Heavy Rotation (ヘビーローテーション) is a song by Japanese female idol group AKB48 released & written by Yasushi Akimoto and composed by Hiroshi Yamazaki. On August 18, 2010, it was released by King Records as the 17th major single of AKB48
Background
The title of the song originally means a song that is often hung on the radio, but in the lyrics of this song, it is used as a word to express the feeling of thinking about your lover for twenty-four hours. The tagline is “When you can do a favorite person, in your head, you will always have a heavy rotation!”
The title is sometimes abbreviated as “Hebirote” (the pronunciation of heavy rotation in japanese) According to nihongomaster.com a online school to learn Japanese: “heavy rotation; frequently broadcasting or listening to the same music; frequently wearing the same outfit.”
Ahead of the release of the song, AKB48 17th Singles Selection General Election , a voting event was held in which fans selected members who sang songs from all members of AKB48 (excluding the 10th research students) and their sister group, SKE48. Members who entered the top 21st place in this event were selected as selected members of the song, and members up to 12th place became the front members as “media selection”.
Info About the Video
Mika Ninagawa is in charge of producing the jacket photo and directing the music video for the song. Ninagawa has been an old fan who has been frequenting the AKB48 Theater since the summer of 2006, before AKB48 made his major debut, and his desire to work on related works has been “violently” for a long time, so his long-held desire for this work came true.
Since then, he has been working on the cover of a member’s magazine. The video is a studio-only shot without an outdoor location shooting since “Romance, Irane” as a single title song. In the video and in the jacket photo, the members are wearing underwear (lingerie) instead of swimsuits. Ninagawa was from a high school girl, and he was dressed in this dress in this dress, remembering the time when he was in the changing room when there was no man.
In addition to the style of Napoleon jacket and colorful skirts in the dance scene where all the selected costumes are shown, there are three patterns, such as lingerie in the bedroom for members up to 10th place, and styling of Nekomimi around the table. The costume design of the Napoleon jacket was co-written by Ninagawa and stylist Takuto Satoyama.
Criticism
As mentioned above, the music video for this song includes a cut in underwear, so it was reported in a critical tone from overseas media. CNN conducted an exclusive interview with producer Yasushi Akimoto on the show Talk Asia. Anna Koren, a reporter, said, “There are voices in Japanese society that there are many sexual exploitation of young girls today. The music video you’ve worked on also shows girls dressed in uniforms, bikinis, and sexy underwear licking each other’s faces, kissing, and taking a bath. Do you think you are involved in this problem?” He asked Akimoto a question, and Akimoto immediately denied his involvement, saying, “I don’t think so.”
Akimoto said, “It’s the same as art or love art,” and expressed the view that “I think it’s an individual decision to feel how to do it” and emphasized that Akimoto himself recognizes it as art. The program was also broadcast on CNNj, a Japanese CS broadcaster, on the night of January 13, 2012
