29 replies to this topic

[TheFrustrated]

This list is a list of Japan's 50 best selling artists UP TO 2005. So all sells after April 1st, 2005 aren't counted.
All single + album + collection sales in Japan (up to 2005)
From Music Station 2005.04.01 (REAL HAPPY TO SEE GLAY AT #7!)

Rank Artist Sale
1 B'z 75,614,000
2 Mr. Children 50,635,000
3 Southern All Stars 47,083,000
4 Hamasaki Ayumi 45,528,000
5 DREAMS COME TRUE 40,893,000
6 Matsutoya Yumi 37,790,000
7 GLAY 35,800,000
8 ZARD 35,450,000
9 Utada Hikaru 32,160,000
10 CHAGE & ASKA 31,220,000
11 Matsuda Seiko 29,260,000
12 GLOBE 28,600,000
13 SMAP 28,400,000
14 L'Arc~en~Ciel 25,760,000
15 Amuro Namie 25,750,000
16 Nakamori Akina 25,100,000
17 TUBE 23,880,000
18 Ohguro Maki 21,890,000
19 Every Little Thing 21,630,000
20 TRF 21,500,000
21 Nakajima Miyuki 21,310,000
22 KinKi Kids 20,790,000
23 Nagabushi Tsuyoshi 20,380,000
24 Makihara Noriyuki 19,830,000
25 SPEED 19,280,000
26 Fukuyama Masaharu 18,760,000
27 Itsuki Hiroshi 18,700,000
28 Kome Kome CLUB 18,320,000
29 SPITZ 18,290,000
30 MISIA 17,150,000
31 Yamaguchi Momoe 16,190,000
32 Himuro Kyosuke 15,710,000
33 Inoue Yosui 15,670,000
34 Sawada Kenji 15,660,000
35 Go Hiromi 15,620,000
36 Morning Musume 15,470,000
37 Mori Shinichi 15,400,000
38 CHECKERS 15,300,000
39 Imai Miki 15,220,000
40 Nakayama Miho 14,970,000
41 Kudou Shizuka 14,820,000
42 Koizumi Kyoko 14,230,000
43 Kuraki Mai 14,220,000
44 JUDY AND MARY 14,130,000
45 Matsuyama Chiharu 14,030,000
46 Yazawa Eikichi 13,930,000
47 WANDS 13,730,000
48 T-BOLAN 13,610,000
49 Mariah Carey 13,460,000
50 Takeuchi Mariya 13,400,000

SOURCE

[mangomalte]

so morning musume's at #36.
i actually thought that utada hikaru would be higher up than #9 for some reason. maybe because she's got the most sold album in japanese music history. 10 of those 32 millions were copies of First Love. and i mean, she's got the #1 album for 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2004. well, i guess she's actually higher up now that a couple of years have gone by. read on theppn that she's sold over 40 million copies.

and wow at B'z.... 75 million copies and Mr. Children comes in second with 50 million. that's just 1.5 times as much. there's actually bigger difference between #1 and #2 than between #2 and #15.

[sanrio]

3 Southern All Stars 47,083,000
13 SMAP 28,400,000
17 TUBE 23,880,000
22 KinKi Kids 20,790,000
36 Morning Musume 15,470,000

yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
especially #17 TUBE, my fav band!!!!!!!! they started their career in 1985 i think and still active now
great to knwo that they did so good
and happy that MM's in the top 50 as well~~~~

[JayBz]

yay L'arc ranks at 14 was hoping for a higher rank though
i see Mariah Carey as the only USA artist in there. There may be others havent looked at the list that well
plus Wow i know B'z was famous but i didnt know they were THAT famous. Huge gap from 1st to 2nd

[a740628]

Mr. Childern passed the 50 million mark in March this year. It was the 693k first week sales of the "Home" album that that took them over the threashold. Here is the article that Oricon published at the time.

http://contents.oric...ankmusic/43071/

At the bottom of the article there is a table noting career sales for the Top 5 all time best selling artists.



Those figures match the list above so perhaps those figure date from April 2007. 2005 figures they are not.

[Mimi_girl]

YAY for DREAMS COMES TRUE!

They were like our first japanese artist we got into when my big sister was still in high school .

[rpger81]

wtf Mariah Carey? I figured if an American was going to be on the list it would have been Michael Jackson. I guess he's not as popular in Japan as I thought Not really a fan of Mariah but congrats to her anyways I guess.

Thanks for the list btw!

[Shirow]

Where was Gackt? !

[a740628]

wtf Mariah Carey?

"Denim" will have taken Mariya Takeuchi past Carey's total - so she may well disappear from the 50 next year.

[wildstarr]

Where was Gackt? !

Your right...where is the Man?!?

It doesn't settle right with me that Mariah Carey has sold more than Gackt.

[Ronin]

Wow, this shows very clearly, that pop and pop rock own Japan. Not a single one of the most famous hard rock, metal and vk bands like XJapan, Luna Sea, Malice Mizer, Diru etc. appears in the list. And no, I don't count B'z and Mr. Children as pure rock bands (I know they are per definition, but their songs are too poppish to be called rock imo). At least Glay and Laruku made it into the list, but they produce a lot of pop songs as well. I don't think I have to mention any JUrban bands as they'd never appear on such a list in a million years.

As for Gackt, he's very famous, but his cd sales aren't that impressive compared to his popularity and his presence in the Japanese media. Here's how they look like (some numbers may not be accurate):

Albums
153 500.....MARS
108 000.....Rebirth
185 800.....Moon
143 300.....Crescent
71 000.......~SEVENTH NIGHT ～UNPLUGGED～
197 000.....Sixth Day~Singles Collection
121 800.....Love Letter
74 000.......Diabolos

Singles
163 000.....Mizerable - Mini Album
16 000.......Mizerable
248 000.....Vanilla
50 000.......Vanilla Remix
117 000.....Mirror
126 000.....OASIS
109 000.....Seki Ray
91 000.......Saikai Story
84 000.......Secret Garden
147 000.....Kimi no tameni dekiru koto
285 000.....ANOTHER WORLD
172 000.....December Love song - 2001
38 000.......Vanilla
132 200.....wa.su.re.na.i.ka.ra
171 050.....December Love song - 2002
98 000.......Kimi ga oikakete yume
70 000.......Tsuki no uta
34 000.......Lu:na
91 400.......Last Song
52 000.......December Love Song -2003
124 500.....Kimi ni Aitakute
48 000.......December Love song - 2004
62 000.......Arittake no Ai De
65 500.......BLACK STONE
157 000.....Metamorphoze
68 500.......Todokanai Ai to Shitteita noni Osaekirezu ni Aishii Tsudzuketa...
125 000.....Redemption
50 700.......No ni Saku Hana no You ni

Creds go to j.to.the.owwie.ow.ow from Seki-Ray (a Gackt forum).

[donkeykong80]

Gackt's CD sales aren't anything to shout about. He's pretty much just a media clown.

It seems like Speed ARE the biggest girl group in Japan. Some news reported that MM outsold them.

[Mimi_girl]

wtf Mariah Carey? I figured if an American was going to be on the list it would have been Michael Jackson. I guess he's not as popular in Japan as I thought Not really a fan of Mariah but congrats to her anyways I guess.

Thanks for the list btw!

I know right. He sold like Millions of cds worldwide (more than those people on the list).

[Ronin]

It seems like Speed ARE the biggest girl group in Japan. Some news reported that MM outsold them.

It depends on which sales you look at. If you look at the single sales only (like Oricon does), Morning Musume has outsold every other girl group in Japan, but if you count everything (singles + album + collection like this chart does), SPEED still has about 4 millions more in sales than Momusu. But it shouldn't take too long to get them as well, since Momusu's living and SPEED is DEAD. ^^

[rpger81]

SPEED still kicks ass tho

At the rate MM sells (average of 50,000 per single/album), it would literally take a massive amount of years to catch up to SPEED. Unless of course they start pooping out singles one after another (which they seem to be doing )

[donkeykong80]

SPEED took only five years to sell that much while MM took 10 years to break the sales record in terms of singles.

I wouldn't be surprised if MM does beat SPEED one day since MM are able to change members frequently and keep the group young. They can go on forever while SPEED always had the same four members who'll grow old.

[toxic025]

its very dishearting that I didn't see X Japan or Gackt. I guess its just one of those things if you love them their the biggest thing in the world but just not in the sales

[Damaged]

5 DREAMS COME TRUE 40,893,000
7 GLAY 35,800,000
8 ZARD 35,450,000
10 CHAGE & ASKA 31,220,000
12 GLOBE 28,600,000
13 SMAP 28,400,000
17 TUBE 23,880,000
20 TRF 21,500,000
25 SPEED 19,280,000
29 SPITZ 18,290,000
30 MISIA 17,150,000
38 CHECKERS 15,300,000
44 JUDY AND MARY 14,130,000
47 WANDS 13,730,000
48 T-BOLAN 13,610,000

Spell your name in all caps and you are bound to do well.

Morning Musume ages off SPEED, but it may be that little bit to faw away for them to ever catch up at this rate. Unless of course, another LOVE Machine happens.

[mixedmedia]

Not to mention Tsunku using up a lot of good songs for shuffle groups, sub groups and special units and other H!P artists. If there was only Morning Musume they'd probably steamroll over SPEED easily.

[mangomalte]

^ ha, if morning musume released all H!P stuff they'd've died of exhaustion by now. but yeah, the shuffles and subgroups and special units including members from MM has sold a lot that could've been done by momusu.