Does Rapsodi Matter?

by Angga · January 13, 2020

I really can’t hide how happy I am with the release of Rapsodi after 8 years of waiting and waiting and waiting without any remote possibility that it can be done. Those 8 years of waiting really drove some fans to the point of desperation that legend says, some of them even went on and opened a crowdfunding project to collect money to pay the higher-ups in Japan for an original song.

Whether the legend is true or not is open for debate, but those 8 grueling years is a fact that we can’t ever deny.

And you can imagine how ecstatic I was when I heard the song, which kinda late since apparently, the song has debuted on one of their past concert in December 2019. I did know that they will release an original song before tho’.

But does Rapsodi really matter? That is the question.

This opinion piece might sounds like a bunch of BS I spouted to milked on the (soon to be) released song. So please read it with a grain of salt.

Local Talents

The talents behind the creation of this song is 100% locals from what I know so far which sounds kinda vain, I know. But, these are the talents that knows how the local market works, what’s their taste in music, and the kind of lyrics that will resonate well with the general audience.

Don’t get me wrong, Aki-P is a good (maybe weird as well, yeah, but still good in a sense? You catch my drift?) lyricist, no one can deny it. Alas, their (read: the higher-ups decision) stiff approach to lyric translation made some of the words the girls spouted sounds like they’re calling for an evil apparition to the general audience.

I’ve been away from the scene for the past 4 years, so I don’t know if there are any changes in how they approach the translation

So by starting to open up to the possibility of employing local talents, the dream of having more reach to the local general audience is much more possible to attain now.

IF, and it’s a big if, the single sells well, it’s no longer a far reaching dream that one day, we’ll have our own original set as well.

If Rapsodi will become available to the other sister groups as well, I really do hope they’ll went with more of a localization approach rather than the stiff direct translation the JPN48 has been expecting so far from their overseas sister groups.

Overseas Sisters

This might just be me and my illusion of grandeur: The sales performance of Rapsodi might somehow affecting the other overseas sisters as well in one way or another.

If Rapsodi became a success, then there will be a much bigger possibility that the Japan higher-up will give more leeway to the other overseas sisters to do their own officially recognized original song(s) involving their own local talents.

Yes, we all know that BNK48 does has several sub-units with their own original songs and JKT48 Accoustic also has “Lantang”, but in my opinion, it’s more like a way to get around the really stiff restriction being put by the higher-ups (open for debate)

If you ask me, I don’t want BNK48, MNL48, DEL48, and many others overseas sister groups to have to wait for EIGHT years for just one freaking song.

I might be wrong putting BNK48 in the same shoes as us and this can be regarded as an illusion of grandeur on my part since BNK48 is much much more successful than we ever were. My deepest apologies if that’s the case.

If those other sister groups already have an original song, then the err will be mine alone for my lack of knowledge.

Fresh Air

I’ll make this simple: The girls deserves it. Both current and ex-members, they deserves it. It’s been a long, long, long, wait and morale is low, BUT, those long waits are now over.

So, let’s enjoy it to our heart’s content and yes, Rapsodi does matter, at least for me.

Rapsodi will be officially released January 22nd, 2020.

Angga

Just another lazy author for JKT48Stuff whom mainly working with translations and sometimes writing articles about JKT48 with an obvious grammar problem. Was living his life as a JKT48 DD until...

Tomo says:

January 13, 2020 at 9:31 pm

I am sorry I wrote a mess about the previous article. As you said, I love this song purely and thank all members and staff for their efforts. I didn’t know there was a gossip like that legend. The story is about crowdfunding. It would have been impossible to force a direct translation of the original lyrics. I learned very much. Please tell me a lot of local information in the future. I am looking forward to it.
- KageTora says:
  
  January 14, 2020 at 6:50 am
  
  Don’t worry about it too much, Tomo-san. I believe your intent is sincere and good. And I don’t see anyone think about it differently.
  
  As for me, I agree with Angga that the girls – JKT48, active members as well as ex-members – deserve it. But also all of us – JKT48 fans, either those who are still around or those who have left – deserve it. Few people truly know how much hardship we all have endured together since the beginning. Eight grueling years – as Angga described it in the previous article – is by no mean an exaggeration.
- Angga says:
  
  January 14, 2020 at 8:06 am
  
  Yep, as KageTora says. Don’t worry, you’re not creating a mess there, I’m glad that it created a meaningful discussion between fans