Japan: AKB48 with two all-time records in one week

[Fresh]

Japan: AKB48 with two all-time records in one week

With first week sales of 1,616,795 copies, AKB48's newly released "Manatsu No Sounds Good!" has set the record for the highest first week sales of a physical single.

The first day sales of "Manatsu No Sounds Good!" (1,170,554 copies) set a new record for most copies of a single sold in one day.

This release marks their 13th consecutive #1 single on the Oricon chart. They now have a total of 8 singles selling over a million copies.

The top 10 Japanese highest selling first week singles:

1. "Manatsu No Sounds Good!" (2012) - AKB48 - 1,616,795
2. "Flying Get" (2011) - AKB48 - 1,354,492
3. "Everyday, Kachusha" (2011) - AKB48 - 1,333,969
4. "Kaze Wa Fuiteiru" (2011) - AKB48 - 1,300,482
5. "Give Me Five!" (2012) - AKB48 - 1,287,217
6. "Namonaki Uta" (1996) - Mr. Children - 1,208,230
7. "Uekara Mariko" (2011) - AKB48 - 1,198,864
8. "Addicted To You" (1999) - Hikaru Utada - 1,067,510
9. "Dango 3 Kyoudai" (1999) - Kentaro Hayami, Ayumi Shigemori, Himawari Kids & Dango Gasshoudan - 1,025,740
10. "Winter, Again" (1999) - Glay - 955,780

[jszmiles]

Incredible sales for this group. But worth to mention is the fact that before them, the previous record's stood for 15 years!

[GUS argentino78]

Is it me or it seems that Japanese,Korean,etc pop music is very tacky, cheap and childish

[starshine90]

Is it me or it seems that Japanese,Korean,etc pop music is very tacky, cheap and childish

If I'm not wrong, only Korean's albums and singles are cheap, but Japanese's are even more expensive than States'.

[Nackar]

Is it me or it seems that Japanese,Korean,etc pop music is very tacky, cheap and childish

Way to generalize. Yes, mainstream idol pop is definitely clichéd, tacky and, IMO often childish.

ALL Japanese pop, however? Definitely not. Japanese music in general is just as good, original and innovative as other music. The media just shove this idol-pop concept down everyone's throat and it's hard to escape its grasp in mainstream media. There is definitely loads more worthwile, though.

[RunDevilRun]

Is it me or it seems that Japanese,Korean,etc pop music is very tacky, cheap and childish

Bitch, please! K-pop is far superior than anything on western radios thesedays. And don't judge Asian music based on AKB48. They are targeted to entertain horny old men, and that's why they are always almost naked, touching each other, doing horrible choreographies and dressing like a homeless.
And their sales are huge because they release several versions of their singles with different covers, and the hard core fans buy them all.

P.S. I like some AKB48 songs.
P.S.2 I am not a horny old man.

[Wayne]

Yeah, I listened to my fair share of J Pop - about 2 years ago, my friend was giving me a shed load of songs to try - and I have to tell you, I hated the majority of it. It actually sounded like novelty music.

As for K Pop, I've listened to one song - was crap.

[Nackar]

That's the whole thing, moreso than in the West the mainstream is dominated by carbon copy acts. You see people complain of all the dancepop in the US, try the millions of idol groups singing identical rehashes of bad 90s pop in the Oricon charts.

So yes, I will grant the terrible stuff is more in your face. But dig deeper and there's a wealth of great, innovative and original pop and rock artists!

Sorry for my rants, I just don't like seeing people dismiss an entire country's worth of music based on what we are exposed to in the West, which is often the bad part : p

[Maninthistown]

Is it me or it seems that Japanese,Korean,etc pop music is very tacky, cheap and childish

Its not you, asian pop really sucks.

[RunDevilRun]

Some people want to see the world burning.

[stevyy]

japanese people are insane.. when has a physical single sold 1,6 million copies in a western country? has elton ever done it with candle..I mean he's the only one in my head who seemed to be able to do that with that song.. i love it for the sake of the music industry.

with such sales.. the song should make it to the top 3 on mediatraffic.. if not.. then we see another example of how fake this chart is. (in reality.. it might be the best selling single worldwide this week.)

[Nackar]

japanese people are insane.. when has a physical single sold 1,6 million copies in a western country? has elton ever done it with candle..I mean he's the only one in my head who seemed to be able to do that with that song.. i love it for the sake of the music industry.

with such sales.. the song should make it to the top 3 on mediatraffic.. if not.. then we see another example of how fake this chart is. (in reality.. it might be the best selling single worldwide this week.)

To be honest, though, there are so many gimmicks attached to the physical CD single that it's hard to tell how many different people actually bought those 1,6 million + copies. I wouldn't be surprised if it were actually something like 500k distinct people, which is of course still massive, but then Japanese singles (especially from idols) are hugely frontloaded so in subsequent weeks it won't add much to its total (relatively!).

[Mars]

japanese people are insane.. when has a physical single sold 1,6 million copies in a western country? has elton ever done it with candle..I mean he's the only one in my head who seemed to be able to do that with that song.. i love it for the sake of the music industry.

with such sales.. the song should make it to the top 3 on mediatraffic.. if not.. then we see another example of how fake this chart is. (in reality.. it might be the best selling single worldwide this week.)

It will easily be number one on Mediatraffic with something like 800,000 points won't it?

[Nackar]

The previous highest-selling AKB48 track, Flying Get, is the track with the most points in one week in Mediatraffic history, at 770k points.

This song sold more than Flying Get did in total in its first week AND has higher iTunes downloads, so I expect it to do over 800k, indeed.

[Charter2000]

with such sales.. the song should make it to the top 3 on mediatraffic.. if not.. then we see another example of how fake this chart is. (in reality.. it might be the best selling single worldwide this week.)

Of course.

All of their songs during the last 12 months were #1 on Media Traffic...

They sould do more than 900k points.

[WolfSpear]

japanese people are insane.. when has a physical single sold 1,6 million copies in a western country? has elton ever done it with candle..I mean he's the only one in my head who seemed to be able to do that with that song.. i love it for the sake of the music industry.

with such sales.. the song should make it to the top 3 on mediatraffic.. if not.. then we see another example of how fake this chart is. (in reality.. it might be the best selling single worldwide this week.)

Basically, this is what the top 5 sales weeks for singles are in the US

1. Elton John - Candle In The Wind 1997 (3.4 million)
2. Flo Rida - Right Round (636,000)
3. Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You (632,000)
4. Kesha - Tik Tok (610,000)
5. Bruno Mars - Grenade (559,000)

[phoenix83]

japanese people are insane.. when has a physical single sold 1,6 million copies in a western country? has elton ever done it with candle..I mean he's the only one in my head who seemed to be able to do that with that song.. i love it for the sake of the music industry.

with such sales.. the song should make it to the top 3 on mediatraffic.. if not.. then we see another example of how fake this chart is. (in reality.. it might be the best selling single worldwide this week.)

Basically, this is what the top 5 sales weeks for singles are in the US

1. Elton John - Candle In The Wind 1997 (3.4 million)
2. Flo Rida - Right Round (636,000)
3. Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You (632,000)
4. Kesha - Tik Tok (610,000)
5. Bruno Mars - Grenade (559,000)

Given the relative populations of Japan and the US (off the top of my head), selling 1.6m in a week in Japan is roughly equivalent to 3.4m in the US in a week?

Edit: I checked and 1.6m is actually more per head of population.

Edit 2: Obviously I based that on the US population today, when CITW was released 15 yrs ago, when the US population was a bit smaller. So it is probably roughly equivalent. In any case though, that was a one-off single, it's amazing that this Japanese girl group have done it time and again there.

[biscuits]

Wow, ignorance in this thread!

J-Pop is brilliant!

[biscuits]

'Manatsu No Sounds Good!' is one of the better AKB48 songs I think.

[tada]

PHYSICAL singles

[IceAngel]

When it comes to crazy first week sales, no country can beat Japan!!

[Maninthistown]

with such sales.. the song should make it to the top 3 on mediatraffic.. if not.. then we see another example of how fake this chart is. (in reality.. it might be the best selling single worldwide this week.)

It will probably be #1, but i disagree, i really disagree with such methodology, i mean, it can sell 10 million copies in Japan, but how can it be the world's #1 song when 98% of the wolrds population lives outside Japan and will never hear the song in their lives. That fake site should focus more in POPULARITY, instead of sales, because we al know that sales per capita are not the same in every country, but still, if a country has a small market, it doesnt mean that there are no songs smashing over there, example: India. Well, at least if they want to be called a REAL "World" Chart. Now that site is just Crap.

[jochen]

physical? are you sure?

I thought japanese only do digital ...cos they always were ahead of their times.

weird, so they still buy cd singles there? wow

[stevyy]

with such sales.. the song should make it to the top 3 on mediatraffic.. if not.. then we see another example of how fake this chart is. (in reality.. it might be the best selling single worldwide this week.)

It will probably be #1, but i disagree, i really disagree with such methodology, i mean, it can sell 10 million copies in Japan, but how can it be the world's #1 song when 98% of the wolrds population lives outside Japan and will never hear the song in their lives. That fake site should focus more in POPULARITY, instead of sales, because we al know that sales per capita are not the same in every country, but still, if a country has a small market, it doesnt mean that there are no songs smashing over there, example: India. Well, at least if they want to be called a REAL "World" Chart. Now that site is just Crap.

i disagree.. they should solely build their chart on sales.. because the music industry is made of market chares per country.. and japan is by a large margin the second largest music market in the world. and as that it has a special position in the world.. because in japan more people buy music than in other countries.. of bigger or smaller population and size.

Europe, however, shud finally - but that is also a political point of view - create ONE european albums and singles chart.

[joiPrince_JO]

physical? are you sure?

I thought japanese only do digital ...cos they always were ahead of their times.

weird, so they still buy cd singles there? wow

Yes, they do.