For all their popularity, I'm surprised no one has started a thread on Morning Musume (MM). Maybe not many YUI lovers like them, I guess (though it's 2nd on Riyu's poll right now).

Before coming to Tokyo, never really heard about them. :unsure: Heard about Hello Project! but just passing knowledge only. Coming here, was surprised to see this group with so many members. Was curious why MM is so popular, with photos everywhere and loads of merchandise for sale, even solo photobooks for the individual members. When I listened to their songs, was even more surprised. Their songs are not really that good, though a few are quite catchy (SEXY BOY, The Peace, Ambitious, Do It Now! are just some that I find ok).

Hmm, with all the negatives above, why then do I like MM? :rolleyes: I like MM for their members and individual characters, which can be quirky & funny. It's all because of YouTube really. Been watching all the videos on them, which include the MVs and Hello Morning! shows. On some parts, I just couldn't stop laughing! When you watch a bunch of cute girls just acting silly and having a good time, you can't help smiling really :biggrin

One factor has been crucial to their success - the commercial genius of Tsunku the producer and owner of Hello Project! (which compensates for his ability to compose good songs!), who utilises well the power of media.

Which girl is my favourite, do you ask? ;) well, cute wise, i have to say Sayumi & Koharu are the most kawaii. All the girls have their own charm, even the tomboyish Yossie! But my absolute favourites would have to be Risa Niigaki & the now graduated Rika Ishikawa. These two are probably the funniest of the MM members, and I just love it when they smile! I highly recommend you all to watch their videos on YouTube :lol:

Guess, I love MM as performers rather than singers.
Morning Musume, you either love them or hate them.
I friggin' love them! :wub:

I think thats the only way to enjoy them! Im not that big of a fan of theyre music but its true that all the videos you see on youtube are very entertaining. I like them as performers too :D Since there are sooo many of them after all... i saw a PV just at first in one frame the whole group couldnt fit on screen :lol: they need the camera to move to capture them all... with that many members in their group is it like a few lines for each member to sing in each song? lol ya so in order to enjoy them as much as you can you really need to see them as performers than artists huh?

For_the_Ears: heh heh, know what you mean. the song writers & the choreographers must be having a nightmare deciding where & when each member sings/dance (though they are spending their days with a bunch of cute girls! lucky ppl!) :P


i know i said i think Sayu-chan & Koharu-chan were the cutest, and Gaki-chan & Rika-chan (graduated, not in pic) are my favs, but Ai-chan & especially Mikki-chan are starting to look pretty attractive! :wub: man, i can't decide!

you all gotta see this clip. simply hilarious! :wakaka
Morning Musume - Hello! Morning English Class

i am a big morning musume and h!p fan. my favorite h!p member is rika ishikawa <3. when i was in tokyo i caught 3 concerts they were awesome. firefly most of their good songs aren't the ones they release as singles you need to find some albums that have the coupling songs from the singles they have a lot of really good songs. i recommend listening to "koi ing" it's a nice slow song but it shows their talent. A lot of their old stuff is good also like when they first started. But i'm a fan boy so anything h!p appeals to me :blush hehe glad to see some morning musume and h!p fans on this board.

I listen to some Morning Musume in the year of 2000
My favourite song of them is Morning Musume - Love Machine

At that time I also listen to MISIA - sweetness, First Love - Utada Hikaru, Koyanagi Yuki - Aijou ( not this song but...), Shiina Ringo - Honnou

yeah, maybe i was a bit harsh about their singing. since my last post, been hearing to more of their songs, and i have to say, there's quite a few that i really like. at first, i thought THE PEACE & LOVE MACHINE sounded kinda weird but after hearing more of the songs, love them now!

my current favourite song - Go Girl - Koi no Victory! :thumbsup:
Morning Musume - Go Girl - Koi No Victory!

Tezuka0: how did u manage to get tickets to watch MM in concert? was it through the many "2nd hand" ticket shops in tokyo? do tell me about the experience! (good seating?, etc)

Morning Musume..
how many personel they have??
i have heard things about them but never listened to their song...is it good?
what's the genre?? i mean..similarity to whose songs?

MM currently have 10 members, as per below:

Mako-chan & Konkon (the middle two in the back row) will "graduating" (i.e leave the group) end of August and July 2006 respectively, to further their studies. So, it'll be down to 8, though i don't think so for long. There'll probably be an announcement for another audition soon ;)

In their history, MM has had a total of 22 different members since their formation in 1997. At one time, the most members they've had is 16, which the producer, Tsunku, has confirmed will be the max at one time.

There's a cool video on YouTube which shows 19 members (10 current & 9 graduated) performing "Love Machine", arguably their most famous song.
Morning Musume - Love Machine (Live with 19 members)

Their songs, I guess, are mostly upbeat pop songs, some sounding a bit disco-like. They have a few slow songs, which some fans believe are their best/favourites.

There's a good Wiki on MM in Wikipedia.
Morning Musume - Wikipedia entry

There are loads of videos on MM in YouTube. Have a look and you'll know why a lot of us are MM fans :)

I had this whole show, it is this year Red vs white singing battle.

Well i like their song ''My Dear Boy'' and ''Get Up Rapper''.And i like Morning Museme's 2001 batch




i like the girl with the cross on the neck and the girl with a black wristband :lol: :lol: .

oh my god, i think i just had my first "culture shock" since arriving in Tokyo in April. i'm pretty open-minded with a lot of things but nothing prepared me for what happened today!

it wasn't even planned actually. it suddenly popped in my head this morning - wonder if Morning Musume have any concerts this summer, at least a graduation concert for Konkon? checked the internet and surprisingly found out that they had one tonight in Tokyo (6pm at National Yoyogi Stadium 1st Gymnasium), though it was really a Hello!Project concert, thus involving other groups as well, such as v-u-den, Berryz Kobou & Cute. Didn't know whether there were tickets left, but thought I'd give it a try. Luckily I got a ticket at the stadium counter.

What surprised me at first was the crowd outside. So many guys and not young ones, mind you! They had their idol collection & merchandise all spread out on the compound in front of the stadium. Some wore t-shirts of their fav member.

If I thought outside was surprising, inside at the concert was even more surprising. The audience (which consisted mostly of these relatively older guys, compared to the H!P girls, who were mostly below 20 yrs old) were really following the H!P girls dance steps and were chanting in unison. I just couldn't believe it! A lot of them were even REALLY into it, dancing and waving their hands like crazy!

To be honest, I had mixed feelings. On one hand, I felt impressed by how much of a fan these ppl are, knowing the dance steps, songs & collecting these stuff. But on the other hand, did feel kinda ... icky! There's no harm in being a fan of these H!P girls, even if you are older than them. But at these guys age, they should be going to the concert with their wives or children! And they did look kinda nerdy/otaku. The guys that looked normal, mostly were there with their girlfriends or didn't dance/chant like crazy. It's a shame that due to these "nerdy" guys, a lot of ppl are embarrassed to claim that they're MM or H!P fans.

On the H!P girls performance, I have to say I'm very impressed. A lot of ppl give these girls a lot of slack, saying they're just made of gimmicks and don't sing well. My opinion is that their songs are not too bad, and actually very catchy, even the ones from the H!P kids (Berryz & Cute). And for them to remember and perform so many dance steps, my hats off to them :thumbsup: All in all, for my first concert in Japan, even with the "culture shock", I thoroughly enjoyed it :)

Cameras are not allowed into the concert arena. So didn't take any pics. Did take pics of the merchandise I bought. Didn't want to buy much though (these stuff are over-priced, man!), but since it's my first H!P concert, bought a few. Maybe next time, I'll just buy the pass holder/lanyard.


- MM t-shirt (back), specifically for the concert
- Visual book & special DVD
- Pack of photos of the MM members (came with the tee)


- Same MM t-shirt (front)
- MM Sweat band (came with the tee)
- Pass holder/lanyard, specifically for the concert
- Concert ticket (since I bought mine on the day, it's not the one with photos and all, but still, represents a priceless experience! :biggrin )

P/s:
- A lot of ppl were chanting & wearing Konkon & Mako-chan tees, coz this is their last concert before graduating. Aside from those two, surprisingly Reina was chanted the most. Guess among Japanese fans, she is the fav Musume member.
- Riyu October3: So u like Yossie (black armband) & Kaori (cross necklace)? Don't know much about Kaori, but Yossie, yes, from being the most tomboyish in the group, she's turning into quite the woman :biggrin

ahhh nice firefly!!! my bro and i actually got our tickets from the LOVX store in harajuku the prices are a little high but the seats are really good. we had row 7 for the hello pro party concert which was pretty awesome. haha yeah if you haven't seen the "wota" aka the morning musume otakus it can be quite shocking haha. did you happen to get into the whole chanting and jumping with the glow sticks?

oh, about the chanting & the glow stick waving, THAT i was impressed with. apparently, this happens in most concerts in Japan, whether it be rock or j-pop. japanese fans really do know the songs beforehand, and the glow stick waving is a pretty cool and unique sight.

as for this concert, i only knew a few songs, so only chanted where i knew. didn't buy a glow stick, so just clapped to the beats. all in all, great fun :D

if any of u were to come to japan, would thoroughly recommend that u try to catch a concert, whether it be MM or any other artist :thumbsup:

wow..too many personel...
must be a tough Groups..lolz..

some more recommendations you should listen to some melon kinenbi, miki fujimoto solo stuff, aya matsuura, some old school tanpopo and pucchimoni they all have some really good stuff. oh yeah you should listen to h!p all stars - all for one and one for all its a really good song and they way they sing it is cool they sing by their generations/solo/group and it's catchy like most h!p songs are :lol: so seems like konno graduated yesterday :huhuhu and tsunku is already talking about an 8th gen audition next month.

yeah, heard the "all for one and one for all" song during the H!P concert last Saturday. really cool song. just found out its on the Petit Puchi Best 5 CD (it's the 5th compilation of popular songs from various H!P groups), so will be looking to find it at Tsutaya.

Also knew about Mikitty's solo career, though I only know Boogie Train which she performed during the H!P concert. Vocal wise, she's prob the best in MM. Heck, even the MM members were surprised when Tsunku annouced she joined as a 6th generation member, when everyone knew she was really good as a solo artist.

For some strange reason, haven't quite clicked with Aya's songs yet. Maybe I haven't listened to her songs more. From visiting various H!P forums, I know Aya's considered the best vocalist in whole of H!P, but guess she hasn't appealed to me yet. Maybe I prefer more fun and outgoing personalities (like Rika-chan!).

Yeah, knew Sunday was Konkon's last concert. It's basically the same H!P concert as the one I went on the day before, but tickets for Sunday were sold out long before, since it is pretty much Konkon's graduation concert. Yeah, we're gonna miss her :huhuhu

Tezuka0, how did you know about 8th generation auditions? Where did Tsunku announce it? Is there a website?

http://www.sanspo.com/geino/top/gt200607/gt2006072402.html
I think it's just advertisments for the audition....i don't think it's next month sorry i was wrong on the information. check out some old aya matsuura stuff like yeah meccha holiday, 100kai no kiss, and ne~e also check out miki's romantic ukare mode...thats my favorite miki song

I just remember that Morning Musume was a model of a famous Japanese pretzel stick is that .I saw the comercial in my PC when my bro downloaded it.

Oh the Pocky commercials lol.

Anyways I'm not a fan of them, but this PV got me hooked:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ax_vp14cPCs

http://forum.jphip.com/
>> a forum dedicated to momusu

I luff momusu, My ipod vidoe is full of them XD It's not so popular in japan right now (went in june) My friend decied to tell them I like momusu whenever we met someone new, so I got some stares. Thought the latest Single is played on the radio and they know it, so hopefully I wont be so alone next time I go XD
I luff Risa and Kamei and Reina. Niigak looked like a dork in the begining but now she is amazing. Kamei looks better with her hair cut, and Reina has the coolest eyes XD. Yoshizawa has change alot since becomeing the leader, never really liked Miki or Takahashi, not really surte why, perhaps alot of the PV they became most of the focus, but not really thier fault. I'm trying to warm up to them. Sayumi as awsome, I luff her voice when she talks. I've become nicer to Koharu, she is getting better. But over all, I luff momosu. XD

Oh, crap, here's the real Momusu thread. XD

I really love Momusu, I think I've seen everything the current generation had to offer. Yossie is so cool as a leader, Mikitty is so sweet and everyone is making up YoMiki affairs. ^^" Maybe they're not as talented as YUI, Younha and such, but their cute personalities make up for it.

In 2003 they split up for some time into two groups:

Sakura Gumi:
http://wiki.theppn.org/images/8/82/Morning...kura_Gumi_1.jpg
http://wiki.theppn.org/images/a/ac/Morning...kura_Gumi_2.jpg

Otome Gumi:
http://wiki.theppn.org/images/d/d5/Morning...tome_Gumi_1.jpg
http://xf3.xanga.com/963b7306c7d3146726750/b31503352.jpg

I liked Sakura Gumi a lot, probably because my favorite members were in there. What about you guys? Sakura Gumi or Otome Gumi?