[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by Trinu

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).

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.