The official Twitter account of Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced on Oct 29, 2023, that the opening theme song of Chainsaw Man anime, “KICKBACK,” performed by Kenshi Yonezu has been honored with the prestigious RIAA Top Certified Gold certification in the United States.

This is marks a significant milestone as “KICKBACK” became the first Japanese-language song to achieve this feat. The song had sold over 500,000 copies in the United States.

KICKBACK was released as a single digitally by SME Records on October 12, 2022, as well as in three physical editions: a regular CD edition, a video edition, and a chainsaw edition.

The song made its debut at the top spot on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart immediately after its release. It also became the first track by a Japanese artist to enter Spotify’s Top 50 Global daily song ranking.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says “create, manufacture, and/or distribute approximately 85% of all legally sold recorded music in the United States”.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) awards certification 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; originally, the requirement for a Gold single was one million units sold and a Gold album represented $1 million in sales (at wholesale value, around a third of the list price). In 1975, the additional requirement of 500,000 units sold was added for Gold albums.

In 1989, the sales thresholds for singles were reduced to 500,000 for Gold, reflecting a decrease in sales of singles.

Source: Twitter