47 comments on “Do H!P fans think music by all other idols is shit?

  1. “70: Flimsy, boring, all-unison vocal melodies even on the recorded versions of their songs. I can’t bear listening to them.”

    Yep: hit the nail on the head. Songs themselves are decent, just that soulless unison that never changes ruins everything

  2. I’ll drag you the fuck to some underground idols one day. Right on the ragged edge of no production and no budget, and they still get some kicks in.

    Still can’t believe you wouldn’t come to one even when it was basically on your doorstep :P

  3. Interesting threads. Personally, I can enjoy things that sound nice even if they come from other idols. Their stuff is usually not that interesting though, so even if it doesn’t sound bad, I tend to not go out of my way to listen to it.

    > But what with Tsunku just in the last two months giving me songs like “I miss you,” “Romance wo Katatte” and “Shabadabadoo” like it’s just another day at the office for him… what the hell, right?
    Pretty much.

    >>38
    That’s understandable too though.

  4. I judge idols by their sound first because music–or should I say music videos–are the most accessible aspect of idols for me. Maybe it would be different if I was living in Japan. I listen to a few other idols outside of H!P (Kyary, Perfume, Momoclo, a bit of Tokyo Girls Style) but H!P music is still the best to me. Suzuki Shunsuke’s arranged a ton of my favourites!

    These threads were very interesting, thanks for translating as usual!

  5. > I think H!P’s songs are shit, but the members themselves are pretty high quality. It’s like a bunch of F1 racers all driving crappy, worn-out cars.
    Well said.

    There are some (very few) good H!P songs, but if you want *good* music, you have to listen to other groups: BiS, Bellring Shoujo Heart, FRUITPOCHETTE, nanoCUNE, Ebichu, etc.

    H!P is better than 99% of the other shitty idol groups, but it’s not something that you would recommend to your friend who’s into jazz fusion or whatever. On the other hand, he might appreciate Bellring and the others I named earlier.

  6. I’ve listened to iDOL STREET and 48G music which I like but in the end, I’m with H!P. The music isn’t always the best but it’s unique. Though every now and then there’s this one amazing song that I’ll listen to forever. There’s also a song that I’ve listened to before that I hated but now I love

  7. I’ve got no probs with other idol groups. I also listen to ones that spawned from H!P, like Up Up Girls. I like AKB’s River. I don’t really follow them, I just remember watching the video for it and I think it’s a good song.

    For me, it’s not just the music, but the group overall. I just can’t picture those large groups actually getting along. I can just imagine cliques, rivalries, and such that simply isn’t shown to the public. I’m sure H!P is like that too (Mano and Kanyon for example), but within their respective groups, I feel they probably get along better. Doesn’t mean that’s the case, just how I feel.

  8. The first Idol I listen is AKB “Heavy Rotation” because all the hype of course . But, I always remember the first song that really brought me into idol music, H!P specifically : Please Miniskirt Postwoman of S/mileage :

    The beginning is simple very comic. Just a short synthesizer arpeggio followed by harpsicord line like a rusty video game intro. Then suddenly – high above it – two squeky girl voices hanging there unwavering, till the rest of girls took over sweetened it into phrase of such delight… This was no composition by perverted monkey. This was a music I’d never heard. Filled with such joy, such pure innocent joy, it had me trembling. It seemed to me that I was hearing the very voice of God.

    That’s why I always feel that H!P music is so great, that others idol’s just fall into mediocrity.

  9. I must admit I’m a little bit embarrassed at how much I love “The Matenrou Show”. It always makes you want to put on my white bellbottom jumpsuit and start pointing at the sky.

  10. Thanks for translating, Henkka!
    These kind of threads are very interesting. :)

    I can relate to what you said – I get into idols through the music first, and while I don’t consider everything else bad, I really like H!P to the point where it’s hard to even bother listening to other groups. XD
    I enjoy Tokyo Girls Style a lot though, and very recently I’ve gotten into Babymetal (which is absolutely bizarre, since I don’t listen to metal AT ALL. But Megitsune is such a cool song, and Gimme Choco is funny and cute in a strange way XD). I also listen a liiiitle bit to Perfume, Fairies and Flower. Through these threads I got interested in Galette too (I love funky songs!).
    But you know, the funny thing is that while I like these groups music, I don’t even know all the members name and can’t really distinguish all the girls. It’s not that I dislike them, I simply can’t bother to get to know them more. Just by enjoying the songs, I’m satisfied.
    With H!P though, I like the music AND the idols.

  11. “With H!P songs, it happens so often that I’ll hear a song by them that I think is shit on the first listen, but after listening to it several times, or after hearing it again for the first time in several years, I’ll suddenly really like it.”

    This phenomenon puzzles me. I’ve got a random playlist with pretty much every H!P song I have, so sometimes I’ll hear a song and not recognize it, but think it’s really good. So I pick up the player, see, what it is, and think “What!? Didn’t I decide a year ago I didn’t care about that one!?”

    • Oh yes. I have the same problem. The latest examples would be TIKI BUN (which is not that creative but catchy) and Senobi (which is not that catchy at first listen but it kind of gets stuck in my head).

    • That happens to me also. For one of those best of lists last year I went back and listened to the HP songs that were released and found myself liking a lot of songs I was meh about originally.

  12. H!P is my main idol fix, but I like a lot of other idol groups. Avex in particular have had some really good funk-based idol groups going back to SweetS and Paradise Go Go, and now with Tokyo Girls’ Style. Baby Metal is the shit. Perfume is solid. Momoclo would be great if the girls could sing even a little bit.

    I’m surprised at how many Japanese H!P fans didn’t like Buono!, as they were pretty much the only part of H!P that I had any interest in during their run. Next to MM, Buono! is my all time favorite H!P group.

    • In a discussion like this, I think it makes some sense. Tsunku is the biggest difference between H!P idol music and non-H!P idol music, so if you like H!P idol music much more than non-H!P idol music it’s probably due to him. So the parts of H!P he had very little to do with, like Buono!, won’t have that going for them.

      I’m such a person who doesn’t _dislike_ Buono!, but they’re not a group I’ve made a point to check out while there’s still so much Tsunku content I haven’t gotten to yet.

      • In my case, I got started with Buono!, listened to pretty much all their stuff and then figured I should give the rest of H!P a chance too.

        And then I got addicted to Tsunku…

  13. I pretty much have the exact same stance as Hennka. You have hope, at first, that you can get into other idols as easily as H!P – and that hope still comes back every so often, most recently in this very thread, when listening to thise GALETTe songs, which are pretty good! – but in the end, you just come back to Tsunku. His music sounds “fuller” for whatever reason – it doesn’t sound as mass-produced and hollow (that line about the soulless unison singing was spot-on). And the fact that he’s still willing to experiment and try new things with his groups (see “I Miss you”, “TokiSora”, or even just MM’s complete transformation around OTT), makes it that much more interesting.

    tl;dr: Live by the Tsunku, die by the Tsunku.

  14. Pingback: Recommended Jpop♀ Reading: December 21, 2014 | Idolminded

  15. Honestly, I mostly care about the girls. The music is more of a background noise to me.

    And yes, I see a difference between HP girls and other idols (HP are the best of course!).

  16. First impression for me to love H!P for so long (from 2002), was just pure music.. and performance of course.. Idol is not about looks, cuteness, personality, sexiness, but they must be able to perform a good song and good performance.

  17. Tsunku’s incredible usage of funk, soul, R&B, disco, and motown got me hooked to H!P. Until now, I can’t stop listening the instrumental version of “Tanjun Sugi Na No Watashi.” Partly due to Tsunku’s background vocals.

  18. I don’t really get people who are into momusu for just the girls. They are literally interchangeable! I’m not saying they’re boring or anything, but it’s the concept of the group, that the girls come and go. The only constant thing is the Tsunku music.

    I’ve been a fan since 2001, and I’m not listening to current H!P music, fantasizing about the girls from those days.

  19. I like Mantenrou show.. But.. The song is about dicks right.. Skyscraper is an innuendo for dicks.. right

  20. I will occasionally find non-hp idol music I like but it’s damn rare. It sounds so generic for the most part. Even the HP songs I dislike aren’t guilty of that.

  21. I would totally agree with this entire post. I came to the realization that I love all the disco/funky/motown songs, but also with the last comment from “Romance wo Kattate”, “I Miss You” and “Shabadabadoo” Its so hard to not think that Tsunku is actually a genius. I go through phases of not caring about H!P. That happened to me when the 9th joined up until one.two.three, then I started paying attention again. In the end though, I think the charm of the Idols H!P acquires is more than enough to keep fans going.

  22. Tsunku’s disco/funk songs are the best H!P songs for me. You can tell that that is his forte genre. The arrangers he chooses for those songs do a pretty damn good job, too.

  23. I enjoy other idols’ music, but I find that non-H!P idols sometimes sound generic. Even if they’re non-H!P idols, my favourite ones are quirky as well. (BiS!) I like when songs sound like they belong to their groups, and H!P is exactly that. I love the girls in H!P, but my kami-oshi has graduated, and my current oshi’s group is disbanding, and I’m still here… so it’s definitely not just the girls that make H!P, they just enrich it. They bring life to Tsunku’s creativity, in a highly marketable form.

    I guess they’re right. H!P wotas are really just Tsunku wotas. He’s pretty damn close to a genius. Isn’t it also said H!P wotas tend to have really interesting and sometimes obscure music tastes outside of H!P, and not really idol fans in general?

  24. If you find AKB music catchy, do me a favor and never read their lyrics in english. God damn that turned me off from them. I still listen to the other 48*s but not as much now.

    H!P, IdolStreet are the only ones I really like.

    • agreed on both counts. AKB lyrics serve to please old greasy wotas only. And Super Girls are actually really great! I’m probably biased but they got a good mix a generic idol quality and enough weirdness to keep them interesting. And the musics pretty good too.

  25. In my mind, what is appealing about Tsunku’s music is the fact that he seems to just throw the kitchen sink at every song he writes and yet still comes out with a top notch melody.

    Take Morning Musume’s ‘Only You’. If you just heard the chorus you’d think that it was a class idol song with a basic melody. But the crazy rhythms on the verses take it up to the next level. ‘Help Me’ has a similar thing going on; the melodies at Oda’s solo bit and parts of the chorus are almost broadway-like and the contrast of this with the contained verses makes for something great.

    I do like other idols. Namely Tokyo Girls’ Style, largely for their slick production (something that’s slightly thin on the ground in h!p). But while I like a few xxx48 songs I find much of AKB’s material (certainly their A-sides) these days to be rather drab in comparison to what’s on offer at h!p.

  26. if it’s not H!P then I listen to Ebisu Muscats, GEM, Fudanjuku, and a small variety of other idol-Pop units. But i continue to stay anti-AKB.

  27. I listen to Nana Mizuki more than anything else. In terms of singing and production quality, she is a goddess compared to H!P stuff. Even though I did just listen to a lot of MM songs yesterday cause I haven’t in awhile. But I think Tsunku can only write songs what the girls are only capable of doing, he probably has to hold back since the girls aren’t to that skill level.

  28. Once you listen to h!p, you can’t go back~

    No but seriously, tsunku’s songs are so… interesting and complex, it’s hard to get tired of them when you keep discovering new things about them.

  29. I could go on and on about how I love H!P, the songs, the production values, the girls themselves…………but since everyone is mentioning what they like, and come April it will be 10 years since they broke up, but the bandol group (band+idol) that I consider legends was ZONE. Their entire single discography, from Good Days to Secret Base to Glory Days to Egao Biyori is some of the most well-crafted Jpop of all time.

  30. Besides Tokyo Girls’ Style I can’t stand idol music outside of H!P/UFP. I tried listening to Momoclo once, but I wound up deleting it from my player in a few days. Their vocals were horrible.

    I’m one of those people who first and foremost cares about the music, the cute girls are mostly just a bonus.

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