Quote:
Originally Posted by truehappiness
As of right now, male Korean groups and AKB48 are popular along with the usual JE groups and EXILE. That's about it, really. There'll probably be an random hit this year by someone like Aoyama Thelma. [not her exactly, but someone who will have a similar sales boom] Also, Ikimonogakari still seems to be maintaining the popularity they've built up over the last few years.
The #1 is practically guaranteed though with her highest "first week/weekly" sales since Days. I wish they'd just get it over with and announce her as #1 though.
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JE bands generally aren't that popular with casual listeners with the exception of arashi of course, KAT-TUN and NEWS for example mostly live off their large fan bases, their songs usually don't do well digitally even compared to Ayu's who is supposedly "less popular".
The mid-tempo R'n'B ballads/songs are pretty popular in Japan now (JUJU's Sunaoni naretara and Ashita ga kuru nara were big hits and it seems that Nishino Kana is doing great with Dear... and motto...) - even though the majority of those singles didn't have much success with their physical releases, they were some of last year's biggest digital sellers.