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Originally Posted by Uemarasan
I do agree about the sales handicap, as you so aptly put it. It's a trend in fan forums that I've never really subscribed to, and it seems to have come about when J-pop music began to be dominated by male acts versus female acts (I think this was around the time Koda Kumi was at her peak). Fans would come up with "musical recognitions" such as "highest selling female single of the year" or "highest first week sales numbers of the year for a female artist" or something as ridiculous as "highest selling female single of the year released under her original name without a dorama tie-in". I think fans are stretching so that their favorite artists accumulate recognitions and they would feel better knowing that they have accomplished that at least. It's a defense mechanism against waning popularity.
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Yes, yes, that is the point I was trying to make in my rambling posts. I'm glad you could state it more aptly than me since my brain feels like scrambled eggs today.
But to me, that also applies to the classification of female fronted bands too. To me, it doesn't matter whether its a solo artist or female fronted band that is higher in the sales because just being in a band does not mean that your sales will automatically be higher, often times its the opposite. So I don't see a problem with comparing DCTs sales to Ayu's sales, for the same reasons as you just outlined above.
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Originally Posted by Uemarasan
Also, I would like to think men and women are equal in the world of J-pop, but I can't deny that gender difference still plays an important role in sales and popularity, even if its influence is almost imperceptible. Just to cite an example: SMAP may recover from the recent scandal, but I don't think a Hello Project! girl will be granted the same leniency. As much as I hate to think so, being a man and being a woman, it still counts for something.
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I would say that HP is an extreme example, because they are almost exclusively supported by Otaku that actually believe that the girls are perfect pinnacles of virginity and then when that image is tarnished they feel betrayed. (which is insane imo.)
I do agree that when it comes to scandals it seems that women are treated more harshly. But that doesn't mean that women are treated inherently badly in sales when it comes to comparing mens sales to women sales. (non-scandalous women I mean, though Namie is one example of how women are becoming more able to return from scandal) As I mentioned in the previous post, I think most male artists have simply done a better job of relating to the public and knowing what will sell for them better than most women artists have done. Although if you go back to the 70s, 80s, and some of the 90s, I would actually venture that it was actually the opposite then. From watching old music shows and charts I see a higher presence of women than today.
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Originally Posted by Andrenekoi
By the way... she was never the TOP SELLING MONSTER people says she was, apart from just one single, she was never the best selling considering individual releases, besides loveppears-duty era she is more a singer with A LOT of average-good selling stuff than a singer with amazing selling individual products...
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That's another good point. Though there is no doubt that she was HUGE at one time, rarely was she ever actually the best selling artist. But, there were a few years there were she did in fact have a large amount of influence.