It's always been said that Queen were very popular in Japan. However, I was surprised to learn that their albums and singles didn't do too well - A Night At the Opera, for example, only reached #9 on the charts, while songs like Teo Torriatte (which I would expect to do quite well) only hit #49.
So this got me wondering - when we say "Queen did well in Japan", does this mean "well" in the sense that, most English speaking acting acts do very poorly, while Queen was passably good on the charts?
I tried to investigate - looking up The Beatles, to see how their singles and albums did in Japan - but there doens't seem to be much info on the net.
So, my question is, how did Queen's contemporaries - The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and the like - do, commercially, in Japan? Please use links to back up your claims.
About chart positions: link
About popularity: I think all Western bands are popular there as well as The Beatles and Queen were... I don't know why though!
I remember reading an article about Celine Dion or Mariah Carey (not shure!) in the nineties, stating that her single or album (not shure either!) was nunber 1 in japan. Acording to the article that was the first time for almost 15 years that a foreigner artist could hit the number one spot in that cathegory.
That says it all about how hard it is to succeed in that territory. As far as i know, artists like Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert (Mr. Big), and other rock artists from the 90's are very successful in there. Neoclassical rock and more technically players tend to sell very well in japan although they don't sell anything, even in their home country. I know that there are artists that still are in the business beacuse of the Japs!
For some reason pop acts and easy listening stuff doesn't sell so well!
As far as Queen goes, i mean they sell out stadiums in there so they must have had a lot of success. Let's not forget that 3 years ago, Queen managed to put 27 albums in the japanese top 100, wich smells like one of those records that will stay forever!
Take care
Just for reference.
Amazon.co.jp: top sellers
ROCK 60s-70s link
ROCK 80s link
ROCK 90s~ link
PROGRESSIVE ROCK link
ALTANATIVE ROCK link
GLAM ROCK link
A O R link
SOFT ROCK link
FOLK ROCK link
USEN GROUP: top 50 Karaoke Songs link
I'm not sure in terms of sales, but as far as popularity and cultural impact I'm completely sure (since I lived in Japan) that Beatles are bigger than Queen. At least in Tokyo. Ono Yoko is of course an important reason for that as well.
Well there were number of different charts in Japan and the the most common one which you are referring to is made of mostly home grown acts- they did well in other variants though.
Freddie was very popular in Japan.
He has been great influence to many manga and anime artist (Akira Toriyama - Dragon Ball Z author for example) and he's one of the main charachters in Cromatrie Highschool anime serie.
There are various games that have been influenced by
Queen or Freddie, most noticable are Ogre Battle series and main charachter of Guilty Gear series: Sol Badguy.
So you can say that Queen and Freddie are fairly popular in Japan, even if they didn't sell that much.
And concerts were always crowded in there.