That's disgusting.

must have been a rerelease year.

Like they need the money.

Damn...! Now that's the ultimate proof that Oricon is real crap.

(You guys know that this chart isn't real, but satirical, right....?)

Too subtle.

shall i go find a corner now.

The real Oricon charts, however, look sadly similar.

i don't understand how orange range is so popular.

i don't understand how orange range is so popular.

The Japanese music market is essentially kids under 18 with no musical taste to speak of. Have you ever tried actually listening to Hamasaki Ayumi?

People in Japan have a very different amount of daily dosage than people outside Japan. Obviously a lot of people can go a lifetime without hearing B'z and be all the better for it.

I for one don't have to hear any Ayumi Hamasaki inadvertantly, so I'm not set against her constructed charms if I don't have to hear and see it all the time.

I think I've become desensitized to most of the bad stuff. Or maybe I've gotten soft? For example, look at Morning Musume. Awful. Just totally horribly terrible. So compared to that, Hamasaki Ayumi is palatable. I can't rant about performers like B'z or Otsuka Ai when there are so many others that are infinitely worse. Exile? How sad is it that your only hit is an almost note-for-note remake of a song that's only a few years old and was shitty to begin with? You'll turn out to be an 一発屋 just like the original band, ZOO.

For years, the most cynical people always have scoffed at mainstream pop music and said "it's not really music," and I think this can be said in terms of market analysis. The appeal of Morning Musume or Hamasaki Ayumi has little to do with the music itself - that's just the product and promotional vehicle for buying into the phenomenon. If someone else covered a MM song, they wouldn't make it anywhere. Music is not just judged on the music, and obviously if extraneous factors are more important than musical content, MM and Avex will always win.

The sad thing is if you thus take out all this non-music from the charts, there is little left. I think all that seishun punk rock is bad, but I do think they are honestly trying to write and sell "music."

As much as Britney Spears' appeal is detached from her songs, she has had some decent people do things for her. Has MM or any of those idols lately had a song as good as "Toxic" or as memorable as "Oops, I did it Again." That's a low bar I'm setting, but everyone on the Jpop scene fails...

somebody should kick my ass because i like morning musume too much, but that's the way it is. i like pop music, and while i doubt i will care much for the same songs in ten years time, it makes everyday living nicer, like a cultural convenience or something.

didn't anybody like 'the manpower', mm's last single? i thought it was a little more inventive than the standard tsunku songs, or chart jpop for that matter. not killer compared to the groups' "heyday", but oh well.

britney isn't too bad. the songs she's releasing seem to be getting better, past the 'overprotected' and 'stronger' phase... (i been playing too much britney's dance beat...)