I’m going to introduce Japanese latest music trend. First, I’ll show some rankings of music in Japan, and then pick up artists, and explain why these music become popular. There are lots of background why music become popular, so if you know that, you may like that music and artist better!!
1.Japanese Latest Music Hits and Artists Ranking
2. Latest Hit Artists in Japan
3. Japanese music scene
Japanese Latest Music Hits and Artists Rankings
- Yoru ni Kakeru (Racing into the night)/ YOASOBI
- Pretender/ Official Higedan Dism
- Gurenge (Red Lotus)/ Lisa
- I Love…/ Official Higedan Dism
- Hakujitsu / King nue
The most repeated songs in Japan (Spotify)
- Pretender/ Official Higedan Dism
- Yoru ni Kakeru (Racing into the night)/ YOASOBI
- I Love…/ Official Higedan Dism
- Hakujitsu / King nue
- Kousui (Perfume)/ Eito
2020 Top Song 100 (Apple Music)
- Pretender/ Official Higedan Dism
- Yoru ni Kakeru (Racing into the night)/ YOASOBI
- Hakujitsu / King nue
- I Love…/ Official Higedan Dism
- Gurenge (Red Lotus)/ Lisa
The most repeated artists in Japan (Spotify)
Hot 100 in Japan 2020 (Billboard)
- Official Higedan Dism
- BTS
- King nue
- Aimyon
- Mrs. Green Apple
Most viewd MV (Youtube)
- Make you happy/ NiziU
- Kanden (Electric Shock)/ Yonezukenshi
- I Love,,,/ Officail Higedan Dism
- Neko (cat) First take ver./ DISH//
- Hadaka no Kokoro (Naked Heart)/ Aimyon
Latest Hit Artists in Japan
- Official Higedan Dism
They are a band with 4 members. Their music was ranked most of Japanese music rankings. One of the famous music called Pretender’ MV got 200 million views on youtube. Their songs are used by many movies and dramas. They also appeared in Kohaku.
- YOASOBI
They are unit. One of them are Ayase who is a Vocaloid Producer and another is Ikura who is a Singer-song writer. This group was born by the project that produce music from novel. Therefore, the music called Yoru ni Kakeru is based on the novel. The singer, ikura’s voice is very addictive.
- DISH//
They are a band with 4 members. They became explosively popular because of the youtube channel called “THE FIRST TAKE”. In this channel, many artists sing their song at white background’s recording studio in one shot. They suddenly appeared at this channel and become a hot topic. After that, they performance many famous music programs on TV.
- NiziU
They are an idol group of 9 people. This group was born by the global audition called Nizi Project. This project was held by Korean agency called JYP Entertainment and Japanese entertainment agency, Sony Music. From January 2020, this project began this audition. 26 trainees was joined and trained for six months. On 26th June, 9 members were selected. There first MV, “Make you happy” is viewed 200 million now.
- BTS
They are Hip-Hop group of 7 in Korea. They are popular all over the world, and they got many prizes around the world and first place at Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. They performance at Japanese famous music programs on TV. Their fans are called “army”. Their song, “DNA” got 1.1 billion views on youtube.
- Lisa
She is a Japanese female singer. Her representative songs are “紅蓮華” (Gurenge) and “炎” (Homura). These songs are theme songs of famous anime called “鬼滅の刃” (Kimetsu no Yaiba). This anime was released as a movie and this movie is the highest grossing movie ever in Japan. She appeared in NHK’s year-end music program, Kohaku-Utagassen.
Official Websites
Official Higedan Dism
YOASOBI
DISH//
NiziU
https://niziu.com/s/n123/?ima=1413
BTS
Lisa
Japanese Music Scenes
Currently, streaming service such as Apple music, Spotify and LINE MUSIC become very popular. In 2019, sales of music streaming services are 10% up over last year. On the other hand, music software such as CD and DVD is 5% down over the last year. Streaming service is already popular in the world, and that kind of tendency influence Japanese music scenes. In addition, some of the songs become popular because of TikTok, for example “Kousui” (perfume) TikTok is a platform of short video clips, and people make and post them. It’s about only 15 seconds. These music apps is more popular than music software recently.
紅白歌合戦 (Kohaku Utagassen)
This is the most famous Japanese music program on TV and singing competition that is held at the end of the year. The singers who were all the rage on that year participate and they divided into 2 teams, red and white. This program started in 1951, it was a radio program, and next year it starts as a TV program, so you can understand what the popular song is to watch this competition.
日本レコード大賞 (The Japanese Recode Awards)
The Japanese Record Awards is a major music awards show, and it’s held annually in Japan. There are many kinds of awards, such as New artist of the year, Best album awards, Songs of the year, Special achievement awards and so on. In 2020, 炎 (Homura) sung by Lisa got Japan Record Award. This prize represents the best song in that year.
<References>
https://www.tbs.co.jp/recordaward/
https://music.apple.com/jp/playlist/2020年トップソング100-日本/pl.cdeb20ba9f4a4d55bc65638c454aac2a
