Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (1/8)

Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 1 August 2011

1. Lady Gaga / Born This Way
2. Che'Nelle / Love Songs
3. V.A. / DJ Kaori's Party Mix2
4. Beyoncé / 4
5. LMFAO / Sorry For Party Rocking
6. Def Leppard / Mirrorball
7. Lady Gaga / The Monster
8. 2Cellos / 2Cellos
9. SHOW / Only For You Japan Edition
10. Simple Plan / Get Your Heart On!

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

You would already notice the charts I have posted here in the past were not Japan total album chart (domestic + international), but International album chart (international only). Domestic music accounts for around 80% of the whole Japanese popular music market. What I expect when you have a look the total chart is this: there are too many internationally-unknown names in the total charts so that you really can't get anything out of it. That's why I decided to stick to International charts when I started this blog. But you may want to have a look? Here it is for you:

Japan Total Album Chart - 1 August 2011

1. Juju / You
2. Lady Gaga / Born This Way
3. Tube / Re-Creation
4. Arashi / Beautiful World
5. Girls' Generation / Girls' Generation
6. Nishino Kana / Thank You, Love
7. Che'Nelle / Love Songs
8. Aoki Ryuji / Lien
9. 40mP feat. Hatsune Miku / Chisana Jibun to Okina Sekai
10. Superfly / Mind Travel

Source: http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/ja/w/2011-08-01/

So...there are just two international acts (in red) within Top 10 (Girls' Generation is actually a South Korean girls group but the album is released from a Japanese record company so that it's categorised as a domestic album). Is that unique? For comparison, here is more album charts from randomly-selected countries - US, UK, France and Sweden (international acts of each chart below are in red):

US Album Chart (Billboard 200) - 6 August 2011

1. Adele / 21
2. Kidz Bop Kids / Kidz Bop 20
3. 3 Doors Down / Time Of My Life
4. Beyonce / 4
5. DJ Khaled / We The Best Forever
6. Blake Shelton / Red River Blue
7. 311 / Universal Pulse
8. Jason Aldean / My Kinda Party
9. Amy Winehouse / Back To Black
10. Selena Gomez & The Scene / When The Sun Goes Down

Source: http://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-200#/charts/billboard-200

UK Album Chart - 30 July 2011

1. Adele / 21
2. Beyonce / 4
3. Adele / 19
4. Caro Emerald / Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room
5. Lady Gaga / Born This Way
6. Bruno Mars / Doo-Wips & Hooligans
7. Rihanna / Loud
8. LMFAO / Sorry For Party Rocking
9. Chase & Status / No More Idols
10. Foo Fighters / Wasting Light

Source: http://www.theofficialcharts.com/albums-chart/

France Album Chart - 24 July 2011

1. Adele / 21
2. Les Marins Diroise / Les Marins Diroise
3. The Black Eyed Peas / The beginning
4. Zaz / Zaz
5. Colonel Reyel / Au Rapport
6. Les Pretres / Gloria
7. Nolwenn Leroy / Bretonne
8. Keen V / Carpe Diem
9. Jean-Louis Aubert / Roc Eclair
10. Shakira / Sale El Sol

Source: http://www.disqueenfrance.com/fr/page-256595.xml

Swedish Album Chart - 29 July 2011

1. Benny Anderssons / OrkesterO Klang Och Jubeltid
2. Eric Saade / Saade Vol.1
3. Lasse Stefanz / Cuba Libre
4. Veronica Maggio / Satan I Gatan
5. Christer Sjögren / Kramgoa Låtar 2011
6. Adele / 21
7. Malena Ernman / Opera Di Fiori
8. Rolandz / Halleluja Mamma
9. Electric Light Orchestra / All Over The World
10. Thorleifs / Goldensax: Love Songs

Source: http://www.sverigetopplistan.se/index.html

The majority of albums in Japan, US, France and Sweden chart are domestic. However, interestingly there are only 3 domestic albums out of UK Top 10. This is just about chart positions. Market share of international music in each country is a different matter from it. But those charts above would remind you of a very important fact - each country has an unique music scene consisted of many domestic pop stars.

Lady Gaga's Youtube account suspended - so what is behind the story?

I remember I enjoyed reading The Guardian's series of articles on the Japanese music scene called "Turning Japanese". Some of them showed somehow misunderstanding of the scene but the others were so interesting. One of these great articles is entitled "Turning Japanese: The seedy underworld of music moguls". It discussed a dark side of a massive boy-group-only management company "Johnny's Jimusho"(means Johnny's office) and its CEO Johnny Kitagawa, and how the Japanese society deals with a hugely controversial "idol market". The article is worth reading it.

Why am I talking about this? Well, it's because I just heard Lady Gaga's official youtube account was suspended. This news made me (and I hope many Japanese people) reacknowledge irresistible power of Johnny's Jimusho.

"Lady Gaga's YouTube Account Suspended for Copyright Violation" - Billboard.com (14/7/2011)

Lady Gaga hosted a footage of her TV performance from a weekly Japanese TV show "SMAP x SMAP". However, soon its broadcaster Fuji TV made a claim on copyright infringement and youtube's "cyber police" Media Interactive, Inc. took down the account for a while.

If you have alrady read the Gardian's article above, you will notice that "SMAP x SMAP"'s host is the most successful Japanese boy band SMAP, who belong to Johnny's Jimusho. It's the most powerful and money-making company in the Japanese entertainment world. Nobody can resist it. It should be the same for Fuji TV. Even if Lady Gaga's the world biggest pop star of today, SMAP I guess should be much more important for Fuji TV no matter what people in the world say. Johnny's Jimusho is known its intolerance of copyright infringement so it's natural that Fuji TV made a claim to protect SMAP from "the infringement by Lady Gaga" (and protect themselves for their own business with Johnny's).

That's a bit story behind the news as far as I can tell. There should be different interpretations on this issue but I believe my interpretation is not too far from the reality...

Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (11/7)

Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 11 July 2011

1. Lady Gaga / Born This Way
2. Beyoncé / 4
3. V.A. / DJ Kaori's Party Mix2
4. Kim Hyun Joong / Break Down
5. Limp Bizkit / Gold Cobra
6. Lady Gaga / The Monster
7. Simple Plan / Get Your Heart On!
8. V.A. / Songs For Japan
9. Lady Gaga / The Fame
10. Pitbull / Planet Pit

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

Lady Gaga again. In this chart week she sold over 54,000 copies, whereas she had sold just about 35,000 copies a week before. You can see a massive increase in sales. Total sales of the album is now expected over 300,000. She also enjoyed other albums of hers re-climbing the chart as you can see.

She stayed in 11 days in Japan in the end of the last month. She was everywhere during her stay. In particular, TV appearance was strong enough to get everybody from kids to elders keep her in mind. This clearly resulted in the sales as I explained above.

You may know "Born This Way" has been seen it underperforming. In its first chart week, impressively one million copies were sold in the states only. It got no.1 title in multiple countries. Yes, it looks brilliant. Nevertheless, this possitive news was soon overshadowed by the following sharp fall in sales and Adele winning back no.1 position in US after just two weeks of "Born This Way" release. Similar thing happened in the UK as you may know. It looks like Gaga wasn't able to respond to expectations by people from the music industry to the media to the masses.

In the meantime, in Japan, the album has never fall down from no.1 spot of the international album chart since its release. Additionally, the 82% drop wasn't interestingly a big news here (I think the Japanese don't like to report something bad and things that they don't want to know). Therefore "Born This Way" looks it's been doing very well here and is "looked" like it's been doing very well worldwide. I think Japan can be one of the countries that sold the album most physically if the trend continues. Every country has a different music market, doesn't it?

How about in your country? If you are from non-US/UK country, I'm strongly interested to know about that...!

Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (4/7)

 

 Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 4 July 2011

1. Lady Gaga / Born This Way
2. V.A. / DJ Kaori's Party Mix2
3. Simple Plan / Get Your Heart On!
4. Shade / Ultimate Collection
5. In Flames / Sounds Of A Playground Fading
6. Paul McCartney (deluxe edition) / Paul McCartney
7. McCartney 2 (deluxe edition) / Paul McCartney
8. Lady Gaga / The Monster
9. Bad Meets Evil / Hell: The Sequel
10. Il Divo / Love Songs - Inspired By The Film Andalucia

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

Lady Gaga's "The Monster" came back to Top 10 this chart week. You can easily guess Gaga's trip in Japan seemed to make the album leap to #8.

Paul McCartney's two reissues were to celebrate 45th anniversary of The Beatles first performance in Japan. They're both remastered and have special editions along with standard ver. Even though they're just reissues, both of Sir. Paul's remastered albums secured Top 10 for their first chart week. Paul McCartney is still Paul McCartney. He's big.

Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (27/6)

Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 27 June 201

1. Lady Gaga / Born This Way
2. Il Divo / Love Songs - Inspired By The Film Andalucia
3. Arctic Monkeys / Suck It and See
4. V.A. / Songs For Japan
5. Owl City / Bright & Beautiful
6. Jennifer Lopez / Love?
7. Aaron / The Next Me
8. Avril Lavigne / Goodbye Lullaby
9. Kim HyunJoong / Break Down
10. Jessie J / Who Are You

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

Lady Gaga in Japan right now!She came to play for MTV charity live (thanks Gaga!).

Would you say this Japan trip purely coincided the album release or had been planned for promo first and MTV made the offer after the earthquake? I totally appreciate that she bravely came to Japan for the earthquake relief, whereas most of the international acts hesitate to do because of the disastrous nuclear accident. However, from the label point of view, the timing of her Japan trip was the best to promote her album. It just came out last month and has been at #1 until now. It's rare that any of such a big artist come just before/after album release.

Oricon will publish the latest chart this evening. See what will happen with Gaga.

Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (20/6)

Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 20 June 201

1. Lady Gaga / Born This Way
2. Il Divo / Love Songs - Inspired By The Film Andalucia
3. Arctic Monkeys / Suck It and See
4. V.A. / Songs For Japan
5. Jennifer Lopez / Love?
6. Avril Lavigne / Goodbye Lullaby
7. Night Ranger / Somewhere In California
8. Jessie J / Who Are You
9. Amaranthe / Amaranthe
10. All Time Low / Dirty Work

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

Lineup of this week's Top 30 is really interesting. There are pop stars such as Briteny Spears to Justin Berber. There are also legends like Journey and Ozzy. There are even indie bands Death Cab For Cutie and Atari Teenage Riot. Genres of music within Top 30 vary really much. That represents what kind of music the Japanese people listen to - it's varied, I mean.

But here is Top 10. Although Lady Gaga is now away from the top position in the US/UK album chart, her new album "Born This Way" still shows a strong sales here in Japan. Let's see what happens next.

Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (6/13)

Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 13 June 2011

1. Lady Gaga / Born This Way
2. Arctic Monkeys / Suck It and See
3. V.A. / Songs For Japan
4. Jennifer Lopez / Love?
5. Journey / Eclipse
6. Avril Lavigne / Goodbye Lullaby
7. Ozzy Osbourne / Diary of a Madman (Legacy Edition)
8. FTIsland / Return
9. Lady Gaga / The Monster
10. Ozzy Osbourne / Blizzard of Ozz (Legacy Edition)

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

It's been a while since I posted the last blog entry. I have been deadly busy for the last few months. So busy like bees. Sorry for the people who are interested in the Japanese music and constantly checking this blog to see what's hot record here. I'm back and getting the weekly chart update back on the track.

Above is the latest weekly international album chart. Lady Gaga stays at #1 spot for 2 consecutive weeks, while an English rock hero Arctic Monkeys reached #2 for its first chart week. As far as I heard, "Born This Way" seems to fall down from US and UK #1 spot next week. However, the situation for the American #1 album is totally different here in Japan. Physical sales still dominates the whole recorded music sales. It's hard to think her album's physical sales in Japan suddenly fall down. In fact, the album sold sixfold more than "Suck It and See" for this chart week, whereas in the US she sees 84% sales drop after Amazon MP3 store's massive discount campaign.

In Japan, I guess "Born This Way"will comfortably remain at the top spot for a while. Watch out this space and let's see if my guess is going to become a reality.

Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (25/4)

Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 25 April 2011

1. Avril Lavigne / Goodbye Lullaby
2. Radiohead / The King Of Limbs
3. Green Day / Awesome as Fuck
4. Sum 41 / Screaming Bloody Murder
5. Britney Spears / Femme Fatale
6. Foo Fighters / Wasting Lights
7. The Strokes / Angles
8. Bigbang / Bigbang - Special Edition-
9. PiNK / Greatest Hits
10. Chris Brown / F.A.M.E.

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

US and UK No.1 album "Wasting Lights" by Foo Fighters reached to only #6 in this week's international album chart of Japan. Apart from that, there is little change in the chart so not many things needed to be mentioned here.

I just like to make a small note: traditionally Japan edition of an album has a Japanese album title. Please note it doesn't mean changing meanings of its original English title. The change is thought necessary to get Japanese listeners easily understand what the English title means. In the other word, you don't need a Japanese title if the original is very easy to understand like "I Love You" for non-English speakers like many of the Japanese. So Japanese titles are carefully named. Looking at this week's Top 10, Green Day's "Awesome as Fuck" is the one. Its Japanese title is called "Saikyo Live!". "Saikyo" means "Awesome","Incredible","Mega" or whatever words describing an feeling like "This live is the best!".

These days, however, I personally feel the majority of album titles don't have a Japanese title. How you feel about this trend would depend on how old you are. From my experience younger people prefer directly translated titles, whereas maybe over 40 or so people are more familiar with more freely translated ones.  I can guess how musicians feel about but, at the same time, I understand people who think Japanese titles are neccessary. Linguistic barrier is always a big matter to think about international music in Japan and how we overcome this is what I'm always thinking about...

Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (18/4)

Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 18 April 2011

1. Radiohead / The King Of Limbs
2. The Strokes / Angles
3. Sum 41 / Screaming Bloody Murder
4. Britney Spears / Femme Fatale
5. Avril Lavigne / Goodbye LullabyAvril Lavigne / Goodbye Lullaby
6. Chris Brown / F.A.M.E.
7. PiNK / Greatest Hits
8. Within Temptation / The Unforgiving
9. Kim HyungJun / First Mini My Girl - Japan Edition -
10. Far East Movement / Free Wired

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

We can see a high Top10 artist turnover this week. As explained before, many big releases went on sale in this chart week. There were pop&rock starts here such as The Strokes, Sum 41 and Britney Spears but it was Radiohead who ruled the chart with their new album"The King Of Limbs". Their 8th studio album actually failed to go straight to #1 in the UK and the US, although they had managed to do it with their last album "In Rainbows". It however won't necessarily mean this new album wasn't successful sales-wise. As you may know two digital versions of the album and deluxe box sets had already become all available on their merchandise site back in February. It can be assumed more people in both countries already got their own copy via the website so that fewer people might grab one from a local record shop for this time. In the meantime, I think the Japanese still prefers physical to digital. It might be one of the possible reasons why Radiohead succeeded in reaching #1 spot here in Japan.

I'm so happy to see two big indie bands in Top 10 this week as an indie rock fan. In Japan indie is not as popular as it is in the UK and states, despite the fact that there are so many bands coming to play and releasing records in Japan. Seeing any indie band in Top 10 is not something often happening. This week's chart battle should've been so bruising but two indie heroes led it. I expect we will see another high turnover next week. See what will happen next.

Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (11/4)

Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 11 April 2011

1. Avril Lavigne / Goodbye Lullaby
2. PiNK / Greatest Hits
3. CNBLUE / First StepFact / Eat Your Words
4. Fact / Eat Your Words
5. Beady Eye / Different Gear, Still Speeding
6. Whitesnake / Forevermore 
7. The Strokes / Angles
8. In Paradisum / Symfonia
9. Lady Gaga / The Monster
10. Rihanna / Loud 

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

Very few new releases for this week's Top 30 international album chart. As mentioned last time, most of the record companies pushed back release dates for new albums due for release in the second half of March due to the massive earthquake. These include new albums of Radiohead, Sum 41 and Britney Spears. All of these big releases all went on sale this week so we will see significant changes in the next week's album chart.

Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (4/4)

Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 4 April 2011

1. Avril Lavigne / Goodbye Lullaby
2. Fact / Eat Your Words
3. PiNK / Greatest Hits
4. Beady Eye / Different Gear, Still Speeding
5. Lady Gaga / The Monster
6. Rihanna / Loud 
7. Rumer / Seasons of My Soul
8. Whitesnake / Forevermore
9. Bruno Mars / Doo-Wops ＆ Hooligans
10. Bigbang / Bigbang 4th Mini Album

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

First of all, let me express my heartfelt sympathy to people suffering from the earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku district. Most of my extended family members live in the area and suffered from the tragedy. Although all of them are alive and currently in safe hands, my grandmum's house (that means my dad's home) was hit hard by tsunami and swallowed everything there up. We my family are devastated and deeply saddened. However, we have to keep walking. Whereas damaged radiators in Fukushima have upset us, Tokyo and the western/southern part of Japan are safe and running as usual. I currently work as usual as many people in Tokyo do. It's time to go back to the routine of work. So I will from now on write blog posts as usual then.

Avril Lavigne has grabbed #1 spot with her new album "Goodbye Lullaby" 3 weeks in a row in the international album chart. Looking back over the first 3 chart weeks to catch up, the album had gone to #2 spot in all Japan album chart for its first chart week. Unlike other international acts, she is equally popular as widely known domestic artists and selling a number of records (that's why she is sometime cynically called "a Japanese female musician").

Due to the earthquake, most of the all album releases due in the second half of March have been delayed until the beginning of April. No significant changes in the album chart will be seen for the next couple of weeks. But keep your eye on this place and we will see some interesting moves soon!

Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (7/3)

Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 7 March 2010

1. Beady Eye / Different Gear, Still Speeding
2. PiNK / Greatest Hits
3. V.A. / Grammy Nominees 2011
4. Pink Friday / Nicki Minaj
5. Rihanna / Loud
6. JYJ The Beginning
7. Boom Boom Satellites / Experienced
8. Lady Gaga / The Monster
9. Bruno Mars / Doo-Wops ＆ Hooligans
10. Charice / Charice

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

Liam Gallagher's new band Beady Eye went straight to #1 spot with their debut album "Different Gear, Still Speeding". Ex-Oasis' guy and co. sold more than 28,000 copies for its first chart week in Japan.

Here is a little note. There is a limited-Japan-only edition - a CD+DVD set. Adding a DVD to an original album makes the edition an exception of Retail Price Maintenance system. This means that the retail price of CD+DVD can be understandably cheaper so that more retailers can aggressively order the 2-disc edition. Let's see the retail prices of them on amazon.co.jp:

Beady Eye "Different Gear, Still Speeding"
Limited Japan-only edition: 2,441 yen (bonus DVD containing 5 bonus content)
Regular Japan-only edition: 2,520 yen (2 bonus tracks)

CD+DVD is cheaper than 1CD?! Yes it is!I think more record labels adopt this strategy as few people nowadays buy a record at full price. There is a big debate on this here but I still can't judge it's really good or bad. Hope will see sometime soon...

Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (28/2)

Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 28 February 2010

1. Super Junior / Super Junior Japan Limited Edition - Super Show3-
2. PiNK / Greatest Hits
3. V.A. / Grammy Nominees 2011
4. Rihanna / Loud
5. Lady Antebellum / Need You Now
6. Charice / Charice
7. Bruno Mars / Doo-Wops ＆ Hooligans
8. Lady Gaga / The Monster
9. Taylor Swift /Speak Now
10. Nick Carter / I'm Taking Off

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

Super Junior is a Korean idol group (again!), who I didn't know until I checked this week's album chart. Over 12,000 copies of their lates album were sold for its first chart week. Is this figure great or not? If you were told that they played three sold-out Yokohama Arena shows in this month and will play at a baseball stadium Tokyo Dome in April for 2 days in row, you will feel 12,000 copies sold is actually under expectation.

Modern-look Yokohama Arena can accommodate 17,000 people and the biggest in-door concert venue Tokyo Dome can 55,000 people for a concert. I don't know if both Tokyo Dome shows are already sold out. However, if so, it means more than 160,000 people in total go to see the artist. 160,000 is a far big number compared to 12,000 because it means literally only less than 1/10 of the concert goers buy the album. You have to bear in mind that there are the certain number of fans who go to more than one concert of them in a year. There's however also a number of people who can't go to see the Super Junior play live.

What would that mean?　Fans don't buy their favourite group's recordings, although they go to their shows? Do they illegally download them? I think we'll see what's happening in K-Pop movement in Japan soon.

Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (21/2)

Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 21 February 2010

1. PiNK / Greatest Hits
2. Rihanna / Loud
3. V.A. / Grammy Nominees 2011
4. Nick Carter / I'm Taking Off
5. Bruno Mars / Doo-Wops ＆ Hooligans
6. Charice / Charice
7. OST / Burlesque OST
8. Lady Gaga / The Monster
9. Taylor Swift /Speak Now
10. Tokio Hotel / Darkside Of The Sun

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

London's dubstepper James Blake at #19 is quite impressive. His Japan edition is not yet released, which means he reached that position with only imported CDs. In Japan, dubstep hasn't been as popular as it is in the UK. However, is his success by now in Japan a sign that dubstep will finally make a big step forward here in Japan? Will he hit the International music scene here when the Japan edition goes on sale?

Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (14/2)

Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 14 February 2010

1. Nick Carter / I'm Taking Off
2. V.A. / Grammy Nominees 2011
3. Rihanna / Loud
4. Charice / Charice
5. PiNK / Greatest Hits
6. OST / Burlesque OST
7. Bruno Mars / Doo-Wops ＆ Hooligans
8. Mogwai / Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
9. Taylor Swift /Speak NowKeri Hilson / No Boys Around
10. Tokio Hotel / Darkside Of The Sun

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

Tokio Hotel is this week's pick up artist!! They I thought was not popular in Japan compared to in Germany and Europe. Their first stay in Japan and showcase scheduled in 2007 were even cancelled at the last minute. However, I understand their Japanese label Universal Japan has done a big promotion campaign for their new album "Darkside of the Sun". It I believe led the band to a #10 spot in this album chart.

Although I'm not a fan of them, I've been interested in what the band and Universal Japan have been doing in Japan for promo for two reasons. Firstly, they set up a Japanese fan group on Facebook. I think few international artists have their own Japanese fan group page as the SNS is seen it's not big enough in Japan to run a fan group in Japanese for Japanese fans. However, I guess Universal Japan understands many of their target audience members are on Facebook so that can make use of the website as a place of communicating with them. Now the fan group has 12,229 members. I don't think all of them are Japanese but the figure is still quite impressive.


Another reason why the campaign caught my attention was it was a part of the 150th Aniversary of Germany Japan Diplomatic Friendship. I always like popular music as a tool of cultural exchange. Both parties have substantial merit of running such type of the campaign. An embassy has a chance to draw more people in its nation's culture. In the meantime, an artist from the country and its record label can have more promo opportunities and reach potential fans who they really don't in normal ways of promo. Addicionally they possibly can receive financial support from the embassy. Why not using such opportunities, ambassadors in Japan and you guys from Japanese record labels?

I'm ending this blog entry by introducing this video beneath - Tokio Hotel visiting German Embassy and having a press conference with Germany ambassador:

Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (7/2)

Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 7 February 2010

1. Rihanna / Loud
2. Charice / Charice
3. OST / Burlesque OST
4. Bruno Mars / Doo-Wops ＆ Hooligans
5. PiNK / Greatest Hits
6. V.A. / Grammy Nominees 2011
7. Taylor Swift /Speak Now
8. Hibria / Blind Ride
9. Keri Hilson / No Boys Around
10. Michael Jackson / Michael

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

If you are reading this from the states, you may know about Charice, who jumped up to #2 from #8 from the last week. She was not even on Top 10 just before that. Her pedigree of singing career is just amazing. She was born to a poor family in Philippines. Her mum loves singing and told her how. Charice started joining singing competitions and blew away every time she sung there. After performing for one of the most popular S.Korean TV programme, that invited her to sing for, its video on youtube hit people around the world and brought her to the states. She was then featured by famous American talk shows such as The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Her specutacular performance again stormed people there and the rest is her history.

I am writing about this moving story behind her success to explain why her first album "Charice", that released in July last year, suddenly went up to #2 in this week's chart. As far as I understand, for the last two chart weeks, she appeared on two big music programmes on national and commercial TV stations: Songs (NHK) and The Best House 123 (CX TV) respectively. After googling, I found both of the TV programmes focused on how she from a poor Philippino family made her American dream reality. I guess it touched the TV audience and brought her album to #2.

I am now thinking how influence TV is, despite the fact the internet is taking over it. It may depend on what type of music you play. If you are a pop singer and target a mainstream market, then TV appearance can be a must to get. If you are in an indie band, then it might not the case.

Finally, here is Charice making people there speachless and opening up the door to success.

Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (31/1)

Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 31 January 2010

1. Rihanna / Loud
2. OST / Burlesque OST
3. Bruno Mars / Doo-Wops ＆ Hooligans
4. Taylor Swift /Speak Now
5. Michael Jackson / Michael
6. PiNK / Greatest Hits
7. Lady Gaga / The Monster
8. Charice / Charice
9. V.A. / V.I.P. Hot R&B Hip-hop Trax 7
10. Black Eyed Peas / The Beginning

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

I've been away for a while. I missed updating international album charts for the last couple of weeks. However, I'm back here and will update Oricon chart every week from now on!

Apart from Rihanna at #1 spot, this week's Top 10 chart doesn't look that different from the last chart of the last year.

Looking at Top 30, Adele's second album "21" was released one week earlier in Japan and only reached #17. If you live in the UK, you would know the album is currently storming the UK chart. Its mid-week sales surpasses sales of the other Top 10 albums' sales combined. Adele is not a small artist in Japan. Her first album sold well here. But I think generally UK pop artists always get less attention than the US artists do. Adele is just one of the UK artists in my opinion. As I always mention, someone who is big in your country is not necessarily big in other countries.

skmtSocial project to go tomorrow!

A Happy New Year 2011! Although only one week of the 2011 went by by now, I have got some very exciting news about innovative music projects. Let me briefly introduce one of them.

You might know an Academy Award-winning Japanese composer/pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto. He is also a member of Japanese electro-pop band Yellow Magic Orchestra and said one of the most influencial musicians here in Japan. His pedigree shows he's been a great musician who seek the ways of releasing/showing/enjoying his own music in a very innovative manner.

So, "skmtSocial Project"(skmtsocial.com) is what I'd like to talk about today. Sakamoto is playing a double-header concert in Seoul, Korea named "Ryuichi Sakamoto Playing the Piano from Seoul/Korea 2011"  at 4pm and 8pm, 9th January (Japan time). The main event of the project is to stream the two concerts live from his Ustream channel (www.ustream.tv/channel/skmts). He have already ustreamed his North American dates last year, which was hugely successful. But now he is about to take a step forward. For this time, his fans are encouraged to hold a public viewing (PV) of the Seoul concerts! You are expected to "tick" many check points in advance. Here is some of them:

• find a reasonable place for PV
• clarify your PV is non-profitable
• apply for PV approval from a Japanese copyright collection society JASRAC.
• invite your friends or people who want to share the PV experience with you via twitter or other ways.

There are also various live streaming programmes on Ustream including streaming reheasal sessions, sound check and some "backstage stories" things.

This is so interactive and innovative. Here is one of the good examples - the other day a staff member was ustreaming and testing how streaming pictures of different quality can be seen by viewsers. Viewers were responding via twitter to him about how the pictures were like and he was adjusting the setting of his video camera in real time, that I expected would be used for the live streaming. This example clearly shows the project team effectively use the social media such as Twitter and Ustream to communicate participating fans. Fans are required a bit of work to get themselves involved in. However, once they jump in the project, it feels like you are really participating in and making an very exciting project together.

Above: "Moriage goods" - a blog part showing where on the map PVs take place in Japan.

The main event takes place tomorrow. However, skmtSocial Project already proves people are still up for things that get you so excited even though you need a bit of work beforehand. Sakamoto obviously succeeded in increasing your fans' engagement in the project *and* the musician through the project.

Most of the PVs take place in Japan but there are some PVs overseas including in the US and Europe. Please check the map on skmtsocial.com or you can watch live streaming at www.ustream.tv/channel/skmts. Hashtag on twitter for the event is #skmts