History
2005–2006: Creation and independent releases
In July 2005, Yasushi Akimoto held an audition for a new theater-based idol girl group.[1] Of the 7,924 girls that applied, 24 girls were chosen to become members of the group.[1] On December 8, the group debuted in the AKB48 theater with 20 members, who were named Team A.[2]
Auditions for the next team were announced in cooperation with telecommunications company NTT DoCoMo.[citation needed] This was the first audition where applicants had to send in their audition videos with their mobile phones.[citation needed] Out of the 11,892 applicants, 19 were chosen, and 18 eventually joined AKB48 to form Team K in April 2006.[3]
In January 2006, Akimoto invited Mariko Shinoda to join the group without a regular audition, after she won a popularity vote by AKB48 visitors.[4][failed verification] She was working as a waitress at the AKB48 Cafe after she missed the group's first audition.[5]
AKB48 released its debut single "Sakura no Hanabiratachi" in February 2006. This single entered the TOP10 Oricon weekly charts and sold 22,011 units in its first week, a rarity for a group on an indie label.[6] On March 1, AKB48 released its first photo book Micchaku! "AKB48" ~Shashinshuu Vol.1 the DEBUT.[citation needed] On March 31, Yuki Usami became the first member to "graduate" from the group.[citation needed]
On June 7, the group released its second single, "Skirt, Hirari".[7] Two days later, the group performed on television for the first time.[3] Ayako Uemura graduated from the group on June 17.[3][importance?] In August 2006, AKB48 signed a major label contract with DefStar Records, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment.[8]
2006–2008: Major debut and the DefStar Records period
AKB48's first single under DefStar Records, "Aitakatta", was released on October 25, 2006. The title single was recorded with 20 members selected from Team A and Team K.[9] It debuted at number 12 on the Oricon weekly single charts.[10] In the first six weeks of its release, "Aitakatta" sold a total of 25,544 copies.[10]
In October, AKB48 announced auditions for the formation of Team B;[11] 13 girls were added in December 2006.[12] On November 3 and 4, AKB48 held concerts titled "AKB48 First Concert: Aitakatta ~Hashira wa Nai ze!~" at Nippon Seinenkan in Shinjuku.[3] December 2006, AKB48 made its first ever lineup change: Kazumi Urano, Shiho Watanabe and Natsumi Hirajima were transferred from Team A to Team B as supporting members.[3] Ayumi Orii graduated from the group shortly after this, though she appeared in the unit Crayon Friends from AKB48 after her graduation. [citation needed][importance?]
AKB48's second major single "Seifuku ga Jama wo Suru" was released on January 31, 2007.[13] It debuted at number seven on the Oricon TOP10 charts.[13] Its music video and lyrics have hinted at the subject of enjo kōsai (compensated dating).[14]
On March 2, AKB48 released a second photo book AKB48 JUMP&CRY.[15] AKB48's next single, "Keibetsu Shiteita Aijō", was released on March 18.[16] Its title song revolves around the theme of school bullying and suicides.[citation needed] "Keibetsu Shiteita Aijō" reached number eight on the Oricon TOP10 charts.[16] AKB48's second concert tour, titled "AKB48 Haru no Chotto dake Zenkoku Tour ~Madamada daze AKB48!~", began on March 10.[17]
In April, the AKB48 official website added information about Team B, albeit with five fewer members than its original announcement.[3] The group's member count stood at 48 - the first time it had reflected its name. Members Yū Imai, Michiru Hoshino, and Ayana Takada graduated in June 2007.[citation needed][importance?] The group's next single, "Bingo!", was released on July 18.[18] In October and November respectively, Shiho Watanabe and Kayano Masuyama graduated.[citation needed][importance?] On December 31, AKB48 appeared on the 58th Kōhaku Uta Gassen television program for the first time as part of the Akihabara performance segment.[3] With 43 members, the group set the record for the largest number of people in a single group to be on stage at one time for the program.[3]
On New Year's Day of 2008, AKB48 released its first studio album, titled Set List: Greatest Songs 2006–2007.[citation needed] Its seventh major (ninth overall) single "Romance, Irane" was released on January 23.[19] It reached number six on the Oricon TOP10 charts.[20]
On February 27, AKB48 released its tenth overall single, "Sakura no Hanabiratachi 2008", a rendition of its debut indie single when there was only Team A in AKB48. The tenth single features ten members from Team A, six members from Team K and five members from Team B.[21] A promotion was planned where people who had collected the 44 kinds of posters of the single CD would be invited to a special event, but this act was a suspected violation of the antitrust law, and it was eventually cancelled by DefStar Records.[22]
2008–2009: Switch to King Records and the first Oricon number-one hit
In August 2008, AKB48 changed record labels from DefStar Records to King Records.[citation needed] In the same month, Ayaka Kikuchi became the first member to be fired from the group.[why?][23][note 1]
On October 22, the single "Ōgoe Diamond" was released under King Records' You Be Cool label.[24] It debuted at number three on the Oricon TOP10 weekly charts.[25]
AKB48 released its 11th major single, "10nen Sakura", on March 4, 2009. The single also reached number three on the Oricon charts in the first week and eventually became the group's first single to sell over 100,000 copies.[26] The group's 12th major single, "Namida Surprise!", was released on June 24; it included a handshaking event ticket and a ballot for selecting a member that would headline its next single.[27] "Namida Surprise!" sold 104,180 copies in its initial week on the Oricon charts.[citation needed] The 13th single, "Iiwake Maybe", released on August 26,[28] outsold SMAP's single, to reach number one on the Oricon Daily Singles Chart;[29] it reached number two on the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart.[30]
AKB48's Team A was a guest of honor for the Japan Expo in Paris, held from July 2–5,[31] Team A performed an English version of "Ōgoe Diamond" for the first time.[citation needed] AKB48 made its United States debut with a concert at Webster Hall in New York City on September 27.[32]
In October, three AKB48 singles, "10nen Sakura", "Namida Surprise!" and "Iiwake Maybe", were certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan.[33] Its 14th single, "River", released on October 21,[34] became the group's first number-one and first debut number-one hit on the Oricon TOP10 weekly charts.[34]
2010: Five number-one singles
AKB48 released their 15th major single, "Sakura no Shiori", on February 17, 2010. In its first week, the single topped the Oricon chart with over 300,000 copies sold, the most of any Japanese female artist in the past seven years.[35] Their 16th single, "Ponytail to Shushu", released on May 26 , exceeded the previous single in sales with over 400,000 copies sold the first day, and over 513,000 copies in its first week.[36] On April 27, Anime Expo, the largest anime convention in the United States, announced AKB48 as an official guest of honor. The group performed there on July 1 at the Nokia Theatre.[37]
On October 23, AKB48 represented Japan at the 7th Asia Song Festival, organized by Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange, at the Seoul Olympic Stadium.[38] On October 27, AKB48's released its 18th single "Beginner". In its first week, the single sold 826,989 copies, which made it the highest first week sales for a female idol group single.[39] AKB48 member Mayu Watanabe was also announced to be on the cover of the December issue of the idol magazine UP to boy with Airi Suzuki from the Japanese girl group Cute. That was the first gravure collaboration between Hello! Project and AKB48.[40]
In November, AKB48 participated in several events outside Japan. On November 20, AKB48 sent 12 members to perform at the Japanese Pop Culture Festival in Moscow.[41] AKB48 performed at the Cool Japan forum in Singapore as part of Anime Festival Asia X, and also at the Singapore Toy Games & Comics Convention.[42][43]
The AKB48 graduates in 2010 included Erena Ono, who graduated on September 27 to pursue acting overseas.[44][45]
2011: Another five number ones and overseas expansion
AKB48's first single of 2011, "Sakura no Ki ni Narō", was released on February 16. It sold 655,000 copies on its first day, beating the group's previous top record (568,000 copies of "Beginner").[46] By the end of its first week, the single sold 942,479 copies, the group's personal best, as well as the most in Japan in the past 11 years.[47]
On February 21, AKB48 announced its third studio album, Koko ni Ita Koto (ここにいたこと), which would contain 11 new unreleased tracks. It was scheduled for release on April 6.[48]
Due to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, AKB48 halted performances at the AKB48 Theater and cancelled some of its public events.[note 2] The group worked on the "Dareka no Tame ni" (誰かのために, lit. "For someone's sake") project, and gathered donations for earthquake and tsunami relief. One of the group's concert venues Yokohama Arena was used for a 2-day charity event starting March 26. 12 AKB48 members attended the Okinawa International Movie Festival on the same day for the same purpose. On March 15, AKB48 announced that ¥500 million would be donated by the members of the group and its sister groups SKE48, SDN48 and NMB48, along with others associated with their managing company AKS.[49] The release date of the Koko ni Ita Koto album was pushed back to June 8, but that part of the proceeds of the album would be donated to the disaster victims.[50] On April 1, the group released the charity single "Dareka no Tame ni (What can I do for someone?)" (誰かのために -What can I do for someone?-) through the Recochoku website as a digital download, with all profits donated for earthquake and tsunami relief.[51]
On May 1, AKB48 announced a new sister group HKT48, based in Fukuoka in Kyushu; its theater would be established in the Hawks Town Mall of Fukuoka’s Chuo ward.[52]
On May 3, The Straits Times reported the opening of AKB48's first overseas theater in Singapore.[53] The theater is based in *scape Youth Park, where 16 members from AKB48 and its sister groups would perform there two days a month with two concerts per day.[53] The venue includes an adjacent AKB48 Official Shop for merchandise and the world's first AKB48 Cafe which serves Japanese fusion food and dessert.[53]
AKB48 released its 21st major single, Everyday, Kachūsha, on May 25. As an "election single", it contained ballots for determining who would headline the next single.[50][54] Its release shattered the first day sales record in Japan, with 942,475 copies,[54] and the first week sales record in Japan, with 1,333,969 copies.[55] On June 22, Oricon reported that for the first half of 2011, AKB48 topped the album sales rankings and had the best and second-best selling singles ("Everyday, Kachūsha" and "Sakura no Ki ni Narō"). The group had also garnered ¥6.66 billion in total merchandise sales.[56]
On June 7, AKB48 announced the creation of "Team 4" ahead of its nationwide concert tour.[57] The team was built up to 16 members.[57] The new team would be captained by Mina Ōba.[58] AKB48 also dropped "Team" from "Team Kenkyuusei" for the alternates in the group. On June 11, AKB48 announced at a handshake event that Aimi Eguchi, a girl who had supposedly auditioned for NMB48, would be joining AKB48 as a trainee. It was later revealed that Eguchi was not a real person, but a composite of AKB48 members' facial features that was created to promote the Glico product Ice no Mi.[59] On June 28, AKB48's producer Yasushi Akimoto announced plans to create a group to become AKB48's "official rival". The group would be called Nogizaka46 (乃木坂46) and debut with approximately 20 members. Akimoto teamed up with Sony Music Japan to produce the new group.[60]
AKB48 released its 22nd single, "Flying Get" (フライングゲット, Furaingugetto), on August 24.[61] It sold 1,025,952 copies on its first day,[62] and became its fourth single to sell over a million in its first week, with 1.354 million copies.[61] On September 20, AKB48 held its second rock-paper-scissors tournament to determine the lineup for its 24th major single.[63][64] AKB48 released its 23rd major single (25th overall), "Kaze wa Fuiteiru" on October 26, which sold 1,045,937 copies on its first day.[65] The next single, "Ue kara Mariko", released on December 7, sold 1.199 million in its first week.[66]
For the year end, AKB48 topped seven of 16 Oricon rankings.[67] The rankings include: Total sales by an artist, Copies sold for a single, Total sales for a single, Total sales by an artist (for singles), Copies sold for a music Blu-ray disc, Total sales for a music Blu-ray disc and Total sales by an artist (for Blu-rays discs).[67] The group broke the all-time records for the most singles selling over one million copies in a year, the best-selling single by a female group and the highest-earning female group.[67] AKB48 won the 53rd Japan Record Award for its song "Flying Get".[68]
2012: Atsuko Maeda's graduation, Team reshuffling and transfers
On January 6, 2012, Oricon announced that AKB48 had sold 11,787,000 units of its CD singles, which surpassed girl group Morning Musume's record of 11,774,000, and which set a new record for most singles sold in Japan by a female group.[69]
On January 22, the final day of its "AKB48 Request Hour Set List Best 100 2012" concert event at Tokyo Dome City Hall, AKB48 performed a new song, "Give Me Five!" where members had formed a band "Baby Blossom" with guitars, keyboards, drums, even percussion and horns.[67][70] The participants in Baby Blossom had spent the past five months learning to play instruments, some members had little to no previous experience.[67][70] "Give Me Five!" was released on February 15.[67]
An anime television series titled AKB0048 was developed by Satelight.[71] It was directed by Yoshimasa Hiraike; AKB48 producer Akimoto provided planning and supervision input.[71] Nine members from AKB48 and its sister groups were selected to voice the main characters and to sing its opening and closing theme songs[72][73] as the subunit "No Name".[74]
Following scandals where they were photographed with their boyfriends, Natsumi Hirajima and Rumi Yonezawa resigned from AKB48.[75] In replacing Hirajima and Yonezawa, Jurina Matsui of SKE48 and Miyuki Watanabe of NMB48 joined AKB48 as concurrent members.[75][76] On March 24, AKB48 announced that five trainees would be promoted to Team 4 to bring the team's member count to 16.[76] In the same announcement, it was revealed that AKB48 would perform at the prestigious Tokyo Dome stadium, which was one of the group's main goals since its founding.[75][77]
On March 25, long-time headliner Atsuko Maeda announced she would be graduating from the group.[78] This caused a large buzz in the Japanese news, and spawned a rumor (later proven false) that a student from University of Tokyo had committed suicide over the announcement.[79] AKB48 later announced that Maeda would graduate after the Tokyo Dome concerts;[71] her final performance and graduation ceremony took place in the AKB48 theatre on August 27;[80] the event was streamed live on YouTube.[81]
On March 26, AKB48 announced it would be holding an election to determine the lineup for its 27th major single, "Gingham Check". The field of candidates consisted of 243 members from AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, and HKT48,[82] and the ballots were available in the group's 26th single, "Manatsu no Sounds Good!"[83] The elections were held on June 6 at Nippon Budokan and results were broadcast live on TV for the first time.[84] Yuko Oshima came first, followed by Mayu Watanabe and Yuki Kashiwagi.[83]
On April 23, AKB48 announced the creation of its third overseas sister group, SNH48, based in Shanghai.[85]
On June 17, AKB48 announced that Rino Sashihara would be transferred to HKT48 in July as a "restart" because of an alleged scandal that involved her ex-boyfriend.[86] On June 24, AKB48 announced the promotion of its six trainees from the 10th and 11th generation,[87] and that its third rock-paper-scissors tournament would take place on September 18 to determine which members would take part in its 29th single, "Eien Pressure".[87]
On August 15, the group released its fourth album titled 1830m. On August 24, the first day of its Tokyo Dome concert series, AKB48 announced a reorganization of its teams. Team 4 was dissolved and its members were transferred to the other three teams; Aika Ōta was transferred to HKT48; Aki Takajō and Haruka Nakagawa to Jakarta based JKT48; and Sae Miyazawa and Mariya Suzuki to SNH48.[importance?] Minami Takahashi became the general manager of AKB48, while Mariko Shinoda replaced her as captain of Team A. Yuko Oshima became the captain of Team K, and Ayaka Umeda became Team B's captain.[88][89]
AKB48 recorded the track "Sugar Rush" for the 2012 Disney animated movie Wreck-It Ralph.[90] AKB48 was awarded the Guinness World Record for the most number of pop singers featured in a video game for their dating simulation game AKB1/149 Renai Sousenkyo.[91] AKB48 won the Japan Record Award for the second year in a row for its song "Manatsu no Sounds Good!".
2013
On January 26, on the third day of the "AKB48 Request Hour Set List Best 100 2013" concert in Tokyo Dome City Hall, AKB48 announced that it and its sister groups would perform a series of live concerts titled "AKB48 Fair" at the Nippon Budokan in late April.[92] The following day, AKB48 announced an "AKB48 Super Festival" event to be held at the Nissan Stadium in June, which would made them the first female artist to hold a solo live concert there.[93]
On February 1, AKB48 released the film Documentary of AKB48: No Flower Without Rain: Shōjo Tachi wa Namida no Ato ni Nani o Miru?.[importance?] During a stage-greeting event for the film, first-generation member Tomomi Itano announced her intention to graduate.[94]
On April 28, following a concert at Nippon Budokan, the AKB48 general manager announced another round of team shuffles, including girls who were added or dropped as concurrent members with its sister groups.[95] Also, Nito Moeno and Tomomi Kasai had their last concert stages with the group.[failed verification]
On May 22, AKB48 released its 31st single "Sayonara Crawl" as an election single.[96] and more than 1.9 million copies were sold in a month.[97] It also broke the record of highest female group single sales previously held by SPEED's White Love in 1997.[98] The election field consisted of 246 girls from AKB48, its sister groups, and six graduated members.[99] On June 8, the results were broadcast on Fuji TV and streamed live on YouTube; the latter broadcast included both Japanese and English commentators.[100][101] The winner was HKT48 member Rino Sashihara, who was formerly with AKB48.[99] During the event, Team A captain Mariko Shinoda, who placed fifth, announced her intention to graduate in July.[102]
On June 23, AKB48 announced a rock-paper-scissors tournament to determine the lineup for its 34th single. The event is scheduled for September 18 at the Nippon Budokan arena.[103]
Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).