[Oricon] oricon Ranking releases 2008 half-year

[SolarAngel]

I don't think kumi's fans (males and i dunno, hip teenage girls?) will be all that affected by her comment. Maybe black cherry just sounds better i dunno. And i feel that ayu should up her game on albums if we want her to sell better. Lately, i feel that her albums r compilations of random songs rather than a well thought through collection with a common theme. And Johnny's boybands are sometimes also promoted as a collective whole like countdowns where they all perform in dome together. So fans of arashi may be fans of kattun as well say. Whereas for avex, u get singer rivalry even though they are from the same label. All this is IMO...

[Uemarasan]

Originally Posted by SolarAngel

I don't think kumi's fans (males and i dunno, hip teenage girls?) will be all that affected by her comment. Maybe black cherry just sounds better i dunno.

Going by the sales of Moon (which has 4 new songs), I don't think we can dismiss the possibility so easily...

Originally Posted by SolarAngel

Lately, i feel that her albums r compilations of random songs rather than a well thought through collection with a common theme.

That's the case with most Japanese artists (even everyone else's favorite pop maestro/wunderkind/insert hyperfanatic label here Utada Hikaru), and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Japanese pop music is very much a singles industry, unlike in the West. That's why the singles come out before the album.