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.