Continuing along the theme of the Japanese music industry and how music is promoted, it is impossible not to address this one very important trend: idols. Don't be confused by this word. The Japanese idol is not the same as the people who win American Idol. The Japanese idol is a sort of all around entertainer, with music being at the centre in most cases. There are also gravure idols, but they fall into a slightly different category. There is sometimes overlap though, as in the case of AKB48.
Anyway, in recent years, idols have really been dominating the domestic music industry. (1) Although idols have been a part of the Japanese music industry for years, recently their popularity has exploded. The biggest players over the last year or so have been no doubt AKB48 and Arashi. According to Oricon, Arashi and AKB48 had the number one and number two albums of 2011 respectively and the top seven singles of the year were all from the two groups.
So, why are idols hugely successful? I think promotion probably has a lot to do with it, because, seriously, they are EVERYWHERE. You cannot escape them. They host TV shows, they appear in dorama, commercials, public service announcements, variety television shows, magazines, photo books, and in AKB's case, they are the mascots for 7-Eleven Japan as well as their chain of grocery stores.
They also tend to make the top headlines in entertainment news at least a couple times a week. I don't even like them, but I know all the names of the main members. It's scary.
There is also always a slew of merchandise available for any idol or idol group. These include planners, notebook, keychains as well as things like candid photos that sell for quite a price in official shops. For example, in the Johnny's shop, it's 150 yen for one of these candid photos, which generally just look like randomly shot Polaroids. Some people also resell these products over the Internet for more than double the original price, plus shipping.
That's only the start. That's how they sell the whole package, but I haven't even mentioned the music yet. The music is also EVERYWHERE. It is used in a variety of ways on television and the artists will generally go on a tour of music programs after the release of every single, guaranteeing exposure for the track. You're also guaranteed to hear these kinds of songs when you walk into convenience stores or video stores and even if you're not a fan of the music, you're bound to recognize every latest single. They are also incredibly catchy and the types of songs that easily get stuck in your head, whether you like it or not.
Another difference between a regular artist and an idol is that most idols release singles far more often than regular musicians. For example, AKB48 released 6 singles last year (2), NOT including the songs released by the subgroups made up of the same members.
The whole idol model is kind of similar to the idea of cross-media promotion. These groups are not just put together to sing. From the very start they are trained to sing, dance, act, model, host and entertain in a variety of ways. This ensures their survival in other industries even if their music career ends and also makes sure that they are exposed to a wide audience. The way idols can easily cross over into different media also proves once again how interconnected the Japanese entertainment industry is.
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For further reading:(1) See: http://www.japantoday.com/category/entertainment/view/cd-single-sales-jump-in-2011-thanks-to-akb48 and http://loljapan.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/what-happened-to-the-music-industry-japan/.
(2) See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AKB48_discography
Just for fun, here's a somewhat old, but interesting article on the Japanese music industry, focussing on idols.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2005/aug/21/popandrock3
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