Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo
1. You can't isolate the vocals from the music, since the vocals are the music. It's candy-pop rap.
2. Bought for name recognition? How about every second #1 hit anywhere in the world?
3. As poetry, the words are better than most pop songs. Just complex and bizarre, both in meaning and in syntax.
4. I just listened to the full version, sans images, and there is no reason except anti-otaku prejudice for Oricon to be embarrassed about this song becoming #1, when I think of other songs that have hit that spot. This isn't like them, but it isn't worse, just totally different.
There are quite a few photos from the shops of Akihabara in this post on Akiba Blog about the campaign (click photos to enlarge). And here are photos (left) of a poster of the words, and (right) of a display saying the aim is to get the OP to #1 on Oricon and for this store (Toranoana main store) to sell more copies than any store in Japan. It also says they're taking orders for the first DVD:
 
I don't think the proponents of the campaign are thinking of profits for KyoAni (of course the shops are thinking of profits for themselves), I think it's more like supporting a sports team: you want the team you support to win, and this is an aspect of winning. I have to say, however, that I will be amazed if they get anywhere near #1. The SHnY OP only got to #5, and my sense is that that was a much bigger hit than this show. But we'll see by next Thursday. |
I guess it's the same as campaigning for Oscar's. I'm going to be honest and say I'm not entirely sure what kind of standards Oricon has though, but actively campaigning somewhat cheapens things in my opinion, just like with the Oscars (Where it does have an impact). All I can say is I have no idea why Lucky Star is Akihabara's pick, I can understand the drive for profit, but I don't understand the reasoning behind picking a specific song to push. I don't think there's anything to be embarassed about at all other then perhaps an overly aggressive market approach. I would think the girls who sang the song would vastly prefer their song to achieve success on its own and land where it lands on the charts rather than have their song lifted by a massive campaigning effort. I would feel a bit guilty and unsure of myself if I were the artist. I wonder if people truly enjoyed my music or only bought it because they were told its what everybody else is doing. Then again I guess that #2 point is the answer again. This is one of the reasons I never paid attention to music all throughout middle school and high school, the popularity always trumped the musical effort itself and I just tended to avoid any and all conversations about music for that reason. I listened to what I liked, I didn't buy based on the artist or any industry push, but on my enjoyment of the song, and I stayed out of the loop. Still do.
Also the words are hysterical and unusual, but the tune is actually the key to a song for me. Tune and Beat are most important and they are only augmented by the lyrics. A song with a good tune will always be popular with me and even more so with good lyrics, but a song with good lyrics and an awful tune will never be a favourite. I think this song lands somewhere in the middle, funny lyrics and decent tune, but not playlist material. A lot of J-Pop falters in this regard be it both a crappy tune/beat and cliche lyrics or an alright tune/beat and crappy lyrics. Lucky Star is a probably but one step above in each category in my view.
Oh and popularity pushs have always been a huge huge turnoff for me. Having the same product advertised to me constantly from all directions is one of my pet peeves, so I tend to come on a little strong when one of these types of campaigns emerges. I just don't like that style of aggresive advertising at all. Sometimes I also wonder if those Lightspeed Brief ads from Futurama that advertise to you in your dreams are even a decade away let alone a millenium. That last sentence was a joke by the way (I hope).