Criticism about Ayu, I think...

If Ayu started criticizing us fans, I think we'd probably be in the corner weeping, haha.

IMO, criticism is healthy, but sometimes people push it way too far and it goes beyond constrictive criticism/critique and into "This is personal. I hate you for making this/these albums/singles/concerts, Ayu. Where the hell did 1999/2000/2001/2002/2003/2004/2005 Ayu go?" territory. But that's just how I see it, haha.

^ Yeah I meant about Ayu, lol.
I haven't really seen many just blatant bashing posts about Ayu in a long time. Some people may say "Oh Ayu what has happened? I don't like this new single" but they are never screaming and hollering that she's a freakin' wenchy beast. Lol.

Criticism is great. What is not great is poor manner and attitude that is common in criticism.

this is so true. i've yet to read any critical reviews of something ayu related that didn't include some kind of catty remark somewhere in it.

Now you made me feel bad! :( But, I've never reported anything though...

Anyway, now that I look back at those posts, yeah they were quite rude. Especially some pots who were calling the kettle black. :laugh

SunshineSlayer, your post was deleted. Fortunately, someone quote it so I can read it.

Being western at the core doesn't mean all things are equally western. That is the problem in your argument. You ignore detail. I guess because it is easy to do that. It is not subjective. You can identify what is western and what is eastern.

You are right. Don't Look Back is not an arabian song. GREEN is a pop song. They have some western elements but they don't sound western. Why? The melody and most of the arrangement is eastern. Can you find me a western song with a melody and/or arrangement of GREEN/Don't Look Back/BALLAD/part of me? You can not. Don't you agree Namie's WILD/Dr. is far more western than GREEN or BALLAD, in that respect?

You don't need to write me an essay. Pop music is from the west. I have already said that in my previous post. Everything you assume of me, you are wrong. However, those songs are not western. Remember, you said a (western) song with a chinese instrument does not make it a chinese song. I agree with you. It may have chinese elements but it is a western song. The western instruments in those songs do not make it a western song.

@Joshua: I just have a question though. Is having J-Pop too "Americanized" a bad thing? I mean, Namie Amuro's music is really Americanized, especially in the recent releases, and she's doing extremely well for a female solo artiste.

Also, I've noticed that besides boybands dominating the physical CD charts, in the digital charts, what is dominating seems to be R&B J-Pop artistes. I don't know how relevant is this, but Shimizu Shota has quite a few hits in the digital charts (sorry I can't really remember their names but it was a duet with Ayolma Thelma iirc).

So... in a way, the young people in Japan DO like Americanized music, especially R&B... seeing that and how Ayu's sales have been falling... I would like to say that instead of Ayu's music becoming more Americanized, I actually think her music has been very J-Pop in nature.

I mean, heck, songs like Sunrise, You were..., BALLAD, EnergizE, Days, Together When... JEWEL... these aren't songs that will ever be popular in America. If anything, Ayu is one of the J-Pop artistes who has a very "Japanese" sound to her songs; no offense. Because to me, "Americanized" simply means a song that WILL do well in the Western market, as well as having elements of R*B. Artistes like Namie Amuro and Shimizu Shota certainly have such elements, which explains their success (to whatever extent it is).

But seriously, Ayu is a product of avex and she knows it the best herself. A product has a shelf life, and unfortunately never a shelf life of eternity. She reached her peak too soon, and fell too soon... but I like the way she's pacing her releases now. No more spam-of-singles ala the I am... era... no more overexposure that makes the general public sick of her... :laugh

Honestly would a troll post such long, thought out posts?

joshua I respect your boldness and your honesty in sharing your thoughts. (weird sentence).

if you decide to stick around, we definitely could be friends.

I have stopped listening to Ayu's music since "Secret" album.The new songs really sound the same now,they are cheesy and boring, and they are more about the costumes and the PVs .
I enjoyed her previous songs because they were varried, and when I read the translations of the lyrics, the texts were beautiful. Still, for me who don't understand the language, the songs today just don't sound so special as they were,They come out fast one after one,maybe she needs to take a break in order to create better material.
And I really used to like her and her style and everything,maybe I also have grown up a bit.

Agreed, he would of done what most trolls do and that is leave a short thoughtless post. But instead he backed up his argument in a constructive way. Kudos to Joshua. :yes

I don't believe Joshua is a troll anymore - or if he is, he's obviously sorry - but no, I have definitely seen trolls write out veerrryyy long posts. I've seen it many times, actually. There are many types of trolls - some write childish, three word insults, some write nothing but hatred - be it thought-out or not - and then some actually do have good points, but they can still be a troll.

Just sayin'.

I wrote this some days ago! But no one did care about it xD

^ many people dont like listening to the other side of logic sometimes (especially 15 yr olds like myself XD). also at the time u couldve been right. but then u couldve been wrong. ur last statement however is correct and that is why it is just as ignorant for u to call someone ignorant for saying josh was a troll when what they said logically makes sense. :)


anyhow. hopefully josh will be back to answer more questions and maybe not everyone will blatantly attack him with uncertainty to his goals.

I just want to say in response to people who are saying all her songs lately are sounding the same and 'song A sounds like a watered down version of song B' etc.

Of course they're going to sound the same! For the last 4 years we've only gotten 2 singles a year (except for last year we got 3) and 2 singles per album. Except for Rule/Sparkle and Mirrorcle World, pretty much all of them have been winter ballads or an uptempo summer single.

And let's be real, everyone mainly focuses on the songs that are singles and they're the ones that will most likely make it onto our playlists and the ones that standout in our minds. So if you're getting fairyland then BLUE BIRD thenglitter then Sunrise it's kind of overwhelming. Same with winter songs if you're getting Together When... and GREEN,Days,You were... and BALLAD it gets boring and repetitive. And because the singles end up going #1 anyways, it's kind obvious that avex is just capitalizing on past years success hence the repetitiveness in releases.

And maybe if we got a midtempo spring single (Moments) or a autum rock song (talkin' 2 myself) the complainers wouldn't be bored with her music and griping about how her current music sounds the same.

That's just my 2 cents on the issue.

It's not "why Ayumi's sales have fallen" - it's "why Ayumi's sales haven't increased/steadied"

There are so many reasons why they have fallen and they've all been mentioned before. She's been in this business for sooooo long. Everyone knows her and her works. She peaked already. Etc...

But that isn't the reason why they haven't risen at all or began to steady.

Lately, she hasn't been making "wowing" songs. It's like, she just needs some really good productions and she could do really well. But people being interested in her just because of "fandom" only goes for so long. Actually, I'm only interested in R'n'R Circus now because of my fandom... if it weren't by Ayumi, I wouldn't care for most of it at all. It's just crucial time for her to really try and knock it out of the park, and then people will gain interest again and faith.

I didn't consider what you bring up before I wrote my post either. But I do think you've got a strong point. I wondered why the hell Ayu only did two singles per album nowadays, but I think it would be smarter for her to do 3 or 4 like she used to. Maybe that would give people more incentive to get out and buy her music? They wouldn't feel it's a risk to spend their money on an album made up of 11 out of 15 songs that they have never heard and wouldn't know whether they liked them?

Sometimes I feel that Ayu fans are too spoilt. When she changes a style, there will be those who condemn it. But what we're listening to is Jpop. A song like Sunset and meaing of Love will definitely not survive in the vast western market but it appeals to other fans. Just because fans have exposure to a larger variety, heart-thumping, electro whatever music, you deem something that is on a simpler side as boring.

Just like when Ayu sings about love, people don't feel that it is all that genuine. Why? Because there's millions of love songs out there. Yet you want her to sing about being lost and depressed because not everyone is willing to be so forefront about it.

And does she really NEED to be the top again? No. Does she really need all the attention again? No. Why? Because she has already done that and like I said, already earned the respect of fans and Non-fans alike.

and what jbrat said on Page 9 is so true. That's what i mean by Some Ayu fans are really spoilt.

Ayu fans are DEFINITELY some of the most spoiled fans out there. Not even I am exempt from that. But it's all in how you handle it. If you don't like Rock 'n' Roll Circus, just simply don't listen to it. Same goes with anything else she puts out. And if you find yourself more and more not listening to her music then at least you know that she just simply may not be the artist for you anymore. Some people grow apart from their favorite artists, some people don't like some albums they put out, and honestly, that's okay. But ******ing and moaning and complaining about how something isn't what you expected or is something you don't like is not going to get you your way any more than shutting up. And complaining most certainly is not going to raise her sales.

So I think fans should just come to realization that Ayu's music is always going to change and her sales may just continue to drop. I have to admit, RnRC's sales are kind of frightening me right now especially since I genuinely thought it was going to do better than NL. But I bought a copy, I did my part and unless I get a maternity test proving Oprah is my mother, there isn't much else I can do at this point. It's the same for all of us, all we can do as fans is continue to support and love Ayu. Besides, hundreds of thousands of fans don't show up to her concerts because they don't at the very least like her lol. And we don't come on this site (some of us, every day) to talk about someone we don't at least like as well.

So no matter how low or even how high Ayu's sales get (because that's possible too), let's just take joy in the fact that we did our part if we were financially able. And let's take joy in the fact that we all do truly love her, even if we get a little disappointed at times. :)


And that's my long post for no reason xD;

Everyone has their right to express their opinions. Obviously I don't like people bashing Ayu, I don't think many of us do, but if someone doesn't like one of her albums or certain material, let them discuss it. I do not like R'n'R Circus and I don't think there is any harm in expressing my opinion as to why I don't and analyzing the material to discover exactly why it isn't working for me.

Expressing your opinion and discussing =/= *****ing.

Unless you feel you fall into the *****ing category, you're not who I'm addressing this too. :D