Thanks for that list, ayumisrael!
Very interesting indeed...

Oh yeah, and the whole 12 singles thing...people were having fits. :yes

Namie sold 18.7k and Aiko just sold 17.2k today.
Seems that it was not bad for 1st day for Ayu.

5th Week
Position: #111
Official Sales: 447
Official Total Sales: 37,004

This proves that ayu's now in the status quo...but is it possible if aiko is "that" consistent, aiko may be selling more than ayu...? (just wondering)

aiko will end up selling around 50~60k

Yet aiko is older than ayu...how can aiko be mroe popular than ayu? Hmm...

:thud its not all about age, it is also is about the songs, and the promotion.

Also consistency does play a role, ayu always has a huge 1st day in comparison to her 2nd and 3rd days.

aiko's fans stick to her like glue. It also helps that aiko probably hasn't changed her style once in the last 10-15 years, and Japanese fans LOVE that.

^

word!

and it's kind of annoying now how every song of her sounds exactly the same to me... =\

My podcast has had a running joke for years that aiko is boring & no one likes her... I'm sure we're insulting a few aiko fans with that but we just CAN'T like her, heaven knows at least two of us have genuinely tried, lol.

She releases a lot of medium ballads, but songs like "beat" are amazing

lol what?
Isn't this forum proof that Ayu fans stick to her like glue too even when she releases her worst (IMO) single ever?
Aiko knows what she's good at and she just keeps doing it (like Ayaka, and Ikimonogakari, and Takahashi Yuu, and Yuzu... need I to go on?) and that's just as good an idea as it is to risk your career with a wild change.

And her songs sound the same in the same measure that Ayu's do. :P

It's probably her freshest single ever. When was the last time she had a standalone non-album recut dance/electro single?

And as for those groups, they're all the same type of boring pop that doesn't change much that Japan eats up, so what's your point? Ayu's fans for the most part don't seem to stick around. Even if aiko didn't have loads of #1s or whatever, she's very consistent. Ayu on the other hand has had a veeeeeeeeeeeerrrryyy slow decline ever since 2000 which probably sped up after 2005/2006.

Boring for you, you mean? If you've just heard snippets of some songs, why bother?
They are as GOOD as Ayu was (is?).

If Japan has a thing for it, so what? Japan had a thing for Ayu back in 2004, does that mean does that mean that she's not good at all?
Actually, Ayu's decline could be seen as proof that she just got famous due to external factors. She was trendy, she was in every CM, she had a show, she put music out non-stop, bla bla bla... and now people are on to the next thing. That really doesn't say much about her music, tbh.

I really don't wanna come off as an anti or anything, but I don't like it when I see stuff like Oh, they're boring, why are they famous? to other artists when they're doing better than Ayu. It comes off as whiny and jealous and childish. Like they don't deserve it.
Well, they do, and for the same reason Ayu does. Cause they're GOOD.

I mention it because it explains the disconnect between the fanbases in Japan and the fanbases in the West. How else do you explain their popularity there and why it doesn't translate here?

Did somebody know how charted Namies TSUKI Single?
i mean, where can i get the actual sales and chart positions?
i think it would be interesting to compare Feel the Love / Merry-go-round and TSUKI from day to day

I still thinks aiko's boring af and is not good at all, certainly not like ayu. I don't care if other people think she or any other artist are good or as good as ayu. If I don't think so then I don't have to say so. People say the same about ayu and I could care less because taste is relative. It's not being whiny and jealous and childish lol.

I still ask myself why many other Japanese artists are famous but my baby girl JASMINE hasn't been selling so well when I think she's way better lol. But I know why. And it's okay to think that

Aiko who?

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/never.../59433_600.gif

On TSUKI -official sales- thread :)