Due to a lack of time to post news on Akihabaranews, I had to take some time off to focus on reviewing certain hardware send to us. Now I found a little gap in my schedule to keep you guys up2date with the latest trends in Japan’s music charts.

Giving your song or band an English name is still a very “格好いい”( Kakkoi = cool) trend in Japan. Even if the way its put together doesn’t always make sense. Funny thing here is, Lady GaGa’s “Born this way” album they translate in Katakana, native Japanese music groups/singers they tend to leave in English..  This is Japan people

In the singles department:

1.  Ｅｖｅｒｙｂｏｄｙ -　ｇｏ – ｋｉｓ－ｍｙ－ｆｔ２
2.  Ｃｒｙ – ＤｉＶＡ
3.  君だけは離さない – 超新星 (Just don’t speak – Supernova)
4.  ＲＥＡＤＹ！！ – ７６５ＰＲＯ　ＡＬＬＳＴＡＲＳ
5.  マル・マル・モリ・モリ！ – 薫と友樹、たまにムック。(Maru maru mori mori! – Yuki & Kaoru ft. Mook)
6.  メキ☆ラブ – 超新星 (Love Meki – Supernova)
7.  ああ、夜が明ける – Ｂｅｒｒｙｚ工房 (Oh when night comes – Beryz Kobo)
8.  ＨＵＲＲＩＣＡＮＥ – Ｌｅａｄ
9.  ＲＵＮ　ＦＯＲ　ＹＯＵ – ＫＡＴ－ＴＵＮ
10. 君が辻／夢の扉  – サーターアンダギー (Mr. Tsuji – Dream door)

When looking at the annual list of singles (1y span, not strictly from the start of 2011) we can see girls group AKB48 and boys band Arashi (嵐) dominating the top 10 ranking with a total of 4 entries for the AKB girls and 6 entries for Arashi’s boys in the top 10.

Furthermore noticeably is the fact that the incredibly popular anime series K-on! & the second season (K-on!!) are still improving their track record. The HTT (Ho-kago Tea Time) band from K-on! Was so successful that almost every intro/outro & in-series song they produced went solid gold in airplay. In the annual ranking we still find  5 of their greatest tracks varying from position 39 up to 95, repectively “Go! Go! Maniac”/ “No, Thank You!”/ “Listen !!” / “Utauyo! Miracle”/ “Gohan wa okazu”.

In the album department:

1.  Ｒａｙ　Ｏｆ　Ｈｏｐｅ – 山下達郎        (Tatsuro Yamashita)
2.  Ｍ　ＢＥＳＴ – 加藤ミリヤ            (Miliyah Kato)
3.  ＳＯ　ＢＥＡＳＴ – ＢＥＡＳＴ
4.  ＢＡＢＹ　ＡＣＴＩＯＮ – ＳＣＡＮＤＡＬ
5.  ＺＯＮＥトリビュート～君がくれたもの～ – Ｖａｒｉｏｕｓ　Ａｒｔｉｓｔｓ (ZONE Tribute, What you gave us – V.A.)
6. ＳｕｇａｒｌｅｓｓⅡ – スガシカオ (Suga)
7.  Ｃ’ｍｏｎ – Ｂ’ｚ
8.  ＹＯＵ – ＪＵＪＵ
9.  ＧＩＲＬＳ’　ＧＥＮＥＲＡＴＩＯＮ – 少女時代 (Girls Generation)
10. ボーン・ディス・ウェイ – レディー・ガガ (Born this way – Lady GaGa)

Analysis on the albums top 10: Ray of Hope from Tatsuro Yamashita isn’t much of a surprise to hit the Nr1 spot in the box office. Tatsuro brings a mix of American pop/rock music to the plate. Tatsuo has been in the music business since 73’, produced many singles & albums of which most hit the Nr1 spot on the JP billboard.

2^nd place was Miliyah Kato (stage name) or just Miho (birth name). She is well known for pop and urban songs. Her style is clearly influenced by the big American hip hop and R&B producers. Her popularity reaches well over 1 million singles and over 500 000 albums sold in the course of her career, expecting her new album ‘M BEST’ to push the bar even further.

3^rd is something different, BEAST is a South Korean boys group. Their style is K-pop, dance/electro & some hip hop blended in-between. Their latest album only hit the shelves August 10^th this year, quite impressive results for such a short period on sale. I expect this album to go higher than 3^rd place in the course of the coming weeks.

Note: Some Japanese names have been translated by google or my very basic ‘I-can-order-food’level Japanese.. Thus, I cannot guarantee an exact English meaning.

Note²: Feel free to suggest me if this way of reproducing the Japanese songs with the English translation is better than the last time I posted this type of news.