Music Station Top 50 Idols of ALL TIME!

[Shoujo Q]

Just a rank that I thought people might find interesting. (Taken from TokyoHive via Music Station, Woot!)



Ranking of the Top 50 Idols of all time (So far), based on Sale Records.



50. Hayami Yuu – 2,850,000



49. Asaka Yui – 2,970,000



48. Otoko Gumi – 3,000,000



47. Asaoka Megumi – 3,020,000



46. Hori Chiemi – 3,210,000



45. Finger 5 – 3,600,000



44. w-inds. – 3,700,000



43. Shinohara Ryoko – 4,050,000



42. Momoki Kikuchi – 4,110,000



41. AKB48 – 4,310,000



40. Kashiwabara Yoshie – 4,400,000



39. NEWS – 4,490,000



38. Ohta Hiromi – 4,560,000



37. Kanjani 8 – 4,570,000



36. Minami Saori – 4,750,000



35. Agnes Chan – 4,900,000



34. Oginome Yoko – 5,380,000



33. Shibugaki-tai – 5,430,000



32. Candies – 5,450,000



31. Shonentai – 5,480,000



30. Minamino Yoko – 5,630,000



29. Yakushimaru Hiroko – 5,850,000



28. Amachi Mari – 5,960,000



27. Kawai Naoko – 6,530,000



26. Wink – 7,490,000



25. KAT-TUN – 7,660,000



24. TOKIO – 8,190,000



23. Suzuki Ami – 8,830,000



22. Noguchi Goro – 9,500,000



21. V6 – 12,120,000



20.Kahala Tomomi – 12,190,000



19. Hikaru Genji – 12,220,000



18. Kondo Masahiko – 12,670,000



17. Tahara Toshihiko – 12,700,000



16. Saijo Hideki – 13,290,000



15. Pink Lady – 13,330,000



14. Koizumi Kyoko – 14,260,000



13. Kudo Shizuka – 14,870,000



12. Nakayama Miho – 14,970,000



11. The Checkers – 15,380,000



10. Sawada Kenji – 15,700,000



9. Hiromi Go – 15,780,000



8. Yamaguchi Momoe – 16,220,000



7. Morning Musume. – 16,700,000



6. Arashi - 19,140,000



5. SPEED – 19,530,000



4. KinKi Kids – 24,670,000



3. Nakamori Akina – 25,340,000



2. Matsuda Seiko – 29,510,000



1. SMAP – 32,310,000





Yay for Morning Musume making it into a top ten list. There's also lots and lots of Johnny in this list.



I was surprised to see Momoe Yamaguchi so low in the list for someone who hasn't released anything new since 1970. Must be taking into account re-released stuff?



And the total lack of Ayumi Hamasaki, what? I guess she's too much of a artist to appear on a list full of idols. ;D



I'd love to see a Rank of Top 50 Music Acts of All Times and see what the list looks like then.

[Ap2000]

Am I the only one who only listens to MM (and AKB to some degree) from that list ? :x



@PQ; I was also searching for "Ayumi" (and "Utada") and kinda surprised she's not on the list. But I guess she can be considered to not being an idol like MM.

[tsukinobyouin]

[quote name='Ap2000' post='91791' date='Jan 15 2011, 06:36 PM']Am I the only one who only listens to MM (and AKB to some degree) from that list ? :x



@PQ; I was also searching for "Ayumi" (and "Utada") and kinda surprised she's not on the list. But I guess she can be considered to not being an idol like MM.[/quote]



Yeah, neither are idols. I'm not sure that Utada was ever considered an idol, and Hamasaki hasn't been in a long time. And you're missing out! There's lots of great acts on that list. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':cryalot:' />



I caught the last half of this on TV the other night, and some of the rankings surprised me too. When they showed each act, they showed a montage of their best selling singles and the numbers for each one according to Oricon. I don't know if that means they only counted sales of original releases or what. It was surprising that some of the highest selling acts, like say Nakamori Akina, didn't seem to have very high numbers for the singles they showed (i.e. no million sellers, like say MM). It might have to do with the length of the person's career and how steady their sales were over all that time?

[mrsross]

I thought Pink Lady would've been higher.

[eri]

[quote name='TnB' post='91796' date='Jan 15 2011, 05:19 PM']Yeah, neither are idols. I'm not sure that Utada was ever considered an idol, and Hamasaki hasn't been in a long time.[/quote]

I wonder what their rational was for deciding who is an idol or not. I used to think it was about writing the music (if you wrote it, you're an artist and not an idol). But Namie Amuro isn't on this list either (even though she's pretty idol-ish, esp when younger) whereas I'm pretty sure Matsuda Seiko penned at least lyrics.

[EmEl]

[quote name='PKyu' post='91787' date='Jan 15 2011, 01:52 PM']I was surprised to see Momoe Yamaguchi so low in the list for someone who hasn't released anything new since 1970. Must be taking into account re-released stuff?[/quote]

What do you mean? I assume you mean 1980?

Also, what do you mean? Did records not sell well until after 1980?

[aisasami]

[quote name='eri' post='91802' date='Jan 15 2011, 10:14 PM'][quote name='TnB' post='91796' date='Jan 15 2011, 05:19 PM']Yeah, neither are idols. I'm not sure that Utada was ever considered an idol, and Hamasaki hasn't been in a long time.[/quote]

I wonder what their rational was for deciding who is an idol or not. I used to think it was about writing the music (if you wrote it, you're an artist and not an idol). But Namie Amuro isn't on this list either (even though she's pretty idol-ish, esp when younger) whereas I'm pretty sure Matsuda Seiko penned at least lyrics.

[/quote]



Yeah, Moritaka Chisato isn't on the list and she was the idol who could play many instrument. But, she became more of an artist after the release of "Hijitsuryokuha Sengen". I was more suprised to see Suzuki Ami on the list because her "idol career" was only about two years or is the stuff she does with avex consider idol music?

[eri]

[quote name='aisasami' post='91806' date='Jan 15 2011, 07:52 PM']I was more suprised to see Suzuki Ami on the list because her "idol career" was only about two years or is the stuff she does with avex consider idol music?[/quote]



I remember that Suzuki was a huge, mega, ridiculous star for whatever reason (herd mentality + she did have nice lips). Maybe she just sold bazillions in those 2 years before she got caught up in all those scandals?

[neshcom]

[quote name='eri' post='91808' date='Jan 15 2011, 11:47 PM'][quote name='aisasami' post='91806' date='Jan 15 2011, 07:52 PM']I was more suprised to see Suzuki Ami on the list because her "idol career" was only about two years or is the stuff she does with avex consider idol music?[/quote]



I remember that Suzuki was a huge, mega, ridiculous star for whatever reason (herd mentality + she did have nice lips). Maybe she just sold bazillions in those 2 years before she got caught up in all those scandals?

[/quote]

thisthisthisthisthis



At the height of her stardom, she was going toe-to-toe with The Zaki for #1 Bitch. Then she had to decide that she wanted to get paid and what-not. Fun fact: Suzuki Ami's BE TOGETHER charted at #1 the week M, Ayumi Hakasaki's million-seller swan song, was released. Funner fact: now, they're both on avex and at the bottom of their careers!

[Shoujo Q]

[quote name='Em-El' post='91803' date='Jan 15 2011, 09:29 PM'][quote name='PKyu' post='91787' date='Jan 15 2011, 01:52 PM']I was surprised to see Momoe Yamaguchi so low in the list for someone who hasn't released anything new since 1970. Must be taking into account re-released stuff?[/quote]

What do you mean? I assume you mean 1980?

Also, what do you mean? Did records not sell well until after 1980?

[/quote]



God yeah I meant 1980. Sorry. Looking on the Wiki, it says her most popular single she ever released was "Yokosuka Story" in 1976, which sold over 600,000 copies and peaked at number one on the charts.



And according to Jame-World, her company released a LOT of stuff after she left so I can only think that a lot of her sales accumulated after she left and disappeared (FOREVER!).

[ShinUkyo]

Great list! I'm proud to say I own quite a few releases from every person/group on there. Every one of those conjures some nostalgia, and it's hard to even pick favorites. There's even a bunch of the people I was lucky enough to meet during my last trip to Japan in 2000: Noguchi Goro, Ohta Hiromi, Kikuchi Momoko (whose name is misspelled), Saijo Hideki, Pink Lady, and so forth. I'm with some of the above comments, in that every one of these artists is worth checking out if you're not familiar with one of them. The ones from the 1980's, in particular, should have a wealth of their content available online somewhere.



[quote name='aisasami' post='91806' date='Jan 15 2011, 09:52 PM']Yeah, Moritaka Chisato isn't on the list and she was the idol who could play many instrument.

But, she became more of an artist after the release of "Hijitsuryokuha Sengen".[/quote]

Moritaka was definitely more of a legit artist. She wasn't ever really promoted as an idol singer, and her image was fairly mature from the start. Not to mention, when she released a cover of 17sai (fairly early in her career) she was already 20 years old. The B-Side for that single was even called "Hatachi," to allow her a song with more fitting lyrics to her age. Aside from her first few songs, she wrote all of her own lyrics throughout her career. Then she learned to play a handful of instruments, most notably the drums which were featured in a bunch of her PV's. She was a featured drummer on one of SharamQ's album tracks, not that she could outshine Makoto (who isn't really a God among drummers to begin with.) <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... hahaha.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':wub:' />