Let's Talk About B'Z: Japan's Best Selling Artist ⋆ Chromatic Dreamers

Who comes to your mind when you think of the biggest Japanese artist or group? AKB48? Arashi? One OK Rock? YOASOBI? Kenshi Yonezu? Perfume? XJapan?

If so, I don’t blame you! There are certainly some names of groups that have gone around in the international community since I became a J-music fan in 2006. However, there is one act that is much bigger than all of them that not a single soul has ever brought up with me, and that is B’z.

I first came across B’z’s music while I was watching Detective Conan around 2011. They created the 6th opening, “Giri Giri Chop”. I LOVED that opening so much! The high energy, the epic guitar riffs, the badass vocals, it was just a really fun song! I made sure to download it into my limited J-music collection and I played that song on repeat. Even now, I wished I had the guitar chops to cover that track.

At that time, I really didn’t think much about the group. Back then, I would just download the anime songs I liked, but didn’t have the means to really dig deeper. Youtube was quite limited for Japanese music, and services like Spotify didn’t exist yet. Sometimes I would look into other groups, but there was very little music or information to be found.

No one ever brought them up to me which also made me think they were smaller than they were. To be fair, this opening started a short time after the English dub cut off at episode 130, and all their other openings for the series came much later, so I would totally understand if many haven’t heard their songs from the show before.

I looked into other places where their music was featured, games like GuitarFreaks, Beatmania and Burnout Dominator, or anime/dramas like Umizaru Evolution, Buzzer Beat, Beautiful Life, Jigoku Sensei Nube, Black Jack, and Fist of the North Star, but those are all titles that are relatively unknown to international audiences. Or if someone did watch or play these, they may not have cared much for the songs (rock popularity is way down compared to pop and hip hop) or they didn’t take the time to look them up.

So imagine my surprise when I found that B’z is not only Japan’s #1 best-selling artist, but they made it pretty high up on the world’s best-selling artists list! I was doing research for my Jpop vs Kpop article to see which artists from each country were truly the most popular, but out of all the Japanese artists I knew, I was not expecting to see B’z.

B’z is rivaling sales with huge artists like Britney Spears, Pink and Bon Jovi, and has sold way more albums than well known names like Bob Dylan, Guns N’ Roses, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Backstreet Boys, and Tina Turner.

The only other Japanese act on this list is Ayumi Hamasaki. Not a single Korean artist is on the list as of yet. While Kpop fans may be loud, anime and Jmusic has had a lot more time to develop a fanbase. I say this as a casual Kpop fan of 10 years myself.

I was shocked. I had to do further research because there were other names that I knew were quite big, but it turns out they rank high in regards to singles, as opposed to albums. AKB48 has the highest number of singles sold, B’z is second, and Mr. Children as third. I’ve heard about Mr. Children many times from Japanese individuals, but again, no mention of B’z. Other artists like Kenshi Yonezu haven’t been around long enough to compete with these older acts.

But for any foreign act that is unknown to the rest of the world to still make it to the top of lists like Best Sellers, they would truly need the support of their own country. For a country like Japan which has an average of 125 Million people to buy 86 Million CDs from a single artist…that’s crazy! So, if you’re curious about them, here’s a bit about their history.

B’Z History & Tracks

B’Z’ made their debut in 1988, and they are actually still active as I’m writing this in 2022. B’z is a rock duo consisting of guitarist, composer and producer Takahiro “Tak” Matsumoto, and vocalist and lyricist Koshi Inaba (稲葉浩志, Inaba Kōshi), They are known for their energetic hard rock tracks and pop rock ballads, but have also experimented with Blues and Pop.

Their 5th single from their 3rd album, “Taiyou no Komachi Angel” was their first single to debut at #1, and as of 2018, they have the most #1 singles (49), most consecutive #1 singles (46), longest streak of number one singles (49), total weeks singles were at #1 (66), longest consecutive period with a single at #1 (20 Years), most singles in the top 10 concurrently (9), the most million-selling albums (19), most #1 (26), and the only artist in history to lead all six major categories tracked by Oricon.

According to B’z Wiki “B’z concerts, referred to as LIVE-GYMs, have been characterized by their consistent quality, energy, and production value. In addition to their large-scale concerts, B’z also venture out to see fans in the form of SHOWCASE shows—concerts with setlists that typically include a great many scarcely-performed songs and take place at smaller, more intimate venues.” They’re known to sell out all their concerts, even at the biggest Japanese venues.

In addition to playing shows all over Japan, the duo has have concerts and done worldwide tours, usually performing in the United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Canada.”

What I love about some of the most popular Japanese artists is that they were influenced by western artists and may incorporate that into their music. For B’Z, Matsumoto said he was inspired by The Beatles, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, and Eric Clapton, thus their old fashioned Rock n’ Roll sound.

Now and then, you’ll find an American act that was inspired by foreign Asian music. Aerosmith, for example, were and are big fans of B’Z, and the two groups got to perform together at the FIFA 2002 cup. Apparently, Aerosmith was asked to perform live for a while, but their answer was: ‘Only if you ask B’z to perform together with us’. They even wanted B’z to be their opening act during a tour, but that never came to fruition.

Awards & Achievements

In 1999, at World Music Awards won the award for “World’s Best Selling Japanese Artist of the Year”. At the WMA they received several nominations, including “World’s Best Live Act” and “World’s Best Group” in 2013.

In 2007, B’z became the first band from Asia to have their handprints and signatures put up in the Hollywood’s RockWalk. In 2008, B’z was awarded a Guinness World Record for “Best selling album act in Japan”, and also notes them to be the best selling act in Japan overall. AllMusic considers the as the “biggest rock act in Japan and the entirety of Asia”!

B’Z’s ‘Take Your Pick’ album won Best Pop Instrumental Album at the 53rd Grammy Awards on February 13, 2011. The same album sold out 18 shows on their Japan tour in just 20 minutes! They have been nominated for many other categories as well, but this was certainly a great achievement for Japan’s music industry.

As of today, their albums have 25 Platinum and 31 Million physical certifications, singles have 9 Gold, 33 Platinum, and 20 Million physical certifications, while home videos have 11 Gold physical certifications by the Recording Industry Association of Japan.

Conclusion

It’s about time the rest of the world acknowledges these 2 rock kings known as B’z. As Jpop continues to spread more thanks to anime and social media, let’s also recognize the big artists that were here long time ago and still continue to put out amazing music. Definitely check out their most recent songs, and perhaps their Spotify too!