The H!P Musings/Rants Thread

[JonCC]

The original news announcement of ANGERME Oota Haruka's suspension on the H!P site's front page has been removed after been up for these past 3 months. No official word on her status yet, but her profile is still intact.

Yeah, I've seen people in various places online see this as some sort of 'sign'.

The thing is, the actual announcement is still very much live on the site: http://www.helloproject.com/news/11808/
And news posts on the main page do get replaced with more relevant info as time goes by.

Don't get me wrong. I'd love for her to come back, especially with the lockdown making it so she didn't really miss anything major.
But this wouldn't be the first time fans' hopes get crushed.
I do have my proverbial fingers crossed.

[koregaboku]

So, I've thought this for awhile (and I've probably expressed it before) but KOKORO&KARADA continues a streak, for me, of completely unmemorable songs by MM.

To be fair, Ningen Kankei and Lovepedia remedied it to some extent but I actually can't remember the last MM song where I remember a portion of the melody.

Maybe Brand New Morning? And that's a big maybe and that was 13 gens debut single?

I'm not saying MM songs can't be ~creative~ or ~artistic~ but I do think they should be memorable/catchy.

Other super random thoughts-
Ai-chan's grad was very retrospective (ie 5th gen reunion)
I wonder why Chii-chan stopped getting pushed
Conversely, why is Yokoyama pushed so much?
I still stan Kaga.
15th gen is cute.
Masa looks less bored recently.
Have we gotten generational songs past 10th gen?
When will Ooki Hitomi be revived? There's no way it's dead forever.

[Zunu]

^ What songs do you find memorable? For me I would say the most memorable song in the past few years has been Jealousy, Jealousy but it was also their lowest selling single for the past few years, so maybe my tastes don't amount to much.

[Shoujo Q]

^^I say Chii-chan isn't being pushed right now due to her vocal issues and the fact that newbies are here overshadowing her. H!P gave her a push with the last single before the 15th gen came but with all that was going on with her, it sort of flopped backwards.

^^15th gen should totally cover Ooki Hitomi once they've become more stable singers. They would kill it, in a good way.

^Jealousy Jealousy has really grown on me as a song. I find I like it more now than BRAND NEW MORNING.

I've come to really dislike KOKORO&KARADA as a song to the point I actively skip it. I'm sure I'll eventually like it again one day. It happened for As For One Day. I once hated that song, now I appreciate it.

Overall, it's interesting what songs have held the test of time for me as a decades long H!P/Morning Musume fan compared to when they songs first came out. Songs I once loved have gone by the wayside while songs I first thought her okay, are now regularly showing up on my list. I should sit down and do one of those little rankings to see where my loyalties lie when it comes to H!P songs overall.

I can still remember the first few songs I heard. Picture it, 2002 and by golly it was a good year to be a H!P fan.
I was attached to one of those AOL E-mail mailing lists and the person in charge was a big H!P fan. So I got to listen to the 2002 summer shuffles, Matsuura Aya's The Bigaku, Fujimoto Miki's Romantic Ukare Mode, and Morning Musume's Koko ni Iruzee! to name a few. With a list like that I was hooked. Morning Musume was the group that finally won me over. And by the end of 2002 I was a fan.

Of that list, Romantic Ukare Mode and Koko ni Iruzee! are the only two songs that really remind me of that time in my life.

[Zunu]

"Sou da we're alive" was what really drew me into Morning Musume. That and "Otome Pasta ni Kandou" I used to obsessively watch those grainy little realvideos over and over again. Now that I think about it it's been a while since I've played those songs, and now I'm feeling nostalgic. I didn't like "As For One Day" when it first came out but I got into it after a few listens. It's usually like that for me with MM songs, rarely do they jump out right away, it takes some time to really enjoy them.

I totally agree with koregaboku regarding the point that UF should strive to make MM songs more immediately catchy. The kind of music that, as soon as you hear that opening bar you're like, there's my song! (Jealousy Jealousy hits me that way when I hear those horns, but even that took me a while to get into.)

But anyway for me K&K/Lovepedia/NKNWW are fine. They're not on my all time favorite list but I don't skip 'em when they show up on the playlist either.

[koregaboku]

^ What songs do you find memorable? For me I would say the most memorable song in the past few years has been Jealousy, Jealousy but it was also their lowest selling single for the past few years, so maybe my tastes don't amount to much.

I definitely think Jealousy Jealousy is a cool song, I just can't think of the melody off the top of my head. The only song I can somewhat-instantly do it for right now is Brand New Morning.

Of H!P in general, the current/most recent earworm is almost certainly J=J/Hitori de.

Credit where credit is due, Beyo(oooo?)nds also seems to get getting fun songs but I've never been really into shtick so Ive passively listened to their songs a few times but not enough to remember a melody. I know I thought the Vitamin C song was cute though.

Outside of that, I'd say Tsubaki far and away seem to getting the most high quality, dare-I-say C-ute level songs. This past single was a little lackluster but Sankai me was a banger and Fuwari Koi Dokei has an intangible it-factor that it shares with Teion Yakedo.

I'm also working right now but the network is down (shrugs) but please remind me to get on my soapbox later to wax poetic about Tsubaki. They're freaking stacked. Easily five girls could be center and the other four aren't nothing either.


*Also I generally pay attention to singles but I have to say I Surrender is a fun song. It's super odd that it wasn't considered for a single.

[resop2]

...
It really makes you wonder what they're doing in the privacy of their dressing rooms.

Well, IIRC we do know what Meimi and Airi used to do ...

[erilaz]

"Sou da we're alive" was what really drew me into Morning Musume.

That was the first H!P song I ever heard, when MM｡ performed it on HEY! HEY! HEY! MUSIC CHAMP, which I had just started watching Sunday nights on Channel 26 in San Francisco. I remember being very amused by the word "THE" stuck in the middle of the Japanese lyrics (THE 人間 そう そう THE 人間).

To be fair, Ningen Kankei and Lovepedia remedied it to some extent but I actually can't remember the last MM song where I remember a portion of the melody.

Maybe Brand New Morning? And that's a big maybe and that was 13 gens debut single?

BRAND NEW MORNING is (for me) the most memorable MM｡ song since TIKI BUN.

[koregaboku]

Oh wow. That's a while. Personally, I would say the first few post-Sayu singles were really good (especially Tsumetai Kaze to Kataomoi).

Personally, I peg the "boring" singles to post-Brand New Morning/Jealousy Jealousy.

[Celedam]

My opinion is mostly the same as it was six months ago, when you last mentioned this…

viewtopic.php?p=249012#p249012

We've had only one single since then, so there's not much room or reason to change my opinion.

From that single, I did like "LOVEpedia", but that might be simply because I like the 15th Gen.