The Morning Musume Popularity Conundrum

I stumbled upon a blog discussing why they didn’t like the Golden Era of MM, and in the comments somebody asked why was it that MM isn’t on TV as much as they used to before. I tried to reply, and then it got ridiculously long, so I figured I’d blog about it instead (BTW, this is all MY OPINION, you’re free to disagree)

So why did MM stop getting as much promotion and TV time as it did before. I will probably say harsh things but I swear I don’t mean it in a bad way, just thought I’d state that as a disclaimer.

The first and most obvious reason why they don’t appear on TV is because they’re not popular anymore. Sure, they have a core fanbase and they sell well enough, but they aren’t appealing to the mainstream media almost at all. You could argue that some of them do modeling work and some of them have gotten roles in TV dramas or whatever, but that is just being in denial, they just don’t have that mainstream favor anymore.

Which leads to the second reason: Most people in Japan have moved on to different things. I agree that the current MM is a completely different animal than the one in the Golden Era, but that was the one people knew and fell in love with. When people started watching their favorites graduate, they simply stopped caring, precisely because the whole group changed as well in time. Before they had average girls next door who were interesting, outgoing and eager for screentime, which obviously made for good television (as any reality show producer would tell you) they sang silly fun songs about love and bounced around happily. The current MM is NOTHING like that, now they are a group of polished performers singing dramatic techno influenced pop songs about heart break or women or whatever. And on TV they just don’t have the same spark.

Takahashi Ai is super shy, and she’s never one to stand out off stage, Niigaki Risa got quieter and quieter as years passed, Reina’s yankeeness washed away, Aika is bland, Eri was weird and hilarious but only when she had warmed up before, JunLin were amazing, but they weren’t given much chance to show it, and then there’s Sayu who’s the only one that can stand out in this way.

They are certainly superior than the former members (not the original girls, but the ones from 4th gen which was the ultimate golden generation) on stage, but off of it they just can’t play the idol part anymore, because none of them (except for Sayu and now Zukki) has that outspoken personality that is larger than life and makes for good TV.

There’s also something else that is very important to understand this, I think the idol label doesn’t do MM any favors and they probably should just ditch it. An idol as a concept in the japanese popular mentality is someone who embodies an ideal of youth and pureness (kiyoku tadashiku utsukushiku are the ideals they are based on after all) and for them talent has become a secondary trait. They just have to be cute, sweet, appealing and do interesting things on TV.

Japanese people as a general rule aren’t looking for idols to be amazing singers or performers, they turn to real artists for that, as idols just make emphasis on their youth (which is greatly valued by the japanese) and all the traits that come with it. MM can’t play in this field anymore, however, they seem to have realized this and are trying to make up for it by bringing in amazing girls who are potentially very interesting in 9th gen. But really, when you analyze the stagnant era of MM you’ll realize what I’m talking about: All of them were very good performers (well, except Koharu and Aika, but they weren’t bad either) delivering heart felt performances and being very polished at everything they did, but where was the outrageous personality? where were the silly antics? the meaningless basking in one’s youth and indulging in it that chracterizes an idol? All those things were gone, they were artists, not idols. You could compare them much more easily with Amuro Namie or SNSD than with Momoiro Clover or Idoling!!!

If UFA is trying to make MM go back to their roots and become full time idols again, especially now that they seem to be trying to ride on the idol wave, they are going to start rotating graduations a lot more, like it was back in the day, this is with the purpose of not keeping the group static and also changing the group’s dynamics so that there will arise interesting conflicts and such between them. They seem to have realized that their “artist” phase wasn’t very productive. Their fanbase is loyal, so they also got dormant and started releasing cookie cutter stuff, they didn’t need to impress anyone because fans would buy it anyway, they didn’t care about lack of exposure because their business was self sustainable.

But seeing small groups like MomoClo break through (in a way ofc) and AKB selling literally millions woke them up and made them realize that they could be doing things better, which I think led to their re thinking of the idol model.

I think UFA has done great this year, they are changing things up with MM and all of their other groups as well, and maybe with time they can find the right girls again (it isn’t that difficult, really) to make MM silly and fresh like it was before to earn the mainstream media’s attention. The quality of their music will probably nosedive, of course, because unfortunately idol-y music, which is the one that sells best isn’t as complex or deep. But that’s what it would probably take for them.

Granted, I haven’t said that this is the only good way to handle things, and they could also go the other way and keep doing their thing their way until their loyal wotas finally get completely bored and move on or pass the torch to new fans, without the help from the media. This is not an invalid choice, and it certainly works for a lot of acts in Japan. I really wish H!P fans would stop complaining so much about how little they sell, how they aren’t number one or how they don’t have the same recognition they had back then. Everything has changed. The only thing that has stayed is the Morning Musume name, and even though some girls were present in the golden era, the feel of the group is different as well.

UFA will take both paths into consideration and decide which one they think it’s more convenient. As a fan of many many acts whose releases don’t even chart in Oricon, I’d say enjoy what you like, and don’t bother much with what the media says.

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