Home Commentary The Tangled Web of Confusion – Life Without Morning Musume
The Tangled Web of Confusion – Life Without Morning Musume
July 23, 2011 By

The Tangled Web of Confusion – Life Without Morning Musume

Greg New Profile PicThe following is my own opinion and does not necessarily reflect those of the other Selective Hearing staff.

Life Without Morning Musume

There are times when you have those late night discussions about random stuff where something sticks out. I had such a conversation about a week ago during my live broadcast. I was running a music segment and I ended up chatting (or I guess debating) with someone about the pros and cons of the S/Mileage 2nd generation auditions. (Which I think I won, with some help)

Morning Musume 2K11

Out of that debate came an interesting topic. Can Hello! Project survive without Morning Musume? Well if that isn’t a loaded question, I don’t know what is. Among those who are still loyal to Hello! Project this can be a sensitive subject. After all, Morning Musume is the pinnacle of the entire organization. Without them H!P would be a shell of what they are right?

Well… Let’s not jump to that conclusion quite yet my friends. Instead lets look at the differing points of view about Hello! Project’s flagship group before making any rash decisions.

On one hand you have the legendary Morning Musume. 10+ years as the flagship group of Hello! Project. The mighty girl group who are queen bees of girl idol land and can do no wrong. A group who despite their constant revolving door of members, stepped up their game every generation and made similar groups cringe in fear and envy.

On the other hand you have the aging (in idol years), declining Morning Musume. A group past their best by date trying to keep up with the new queen bees (AKB48) by removing their most popular member and replacing her with fresh faced noobs in a desperate attempt to stay relevant.

What side you choose is extremely subjective since hardcore fans will tell you that Momusu rules not matter how much their sales numbers and popularity tank. While others will agree with the group being past its prime and acting as placeholders until the next Hello! Project super group comes to replace them.

So what if the naysayers are right. The 10th gen turns into another flop and UFA decides to just go “Fuck it!” and cut their losses. Would Hello! Project be the same? Would they fold because their flagship group no longer exists?

JapanFiles Berryz Koubou Press Release Image

I think that the answer is no. With Berryz Koubou and C-ute maturing, side groups like Buono! experiencing success and the rapid development of S/Mileage (let’s pray that the 2nd generation isn’t a total bust) I think Hello! Project would have a rather solid line up without Momusu in the picture. Not to mention that there are still eggs around to make more groups or to add to existing groups should another grad occur.

Mano Erina

They also have Mano Erina (who has proven to be a capable soloist after a rocky start), Kikkawa Yuu and Kitahara Sayaka also coming up in the ranks. And again, probably more eggs they can convert to soloists if there is a high demand.

Kikkawa Yuu

To simply believe that an entire organization would fall because one group is out of the picture is ridiculous. What would be the point of investing and nurturing other acts if UFA were to just up & close shop when Morning Musume’s run ends?

Would Hello! Project ever hit the heights they had during the glory days when Momusu was the hot shit & everyone could hop along for the ride? Probably not, but you never know. One of the remaining groups in H!P could strike gold & another golden era could develop. Either that or they get an extremely lucky streak that may last a few months.

Whatever the case I believe that Hello! Project would be fine without Morning Musume and perhaps with them out of the picture some money could be redirected to less low budgety type videos. Yeah I know, wishful thinking.

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Written by Greg

Greg

Greg is the creator, administrator, editor, code monkey, overlord and general jack of all trades at Selective Hearing. He can be found lurking among the overseas Asian pop fandom and at most major conventions and events where a J-Pop/K-Pop act (or Gashicon) appears.

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  • http://janakyamottainai.blogspot.com/ AimxAim

    I do agree with some of what you are saying. Morning Musume is declinging, and has been for a while. They are also trying to keep up with AKB48 and are failing at it. However, adding the 9th and 10th gens isn’t a desperate attempt to stay relevant. It may partly be, but they were mostly added because they haven’t added new members in 5 years. Which in turn most likely hurt their popularity even more. Momusu will probably never be as popular as they used to be, but I don’t see why that’s a problem.  I also certainly don’t see why that means they should break up. There are a lot of groups out there that sell as much as Momusu do and no one worries they will break up. Idoling!!!, for example, sells roughly the same as Morning Musume. All popularity is fleeting. Eventually AKB48 will have their fall from grace. But does that mean they’ll have to break up to? If that’s the case every artist in Japan that isn’t number 1 should probably break up. Which is ridiculous.

    Berryz Koubou can never become the flagship of H!P. Since they don’t have a revolving door of members they will eventually just disband. Whether it’s because of age or all the members leave. I doubt they will just randomly add members when other members graduate. If that was the case C-ute would have added more members after Erika and Kanna left. However, S/mileage does have a change to become the flagship, or at least another strong group within H!P since they are adding a 2nd gen. If all goes will they might add more generations and become a revolving door idol group as well. And S/mileage is starting to become popular.

    Also Kikkawa Yuu and Kitahara Sayaka aren’t part of Hello!Project. They are under UFA and UFG, but not H!P itself. So, their popularity doesn’t help H!P one bit.

    • http://selective-hearing.com Greg

      I think of Kikkawa Yuu and Kitahara Sayaka as “guilty by association”. Although they are not technically part of H!P they are well known to fans as part of the organization being eggs and in Milky Way and all.

  • http://twitter.com/IsolaValentine Natalie

    I don’t disagree that H!P would be okay without MM but I think that if they still make money for the company (and they do, no doubt about it) then why bother? Somtimes it is not about the aclaime of being number one.

  • http://twitter.com/Flip_Dixon Flip Dixon

    Momusu is in decline, but not anymore than the rest of H!P’s groups.  You point to Buono as a successful side group, but its sales have tanked over the past several years.  I think the latest Berryz single was their lowest selling in nearly four years.  C-ute’s latest single had the lowest first week sales ever.  Mano Erina sales about half of what she did just two years ago.

    I think it’s more a general H!P decline than a Momusu decline. 

    S/Mileage might become big, but it hasn’t happened yet, despite their constant presence on TV.  If I was H!P, I’d probably bet my chips on them.