The official Twitter account of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced on October 29, 2023 that the anime’s opening theme song Chainsaw Man, “KICKBACK,” performed by Kenshi Yonezu has been released. honored with the prestigious RIAA Top Certified Gold certification in the United States.
This is an important milestone as “KICKBACK” became the first Japanese song to achieve this feat. The song has sold over 500,000 copies in the United States.
KICKBACK was released as a digital single by SME Records on October 12, 2022, as well as three physical versions: the regular CD version, the video version, and the chainsaw version.
The song debuted immediately at number one on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart upon its release. It also became the first song by a Japanese artist to enter Spotify’s Global Daily Top 50 chart.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization representing the recorded music industry in the United States. The association’s members include record labels and distributors that the RIAA says”create, produce and/or distribute approximately 85% of all recorded music legally sold in the United States.”
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) awards certifications based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets.
A gold record is a song or album that sells 500,000 units (records, tapes, and compact discs). The award was launched in 1958; Initially, the requirement for a Gold single was one million copies sold and a Gold album to achieve $1 million in sales (at wholesale value, about one-third of the list price). In 1975, an additional requirement of 500,000 copies sold was added for the Gold album.
In 1989, the single sales threshold was reduced to 500,000 copies for Gold albums, reflecting falling single sales.
Source: Twitter