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.

Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (13/12)

Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 13 December 2010

1. Black Eyed Peas / The Beginning
2. Bon Jovi / Bon Jovi Greatest Hits
3. Taylor Swift /Speak Now
4. My Chemical Romance / Danger Days
5. Jamiroquai / Rock Dust Light Star
6. Rihanna / Loud
7. Lady Ga Ga / The Monster
8. Nelly / 5.0
9. V.A. / What's Up Greatest Hits
10. Norah Jones / Featuring

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

Kanye West "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy", which was crowned Pitchfork's "Best New Music" with an amazing 10.0 review, reached only #14 in this chart. US Rap/Hip-hop is one of the most popular genre here but Kanye is not that popular compared to his popularity in the rest of the key music markets. On the other hand, Black Eyed Peas has well done really. They even successfully managed to get in Top 10 all Japan album chart, which covers both domestic and international releases. For your information, they headlined one of two biggest festivals Summer Sonic few years ago and I think their popularity remains high regarding this week's chart.

Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (6/12)

Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 6 December 2010

1. Bon Jovi / Bon Jovi Greatest Hits
2. My Chemical Romance / Danger Days
3. Taylor Swift /Speak Now
4. Utada / Utada the Best
5. Beast / Beast - Japan Edition
6. Jamiroquai / Rock Dust Light Star
7. Rihanna / Loud
8. Norah Jones / Featuring
9. Ne-Yo / Libra Scale
10. Linkin Park / A Thousand Suns

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

Oh my god, this week was the first week for Japanese version of the Kings Of Leon's "Come Around Sundown" and it went to #26. I expected its chart position for the first week could be like #26 but might be higher at the same time. What do you think about the chart position? I was honestly so surprised...

Billboard Japan's new chart system launched

Billboard Japan announced this week that they introduced new chart system. You can check their PR (released on Dec 01, Japanese only) here. According to the PR, Hot 100 chart now covers iTS' sales as well as physical sales and airplays (airplays? really? it isn't sales fig, is it?!). They now collect sales figures from 4,100 music shops on/off line. There are some other changes and the launch of new chart "Hot Animation".  I'm not particularly passionate about checking Billboard Japan chart but if you are, you can check here.

Oricon - Weekly International Album Chart (1/11)

Weekly International Album Chart (Japan) - 1 November 2010

1. The Beatles / The Beatles 1967-1970
2. The Beatles / The Beatles 1962-1966
3. David Foster / David Foster Presents Love Again
4. The Beatles / The Beatles 1962-1970
5. JYJ / The Begining
6. VA/ DJ KAORI'S INMIX VI
7. Linkin Park / A Thousand Suns
8. Maroon 5 / Hands All Over
9. Eric Clapton / Clapton
10. Bruno Mars / Doo Wops & Hooligans

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

The Beatles take over the chart (as widely expected). Nothing exciting in Top 10 but Top 30. Kings Of Leon's long-awaited 5th album "Come Around Sundown" positioned at #17, which is pretty amazing to me. You'd think "What?! It's amazing?! That's the no.1 album in the UK!!". Yes, you're right. But here is the fact: they are far less popular in Japan for some reasons. I have to tell you that they're known amongst the Japanese rock fans that they are big in many countries *except* Japan. I won't name other bands of which this time but there are a lot of that sort of cases. Another point I'd like to make is that I don't think the album has been well promoted here. They appeared on the cover of an indie rock/club music magazine Snoozer, which was nice. Apart from that, however, their Japan label seems less passionate about promoting the album. At least less than about the Hurts' debut album, which got a tie-up with a TV drama and a lot of TV spots. Bearing these things in mind, #17 is still a good position for them as far as I can tell.

*edit (30/10): Japanese version of "Come Around Sundown" is actually set to release on 24 November. It means only sales of imported CDs were reflected to this week's chart. I assume their Japanese label delibrately sets the release date one month behind its original release date. Think this way: the album released one month earlier in the US and the UK and it's easy to assume that it would go straight to the #1 (2 or 3) in the album charts of these two countries. Then the Japanese label would release PR (as they already did: ro69.jp/news/detail/42308), which raises the band's profile and makes bigger buzz in Japan ahead of the Japanese release date. Let me see what will happen when it goes on sale.

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/