. That was it. That was AKB.
As the group got more popular and the theatre got crowded, they decided to start with the handshake events, because they are, again, "idols you can meet". It was their marketing gimmick and it still is.

The election was an idea that came from the fans, actually. Having the group so many members, they didn't always want to see the same face (Maeda Atsuko, usually) at the front, so they let the fans vote. And then they let luck decide and made the janken tournament.

There are more rankings out there, not only Oricon. Soundscan, for example, counts AKB sales WITHOUT the theatre editions where the handshake ticket comes in. And do you know what those sales are? Around 500k. They're still the top female group/artist/whatever you want in the charts, and they're the only artist with ARASHI that does that.

Many editions? From their last single, they released 3.
How many editions did Ayu release of L? 4
How many editions did she sell of Crossroad? 3
How many editions did she sell of Moon? 4 again.
You were/BALLAD? 3 + SPECIAL LIMITED BOX

And I'm not gonna say how much those sold.

AKB and Ayu were at the same level once. Around 2009, both were around the 100k per single. AKB got bigger, Ayu got smaller. That's it.
Remember the earthquake? AKB went to the striken areas and sang to them for free.
Ayumi changed the theme of her tour. Classy.

To say AKB (and the other 48 groups) are not popular is the fallacy. They are. It's not only Oricon, it's everything else they do.
Momoiro Clover Z don't monopolize the charts and they're as big as them. And now Morning Musume is even selling more than Ayu's last three singles.

I see people here trying to defend Ayu as she is some kind of legend ala Madonna. She MIGHT have been like Madonna when she got it right, until Memorial Address/My Story, but after that? Now you could compare her with Aguilera and it would be about right.

Don't get me wrong. I love Ayu and she's my favourite artist ever, probably, but it's been years since she actually did something BECAUSE SHE LOVED WHAT SHE DID. You can tell in her last works she doens't have her heart in it, or at least, that's what I feel (and looking at the charts, Japan feels the same).

These comparisons are a bit ridiculous.

I don't think Ayu has die hard fans as crazy as AKB48's who buy 1000s of copies of each single so that they have tickets to vote for them. I think Ayu will forever be known as the biggest solo female pop artist in Japan with no real Western equivalent except maybe Madonna. To say that she's more of a "Christina Aguilera" doesn't really make sense since Christina never really made all that big of an impact to begin with.

It also should be said that Ayu's music isn't exactly as radio friendly nowadays (which a lot of artists who sell well make regularly a la AKB48/MoMusu and MM also has their handshake tickets and 6-7 versions of a single now) and it hasn't really been catchy-on-the-radio type music since say, Sunrise. There's also a lot of stuff like the news articles/scandals/"suspicious" scoops every year around release that have affected her status in Japan. She's still a legend, but it's hard to deny that things seemed to spiral out of control after the Mannie divorce and ESPECIALLY the Maro split. I wonder what her next release will be featuring the fans' vocals... can't wait to hear it, but I really do hope it's not something that is midtempo for her sake and for most fans' sakes since she hasn't had a light upbeat song in a while.

I still have an idea that this group cannot really sing.

SorryNotSorry.

It's kinda offensive comparing Ayumi to Aguilera considering the later, as truehappiness said, never had much of a big impact to begin with... Ayumi is the best selling soloist ever on the Oricon era, and even if I don't know how fair is to say she is the biggest female star Japan ever had considering the impact of people like Momoe Yamaguchi, Seiko Matsuda, Matsutoya Yumi, Hikaru Utada and Misora Hibari, but she for sure is among them, while Aguilera never was really among the top American popstars ever.

And I just love how a lot of funs enjoy talking about how Ayu loves or "disloves" her work like they were having tea with her weekly.

This.

I guess I was thinking more in terms of numbers. She's up there with those other soloists though IMO. I still find it fascinating that she pretty much had no experience with singing professionally before this.