AKB48 gets on a lot of people's nerves...for a variety of reasons -- for being too popular in Japan, for having too many members, for its "unscrupulous" ways of bumping up CD sales, and not least, for having boring, repetitive and stereotypical idol songs. And as is typical of many idol groups, even the fans (especially international fans) don't really pay attention to the songs per se. They are more focused on things like the singer, the costume or the music video.
It's true that many AKB's songs are typical Japanese bubblegum pop. But of the 1000+ songs written by Akimoto Yasushi (aka Aki-P, the group's general producer) for the group, there is a surprisingly wide variety of songs you wouldn't expect from Japanese idols. As I began translating these songs, I was really impressed by the depth and ingenuity of some of them. As a result, I developed a deeper appreciation of the AKB48 Group.
In this blog, I share some of my thoughts and discoveries as I look below the surface of the short skirts, the catchy music, and the sparkly smiles that are often associated with AKB48's songs. While I will also touch on the more mainstream cutesy idol songs, my main focus is to bring attention to the songs with deeper layers of meaning, especially ones that I feel are obscure and underappreciated.
All song translations are done by me, whereas all kanji/kana and romaji lyrics are taken from Studio48 unless otherwise stated. Some of my translations have also been previously submitted to that site.
