The highest rated Music shows in Japan

[*Petit*]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

Now, declining sales are always blamed on downloading, but why then do you think that the viewership of music shows is declining as well? Do you think it has something to do with the quality of the music? Or is it other reasons?

Firstly thank you so much for posting this. I really appreciate your contributions here on the forum. =)

I think one of the reasons are the increaingly aging population of japan. Older people aren't as interested in current pop culture and current (teenage) trends, a market to which much of the pop music catered to begin with.

Another factor is the emerge of the internet and especially media such as youtube that permits people to view their favourite artists as much as they want and whenever they want without having to wait through an entire show. This should especially damage ratings for music shows as they depend on music more than continuous entertainment throughout the show.

Another maybe less prominent reason is that society has gone more multi faceted with more niche artists and products that will create more diversity, but take away from mainsream entertainment that "everyone", the whole family, would gather in front of the television to share together.

[Zemus]

Thank you for bringing this up. It is a very interesting topic. Petit's post above is excellent. I don't have much to add. However, let me comment on some of the shows with high ratings.

- That Yoru no Hit was actually a 3h SP to mark the 1000th episode of the show.

- HEY!x3 was the first time where both Hikki and Ayu were guests on the very same music TV episode. Glad to see it reached such high viewership.

- The Best Ten rating was very high. TBS should consider bringing back a music TV show that airs during prime time instead of middle of the night. They already have CDTV but it's hardly considerable as a "normal" music TV show anyway. I am not completely sure why that particular The Best Ten episode had such enormous high viewership. It's one of those Seiko + Toshi moments. They are walking under an umbrella together during the introduction to Seiko's 白いパラソル (Shiroi Parasol) performance. Other guests included Masahiko "Matchy" Kondo and Yuming, to name a few.

EDIT: For some reason I forgot that UTABAN is broadcasted on TBS. Please ignore my statement above.

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

I'm trying to remember just what happened in 1984 to make that Kohaku so huge.

• Harumi Miyako's announced her retirement earlier on. Kouhaku was supposed to be her final appearance, I believe, so it got a lot of attention?
• Red vs. White battle: Akina Nakamori vs. Masahiko Kondo & Seiko Matsuda vs. Hiromi Go. Two famous couples appearing on the same show. Huge for the media.

Why don't you rewatch Kouhaku 1984, I believe you should still have the video!?

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by Zemus

Why don't you rewatch Kouhaku 1984, I believe you should still have the video!?

Believe it or not, I still haven't watched it! lol. But thank you for the video.

As for one of the points being brought up here - that people now can download their favorite artists performances online - I agree that this could be part of the reason. However, notice that there is hardly anything on these lists that aired in the 90s and digital downloading of these shows wasn't really happening during that time.

Also, while I do think that ratings in general are probably lower, if you look further on that site at the ratings of variety shows, dramas, sports etc through the years - all of the categories except for anime have more things listed from the 90s and 00s than the music category does.

[andre2907]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

Also, while I do think that ratings in general are probably lower, if you look further on that site at the ratings of variety shows, dramas, sports etc through the years - all of the categories except for anime have more things listed from the 90s and 00s than the music category does.

Yes, but we still can't link the drop in music shows with sales because CD and single sales in Japan reached its peak during the 90s/late 2000s, right? And the ratings peak of those shows were the 70s/80s.

But I think music shows peaked in the 80s because I guess Jpop acts were less targeted to a specific group back then. With a few exceptions (like SMAP), most Jpop acts today are targeted to YOUNG people (and usually GIRLS). Back then, Seiko Matsuda appealed to businessmen (with her "innocent girl image") but also to housewives, teenagers and kids so I guess this can also be a factor.

[emi♡]

Originally Posted by *Petit*

Firstly thank you so much for posting this. I really appreciate your contributions here on the forum. =)

I think one of the reasons are the increaingly aging population of japan. Older people aren't as interested in current pop culture and current (teenage) trends, a market to which much of the pop music catered to begin with.

Another factor is the emerge of the internet and especially media such as youtube that permits people to view their favourite artists as much as they want and whenever they want without having to wait through an entire show. This should especially damage ratings for music shows as they depend on music more than continuous entertainment throughout the show.

Another maybe less prominent reason is that society has gone more multi faceted with more niche artists and products that will create more diversity, but take away from mainstream entertainment that "everyone", the whole family, would gather in front of the television to share together.

I personally really agree with this statement about society.

Another thing is that, back in the day, television was the popular thing to do, today, definitely not so.
----

I personally don't really blame it all on the internet, the internet is just a medium. If the companies were smart, they would all take more advantage of it.

All in all, people are just changing, and imo, television is going to become a bit of an outdated medium, in the sense that, they rely on viewers at certain times, etc.


About the music changing...that happens everywhere. There will always be music that appeals to older people, and music that younger people listen to...I guess perhaps on a whole in Japan, in the old days, this wasn't so?

But to me, it's a natural progression of things, and I personally feel that their industry is extremely young, and that, there will be big changes for it in the future as they begin to understand how things work and don't work in their own culture.

I also have a hunch that their industry will turn out, just as the American industry has, and will see many of the same trends.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by emiko

I personally really agree with this statement about society.

Another thing is that, back in the day, television was the popular thing to do, today, definitely not so.
----

I personally don't really blame it all on the internet, the internet is just a medium. If the companies were smart, they would all take more advantage of it.

All in all, people are just changing, and imo, television is going to become a bit of an outdated medium, in the sense that, they rely on viewers at certain times, etc.


About the music changing...that happens everywhere. There will always be music that appeals to older people, and music that younger people listen to...I guess perhaps on a whole in Japan, in the old days, this wasn't so?

But to me, it's a natural progression of things, and I personally feel that their industry is extremely young, and that, there will be big changes for it in the future as they begin to understand how things work and don't work in their own culture.

I also have a hunch that their industry will turn out, just as the American industry has, and will see many of the same trends.

Everytime a new medium is created, the older ones (the ones that are not going to disappear) need to share the public...

So, people still read newspaper, listen to the radio and watch tv, but now, the public is also shared with internet... on the same way radio ratings were higher before tv for example...^^

I was studing this for college other day... Brazil's biggest tv channel is losing ratings, and the other channels are using this to promote themselves saying that this channel is starting to fall from the top... But all the channels are losing ratings