sauder

I think the one problem from which almost all of their issues stem is the creatives of the company.

My cousin works for Interscope Records in America and told me that lots of the budget depends on creatives (duh). If the people creating the groups, their videos, image, marketing, have definite directions and have properly weighed the costs and losses
then a fantastic group can be managed. It depends on the group too, duh, and how well they are received, but she told me that some good groups really fail because of bad management. obvs.

This is all coming straight from me now, so I'll list my top ones. They all have to do with each other, pretty much.

4. For the size of the label, they have too many artists
At least this is what it seems like to me. It also goes back to what others are saying about solo members being barely promoted etc. UFA is spreading themselves too thin. It's like, they're half-assing 10 artists instead of making 2 good ones.
On top of that being fiscally irresponsible (because it takes lawyers, attorneys, catering, travel, hair and makeup, lessons, teachers, clothes, venues, TIME, etc.), it also greatly weakens the images and consequently the future careers of these
artists who might have been otherwise amazing with more individualized attention and funds.


3. More is not always good
More concerts, more releases, more members, more products. If you have a good accountant who tells it like it is, these things can all be good for the wallet, or they can be very very bad. In UFA's case they have pushed where it could made them some cash but they have definitely
pushed when they didn't need to. I'm not going to cite any specific incidences but you can see how all the resources, and I mean ALL of the resources put into executing some of their schemes do not pay off. Sometimes that's because they have unrealistic
expectations of who they know will buy something and who they want to buy something. A 1% loss doesn't sound like much, but a bad move (that isn't balanced with a better one) can cost a pretty penny. Little things add up and the zeroes keep piling on. It comes down to the basic
properties of risk, loss, and income.

This might not be the best sample, but all of the Japanese people I've ever talked to, and I mean ALL of them who are in UFA's target age group, had this to say about Morning Musume and their members. "I don't think they are popular anymore."
Hands down, they would say something like "OH! Love Machine!" or "OH! I remember that from elementary/middle school!", but those comments would always be followed by:"I don't know who's in the group anymore." It comes to be an embarrasing thing for me to
say that I listen to Morning Musume anymore because they all think that their group is just a sad story. These girls/boys that I speak with are all hip with the times and follow music a lot, so I was surprised that they all on seperate occasions made it sound so bad. A few of them
would cite their parents after, saying something like: "Oh I/my parents used to follow them, but they change so much that I don't know who's in it anymore." They admit that the girls are cute, but they ultimately find the group visually and emotionally confusing. I tried to think
of it their way for a moment. Personally, if there was a group like Morning Musume in America who, you know, I listen to in passing (a now and then listener). I think I would be confused as well if they had a few hits and then just shuffled around whoever was left in the group every year or so.

One of my friends shared the sentiment (keep in mind that she was the one who at least tried to view the group positively). She said that it feels like the group shuffles everything around to seem cool and hip, but ultimately no one except their hardcore fans actually cares. She went on to say
that she would have been interested in following the group, but all of the moving made it hard for her to have that "idol connection" and once most of the original members left then she was done. Now it just looks like a sad attempt to rekindle a fire, as reflected by the Kohaku she watched when
they performed Love Machine with a bunch of members she didn't recognize mixed in with the old ones. It would be worthwhile to mention that she did say Takahashi Ai was famous at one point (circa 2006), but then she mentioned "[I] don't know where she is now."

One minor thing that I thought was interesting was when I mentioned that they had gone to AX. Another friend went on to ask if they had the funds to do that. She was genuinely shocked out of her mind that they went to America. However, I find it funny that she knows they are broke (?),
yet she doesn't follow them. Bad press? Bad rumours? Bad information? Well I know they can't be THAT broke or else they wouldn't have gone. Interesting nonetheless.

*My friends are only a niblet of young Japan, so it's not to say that every person thinks this, but I do find it enlightening.

2. Who wrote this song? And this one? And this one...
Tsunku. Needs. To. Get. Away.
Seriously, this is me being completely raging because I feel so strongly about this. He needs to GO for like one fricking single and see if his entire Morning Empire falls down around him. I will say, that there are many things that we know and do not know about management etc. but whoever's
job it is to put him on every track needs a reality check. Unless you turn every track into gold like Midas, it should be criminal to write so many songs in a row. Whatever is happening back there, it just strikes as very arrogant and once again goes back to the concept of spreading too thin. Sure
he's made some hits, had his moments, but what the hell were things like Chokkan2??? I thought my Japanese friends were being harsh when they said that the music either "Doesn't make sense (emotionally)" or it's flat out "silly", but sometimes it's really really true. The day I learned how to
speak Japanese well enough to understand the lyrics, the more WTFness emerged on my face. Before it was like cute girls, singing, happy, reading subtitles kinda, cool! But now it's like a really pretty girl who I expected to be amazing telling me really idiotic things. It's the script, not the actor.
If you wanna take the group in a different direction, TAKE IT. Try someone else who won't leave remnants of their other songs/style on the track, take a chance UFA, couldn't lose much more money off of it if it goes bad...

I think Tsunku is talented, but I don't think that he has enough talent to write as many songs as he does.


1. The puppet is cool, but it dances funny
The wrong people are pulling the wrong strings on these girls and getting paid money for it. I am being honest to goodness when I say that I don't mind if they don't spend all that much money getting box lights, cool locations, cool angles, for their PV's. In my classes I've made music videos
that looked cooler than theirs for like $200 and things like that, but I don't mind. PV's are a very special thing. They can cost the world or they can cost not a thing, but like Spiderman, with great power comes great responsibility. The same goes for PV's. PV's are a window
to the general public that might not otherwise be open. Mr.Mitsumoto has more of a chance of seeing their stuff on music tv than some other way, so the way the girls are presented must be very very delicate as to nurture his little fanboy fire. Now, if the little statisticians and accountants
have done their job at UFA, they know what might be a good wind for Mr. Mitsumoto or what might not. There is no sure way to know if his fire will burn bright or even spark so that he can spread the word and make more little fanboy fires, but bottom line is UFA either doesn't know shit about
lighting stuff on fire or they are getting screwed over by the higher powers of fate.

It's not unusual to be talented but not be famous. It happens all the time, little undiscovered nuggets and gems. But...Morning Musume kind of already has a stage, and an voice, and a dece amount of talent, so what's up with the sales numbers? They could be higher.
I think that there are different types of being 'undiscovered'. In a way I think that Morning Musume is undiscovered in the sense of the general public versus fans because of their management. They sing well enough, they dance well enough, and they are cute enough, but something has to be up. Someone somewhere, as in
any place, is not doing their job well enough, but in this case it seems to a most disasterous combination of of people who aren't.

Like I said, it could also just be fate. I would say that maybe the window has passed for MM, but new members doesn't make that a very viable explanation. Maybe the name has passed, the images and connotations that follow Morning Musume, but I don't really know. Maybe the competition these days is just too much, even.
Culture is such a huge part of their careers. The problem is that way they present themselves, dress, dance, act cute, releases, that as someone who has never lived in Japan it's not my place to say "Well why would you have them dance like that?" or "Why would you have them wear that?" because I don't know how many people fall
in love with those kinds of things everyday. Bottom line is though, there are people paid to find out who does. They get paid to put as much or as little meanings into PV's and songs and dances as they want but something isn't right. It's not unheard of to approach this type of situation this way and
have more success. They are pulling the strings on these girls, and even though everyone still knows that there's a little hand above their heads, it still makes them look bad sometimes.

Who ever really knows what's going on though. Sooooo many lies and deceit by artists and labels. But Morning Musume and the entire label wouldn't be around if they weren't making money...some way or another.

^Yeah lol. I clicked on this from my Inbox, forgetting that I've been here before.

Dun..

But I am going to be at UW now.

Wow I haven't been on H!O in SO long, not much has changed, everyone is still as die hard as ever and that's so important

I was watching a video and someone said that something happened to Kamei? I was trying to look through the thread to see what's up
but all I saw was concerned messages. It seems as if maybe the time for this has passed, but does anyone mind telling me what happened?
This all sounds very serious. More than a casual incident.

I was so surprised that after months of taking it easy that my reaction was so emotional, it's like one of my friends got hurt. I guess Momusu is really forever.

I'm all the way near Spokane.

Well she had it down during HaroPro Yanen

 aewen2653.jpg   229.68K   33 downloads  vlcsnap_1026947.png   453.29K   48 downloads

You can watch the show or look at the official pictures