Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (27/9)

The latest int'l album chart came in.

Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 27 September 2010

1. Linkin Park / A Thousand Suns
2. Maroon 5 / Hands All Over
3. David Foster / David Foster Presents Love Again
4. SHINee / SHINee The 2nd Album"Lucifer"
5. Clémentine / Animentine -Bossa Du Anime-
6. Underworld / Barking
7. Katy Perry / Teenage Dream
8. Weezer / Hurley
9. 2ne1/ To Anyone Vol.2
10. Oasis / Time Flies...1994-2009

source: http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/wa/w/
also check the last week's chart here

You will find it look totally different from int'l charts in your country. If compared to the UK and US charts that I'm quite familiar with, the following things can be significant:

• The biggest difference should be that there are two titles which you're never familiar with (I'm not either!). SHINee and 2ne1 are both Korean pop idols. Korean Pop (so-called K-POP) is huge I guess not only in Japan, but also everywhere in East and South East Asia for the last 5 years or so. It's phenomenal but I can't discuss enough this time. Maybe next time...
• Underworld topped the last week's int'l chart and still remained in Top 10 this week, although they reached only #26 in the UK album chart for its first week. They are I guess the artist who are now much bigger than they are in their own country.
• Another band that I'd like to mention here is Weezer, whose album entered at #8 in the oricon chart. The band is huge in the states (#6 in the US album chart for its first week) but is never going to be in the UK (it reached just #49).
• FYI Underworld and Weezer were both headliner of the Green Stage (=main stage) at Fuji Rock in 2003 and 2009 respectively.

More chat updates will come soon...

Carl Barat: what we can learn from his stay in Japan?

This week was mad. Carl Barat of The Libertines came to Japan for promo and special acoustic performance for Topshop/Topman opening party in Shinjuku. These two events themselves were not something important here now. But the fact that he added a very intimate in-store live performance in Tower Shinjuku to his tight schedule WAS a big thing. It's fair to say that his forthcoming solo album won't be as popular as The Libertines' records. However, it was very after the band's reunion gigs at Reading/Leeds Festival in England. 80,000 festival goers appeared to watch the special performance but now he'd be to play in front of only 300-ish people in Shinjuku. So many of the band's devotees in Japan now paid attention to him.

What happened then? The 7th floor of Tower Shinjuku was jam-packed...looked crazy in a good way. Please watch this:


I was there and remember this young man singing along with a big smile. To me, it was great to know that there are still these crazed music fans here in the international music sciene in Japan.

Carl was great as an artist as well as as a person. As far as I saw as one of his fans, he always took care his fans and wanted to play live for them. That attitude is what all artists should have. This story clearly represents his attitude: after performing at the closed Topshop party, he brought his acoustic guitar with him, left the party and played 4 songs for his devotees who were waiting for him outside of the shop. That's was genuinely amazing. As watching him playing there, I was thinking why such an exciting thing never happens in Japan. One said to me that this sort of thing was too risky so that we should get him stop doing it. Although I get the point, I believe it was not that risky and dangerous in this one of the most safe country in the world...

Anyway, here the video of Carl playing in the street after the party is. Hope you enjoy it:.

Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart

Do you know Oricon? It's a Japanese version of Billboard in the states or Official Charts in the UK. Here is a thing: most of artists names and album/single titiles are written in Japanese in the charts. What does it look like? Have a look Oricon international chart here. If you can't read Japanese then you can't see who are chart-in. Thus I'll translate weekly int'l album chart into English every week here so that you can see what are hot in Japan. Here is the latest int'l album chart:


Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 20 September 2010

1. Underworld / Barking
2. Katy Perry / Teenage Dream
3. Charice / Charice
4. Oasis / Time Flies...1994-2009
5. Clémentine / Animentine -Bossa Du Anime-
6. V.A. / Perfect! R&B 3 Wild and Sexy Playlist
7. Stone Sour / Audio Secrecy
8. V.A. / Beck the Movie (OST)
9. Lady Ga Ga / The Monstor
10. Eminem / Recovery

source: http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/wa/w/

Summer Festivals

Entrance gate of Fuji Rock Festival '10

My favourite festival Asagiri Jam (the pic taken in 2007)

Now summer is over. This summer was boiling, extremely hot and killed a lot of people. It was such a hell but I can't complain. I'd say, my hometown Yokohama, a suburb of Tokyo, is still hot this week like 30 celsius degree in daytime. But it was 35 degree last week. So now everybody feels like autumn has come.

Anyway, an extremely short summer festival season is now over in Japan. I mean, two major and only summer festivals for international acts took place within only two weeks: Fuji Rock Festival and Summer Sonic. There are newer and smaller international music festivals that take place before/after summer, which is great. However, Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic are far more influential to the Japanese market.

Here is a list of key festivals that have international acts:

• Fuji Rock Festival: http://www.smash-uk.com/frf10/
• Summer Sonic: http://www.summersonic.com/2010/english/
• Asagiri Jam: http://www.smash-jpn.com/asagiri/ (Japanese only)
• Punk Spring: http://www.punkspring.com/10/english/index.html
• Loud Park: http://www.loudpark.com/10/english/
• Metamorphose: http://www.metamo.info/ (Japanese only)
• Wire:  http://www.wireweb.jp/ (Japanese only)
• Taico Club: http://www.taicoclub.com/ (Japanese only)

That's it? Yes, that's it. Japan, that has the second biggest music market in the world, has that few festivals. The number of festivals is I think actually reasonable...or some people might feel it's too many. The international market in Japan is tiny. Domestic music occupies nearly 80% of the popular music market there. For international acts, regarding cost and energy to come and play in Japan, they won't consider to fly to this island country in the far east Asia say 5 times a year. Thus, it's like "less demand and less supply" strikes a good balance to keep the market working, which is a shame for me as a big fan of international indie music.
We still have some fesitivals due to happen soon but the summer is over in any way. Now it's time to welcome bands playing their headlining shows in Japan.

Introduction

"refuses"?? No! it should be "refuse"!!!

Konnichiwa! (translated to "Hello!" in English) This blog is dedicated to the music business and any interesting matters related to popular music in Japan.

I'll try to make this blog as useful and helpful as possible for people who want to know how the Japanese music industry works. For the last few years, I saw both the Japanese and British music scene at first hand as you can see in my profile in the right sidebar. It feels like I can give you something a bit more interesting than anybody else would.


I put some useful links in the left sidebar. These are all "must read" websites - I highly recommend to have a look them.

Please feel free to leave your comment. English is not my first language so please let me know if you find any of my blog posts which are difficult to understand!