AKB48 First Week Sales 513 453, Best Record in 9 Years For Female Artist
 

wouldn't this be first WEEK sales?

Congrats to teh girls

congrats to the girls

i will never comprehend why. but in a sense, i will. considering the other songs it with. kinda disturbing

I'm sure many thousands of otaku bought this only for those covers, lol. :P

Anywho. Even though I'd rather this go to a soloist, of course, better them than a boyband, for a change. And I'd much rather have these girls as the dominating girl group, rather than Morning Musume or some ****. So congrats to them!

Which just goes to show that no matter how hard they try, there is SOMETHING weird about the Japanese.

(Just kidding of course.)

only 2,000 copies to surpass Morning Musume's record @_@ that was close

With this single they are also breaking the 2 million copies sold mark, Congratulations AKB48!

I just think it's a bit sad that a lot of that money will go to their producer/manager, and the rest will have to be divided amongst the, what, 72 members? I hope they get enough of it for their hard work.

I may not like them but being in an idol group is harder than most seem to think >.>

how?? HOW?? Congrats to them but I just don't get them at all. They sell loads and stay on the charts for ages X_X People can't really think they are that good, can they??

Or maybe they get all members of their family to buy 2 copies each?? That alone would surpass the 100,000 mark :P

^ Yup. That's the key to any girl/boyband, actually. If each of their five to fifteen members (or, in this case, fifty >_>) have even a few thousand core fans - which they will, because even the 'lower' soloists and such can easily sell that much, and they aren't even a group of mass produced products! - that's already a great start, considering friends and family will also be guaranteed to buy some, along with what ever casual listeners they get. It's also a great help that these groups are usually idols more than anything. I mean, look at those covers, for instance..... Like I said, lots of guys will be all over that, lol. Though, it is a little more amazing with female groups, because even though you can technically appeal to men easier with women, girls are the ones who become crazy obsessed fans. :laugh

Wait what? They have 50 people in their group? WHAT?

^ Where do you think the "48" in their name comes from? ;) They don't all sing at once, though. (At least not alway/usually, right?) They are divided into, I believe, three "teams", with a captain for each... I don't know much more about them than that, though. Somebody feel free to correct me if I got something wrong, or to add any info......Such a complicated group, lol.

^yeah thats right (looked up wiki :P)

But its ridiculous! I think this is one of my biggest pet peeves about J-Pop. They create all these "generation-based" groups that make artificial, sugary pop music with music videos of under-aged girls dancing around in skimpy outfits singing about things they can't even understand, while in the process of making huge sums of money while the girls barely get any of it. (sorry I just really dislike it :P)

Also, all these "generation" groups like AKB40, Morning Musume, etc. WTF?! Why don't they just call it "groups that change their line-up to appeal to paedophiles once a girl starts to look beyond 16"?? It is messed up! I actually read once that like 50% of Morning Musume's profit comes from over-seas buyers, of which 90% of them are creepy middle aged men!!!! (I think the same statistic applies to Johnny's Juniors haha :P)

Congrats :D Girl Power

While all of this "they only sell as well because of their hardcore fans" things in general does count for girl bands, AKB48 has a special position right now. They're starting to become like Arashi, where EVERYBODY likes them. They're not there yet, but it's sorta like that ... How else would you explain their enormous explosion in sales? Core fansgroups don't grow THAT fast.

I think you underestimate the power of obsessive fans.
The only way to know if they are universally liked is to see how they are portrayed in various media outlets. I personally didn't see them portrayed in any positive, albeit any light at all. Also, their biggest fan base is Otakus no?...and there are plenty of Otakus in japan who LOVE cute school girls in bikinis. It might be the second coming of those DBSK like fans that rally and plan to get their idols to number 1.

wtf are you talking about akb48 is EVERYWHERE

tons of the girls model for popular magazines (which greatly helps their female fanbase), appear on tv, star in popular cms etc.

I said that I haven't seen them portrayed positively anywhere. But I guess when you have a singing group the size of a small country, its hard not to be noticed.

There are 63 members in AKB48 at the moment (Team A + Team K + Team B + Research Students)

Even so, their sales jumped from 230.000 to 380.000 to 515.000 IN THE FIRST WEEK. That can't just be obsessive fans.