I'm looking forward to the results of your research, and would ask if, without violating copright, you could make your source material available to the rest of us.

I cant say I'm surprised at all about your initial notice regarding songs debuting at #1. Considering this though I'd caution you against seeing this as evidence of conspiracy. This is a command and control market, collusion is the norm rather than the deviation.

Anyways, lets see what you find.

Considering this though I'd caution you against seeing this as evidence of conspiracy. This is a command and control market, collusion is the norm rather than the deviation.

My research is about industrial organization and its effect on the music market, so finding "conspiracy" is not the goal. I'm looking for specific evidence of collusion and barriers to entry.

How will you distinguish collusion from cooperation? Perhaps the social networks are so tightly coupled in Japan that they process new information very rapidly.

This page on diffusion of innovations may also be of interest. Perhaps it's old hat.

Could it be the case that "content is not king" in the J-Pop world? Perhaps it is exactly all about everyone liking the same hit song at the same time. Perhaps the medium, or the social network (what we would call collusion), is the message of J-Pop.

How will you distinguish collusion from cooperation? Perhaps the social networks are so tightly coupled in Japan that they process new information very rapidly.

Well, clearly Johnny's Entertainment has a close connection to Music Station. In the West, we have payola laws that generally attempt to (but not always succeed at) creating an independent media. My research is not about saying that having media-producer collusion is "bad" as much as it showing how it changes the way products diffuse and are consumed.

(Yes, I know about Rogers.)

Perhaps it is exactly all about everyone liking the same hit song at the same time.

Well, content is not king. But it's not about "everyone" liking the same thing either - it may be about everyone only receiving information about certain products. Etc.

My research is not about saying that having media-producer collusion is "bad" as much as it showing how it changes the way products diffuse and are consumed.

An interesting comparison may be personal electronics. In the late 90's I was struck by the great diversity of electronics products available in Japan. It was like witnessing the Cambrian Explosion. I don't think there was a great deal of fundamental innovation going on at the level of new technology, more like a kind of cut-and-paste of functionalities to produce all kinds of strange PDAs, video-cams, digital cameras etc... But I wondered about (a) how companies could bring bring a new cycle of products to market every 6 months or so and (b) how the market could support the manufacture of a continuous flux of new artefacts.

I'm not sure there is as much magic morphing going on in personal electronics as there was a few years ago (my impression anyways, and I'm not really following it closely) but Japan is still the world leader in this area. Quite different from the situation in music.

A quick tip - if you can find electronic copies of the Oricon data (PDF or HTML), it's almost certain that you should be able to cut and paste into Excel (the tools are there in Acrobat, you have to find 'select table'). This should save you a lot of time. (I hope it's not too late!)

Billboard sells its data electronically. Oricon does not. I wrote them to make sure before I made all the copies.

BTW-
to "sparkligbeatnic " it's the pre-cambrian explosion

Gosh, I wonder what figure Marxy will find in the carpet this time? It's tantalising waiting for him to crunch all that raw data, isn't it, because literally any interpretation might emerge. Will the data confirm his thesis, or be discarded?

Hi Josh,

the Cambrian was relatively brief (compared to the Pre-Cambrian, at least) period when a lot happened.

Here's a quote from the Wikipedia:

The Cambrian is the earliest period in whose rocks are found numerous large, distinctly-fossilizable multicellular organisms that are more complex than sponges or medusoids. During this time, roughly fifty separate major groups of organisms or "phyla", including almost all the basic body plans of modern animals, emerged suddenly, in most cases without evident precursors. This radiation of animal phyla is referred to as the Cambrian explosion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambrian

What about those Tsutaya Top 20 playlists that air late night on tv? Are they for real, or are they close to the Oricon Top 100 lists?

Gosh, I wonder what figure Marxy will find in the carpet this time? It's tantalising waiting for him to crunch all that raw data, isn't it, because literally any interpretation might emerge. Will the data confirm his thesis, or be discarded?

Momus, you've crossed a line by asserting the idea that I would cook my data to find whatever I'm looking for.

You project your own petty, base motivations for intellectual pursuits onto the rest of us who have an honest interest in describing and explaining the world.

[redacted]

I respect your perspectives on my writing, and I've learned a lot in the process of my blog, but I would hope that as a man in his 40s you could someday get over the threat of a nobody with a blog half your age. Most people your age act as mentors to people my age - they don't throw pebbles and then run away scared.

Oops, this is getting slightly ugly for my tastes.

Yeah I was a bit surprised to see that comment from Momus, because clearly Marxy's excited about getting his project underway and it looks like a lot of time-consuming work. Bias is a consideration in checking the validity of any study, but I'd prefer to wait to see what Marxy comes up with before accusing of him of that.

On the flip side, Marxy, that's a pretty harsh retort. Are you taking the quip too personally? Momus' stock in trade is mockery. This kind of comment can be expected now and then. Maybe he was up all night with squid nightmares or something.

Oops, this is getting slightly ugly for my tastes.

Me too. I try to keep my cool, but can only take so many personal attacks before I crack.

This blog is mainly me writing about something and all of you yelling at me about it, but the implication that I'm being dishonest with my real research was over the line. As you said, I would like to present my conclusions before you all start yelling "bias" or "ethno-centrism" or whatever you want to use this time to debase me.

This blog is mainly me writing about something and all of you yelling at me about it

Please show me where in this thread I'm yelling.
Alternate ideas, disagreement, suggestions, yes. Yelling, no. What would be the point of that?

I also suspect there is another interpretation of Momus' comment and that it may not, in fact, have been intended as a personal attack. But I'll let him answer it.

Actually I believe that the character or tone of interactions in an electronic medium is strongly influenced by what's known as affordances,
what the user perceives as being the possible modes of interactions.

On neomarxisme, you post theses while we, by and large, post critiques. We cannot iniate threads so it naturally leads to a certain kind of non-reciprocal character of the interaction. I'm not necessarily saying you should open this up so that anyone can start a thread, though it might be an interesting experiment. But I am saying that the format naturally invites criticism.

But how much fun would it be if your posts received only applause?

Anyways, in my opinion, neomarxisme is currently a very good place to find intelligent, focussed debate on an issue that interests me - Japanese society.

p.s. Bias is not an invective, but presents a serious and difficult to avoid challenge that must be considered in any good experimental design. The Wikipedia article is quite a good starting, in case this is not old hat.

Yelling, no. What would be the point of that?

I welcome critique, and the occasional mockery, but I'm pretty bored with getting attacked personally for what I consider to be, at least, reality-based viewpoints on Japan.

To say "Japan is controversial" would be an understatement - I've never seen less agreement between people on a website. Everyone chips away at the arguments from their own perspective. I'm happy with this, but I am frustrated by a certain you-know-who trying to paint me as a paranoid, Japan-bashing, intellectually-dishonest hyper-liberal at every possible opportunity.

after reading Momus's "Vice" bit, I was wondering if he could sink any lower. I dont have to wonder any more. To quote my favorite American philosopher: "Wadda maroon!"

Yes Momus, once again I dont mind personally calling you out on your stupidity even when its not directed at me. I'm not standing up for marxy or any such thing, its just that I have a really low level of tolerance for fools who talk endlessly about things they have no experience of, yet mock those who make an effort to to learn something on their own.

I guess I should make some effort to be nice though, so I'll compliment your skills as a BS artist. It seems you have made a career out of it and it looks like you have your admirers. Some of your output is even entertaining, maybe its just those small town blues getting you down, keeping you being in top form. I hope your impending return to the comfort and security of the big city will refresh you and sharpen up your wit once again.

This blog is mainly me writing about something and all of you yelling at me about it

At the beginning of this thread, I wasnt yelling at you. Maybe I've been here long enough that colusion seems normal to me, just how business is done. I really do want to see your slant on this data, its an interesting issue and I hope also to see your methodology.

I take back "yelling." I meant it as hyperbole.