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The story
A thread about Hello! Project raised the question of why its groups don’t use outside composers more often. Commenters pointed out that songwriting is dominated by Tsunku♂, Hoshibe Takui, and other writers tied to the management company Up-Front, and that bringing in outside composers offers little financial upside given how JASRAC royalties are structured. Opinions split between those who argued that favoring in-house talent narrows the range of the music, and those who countered that there simply aren’t many composers capable of writing hits in the first place.
What people said
For some reason it's only Morning Musume and BEYOOOOONDS that stick to Up-Front insiders
Aoi, Hyadain, SHOCK EYE — those are all outside composers
They wouldn't be able to sing it lol
Up-Front isn't even trying to make money off Juice=Juice, so they're probably fine with Hello! Project not being profitable
Even setting aside Aoi Yamazaki, the only person in Hello! Project history who could write a real hit was old-school Tsunku
It's a dead end
Isn't that composer new to Hello! Project?
Some kind of SHOCK EYE knockoff?
If it goes well, maybe they'll bring them to the current members too
How long is that group even supposed to keep going?
That's exactly it — Hello! Project has fallen off compared to the old days because the head chefs, Tsunku and co., are cooking bad food now
Misaki Base, who's written a few songs for Rosy, feels like a genuinely good pick for once
Didn't get it at the time, but looking back, having n-buna write for them is actually pretty amazing
Sales come down to how motivated the people inside the 'village' are
Making outsiders think 'that village isn't so bad' matters in the long run (村 = "the village," slang for the closed insider circle)
Since the 6th generation it's been nothing but crap songs, so right now it's not selling
That's just an excuse from someone who only looks inside the village
Plenty of songwriters are blowing up lately in the idol scene — Tamaya, Yamamoto Sho, Medansy, and more
'Crap song' is just whatever you personally feel like calling it
Fair
Not selling is a plain fact, but is there even a great song in there?
all they can turn out is old-fashioned dango
so just hire someone who can actually make sweets
That's a pretty good analogy
As long as there are customers who want that, it's fine to keep going modestly for the long haul
If the dango-eating population shrinks, it's a slow bleed
Even in real life, young people drifting away from rice is a thing
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Hello! Project’s songs have long been written primarily by Tsunku♂, the franchise’s founder, along with Hoshibe Takui and other songwriters affiliated with or employed by the management company Up-Front. Because copyright royalties flow back to the songwriter even when a track is performed live, the more the company relies on in-house writers, the larger its own cut tends to be. The thread’s disagreement centered on whether this structural incentive, or simply the fact that few songwriters are capable of writing hits, is the real reason behind the stagnation. No objective data on the correlation between song quality and sales was presented in the thread, and how far efforts to bring in new songwriters like n-buna have actually gone remains unclear from this article alone.
※This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread “Why doesn’t Hello! Project rely on outside composers more?“
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