The Japan Record Awards is a music award with a long history, and it has been the benchmark for Japanese music awards in the Showa era.

However, after the 29th Record Awards in 1987, this music industry awards ceremony, which once had a rating of 50+ percent, floped straight and became a much-questioned music award.

This TBS Crying and Fainting in the Toilet series has always started with the 29th Record Awards in 1987.

That year, there were so many people competing for the big prize.

is in the middle of the day, a generation of idols who are about to dominate three times in a row, Akina Nakamori, a singing boss who has won two awards, and Masahiko Kondo, who has entered the candidate by relying on the influence and support of female votes.

Oh, at the time, Akina Nakamori and Mahiko Kondo were still boyfriend and girlfriend relationships...

In the case that Akina Nakamori clearly supports her male ticket, in fact, the big prize is a war between two men.

Masahiko Kondo and Hiroshi Goki.

However, in the cruel world of the Japanese music industry, singers rely on sales to eat, and large and small lists are inseparable from the eternal theme of sales.

If the record does not sell well, it is naturally difficult to get the approval of others.

The singers who won the record awards, and the single or album sales of the year were basically ranked in the top few of the major music charts.

There is Akina Nakamori in the distance.

Just like in 1985 and 1986, the two years when Akina Nakamori dominated the music scene, she also relied on two singles that ranked second on the ORICON annual chart in sales, and successfully achieved the great cause of two consecutive records awards.

There are Sakamoto Kiyoshi nearby, and Koda Laiwei.

In 2004, at the 46th Record Awards, Kiyoshi Sakamoto won the award-winning single "Hitomi をとじて", which ranked first on the ORICON annual chart, and in 2005, although Kiyoshi Sakamoto released his solo single "I'm Yours", "Paper~拝啓15の君へ~", and the single "PLANET" released by the SUN band, occupied the top three on the annual chart, but still lost to Koda Kirimi, a new generation of sexy singers.

However, the award-winning single "Butterfly" is also ranked in the top 10 on the annual chart, and the total sales of Koda in 2005 reached an astonishing 3 million copies!

Second only to Kiyoshi Sakamoto, it is in second place on the singer's annual record sales chart!

And in terms of influence and exposure back then, Kiyoshi Sakamoto is also slightly inferior.

Therefore, at the 46th Record Awards in 2005, Koda did not defeat Kiyoshi Sakamoto and won the award, which is well deserved.

But.

is such a music award that looks at sales, in 1987, at the 29th Record Awards, there was a controversial scene where a singer relied on the annual list ranking 35 and sold only a few hundred thousand singles to successfully win the record award!

This directly makes the fairness and authenticity of the record awards greatly questioned.

This singer is Masahiko Kondo, who is Genesys.

Generally speaking, after winning the big award, the single will have a small increase in sales.

If it is great, after winning the award, the winning single may sell more than 100,000 copies.

However, Kondo Masahiko, the winner of the unworthy Grand Prix, after winning the award, the award-winning single "Fool" only sold a thousand copies...

It can be seen how unpopular TBS's move to award the award to Kondo Masahiko at that time was that even consumers didn't pay for it.

As for the results of that year's awards, later generations have summed up two different views.

First, as the favorite of the three-in-a-row, Akina Nakamori took the initiative to give up the possible three-in-a-row and used her resources and abilities to help Kondo be rewarded.

The second is that the judges of the record awards thought "how can you make a woman three times in a row", so they decided to let the so-called Akina's "spouse" Kondo Masahiko also win a big award, which contributed to "everyone's happiness".

However, no matter how you look at it, such a reason will be scolded.

The worst impact was that after Kondo was awarded, the fairness of the Record Awards was questioned, and the ratings fell all the way, never reaching 20% again.

This most authoritative and longest-standing award in the Japanese music industry has gradually flopped and never returned.

Although there have been years of questioning since then, there is no doubt that the 29th Record Awards in 1987 was such an important turning point.

This is one of the important reasons why the current reputation of the Record Awards is not very good.

However, Kiyoshi Sakamoto still takes this award as his goal, not because of the long history of this record award, nor because of its authority, but because of the very tempting word "triple hegemony" of the record award.

He thought about a question in his heart, that is, how can he be called the king of the Japanese music scene, or the first brother of the music scene?

As far as he knows, only one singer has achieved this achievement since the creation of the Record Awards.

She is the first sister in the Japanese music scene, Ayumi Hamasaki!

From 2001 to 2003, Ayumi Hamasaki won three consecutive awards at the Record Awards, becoming the first solo singer in history to win three consecutive Record Awards!

And in 2003, she also sold a total of 17.4 million records, beating the previous record holder ZARD's 17.24 million copies, becoming the highest-selling solo female singer in Japan in history.

At the beginning of the century, Ayumi Hamasaki was invincible in the world, and he was in the limelight for a while, and he was also known by the public as the first sister of the Japanese music scene and a symbol of the singer.

And Sakamoto Kiyoshi also saw Ayumi Hamasaki, and determined his future direction.

If Kiyoshi Sakamoto wants to become the king of the Japanese music scene, or even the first brother, according to Ayumi Hamasaki's model, at least he will become the second solo singer to win the record award three times in a row.

Or take THE SUN and become the first group in history to win three consecutive record awards.

Moreover, he must become the male solo singer with the highest total record sales in Japan in history, and only in this way can he be widely recognized by the public.

As for the highest total sales of group records, THE SUN should not be able to reach it.

After all, at the top of the list are the more than 70 million sheets of the ageless band B'Z...

With such a figure, even THE SUN, which sells two million records a year, may take at least 35 years to catch up.

This one... It definitely won't be written for that long, so you can wash and sleep.

However, it is still possible for Kiyoshi Sakamoto to become the male solo singer with the highest total sales of records.

Interestingly, the current solo male singer with the highest total record sales in history, the top three, and the third place is Kiyoshi Sakamoto's teacher, Masaharu Fukuyama.

On top of Masaharu Fukuyama's 18.76 million, there are 19.83 million from Keiyuki Makihara and 20.38 million from Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi.

In other words, Kiyoshi Sakamoto must defeat his teacher first, step on his teacher, and continue to move towards the throne of the male solo singer's total sales of records.

Numerically, it seems difficult to surpass, and the times are different, in the context of the general decline of the global record market, Sakamoto Kiyoshi's road to catch up seems to be far away...

But.

Kiyoshi Sakamoto shouted out his different voice in the face of the rolling trend of the times!

"I'm a reborn! No matter how impossible, if I do my best, I can definitely achieve it!!"

However, Kiyoshi Sakamoto was born when the Japanese record market began to decline.

As of December 2006, in just two and a half years, Kiyoshi Sakamoto's total personal record sales have reached a staggering 8.5 million copies!!

You know, he just released three singles and one album!

The current Sakamoto Kiyoshi can be said to have taken a solid step on this road destined to be full of thorns.

Moreover, if the 6.2 million record sales of THE SUN are also counted on him, his total record sales have reached a terrible 14.7 million records!!

Such a number can already make Kiyoshi Sakamoto one of the top 50 people with the highest record sales in Japan!

Therefore, Kiyoshi Sakamoto has every reason to believe that as long as he continues along this road, he will definitely be able to see the peak of the Japanese music scene, what kind of beautiful scenery it is...

The road to becoming a king starts with this re-winning record award!

There are still a few days to go before the record awards are held, and Kiyoshi Sakamoto already knows who his biggest opponent this year is.

It's still those two, familiar names.

The one who beat him, the sexy singer, Koda Rami!

Kiyoshi Hikawa, known as the "Prince of Japanese Singing"!

Let's not talk about Kiyoshi Glacier, the savior of the Japanese singing industry, let's take Koda Laiwei, for example.

Kiyoshi Sakamoto believes that there is a possibility that she will win the award, but it is not very likely.

Because, in Japan's patriarchal society, even if Koda has no better and dazzling results in 2006, she has already won awards last year, and it is unlikely that she will win consecutive awards.

After all, she's not Ayumi Hamasaki at the beginning of the century...

What's more, there is also the SUN band led by Kiyoshi Sakamoto, and the two strong enemies of Kiyoshi Glacier are eyeing each other...

Therefore, Sakamoto Kiyoshi's deep gaze was on the man Kiyoshi Hikawa.

In Japan, singing, the quintessence of which the Japanese are proud, is not only an art form that constantly keeps up with the times, but also a kind of retro consciousness deep in the heart, but with the development of popular music, the Japanese singing industry is also facing a crisis, and there are even signs of gradual decline.

And the glacier Qingzhi who came into being is the new generation of people in the current singing industry.

He was also on the list of the last big contenders last year.

However, he, like Kiyoshi Sakamoto, was defeated by Koda Kiyomi.

And this year, he, like Kiyoshi Sakamoto, is also making a comeback.

With his singing single "One Sword"!

And Kiyoshi Sakamoto is bringing THE SUN's "Lei" and his own comeback song, "ひまわり" (Sunflower), will collide head-on with Kiyoshi Hikawa on the stage of the Record Awards!

Clenching the record award invitation in his hand, Kiyoshi Sakamoto muttered to himself.

"If you want to wear a crown, you must bear its weight!"