I think the last time that the 'younger crowd' was into her was 2006 with BLUE BIRD and since then she hasn't really been "cool".

However, I do think people still respect her.

^I actually find a lot of the Japanese people I talk to know You & Me quite well. Usually between 20-23 year olds so not sure if they count as the "young crowd" haha.

Hm, I wonder if that song got a huge following thanks to the Maro thing at the time. It was (is?) her biggest song on YouTube after all.

Oh, it looks like M outpaced it pretty quickly after the first year or two. Let me get a bit of a list. (not including the ones that were available when the channel started and got a TON of views on full versions)...

01) M (2001) - 11,290,038 views
02) HEAVEN (2005) - 5,261,634 views
03) You & Me (2010) - 4,345,993 views
04) Voyage (2002) - 3,782,915 views
05) SEASONS (2000) - 3,267,812 views
06) BLUE BIRD (2006) - 3,180,199 views
07) Moments (2004) - 3,019,577 views
08) evolution (2001) - 2,896,535 views
09) MOON (2010) - 2,870,319 views
10) Boys & Girls (1999) - 2,800,104 views
11) progress (2011) - 2,487,534 views
12) JEWEL (2006) - 2,397,847 views
13) crossroad (2010) - 2,311,822 views
14) TO BE (1999) - 2,269,988 views
15) Love song (2010) - 2,204,963 views
16) Dearest (2001) - 2,131,202 views
17) Last minute (2015) - 2,130,121 views
18) Days (2009) - 2,113,235 views

Most impressive is Last minute. It being the "full" version nearly was pretty nice as well. A lot of the A ONE and sixxxxxx stuff is 1.6 mil+.

While it is important I guess to have new fans once in a while I also think that it's not a bad thing to have older fans, I mean they're not invalid or don't count. So what if the average age of people at your concerts isn't 13...

When you watch her DVDs you always see young (like, in their early 20's?) pretty girls though, they might film them on purpose but well. For AT2015 they filmed children dancing or singing along to her songs and that was the cutest thing.

Completly agree with you ! Where is the need to be relevant among young people ? Younger people are so volatile and not very loyal ... In each generation their iconic singers ... we don't expect people in their 30/40 listening to a teen singer so why we should expect the opposite ?

Funny how a lot of AHS members are in their 20s, early 30s. I discovered ayu at 17 in 2012 so its not like young people can't like her newer music.

I was 17. It was 2005 though.

I discovered Ayu in late 2012, I am just 20 years old.
:D
My younger sister who is just 16, became Ayu's fan in 2016

I'm 19 today but you can't compare young western fans vs young japanese fans, we almost all discovered Ayu on the internet by pure luck, from afar. But young japanese probably have heard of Ayu all of their life as the girl who was really popular back in the early 00's, which is not really appealing, they must think she's dated and not interesting, just like Madonna today, i can't think of anyone in their tennage years today in France who think she's the sh*t (this doesn't mean she's not a good singer, that's just the first international example i came up with)

I think I'll make some MIJ ringtones but only when the album'll be out. I'll try to post them on AHS If I don't forget.

I also discovered her at 16 in 2012, just shows that she can still draw in young people!

I am probably the latest Fan, in the beginning of 2014 in spring. I was 20. Missunderstood on YouTube was the Song which dragged me to her.

The love the public has for M is no joke o.o

Well, You & Me's MV is quite nice, and no one knew they were dating at the time... I don't think Maro is the reason it did well, considering that again did really poorly (compared to LOVE) once the dating news was out.

Well, being able to attrack a younger crowd from times to times is a signal of long therm relevance. She doesn't need a whole audience made of teenagers, but it's nice for her legacy if new generations get some interest on her.

But I believe she is doing pretty well on that department.

That would be amazing! Currently my wake up alarm is "the show must go on" but I want to change it to Survivor or Summer Love. :D

^which parts of the songs? I can easily make them on my phone. I think mine is FLOWER now haha

I can't have songs I like as my alarm ringtone because getting up in the mornings is so difficult :laugh For a while I had the beginning of 360 by Ai Otsuka as my alarm ringtone (in 2009) but it's traumatized me to the point where if I have iTunes on shuffle and the song comes on I start twitching as soon as it starts playing lmao

That's really impressive! I'm also glad that many of her recent stuff has more than 1,000,000 views. I hate that You & Me is in third place not only because the song is awful, but I can't believe Maro pushed here violently out of the car in the PV. I know it's not real violence, but why would you portray that? :dead2

I think I was 16 or 17 when I discovered Ayu. I was actually obsessed with Koda and BoA, then my friend sent me Memorial address, part of Me, and Trauma :yes It wasn't love at first sight though, but I've been listening to Ayu ever since~

That's the most adorable thing ever! :heart :luv2