I think there is a mistake
you state that the three singles are her
32nd 33rd and 34th number 1 singles
but You Were.../BALLAD was her 34th number one
so i think MB is 35th Crossroad 36th and L 37th?
(S/S is also referred to as her 33rd number one single)
but other wise yay! :D

Edit: i just counted all her number 1 weekly singles on wikipedia and i come up with 38
anyone care to help? T_T
CONGRATZ TO AYU!!!!!
I NEW YOU COULD DO IT!

:) i hope no one breaks her record for another 25 years ;p aT LEAST
or ever ;p hopefully.

I count 37...



Maybe you included a song is born as well...?



Right now Mr. Children have 29 consecutive no. 1 singles. If ayu can maintain the streak for another 3 years, she may surpass them as well. They haven't released physical single for two years (last one was back in 2008.09), and their frequency of singles release was quite slow (2 singles a year) between 2005 - 2007.

Who knows? As long as avex is still in the game, her no. 1 streak will continue. But I think beating Mr. Children is not as important as beating seiko, the female artists with longest no. 1 streak.

Its every Ayustans greatest dream, she beat the record. Major congrats!

Congrats Ayu for this achievement ! i waited 4 years for this ^^! ....

I don't think Oricon included "A Song is born" because they listed 37 number one debuts.

I'm really happy she's had the staying power, and I'm looking forward to even more number one debuts from her! :)

omedetou!!! [shooting machine guns in the air]

Non official singles:
Nothing from Nothing
a song is born
Together when...

I'm actually afraid now that the streak has been broken, that sales will drop as hardcore fans might still purchase but no longer really have the goal of "let's get AYU that record!"

^The streak hasn't been broken yet. Her fans will still buy the single to maintain the streak. But you're rite, once the streak is broken, we'll see a drastic drop.

Well, I think the "primary" mission of breaking Seiko's streak has been completed. Now I'm not really sure if Ayu can extend it, but even so, my plan is to reduce Ayu and focus on other artists...

SHE WON!!! FINALLY!!! i hope this doesn't mean lesser sales =.=

I don't think the drop (if it happens) will be that big or noticable. Afterall, it was mostly hardcore fans that cared about the record and they've always bought the singles anyway just to support her and build their collection. The casuals may feel less inclined to buy but that's how it's always been lol.

omg :weep

Congrats Ayu :heart

I agree with you. Only hardcore fans care about the streak. I dun care about B'z/Mr. Children/KinKi Kids/Arashi/etc. streaks, and their streaks' continuities have nothing to do with me.

Or maybe they want her to have a larger streak that's harder to break for up-'n'-coming artists. :D

I don't see really think the drop will be that massive. Hardcore fans will always be buying multiple versions since they want to support Ayu as much as possible, and people like that will buy multiple versions regardless of a record.

The casual fans haven't been doing it to begin with, properly.

So very happy for her :) Record broken!! Hopefully this is nowhere near the end for her, and she keeps getting no. 1 rankings for many singles (and albums) to come!

She did it!!!! :D I'm so happy.

I've been telling everyone that will listen to me about Ayu potentially breaking this record, and so I'm really happy that I can finally tell people it happened!! I'm really happy for her!!

There was no flash over at Avex though... Or, if there was, I missed it. But maybe they're making it now?

Well, even if there isn't, we can all feel happy now! (It makes me laugh to see people immediately jumping to the next record! Ayu fans are ambitious! XD)

A very MAJOR MAJOR congrats on L single's performance and to Ayu as well... :D
So, since Seiko was now beaten with L single, I think AVEX was planning to milk us fans to beat Mr. Children in the future even more.

1st week (for single L)
Rank: #1
1st week sales: 70,715

2nd week, 1st day
Rank: #1
today sales: 2,082
Total: 72 797

wohoo! another #1

woah! #1 for 2nd week?!?
Amazing! :)

1st Week
Position: #1
Estimated Total Sales: 69,968
Official Sales: 70,715

2nd Week
Position: #1
Sales: 2,082
Total Sales: 72,797

Thank Gkone!

I hope the magz promo will help L to get nice second week...

What? still #1?! AMAZING! go L!

hopefully it wont drop that much tommorrow..

yayayayay!!!! FINALLY AYU BEAT SEIKO!!! :heart :heart

Great! Congratz to Ayu :P And now to keep L on the top!

^Impossible...Exile and Arashi is in the town...hahaha

finally the moment we have been waiting for so long. congrat Ayu

congratzz ayuchan!!

we congratulated her today at yoyogi!!!

during the encore, they mentioned a little about her record

So...she only sold 2k and she got #1 on the first day of the week?
Wow...

^ physical CD sales are going down by the day lol

^it's because the new releases haven't started charting yet.
Tomorrow she will definitely not be #1 XD

Hopefully it may sell over 2k again today and reach 75k!

It's because the new releases won't start charting until tomorrow : P

It's impossible for her to get #1 tomorrow....Arashi releases a single.

EXILE too so the top 2 are reserved :P

omg omg omg i knew it! i believed it! she RUUUULES!!!!!

i hope a top 10 this second week

Yay congratz ayu!! :)
Though first week sales were only
a few hundred higher than M/b
and i think it deserved so much more ;p
but its okay Im so happy the broke the record! :)
and even though she's going to plumet down tomorrow
due to ARashi and Exile, its still so nice to see ayu number 1 for at least
1 of the days of the week :P

anyway we should consider that she sold in the first week 70000k consecutively with 2 singles after 12 years of presence!! she's so great

2nd Day
Position: #6
Sales: Later
Total Sales: Later

Fell even less than crossroad!
The 3rd place is around 13,000 so maybe it sold around 4,000 today. ^^
We will see how natsu estimates it later on today~

^ As I expected... thanks Arashi! xD

^I'm with you! tnx a lot Arashi!LOL

Thanks for what? XD

it's like a replay when Rule / Sparkle was released last year & then the following week , Believe / Kumori Nochi , Kaisei was put out by ARASHI

it's like deja vu all over for this to happen again :O

Maybe thanks for taking #1 spot from Ayu ^^!

@ayumisrael
I thank Arashi for moving our Ayu's L single from #1 Daily spot xD

Anyways both single were still on top 10, right? ;)
And Arashi's first day... 200k! :thud

Yeah but why? XDD (I mean for example is it because you want arashi to get #1? hehe)

Why Arashi's sale is always that much
Why Ayu can't do that Xb

it's a sarcastic thanks to ARASHI for knocking Ayu off the #1 spot :laugh

Oh, I thought so at first but then I got confused since it's obvious they would be #1 :laugh

It's nice 2 see L doing great...hope L sold at least 4k 1st day on 2nd week...

Wow, it's possible a single sold 200k? O_O

They're great O_O

It isn´t surprising Arashi sold that much, in Japan it´s now boyband´s era =/ *hates boybands xD*

I don't think so...but I hope it sold at least 130,000 copies...XD

You must have not seen AKB48 or Toho's sales lately. :roflmao

I'm with you. I don't see the appeal, and I'm used to seeing them ridiculed in the US.

Aww man this single is doing as good as I hoped :(. I think it deserves better! >.<

great! it's only a small drop

Japan isn't in a boyband phase. They're popular, but not more than in the past.

Arashi just isn't a good example of your typical boyband. They're in an entirely different league of their own : P

Japanese just happens to love musical groups... It's an aspect of that culture and it's far from going away anytime soon.... What is natural considering that they are raised to put the society over the person, and for living on a way where nobody really stands out for better or for worst... A boyband/girlband is the perfect translation of this cultural aspect on pop music

^Yeah... but I've been waiting for another transition already. Boybands (and girlband? but only AKB48 is selling) have been dominated the music charts in Japan for like 3-4 years. I really miss the time when female artists dominated the charts between 1999 - 2002 (oh hikki and ayu.. and misia, mai-k, ringo, etc.).

Well, they have been dominating the japanese charts since forever xD every era has at least 1 big boyband/girlband...

AKB48 needs all the sales they can get. I didn't realize until recently that there are actually 48 members... That's scary.

LOL at all the Arashi hate. Even it weren't for them, Ayu wouldn't have held the Number 1 spot in the second week anyway. And Nackar + Karen, it is useless to try to explain that Arashi are not just a typical boyband and that their music isn't even the reason why they sell as they do. If people are going to hate them because they are a boyband - who cares? :rolleyes We know better and so does Japan. :D

^^ Yeah... and don't they switch around when they release singles? My brother told me only 5 members (most popular members) manage to get on every single.

Anywayz, I dun hate boybands. And I do believe that Arashi is more than a typical boyband. It's just that boybands have been dominated for a bit too long, and I think it's time to switch to another phase. Either female or male solo domination is fine for me :P.

Of course Arashis sales will decline sooner or later. Atm, though they are at their peak. When Ayu was at her peak, nobody but a few fangirls cared about Arashi. Now Ayu is at a place where she'll never sell that much ever again. But she also releases her music digitally and Arashi doesn't. She is an old woman (yes that's cruel, but me I'm also a Christmas cake so I'm allowed to bring it up) not fresh and new like Kana Nishino for example. If you take all this into consideration, her sales are very good. People are never satisfied though, it seems.

I agree with that. :yes Things have really changed over time: when she was at peak back in 2002, the time that her consecutive #1 streak broken with Daybreak early on in the year and then restarted with Free & Easy back on April, there was not much of the digital music revolution; now, this is 2010, which is eight (and a half or more) years later, with the fact that she's aging, she's not at her peak anymore, some are getting tired of Ayu, and the digital music revolution that Ayu is part of while Arashi's popularity is increasing but with Johnny's no-digital-sales policy (especially when their releases are actually distributed through Sony Music Entertainment, and a combination of Johnny's policies as well as the dispute between Sony Music and Apple/iTunes that prevent the releases of Arashi as well as other Sony Music artists, such as ikimono-gakari, Mika Nakashima, miwa and SCANDAL, to be sold on the iTunes Store worldwide), it seems that Ayu is facing tough competition. Even though with tough competition, it seemed that Arashi's "Dear Snow" single was released on a week when Ayu was not releasing a single, and it seemed that the Arashi team and the Johnny's management may have respected Ayu in some way to allow her to break Seiko Matsuda's consecutive #1 record (by a female artist/any soloist). Ayu's #1 singles (crossroad and L) that she has achieved, along with Ayu's reiteration to fans that were thinking about if she would be retiring, saying that she's not retiring within the foreseeable future, proves that Ayu is still viable to the Japanese pop market and will STAY for years to come, maybe possibly a decade or two, or even three. Maybe she could become the "next" Seiko Matsuda! We'll just have to see with the long-term, but it's only October 2010 already...

wasn't it enough for ayumi to get #1 for the week of HER release? so why is everyone complaining about arashi now? does ayumi need to get #1 this week, too? :rolleyes

her record wasn't broken, so no one should be complaining.

^This is AHS, we need to complain about something! LOL

I would prefer her to be the next Matsutoya Yumi over her being the next Seiko Matsuda any day of the week :P

I dont know what you mean by being a Christmas cake and I get what you're saying about being new and fresh in the market but I think you meant to say that Ayu is older, not old. But just her age alone isn't the only hinderance since Namie Amuro is even older than Ayu but has somehow managed to reinvent herself and make herself more appealing to the general public.
At the end of the day that is what making it is all about no? Appeal!

No, no...we don't have to complain about it. Ayu already got a #1 weekly, so we don't even have to worry about Arashi - they're a different story: they released their single yesterday (and they're doing another one later next month!), and Ayu already released her 50th single LAST WEEK, with no new data if she's going to be releasing her 51st single or even a new album at this time, as she's still busy with the RnRC tour...

LOL @ the direction this thread took.

:roflmao

So true!

:yes :laugh

C'mon, she already got her #1, guys... What'd you expect, for Ayu on her second week to still be #1 against The Storm?

this is why the japanese annoy me... 200k for some crap arashi single? imo they're just a worthless boy band...I don't get it

Oh dear, here we go again...

^^dontaddfueltothefiredontaddfueltothefire... Prepare for the **** storm! <--No pun intended.

They're popular and way bigger than Ayu, so for those of us that aren't fans, let's get over it. :3

This. Thank You.

:roflmao

Actually, people in Japan care much more about Ayu's age than Amuro Namie. And Amuro is just one year older than Ayu, so not much difference.

Remember, Amuro went through a period when her popularity was reduced drastically, because of her "re-invention" when she became the Queen of R&B, during a time when R&B in J-POP was a new and polarizing thing. But she battled through years of unpopularity, and she decided she didn't want to force herself to be seen by everyone, and that's when she started to regain the popularity.

I think Ayu is doing that now... no one really sees her anymore, just in ViVi, and now Softbank... but it's not like a saturation of Ayu as it once was. Maybe we will be seeing a boom in Ayu popularity soon. I think it will happen.

Arashi has an advantage because there are 5 members. You don't have to like all of them, but even if they only like one of them, they will buy. And because the personalities are kind of all different, it can appeal to a MUCH broader audience than say Ayu can with her gyaru-ish style.

Arashi has been getting better in singing. Whether they are lipsyncing on Mste or so, I don't know, I believe so, but I don't really know for sure. But anyways, because they sing, have likable personalities, they SEEM down to earth without any cocky personality like KAT-TUN or so, and like someone said before that they do not have online sales, the oricon charts will be of course in favour of Arashi since physical copies are literally the only way to listen to them.

The fact that Arashi is a band and Ayu is an individual artist, why the argument? Arashi will sell high because of the simple fact it's band of five attractive young men who sing together. Girls are buying into it, and they're even popular with boys. A Japanese foreign exchange student I became friends with in high school two years ago used to tell me all the time about how his fashion is inspired by Arashi.

Like maikaru said, it's more likely that people will relate to Arashi more because of their different personalities. Ayu is just one person, and just like it is in real life, you like them or not.

omg I was trying to phrase that in a better way, but meh you took the words right out of my mouth :yes

It has nothing to do with the fact that they sold more than ayu.
Ayu isn't even IN this equation. It's simply because I don't get their taste...it's almost like they don't have any. smh

hmm... yeah, their songs aren't to my liking at all but well at least they look like nice people on TV!

well hate it or not they'll still have like 5 singles in the top 10 of the end year '-___-

Interesting that people only focus about age when they don't like the individual...double standard? Anyhow my point wasn't to negate Arashi's popularity. I don't like them or get their appeal but I can't deny that they are incredibly appealing in Japan and that is why they are so successful as is Namie.

My point was simply that Ayumi isn't old and that its all about appeal, exactly as you have said but thank you as always for your input ^_^

Interestingly though, what's the appeal about Namie? Don't get me wrong, I love her songs, but I've always wondered what's the secret behind BEST FICTION that gave her a million sales... is it the R&B sound, or something else?

At least for ARASHI I could see that it's their personalities, and their happy-sounding songs that Japanese people like, so that's an appeal for them, but for Namie... hopefully someone could tell me cos I'm reli interested

Aren't you like, one of the biggest boy band fanboys around, waterballoon!?

:laugh maybe, but I don't listen to many J-Pop boybands; there's a different appeal between J & K Pop, so... :D

Well, Baby don't cry was really popular but 60s70s80s was what really kicked her career back to life so... her hair?

In any case, why don't we all just drop Arashi? This is a charts and ranking thread for L anyway, haha.

Don't like them? Neither do I, too bad, OMG L!

:laugh seems like a mystery for now!

Are you guys disappointed that there doesn't seem to be any "special" packaging or anything for L? I mean it's her 50th single after all

I'm confused about the Christmas cake... does that have anything do to your age? (and probly my age as well, we're only a year difference... lol). I dun think people are dissatisfied. More likely they're hoping to see ayu to get into a 2nd peak, just like how namie achieved that two years ago.

I dun think that has anything to do with respect... right? I think it's just a game between music companies. They dun break rival artists' streaks in order to save their own? Er... you can say that's a respect.. maybe.. I dunno :P
This reminds me tho last year time when ayu released You were.../BALLAD. I wonder why the heck Sony and Masaharu Fukuyama picked Dec 16 for the single Hatsukoi. You know I was actually shocked about that. This forced avex to change the release date of ayu (in order to save the streak). This is just too weird...

I guess you're rite. She's like namie in 2000 - 2003. But I think ayu is "luckier". At least people still treat her as the queen of JPop, and she still has the "power" to get a safe/weaker week to release her singles. I do hope she will have a boom in the future.

I have a question... Is hikki still able to been seen by people? Well I became fans of them around the same time. For recent years, I always have a feeling that general public has more interest on hikki. Can you tell me if that's true or not? If so... I wonder why...

You know, namie was extremely popular around the end of 20th century. She was basically in the position like ayu or hikki in 2000 - 2002. If she wasn't pregnant during her peak, she would have a longer success. And probly she'll become another "ayu" (like.. popularity decreases in a steady pace). She gain her audience back when she released Queen of Hip-Hop, so she wasn't really that bad during 2004 - 2007. 60s70s80s was a huge catalyst tho. It really boost up her popularity and all of the sudden people wanna rediscover her lost music (during her bottom era).

Let's make a wish for that. I'm so afraid to see ayu becoming another seiko. I dunno but I just dun really like this lady. I prefer Matsutoya Yumi as well.

^
Why does she have to be another anything? Why can't she just be "Hamasaki Ayumi?"