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INTEREST: Babymetal Is 1st Japanese Act to Rank on Billboard's U.S. Weekly Top 10 Albums




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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 8262
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Wed Aug 20, 2025 11:52 pm Reply with quote
Whoa, OK. Good job for them, this is the 1st time something that is not a K-pop act and a Japanese act that has managed to break the Billboard top 10 albums chart.

Quote:
Other Japanese musical acts to reach the Billboard 200 (but not the top 10) were Hikaru Utada and Kyū Sakamoto. Utada saw her 2004 album Exodus reach #160 and 2009 album This Is The One at #69. Utada's 2019 song “Face My Fears” also reached #98 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart in February 2019. Sakamoto saw his 1963 album Sukiyaki and Other Japanese Hits reach #26 on Billboard 200, with his songs “Ue wo Muite Aruko” (known as “Sukiyaki” in the United States) and “China Nights (Shina No Yoru)” reaching the top spot and #58 respectively on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart in June and September 1963.


I don't dispute this and this is correct. The only thing that we've seen so far are K-pop and Korean act, I mean ever since K-pop/Korean act has broke the Billboard charts in various categories, something we've never seen a lot for Japanese act as long as anime had become staple in the US.

This is not to snub or attack J-pop/J-music in general. There has been some attempted breakthrough for J-music act despite not breaking the Billboard chart with limited success like for example, I think some of you know who Pink Lady are, one of their song Kiss in the Dark reached #37 on Billboard 100 chart back in 1979. Also, I want to mention Seiko Matsuda, one of her song, The Right Combination (which she performed with Donnie Wahlberg) charted on #54 on Billboard 100 chart back in 1990. So J-musicians had some limited success in the US and on Billboard chart, not even visual kei/J-rock couldn't even do this at their prime. But this is the sad thing to see for J-pop and J-music in general when it comes to limited success in the US compared to their Korean/K-pop counterpart.

So I guess it's congratulation to Babymetal, they're the only exception so far to breaking the top 10 despite all the K-pop acts that have been breaking the top 10 on Billboard 200 chart for the last few years.
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GohanTrunkFans



Joined: 09 Jun 2013
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Thu Aug 21, 2025 11:47 am Reply with quote
Well deserved❤
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Elfensjón



Joined: 18 Jan 2019
Posts: 114
PostPosted: Thu Aug 21, 2025 11:51 am Reply with quote
Billboard Japan chart are not the official music charts in Japan. The official charts are the Oricon Weekly Albums (which only count physical sales, though). In Germany, the album ranked seventh which is quite easy to do so as the German charts are entirely revenue-based. Means, a work can rank higher despite selling less compared to other artists but due to higher revenue.

Neithertheless, quite a deserved success.
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hkendymon



Joined: 21 Aug 2025
Posts: 3
PostPosted: Thu Aug 21, 2025 11:42 pm Reply with quote
Great to hear. Also they are notably the first ever Asian metal or rock act (depending if you define metal as rock) to EVER chart in the US top 10. For my money, they are the best live act in any genre the last couple decades, PERIOD (Asian or otherwise).
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whiskeyii



Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 2485
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2025 12:51 am Reply with quote
Hell yeah, Babymetal!!! I want to attend one of their concerts someday! T^T9
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