Music

With their latest song “Orange,” SPYAIR has entered a new phase of their musical career.

They managed to overcome what could be a fatal blow to most bands — the loss of their vocalist — by launching their YouTube channel “SPYAIR, Looking for a Vocalist” and their vocal audition titled “You’re SPYAIR! Hey Hey Speak Up, Anyone Want to Be Our Vocalist?” They turned this crisis into a new page in the band’s history, written together with their fans, and in April 2023 they relaunched themselves as a new four-member incarnation of SPYAIR with YOSUKE on vocals.

“Orange” is the theme song of Haikyuu!! The Dumpster Battle, which opened in Japanese theaters on Feb. 16. Not only is it the theme song of a popular anime film, but the band’s previous songs “Imagination,” “I’m a Believer” and “One Day” have also been used as Haikyuu!! theme songs, so “Orange” is a reunion between the band and the anime.

“Orange” has an emotional backstory, but it’s also making its mark on the music charts. On the Billboard Japan Hot 100 songs chart, it debuted at No. 19 on the Feb. 21-dated chart, the first tracking week after the song’s release. A week later, on the Feb. 28-dated chart, it climbed to its highest position of No. 8, becoming the new SPYAIR’s biggest hit. It’s a truly iconic song for the band.

That’s not the only reason “Orange” is going to be leading SPYAIR into a new phase of its history. Looking carefully at a breakdown of the points used to calculate the song’s Billboard Japan Hot 100 ranking, it’s apparent that the source of almost all of its points — that is, the way people are listening to it the most — is streaming. The Billboard Japan Hot 100 is currently based on six metrics: CD sales, downloads, streaming, radio, video views, and karaoke. Since the song’s debut on the chart, streaming already accounts for more than 70%. Looking at the streaming metric scores for “Orange,” it’s kept up a steady level of streaming even after it peaked on the Feb. 28 chart, earning roughly the same amount of points each week. This steady streaming performance is key.

All the long-running hits on the charts are songs with consistently high streaming numbers. One example of a song that has kept a top position on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 for weeks is Creepy Nuts’ “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born.” It has held the No. 1 spot on the chart for 12 consecutive weeks so far (from the Jan. 31 to the April 17 chart), and it’s still going. Another is Ado’s “Show,” which kept dropping from No. 1 and bouncing right back, for a total of 13 weeks at the top. Yet another is YOASOBI’s “Idol,” which holds the chart record of 21 consecutive weeks at No. 1 (from April 19 to Sept. 6, 2023). The list goes on. One thing all of these songs has in common is that they all accumulated points on the karaoke and the UGC metrics. (UGC = User Generated Content. For the Billboard Japan charts, this consists of plays of derivative videos on YouTube.) Karaoke and derivative works are active ways for fans to enjoy songs, and they spread awareness of songs to people who had otherwise not heard them before. When people are exposed to these songs and take a liking to them, they listen to them on streaming services, growing the song’s fan base.

 Looking at the metrics for “Orange” from that perspective, we see that the karaoke metric score has been rising week-on-week, finally hitting the top 100 in the April 3 chart. Although it seems the UGC metric has peaked, the song is managing to keep its UGC numbers high, just like it’s keeping up strong streaming numbers. From these two facts, we can see that “Orange” isn’t just a hit among past SPYAIR fans, but that it’s also being welcomed by people unfamiliar with SPYAIR’s previous work. On the comprehensive Billboard Japan Hot Albums chart (Billboard Japan counts the eponymously titled Orange EP as an album), Orange rose up in the CD sales metric in the fourth week after its release (on the March 13, 2024 dated chart). The fact that the drop-off in sales has been so gradual is yet further evidence that the band is reaching new fans.

 For artists like SPYAIR who have been active before music streaming services became widespread in Japan, CD sales and downloads remain key metrics that play important roles in determining their ranking positions. SPYAIR’s best-charting song on the Billboard JAPAN Hot 100 has been “Imagination,” which came in at No. 3 on the May 7, 2014 dated chart, followed by “I’m a Believer,” which placed at No. 5 on the chart dated October 28, 2015. Streaming numbers were sluggish not only for these two songs, which came out before streaming was mainstream, but also for more recent songs like “One Day,” the ending theme to Haikyuu!! ~TO THE TOP, season four of the TV anime (the single began streaming on October 3, 2020, and was included in a limited-run CD released on November 11) and their previous song, “RE-BIRTH” (released on July 7, 2023). For all of these songs, ranking positions were correlated with shifts in CD sales and downloads. The situation with “Orange” is totally different. In other words, SPYAIR has finally begun enjoying streaming support and attracting new listeners, which has created the possibility that “Orange” will become a song with long chart staying power.

This streaming support also has the potential to make “Orange” not just a long-running hit in Japan, but also a global hit. Songs with strong streaming (and karaoke) support, like “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born,” “Show,” and “Idol,” became global hits almost simultaneously with blowing up in Japan. Of course, there were other factors involved, like dances or short videos, but one key factor was getting included in playlists on streaming platforms. It’s clear that this drew even greater attention to them and exposed even more people to these songs. On Billboard Japan’s Global Japan Songs Excl. Japan, a global chart that ranks hit Japanese songs in over 200 countries and regions excluding Japan, “Orange” peaked at No. 57 (on the March 7, 2024 dated chart). In the Japan Songs (by Country) chart, which adjusts the data from the Global Japan Songs Excl. Japan chart by weighting it on a per-country basis, “Orange” has entered the top 20 in Korea (reaching No. 18 on the chart dated  March 7, 2024). SPYAIR is gradually developing more widespread recognition, especially in Korea.

There’s no way to talk about SPYAIR without talking about the staunch support they enjoy in Korea. In 2011, when it was comparatively rare for Japanese artists to gain recognition overseas, SPYAIR performed at Korea’s Jisan Valley Rock Festival 2011. In the same year, they released their first album in both Japan and Korea, and they performed on the music TV show M Countdown roughly 12 years before YOASOBI. Since then, they’ve played at several local festivals and sold out their 2DAYS solo show. Through the years, they’ve steadily built up a Korean fan base. Haikyuu!! The Dumpster Battle will be released in theaters overseas in May, and global interest in “Orange” is certain to rise. Given that, the existence of a fandom outside Japan will serve as a tremendous advantage in the band’s overseas expansion.

SPYAIR performed at the Sakura-Con anime convention held in Seattle from March 29 to 31, and in May it’s planning an Asian tour that will take it to Seoul, Taipei, and Shanghai. Keep a close eye on the new SPYAIR and watch as it takes wing not only in Japan but also throughout Asia and the rest of the world.

—This article by Maiko Murata first appeared on Billboard Japan