JPOP: Competition Has Reached New Heights

Date: 12/29/06
Writer: akfgfan


2006 marked a critical year for pop stars. This year, featuring songs in TV shows, animes, and movies became almost an essential ingredient to success in the JPOP industry. The extra exposure guaranteed high rankings on Oricon and good sales. As a result, ‘manufactured’ stars and old veterans ranked highest in the music charts this year.

Of all of the artists, KAT-TUN dominated the JPOP scene. KAT-TUN consists of six men formed by Johnny & Associates Record Company. The group can sing, dance, and some even act on the side. KAT-TUN’s releases received much success! Their single "Real Face" sold over one million copies. If you couple this with their other two singles, the amount of copies sold soars to over two million! Their incredible success has been in part due to their constant exposure in television shows like Shonen Club; however, their talent in dancing and acting has also allowed them to ensnare and maintain a solid teenage fan base.

Artists Mika Nakashima, Yuna Ito, Olivia Lufkin, and Anna Tsuchiya took a new approach to their careers this year by aligning their selves with the production known as Nana. Nana, which started as a manga series, has blossomed into a series of movies and anime. Its popularity gave new spark to the four women’s careers. Together, all four women have released seven singles to date that were inspired by the story’s characters. Mika Nakashima recently took this a step further by releasing an entire album inspired by Nana titled "The End". Olivia Lufkin’s involvement with the project also allowed her to travel to the United States for a special performance at the PMX anime convention.

Some veteran artists made great come backs this year. Ken Hirai swamped stores with requests for his 10th anniversary Complete Singles Collection, which sold 2,070,766 copies. Kubokuro also released two hit albums, "Nameless World" and "All Singles Best".

As expected by many fans, Ayumi Hamasaki did quite well this year too. Like BoA, Ayumi’s popularity has waned a bit. Unlike BoA though, Ayumi pushed herself to release something new every three to four months. This has allowed Ayumi to maintain a line up of television appearances and a steady fan base. "(miss)understood", "Secret", and "Heaven" are just a few of the great works she released this year.

Overall 2006 has been a very competitive and rewarding year for many JPOP stars. Trends show that it is becoming increasingly important to have a song featured on a TV show or movie to gain popularity. Unfortunately, this may have adverse effects on the music industry and it will become more difficult for rising stars to make proper debuts.

With this in mind, I would like to close with a few upcoming stars to keep an eye on. First, please keep a special eye on the singer Younha. This past month she made a major debut in Korea with the appropriately titled single "Audition". She has an incredible raw talent that is bound to capture a large audience this coming year in both countries. Abingdon Boys School is another band to watch closely. The band is a new side project for T.M. Revolution that is bound to resurrect his career. Lastly, please look for new releases by WaT. WaT had initially started as a side project of Eiji and Teppei; however, their latest releases show a new found commitment. It is more than likely that WaT will become a major band with a lot of promise.

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