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Japanese Music (Pop, rock and all 'dat) |OT|

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faridmon

Member
The new Androp album '' One and Zeroe'' is heading my way, along with Dinosaur by Czecko no Republic and The two new single by Monica Uranglass which are titled INT/ACC ~intonation~ and INT/ACC ~accent~ because they were cheap. Should exciting in the next few weeks.
 
N

Nerdy Fergy

Neo Member
faridmon said:
The new Androp album '' One and Zeroe'' is heading my way, along with Dinosaur by Czecko no Republic and The two new single by Monica Uranglass which are titled INT/ACC ~intonation~ and INT/ACC ~accent~ because they were cheap. Should exciting in the next few weeks.
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I love "Dinosaur" by Czecho No Republic. Just wanted to pop in and say a quick thanks for pointing them out.
 
F

faridmon

Member
Nerdy Fergy said:
I love "Dinosaur" by Czecho No Republic. Just wanted to pop in and say a quick thanks for pointing them out.
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I have Maminka from them and its just.... Just...

DXIbO.gif


You are welcome by the way :)

And Also, if anyone is wondering why I want to get those singles of Monica Uranglass, it is because of this song: O/M/G Great song!
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
This new record allowed AKB48 to become the first female artist to sell a million copies for 10 consecutive singles, and this is the first time in 16 and a half years for any artist to achieve this since B’z accomplished this back in 1996.

Moreover, the group is now second all-time for the “total number of million-selling singles” after B’z whose record is 15 singles in total. They have also broken their own records for the “number of consecutive chart-topping singles” as well as the “total number of chart-topping singles” for a female group.
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http://www.tokyohive.com/2012/12/ak...ells-over-a-million-copies-in-the-first-week/

Second straight year that all 5 of their singles sold over a million. They should take down that B'z some time next year.
 
D

Dead

well not really...yet
LAMA's new album is so fuckin' good.

So much more focused than their first, like they finally settled on the direction they wanted to go. First album was a really eclectic mix of pop, rock and electronic that didn't always gel, but this new album definitely finds its comfort zone. More dream pop than j-pop, and far more focused as an overall electronica driven band.
 
I

Infinite

Member
Dead said:
LAMA's new album is so fuckin' good.

So much more focused than their first, like they finally settled on the direction they wanted to go. First album was a really eclectic mix of pop, rock and electronic that didn't always gel, but this new album definitely finds its comfort zone. More dream pop than j-pop, and far more focused as an overall electronica driven band.
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Agreed 100% this is way more focused and thus a lot more even and effective
 
I

Infinite

Member
I don't really know what's on spotify so I can't help you there, sorry.

December was pretty stacked in terms of releases. I'm currently digesting three albums from Lama, Androp, Kaela Kimura
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
Top 20 best selling singles of 2012

01 – “Manatsu no Sounds good!” – AKB48 : (1,820,056)
02 – “GIVE ME FIVE!” – AKB48 : (1,436,519)
03 – “Gingham Check” – AKB48 : (1,303,407)
04 – “UZA” – AKB48 : (1,215,079)
05 – “Eien Pressure” – AKB48 : (1,073,499)
06 – “Wild At Heart” – Arashi : (649,114)
07 – “Face Down” – Arashi : (619,940)
08 – “Kataomoi Finally” – SKE48 : (592,947)
09 – “Kiss Datte Hidarikiki” – SKE48 : (587,993)
10 – “Ai Shite Love Ru!” – SKE48 : (581,612)
11 – “Your Eyes” – Arashi : (559,412)
12 – “Nagiichi” – NMB48 : (449,098)
13 – “Virginity” – NMB48 : (390,896)
14 – “Junjou U-19″ – NMB48 : (376,302)
15 – “ER” – Eight Ranger : (374,853)
16 – “WANNA BEEEE!!! / Shake It Up” – Kis-My-Ft2 : (355,374)
17 – “Kitagawa Kenji” – NMB48 : (353,160)
18 – “We never give up!” – Kis-My-Ft2 : (321,573)
19 – “Ai Deshita.” – Kanjani8 : (320,289)
20 – “Chankapana” – NEWS : (305,407)
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http://www.tokyohive.com/2012/12/oricon-reveals-their-yearly-single-ranking-for-2012/

Top 20 albums

01 – “Mr.Children 2005 – 2010 <macro>” – Mr.Children : (1,170,298)
02 – “Mr.Children 2001 – 2005 <micro>” – Mr.Children : (1,105,080)
03 – “1830m” – AKB48 : (1,029,954)
04 – “Popcorn” – Arashi : (847,671)
05 – “EXILE JAPAN/Solo” – EXILE / EXILE ATSUSHI : (767,274)
06 – “I LOVE YOU -now&forever-” – Kuwata Keisuke : (757,831)
07 – “ALL SINGLES BEST 2&#8243; – Kobukuro : (693,659)
08 – “[(an imitation) blood orange] – Mr.Children : (612,507)
09 – “Matsutoya Yumi 40-Shunen Kinen Best Album Nihon no Koi to, Yu-min to.” – Matsutoya Yumi : (549,541)
10 – “OPUS ~ALL TIME BEST 1975-2012~ ” – Yamashita Tatsuro : (518,906)
11 – “Uncontrolled” – Amuro Namie : (517,603)
12 – “NEWTRAL” – Ikimonogakari : (414,490)
13 – “YUZU YOU [2006-2011]” – Yuzu : (394,781)
14 – “EXILE BEST HITS -LOVE SIDE/SOUL SIDE-” – EXILE : (382,217)
15 – “8EST” – Kanjani 8 : (367,107)
16 – “Kis-My-1st” – Kis-My-Ft2 : (326,078)
17 – “Love Place” – Nishino Kana : (313,835)
18 – “Super Girl” – KARA : (295,651)
19 – “GIFT of SMAP” - SMAP : (277,993)
20 – “FUNKY MONKEY BABYS 4&#8243; – FUNKY MONKEY BABYS : (265,759)
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http://www.tokyohive.com/2012/12/oricon-reveals-their-yearly-album-ranking-for-2012/

Top 5 revenue

01 – AKB48 # 19,098,000,000 Yen (approx. $226,441,166 USD)

02 – EXILE # 12,177,000,000 Yen (approx. $144,380,253 USD)

03 – Arashi # 10,454,000,000 Yen (approx. $123,950,987 USD)

04 – Mr.Children # 9,947,000,000 Yen (approx. $117,939,589 USD)

05 – Kanjani8 # 4,916,000,000 Yen (approx. $58,288,028 USD)
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http://www.tokyohive.com/2012/12/oricon-reveals-artist-total-sales-revenue-ranking-for-2012/
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
That's unlikely to change any time soon. You might see EXILE or Hikki (whenever she decides to make a real come back) break up the top 10 with a song, but that's probably it. Idol groups are in full domination mode on the singles side. Next year i'd expect Nogizaka46 (AKB's official rival group) to break into the top 20. So, that'll be another 48 family connected group in the top 20.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
The sad thing is like less than 10% of the 48 family's sales come from traditional CD shops. It's the theater editions that sell the millions.
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
Well, I don't think it's too surprising. They're trying to sell CD's in an age when almost everyone has moved on to buying music digitally. You've really got to be creative if you want to sell a lot of them. So, you have some versions that come with DVD's that have exclusive content on them and others that have handshake event tickets.
 
B

Blackheim

Member
Kurita said:
Completely unrelated, I'm now a fan of Abe Mao. Motto is an amazing song, wow.
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Yep, that album Su./&#32032;&#12290; is really good. Her most recent one isn't nearly as good unfortunately :/ The 2 albums before Su., Free and Pop, both have some really good songs too.
 
ReyBrujo

ReyBrujo

Member
I don't think selling lots of theater CDs is sad, though. Regarding sales themselves, CD are almost obsolete, and they leak a week or so before release, plus they are already showing the song in TV programs a month before release. The classical model is broken, and AKS is doing something really smart, offering extras for buying the real thing. Pics and election tickets for limited editions, handshake tickets for theater CDs, they were giving 2-shots too, they added SKE, NMB and HKT songs (even got a song from Mechaike).

I'll find Soundscan numbers, but AKB48's best-selling single is Manatsu no Sounds Good with over 600k sold (total sales including theater CDs were 1.82m). Here are some numbers for first weeks.

One could say that selling 100 CDs to a single person doesn't actually make the group more popular and/or better than selling 100 CDs to a hundred people, but a) it is still pocketed money, coming from one person or 100, and b) it makes them popular, as they appear in headlines (either because one person got 1000 handshake tickets or because they sold again over a million units), which is what matters from a marketing point of view).

To put in perspective, in 2011 U2 got almost USD 300m in revenue during their 360º tour. After that, came Bon Jovi with USD 193m. That means AKB48 got just in CD sales more money than any group touring during 2011 (it is worth noticing that a few years ago concert revenue is usually higher than song sales[/url], and while lately attendance is down, so are physical sales).

I don't think Nogizaka46 will be in the spotlight next year, though. I'm betting on AKB48 keeping it for at least half a year more. They will end their country-wide series of concerts, and I'm guessing they will do all the big arenas again (Saitama Super Arena, Yokohama Arena, maybe Tokyo Dome by year's end), or doing a full Dome tour. Momoiro Clover Z will probably continue selling like shit, but they will continue increasing their concert attendance, probably by doing a 2 or 3-day concert at Seibu Dome, or a 1-day concert at Tokyo Dome. And considering they sold out their 2-day Christmas 2012 concert in Saitama Super Arena (estimated 40,000-50,000 seats) in 2 minutes, and their Onna Matsuri concerts (10,000 seats) in 60 seconds (where only women could attend), they might decide to move their Otoko/Onna Matsuri from Budoukan to Saitama or Yokohama.

At a glance, I think nothing will really change next year.
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
ReyBrujo said:
I don't think Nogizaka46 will be in the spotlight next year, though. I'm betting on AKB48 keeping it for at least half a year more. They will end their country-wide series of concerts, and I'm guessing they will do all the big arenas again (Saitama Super Arena, Yokohama Arena, maybe Tokyo Dome by year's end), or doing a full Dome tour. Momoiro Clover Z will probably continue selling like shit, but they will continue increasing their concert attendance, probably by doing a 2 or 3-day concert at Seibu Dome, or a 1-day concert at Tokyo Dome. And considering they sold out their 2-day Christmas 2012 concert in Saitama Super Arena (estimated 40,000-50,000 seats) in 2 minutes, and their Onna Matsuri concerts (10,000 seats) in 60 seconds (where only women could attend), they might decide to move their Otoko/Onna Matsuri from Budoukan to Saitama or Yokohama.

At a glance, I think nothing will really change next year.
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Nogizaka46 is moving up in popularity fairly fast. Their newest single sold more in its first day than their previous three singles sold in their first week. They obviously aren't anywhere near AKB or even SKE territory, but they are moving up at a really rapid pace. And what's impressive about it is that they don't have any extra help like the other groups by having a member featured in AKB's singles. Their only real linking to AKB is that they're their rival group and they did that singles challenge against Sasshi for her first single.

As far as AKB goes, I think that they'll be fine when it comes to selling a million units until the Janken single arrives. They had to do a lot extra to get Eien Pressure over the line due to the lack of Senbatsu members.
 
ReyBrujo

ReyBrujo

Member
Nogizaka is a more classic idol group, without all the controversy AKB got with lyrics and PVs. They are catering to idol fans who want idols to be just idols. Personally, I don't think they will ever reach AKB/Momusu level, but they should reach NMB/SKE.

Regarding Eien, it is not just lack of senbatsu members, casual people don't really care who is singing the songs, and fans buy theater CDs; losing Maeda Atsuko was just hard. Yuttan, Nacchi, Tomoomi, 2kyuu members leaving will also affect sales, as they also got a certain followship. I believe their Sakura single will also sell into the million territory, as I guess it will be Tomoomi's last single, but he next one might break the million-in-a-week trend.
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
I definitely don't expect them to ever get to AKB's level. They're the best selling female Jpop group ever, so I don't know when we'll see another group as big as the are. Just getting to SKE's level would be a nice accomplishment.

Graduations definitely have the biggest impact on their long term popularity. But I think that the last shuffle was one way that they tried to lock in certain really popular members (specifically Yuko, Takamina and Mariko) for a longer time by giving them new roles. They just need to work on making other members the face of the group so that they're prepared for when they eventually do graduate. I'm hoping that they finally make Mayuyu center for the next single. I really don't know what the hold up there is.
 
ReyBrujo

ReyBrujo

Member
The same was said about SPEED (sales for their best-selling albums and the single "White Love" haven't been beaten yet), until Morning Musume hit it big with "Love Machine", and then the same was said until AKB48 got their first million seller with "Beginner". Akio Nakamori said, "The times seek idols, and idols lead the times. Since idols symbolize the healthy growth of young people, and because they are personal manifestations of the shared public desire for growth, they symbolize national growth itself." In other words, idols bloom with economic growth and decay with recession, so AKB48 (and idols in general) will stick around until economy goes into a major depression. Whether other groups will have time enough to match or outpace AKB depends on when the next depression will arrive.

I don't think Takamina would graduate anytime soon, she is the soul of AKB48 as mentioned by Akimoto, and her graduation would imply the end of AKB48, more than Acchan's graduation. Also, she admitted that neither she nor Yuko can graduate for the time being, as requested by him.

This shuffle corrected the biggest mistake Akimoto did regarding AKB48: creating Team 4 without making a full shuffle. The difference in popularity between Team A, K and B with Team 4 was just unsalvageable, Paruru as their ace would (and won't) never grow in popularity to match the other aces, the most experienced girls were ninth generations compared to 1-3 generations in the others. Akimoto took just too much time to create Team 4, opening a gap that made Team 4 be just a research student team. They were never taken seriously by fans, and not even by Akimoto himself, as he always mixed Team 4 with research students and never gave them a proper concert day as the others have. I remember having read Jurina saying she wanted a SKE48 shuffle too, which would be smart (even though I don't like her) because first gens are graduating and they need to level the teams with new members. Plus Team KII and E are extremely weak compared to Team S.

And that is the main problem AKB48 got: they didn't get rid of the old faces in time. It has been 7 years and there are still original members, which in time prevent newer members from gaining the spotlight. And they are now going to do 15 gen auditions, which means there will be girls of around 10-11 along members well over 20. Unless old members are graduated, they will never center units unless in research student stages. By the time they can, they will be fully trained. That is not the idea of AKB48, incomplete idols you can observe becoming better, it is more like k-pop concept, where the final product is shown after years of keeping them hidden.

Regarding Mayuyu, well, she was double center with Acchan in "Manatsu...", which symbolized passing the baton. But while she is at the perfect age and with the perfect popularity, Yuko is still much more popular. And if Jurina as a full SKE48 member managed to center some songs for AKB48 ("Oogoe..." alone, along Mayuyu for "Beginner" and along Yuko in "UZA"), now that she is also a full AKB48 member I would think she will be centering more songs than Mayuyu.
 
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