Tuesday, November 17, 2015

三代目J Soul Brothers VS ARASHI 嵐

In the music world of idols, there can only be one topping the others in a category. In this case, ARASHI is the top male idols. As for the music world of dance units, 三代目J Soul Brothers is currently in the lead for the men's category. With their current sales now, it is safe to say, they have successfully succeeded EXILE for the time being. They may even become more successful than any EXILE TRIBE units, who knows? The future cannot be read that easily for music artists. 

Anyways, jumping to the point ----> dedicated Arashi fans have been fully aware of 三代目J Soul Brothers entrance into the scenes of best-selling artists. Their entrance is whooping like a kingdom invasion. 三代目J Soul Brothers sold over 500,000 copies for their "Planet Seven" album that was released earlier this year (2015) and also the same for their "Starting Over" single. Honestly speaking, the Single is not a threat because 三代目 sales has yet to be consistent as their following singles were still hitting the 200,000 marks rather than the mega 400,000-600,000 mark that ARASHI are still hitting. But the album released this year is definitely a threat. 

SALES: 
"Planet Seven" is recorded to be over 800,000 copies almost 900,000 copies (would've been 900,000 if Oricon includes all stores). While Arashi's "Japonism" is definitely over 1,000,000 copies even though Oricon claimed that the album sold over 900,000. =_=

Reviewing the tracks that went with Arashi's album, I can honestly say, their goal was to remain #1. Knowing that 三代目 album may pushed theirs to a lower rank in the yearly's chart, the agency/production (or whoever) developed Arashi's album to include elements that represent "Japanese cultures". This is good in contrast to 三代目 album that has a bunch of urban songs that represent more of western culture than Asia. A great strategy in sales that I would acknowledge. I find it interesting to see how agencies react to these kind of situations where a less popular artist suddenly invade the spotlight of a mega hit artist.

But the sad part of this mess is the reactions of several fans. A percentage of them fear that 三代目 would take over Arashi's spotlight thus do create some sort of unnecessary ruckus. In my opinion, such reactions is 必要じゃないなあ。Learn how to appreciate both. I am sure there is a song of 三代目 that you all loved. As for 三代目 fans, there has to be an Arashi song that you all loved. If 三代目 is going to take over the spotlight, you cannot resist their influence. It's just like the battle between Arashi and AKB48. No one was able to stop AKB48 from selling over 1,000,000 copies for like 4-5 years now? And Arashi is still one of the best selling act. The same thing would just happen with 三代目. 

Some of the comments I've read regarding how fans compared them, there was one where the person stated that Arashi are better actors than 三代目....that kind of comment again is 必要じゃない。Acting has nothing to do with the music scene even though it does expand the fan base and boost the sales with the artist being more exposed to the media. But if the music artist release continuous songs of mediocrity, they would surely lose the fans. Therefore, the selection of good songs and the ability to sing them contributes to whether or not the fans would stick around. I honestly, would agree that 三代目 has better songs than Arashi. Their production crew also spends more time in producing the sound quality that would appeal to the listeners. Johnny&Associates on the other hand, seems to rush everything. If you have listened to Arashi before, you would realized that some of the song arrangements were put together without much efforts. For example, the bridge in Breathless, the chorus and also the transition to the 2nd verse of Aozora no shita kimi no tonari, Monster's chorus, and etc. Whenever I listen to these songs, I would be in tune with everything until the mediocrity parts makes me lose interest. Which is very sad because I would watch their shows and enjoy watching them but then not be interest in their songs. I would blame the mediocrity on the company though.

Overall, I love Arashi but I prefer 三代目 in the music scene over them. So I wouldn't mind if 三代目 somehow take the spotlight. Arashi would just be like SMAP where, if someone else dominates the music scene, then the person/group should specialize in something that would still keep everyone's attention their way. That's just how things would be. Nobody can continue being #1 for a long time. :'(


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