Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Oricon Top 10 CD Singles of 2018


1.  AKB48                        Teacher Teacher
2.  AKB48                        Sentimental Train
3.  Nogizaka46                 Synchronicity
4.  Nogizaka46                 Jikochu de Ikō!
5.  AKB48                        No Way Man
6.  AKB48                        Jabaja
7.  Nogizaka46                 Kaerimichi wa Tōmawari Shitaku Naru
8.  Keyakizaka46             Glass wo Ware!
9.  Keyakizaka46             Ambivalent
10.  King & Prince          Cinderella Girl



4 comments:

  1. This is not healthy, when the whole music scene is dominated by a few groups, not to mention that these groups are similar. I prefer more varieties.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, Larry.

      I will be honest and say that I've also been a bit concerned that the same alphabet groups have basically taken over the yearly Oricon charts for the past few years. It's fine if the people really do enjoy AKB48, Nogizaka46 and the rest but I've been reading about a lot of "ballot stuffing" in terms of sales.

      Then again, Oricon hasn't and shouldn't be the end-all and be-all for determining how good singers and bands are, although it's of course a gauge in how financially successful an artist has been. I think because of the recent Oricon charts, people have been looking harder at other acts in other genres regardless of them.

      Delete
    2. Just to continue my response, on J-Wiki it seems that the singles list for the year has been split into CD and then download sales. The download list is quite a bit more variegated, and again, if I'm not mistaken, I think that could reflect the number of fans who buy multiple copies of CDs to get some sort of ballot to vote for their favourite AKB member...and then throw away the CD! You can take a look at this article:

      https://soranews24.com/2018/06/01/idol-group-akb48-sells-2-5-million-copies-of-new-cd-bags-full-of-them-end-up-in-trash-days-later/

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    3. Yeah, my Japanese teacher mentioned it before. These sales were skewed because of fans buying multiple copies because they’re incentivized.

      Thanks for digging into the numbers. I’ve heard that Japanese still get their music thru traditional media, unlike US where streaming (renting) seems to be the media of choice.

      Delete

Feel free to provide any comments (pro or con). Just be civil about it.