J-Pop – my first love

Written by Travis Chan

Left photo from http://www.reformatt.com/blog/tokyo-lifestyle

The last time I went to Tokyo in 2010 was also the last time I got to see the iconic billboard of British entertainment retailer HMV’s flagship store in Shibuya, which shut down that same year and has since been replaced by Forever 21 (right photo).

This was a major milestone in the Japanese music industry as it was an exemplification of the deteriorating state of the music industry, especially considering how Japan is the world’s second-largest music market after America.

Not only that, but walking along the streets of Shibuya today, I saw a familiar face looking down on me (literally) – a rather big one, at that. It was the then 15-year-old face of none other than popular singer Utada Hikaru plastered across the gargantuan billboard, which is also the cover to her debut album, “First Love”.

This may seem insignificant to the average traveller, but definitely not to the Japanese – “First Love” happens to be Japan’s best-selling album of all time, having sold over 7 million copies in Japan alone back in 1999. This album is largely dubbed as Japan’s equivalent of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, and “First Love” was given a re-release recently on 10 March 2014, the 15^th anniversary of its release.

Being a fan of Utada Hikaru’s music myself, nostalgic memories brought me back to the time in 2007 when I first discovered her music. Having debuted in an era where female pop singers were the biggest musical fad in Japan, Utada Hikaru was one of the few ladies who wrote, composed and arranged her music all by herself – that is, to me, the true hallmark of a talented musician.

I was feeling rather bittersweet too, as it was only recently that Utada Hikaru announced she was going on an indefinite hiatus, yet at the same time, only further seals her musical legacy in Japan. I’m sure most of us have at least heard her biggest hit, “First Love” at some point, or her more recent hits like 2007’s “Flavor of Life”.

Today also happens to be a Wednesday – an important day to Japanese pop music, as music CDs are traditionally released on Wednesdays in Japan. Music retailers would send in their sales numbers for each release every day to Oricon, the Japanese equivalent of Billboard in America, to be calculated, ranked and published on their website.

As a Japanese music fan, I would remember myself sitting in front of the computer when I was younger, constantly refreshing the front page of the Oricon website, hoping that my favourite singer would get the #1 spot that day.

As you walk along the roads in Shibuya, more often than not, you would see the occasional truck with advertisements of upcoming music releases in Japan, and trust me, they're not that hard to spot – not when they're blasting the songs through powerful speakers loud enough for passers-by to take notice. This method is actually considered one of the most basic forms of promotion for a musical release, which is interesting because there is no other country I can think of that does this.

Despite consistent promotional efforts by record companies, the Japanese music industry has changed drastically over the past few years. As with the rest of the world, people are buying lesser and lesser music in physical format, opting for digital formats instead as they are cheaper and more portable.

While singers could easily sell a few million copies of their CDs from the early to mid 2000s, today, selling half a million copies of an album even for veteran singers are pretty much non-existent. To put things in perspective, 2003’s best-selling album in Japan sold a total of 2,001,917 copies, while last year’s best-selling album sold merely 796,525 copies.

Japanese pop music is unique enough to be an entire genre on its own, and as an avid follower of the music industry here, I still remain optimistic that one day, J-Pop will restore its former glory and reclaim its musical throne in Asia after the K-Pop wave.