Make Believe Melodies For September 23, 2024
The "Is J-pop Having A Hit Drought Season?" Edition
This week let’s mix it up, because leading off with this helps out thematically…
Oricon Trail For The Week Of September 09 2024 To September 15, 2024
Back in the day, the Oricon Music Charts were the go-to path to music stardom in Japan. Acts of all sorts traversed these lands, trying to sell as many CDs as possible in order to land a good ranking on a chart choosing to only count physical sales, even as the Internet came to be and the number of versions offered for sale got ridiculous. Today, with the country finally in on digital, these roads are more barren and only looked at by the most fanatic of supporters needing something to celebrate. Yet every week, a new song sells enough plastic to take the top spot. So let’s take a trip down…the Oricon Trail.
WEST. — “Maaikka!” (242,275 Copies Sold)
Are we experiencing a hit drought in Japan right now?
Oricon is best interpreted as a fandom chart at this point, and something like “Maaikka!” represents the triumph of a certain collective of people rather than reflecting the “zeitgeist,” if that’s at all possible in late 2024. You will not hear this song in public save for 30-second ad snippets in Lawson or if you go into the STARTO store in Shibuya. That WEST. itself can command such high sales is noteworthy…but not the whole story, and it’s really all that this part of the Oricon Chart can offer.
Where Oricon still provides value is the combined charts, the still-hilarious proposition of “what if we also counted, like, internet stuff, in our ranking?” Usually, the physical sellers manage to take the top spot, but you can see the actual disruption right behind it. Yet this week, the top five combined singles is nearly identical to physical only, save for back number performing better than idol project SUPER DRAGON (which tumbles a bit). There should be something in this bracket shaking it up, and offering a more well-rounded glance at musical realities in J-pop. Yet maybe it’s not there…
Typically in recent years, you can expect two massive J-pop hits a year. Last year for example, the first half of the year (and then some) was defined by “Idol,” but the fall and early winter ended up belonging to Ado’s “Show.” It looked like 2024 was following a familiar trajectory given the omnipresence of Creepy Nuts up until August…but surely a new song should be emerging now to take us out of summer, right?
I think something went haywire this summer, and you can pick up on it as you scroll down the aforementioned Oricon Combined Singles chart. If there’s been a shift away from “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born,” it hasn’t been to any individual song but rather a band…Mrs. GREEN APPLE, who absolutely weathered the “Columbus” kerfluffle1 and came out mostly unscathed. I guess “Lilac” would be the closest thing to a second-half super hit, but even then it’s more about GREEN APPLE’s body of work rather than one song. Here’s the Spotify Japan Top 50 at time of writing:
That’s 60 percent GREEN APPLE! “Lilac” has the most plays…but that’s hardly a huge gap between one and two. Peak “Idol” days were like, hundreds of thousands separating them from everyone else. The non-APPLE inclusions are telling too. A super forgettable solo BTS song propped up by fans, long-running rockers back number (sorta Johnny GREEN APPLE Seed), the latest from Number-I which we can table for a bit, and a six-year-old Yorushika song2.
What’s going on? This feels weird, especially compared to recent years. A few potential contributing factors:
Fragmentation of J-pop has truly broken apart to a point where, at least for now, it’s harder to transform into a unifying hit. There’s been a few songs that have come close to bigger mainstream moves after gaining steam online — Kocchi No Kento’s “Hai Yorokonde” and Suisei Hoshimachi’s “BIBBIDIBA” — but I feel they both hit a ceiling in like, getting coverage on mainstream news shows. I think two years ago, they take that leap up. Now though, they pretty much have the same YouTube views as “Mesmerizer,” something that seems definitely not built for old-fashioned ideas of the mainstream…but is way closer to it in 2024.
I’m not sure there’s been a big media hit period in Japan since the start of the summer? Again, lots of fragmentation coupled with other activities to keep one’s interest (the Olympics, baseball, the LDP internal elections), but I can think of lots of popular dramas and anime…but not like VIVANT, Silent or Oshi No Ko season one3 sized hits, which were inescapable. Corresponding themes, then, aren’t quite hitting.
This sounds silly but I think it’s right…today, Sunday, September 22 when I started drafting this, is the first day in forever where temperatures didn’t creep into the 30s Celsius. This was the hottest summer on record in Japan…and it lingered for most of September. Call me coo-coo, but I actually do think seasonal change helps usher in musical shifts, especially for pop. We might just be getting to that point.
A tiredness of familiar names and sounds. The biggest names in J-pop of the last few years have been YOASOBI, Ado, Fujii Kaze and even to some level Mrs. GREEN APPLE. All of them have mostly been in the spotlight over the last three years…so I think listeners have reached a natural “OK, let’s take a break from this.” It’s a tough situation for artists — I’d urge all of them to take like six months off, but also internet moves way too fast now — but I do think listeners just want something a little different, at least to mix it up.
Maybe the rest of 2024 ends up low key, with people sitting at home content to loop 12 Mrs. GREEN APPLE songs until they can bust out the new calendar. That’s super boring though. So instead…let’s imagine what could be next for J-pop in the final stretch of the year, and how it points towards the future beyond that.
Number_i — “INZM”
Male pop groups haven’t gone anywhere in the 2020s of J-pop, but like music in general have witnessed a drastic shift in the well-choreographed landscape. Acts from STARTO continue to tower over this space, particularly Snow Man. Yet new names from upstart agencies, along with projects created between Japanese and Korean companies have emerged. Factor in the continued presence of LDH, and you have a crowded corner.
What hasn’t happened, though, is any of these groups really delivering a song on that year-defining level. Fans will point at sales alone which, great, but that’s only part of the story. Then factor in international attention, and you realize that in the 2020s, male J-pop still could use a true breakout.
The biggest potential for that happening gets ratcheted up today. Number-i’s debut album arrived this Monday, and a cursory listen reveals a set of songs highlighting the trio’s range, with a surprising focus on minimalism. The best moments, though, remain the ones plunging into maximalism, whether accenting it with Japanese touches (“BON”) or going steely (“Numbers”). It’s partially why Number_i feels like they could invigorate male J-pop — helped by savvier marketing and an awareness of needing to push outward from the beginning to gain buzz — and why a rock-glazed cut such “INZM” could blow up into something bigger. Male J-pop groups have been big…but this is the sort of specific pivot that could push it to somewhere more prominent. Listen above.
tuki. — “Love expiration date”
Last year, singer-songwriter tuki. scored one of the biggest hits of 2024 (and a sneaky candidate for back-half tune of the year) with an acoustic meditation. How to follow it up? Well, by merging traditional Japanese sounds with buzzsaw-style modern production.
A fantastic song in my humble opinion, but one that might have been too jarring for those familiar with her as “melancholy girl playing guitar.” Well, it seems like tuki. and company noticed (or have been playing the long game), because her next single is called “Love expiration date,” and it’s an answer song to her 2023 breakout. Now, the version presented now is an “acoustic version” so maybe this is going to be a curveball and feature like, distorted shakuhachi layered on one another, but I have a feeling it’s just going to add drum and maybe a splash of electric guitar.
Yet it could signal a vibe shift — it has been a minute since a truly melancholy or outright sad song (this one’s about a doomed relationship) has been a season-defining hit, so why not this one, which builds off an existing smash? Bonus points for the opening line “stop scrolling through TikTok” which really, is maybe something a lot of people need to hear. Listen above.
Koresawa — “Motokanojo No Minasama He”
Koresawa was just ahead of the curve in the 2010s. This artist hides her identity (often via oversized mascot head), relies on animated music videos and has a knack for exploring the forlorn from an interesting perspective. Shift her timeline up so it corresponds with COVID-19 a bit more, and she could be a fundamental player in this new era of J-pop. Still…plenty of time to get involved, and this upbeat (but slightly disorienting…some great guitar tones helping it rollick ahead) tune has been gaining steam and climbing up streaming charts. Listen above.
Awich — “Are You Serious?”
Can Japanese rap earn a boost…through Netflix??? Awich created the ending theme to the streamer’s latest Japanese heavyweight program The Queen Of Villains, and if it proves to be a hit there’s definitely a chance the Okinawa MC’s song rises up with it. It helps that recent attention has fallen on Japanese rap thanks to Yuki Chiba, and there’s also a chance her recent appearance on XG’s remix of “Woke Up” which crams as many Japanese MCs onto the track as possible could catch attention with more general pop listeners. Japanese songs still benefit from being tied up with some sort of other media, and this wrestling drama has potential to be a hit. Listen above.
Yuuri — “Curtain Call”
Though if we’re talking other art forms assisting music…anime remains the force in the 2020s. Yuuri’s fast-paced “Curtain Call” serves as the opening song for the latest season of My Hero Academia which started airing two months ago, but the song itself has been moving up streaming charts recently, hitting #10 on Spotify at time of writing. Think of that as a boost that could go up a notch with an original video from an artist who still has a huge following based off more stripped-down ballads. Yet this would be a chance for a slightly different name to bask in the animated light. Listen above.
Creepy Nuts — “Otonoke”
What if…my feeling that people want different sounds is totally wrong?
The funniest possible song to break through and close the year as a smash hit would be another anime theme from Creepy Nuts. You can hear what is allegedly “Otonoke,” the theme to the forthcoming Dan Da Dan series above — ripped from a live theater screening somewhere? Wow, fans putting in the work — and it contains all the elements that made “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” a hit, with smooth guitar licks. These two are good at what they do…and the people could want to keep the party going into 2025. Listen above.
Also, this could very well end up being a YOASOBI song too, but that’s predictable.
issey — “MoeChakkaFire”
What if we are looking in the wrong place? What if the hits…are being inspired by free-to-play Chinese video games?
Easily one of the oddest viral songs of the year, Vocaloid-born producer issey’s chugging “MoeChakkaFire” has powered its way up viral charts in September. It’s an aggressive, metal-bordered “character song” for some sort of shark lady from the title Zenless Zone Zero, which I know nothing about. I have had a weird vantage point in watching this song grow, though, as in a weird bit of timing (and a full disclosure) a company I work with has started doing English PR for issey before “MoeChakkaFire” came out. And I don’t think it’s revealing anything to say everyone has been caught off guard4.
It represents the continued sonic diversity flowing out of the post-Vocaloid internet music landscape, and highlights how new ideas can bubble up. “MoeChakkaFire” is more rubber-to-the-road, mixing club beats with hard rock breakdowns, topped off by issey’s own gruff delivery. It’s not radically far off from YOASOBI or Ado, but done with a very different palette.
Maybe it keeps pushing up charts, or maybe issey flames out here. That’s not the focus — rather, it’s a reminder that a hit can come out of anywhere in the 2020s, and it can sound like anything. Listen above.
Amaiwana — “Shanghai Girl”
One wild card pick from the indie side of Japanese music, that’s more of an excuse to call a different shot. Amaiwana exists in the wonky rock zone CHAI once owned and she reminds me a bit of early ZOMBIE-CHANG. She’s everywhere in the Tokyo live community, and works closely with Ginger Root, whose only getting more popular in Japan (and who will bring Amaiwana out for a few of his North American dates later this Fall). She seems poised to be the next “underground darling,” and I bet she starts getting love from Western publications (uhhhh, the ones still going) soon. Her retro-tinged pop isn’t purely backwards looking, but rather interested in updating aged ideas for modern times. Listen above.
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News And Views
I’ve been dealing with a particularly nasty cough / throat illness over the past week, which has left me woozy and zonked out on whatever pills the local clinic throws at me. I’m on the upswing finally, but for a while there I was questioning everything owing to my condition. That included Nelly Furtado singing over a Mei Ehara sample.
Shout out Gio for the heads up. Perhaps hearing Furtado say “I like this!” over a sample of the Tokyo singer-songwriter would be less jarring if it was a Mei Ehara song from the last five years, when she started getting a little bit of attention from abroad (shout out Faye Webster). But nope…this sample is from when she was still called may.e, from the 2013 song “Anata” off the album Shiseikatsu. That’s a deep pull, and I’m wondering 1. are may.e’s early masterpieces finally getting unearthed (they are literally hard to find, though the Box she shared Shiseikatsu on remains active) and 2. how did this end up on a Nelly Furtado album???? Whatever the answer…I love it.
Mei Ehara appears on the forthcoming Hosono House Revisited, which had its full lineup and tracklist shared this week.
Perfume will reunite with Kaela Kimura — whose championing of early Perfume singles helped them breakthrough in the late 2000s — on a Sept. 29 radio show. On the topic of the trio, you better believe I’ll have album thoughts soon…but for now the teaser which sorta dips into the concept (??) of the concept album.
Kaz Kobayashi stepping down as President and CEO of Warner Music Japan later this year.
Nice review of a new compilation of Izumi Kobayashi songs. Also great excuse to share my interview with her!
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Follow the Best Of 2024 Spotify Playlist here!
Credit where credit is due…I think the group like acting on it within less than a day and basically moving forward worked out in the end. It made for a hella awkward week, but Mrs. GREEN APPLE have been chuggin’ along since.
Which, should be noted, is miles away the best number in this top ten.
Season two, airing now, is still very popular but lacks the sizzle of last year’s first run…though I think that’s also partially because this season goes for a more abstract focus / style that has made it a bit thornier to get through…but also like a thousand times better than season one, in my opinion (stay tuned for that review!)
Do you want to interview issey for your publication? Get in touch with me!