well, most of the popular artists among non-japanese people are older acts... And even if western people easily mistakes them for teen pop, considering female singers looks and voices, when u go into Ayu's, Hikki's or even Ai Otsuka's (mentioning the ones I know well enough) thematics and lyrics, none of them are releasing teen-oriented lyrics...

getting my two favorite, Ayu and Hikki, besides one or another single (and most of the time, their most successful recent ones), I would say they are mainly releasing pop music "for adults" for a while now...

As I discussed with a few people recently here on the forums, I don't think it's really these pop artists (the ones that have been around for a while) and their music that changed, it's just that people these days look at pop for fun and stuff like that. They're not looking at pop for sweet, nostalgic music. People who are looking for deep emotions and stuff are mostly going to to listen to rock artists and such. Pop artists are being marketed as just cute, and fun, or sexy, with partying themes and such, you know?

Of course there are exceptions, don't get me wrong, but that's the majority has gone. In the west and east alike, pop (typically solo female artists, and all-female groups) is being marketed quite different to how it was in the time of Ayu's peak, where emotions and powerful, deep, sad performances really touched teens, or encouraged them.

^Even when Ayu was at her peak, there was a lot of "non-deep" jpop singers rocking the boat... On the begining of ayu's career, her lyrics really talked direct to teenagers, but mainly cuz she was one of them and felt what they felt... She moved on, grew up, and she is an adult now... And a lot of her themes are not really teen-friendly anymore IMO

Um, guys, I thought this one was obvious, but since you don't seem to remember the polls and stuff, yes, Ayu is no longer popular with teens. Her fans have grown up with her, and her music is more of an adult pop style, anyhow. Same for the other biggest stars in Japan, like B'z or Mr. Children. It's nothing to be worried about. The kids don't like them that much, but Ayu, say, is still more of a legend in Japan than AKB48 or Kana Nishino, and she most probably always will be. Having a core fanbase of around 30+ makes your sales drop and gives you the "old" reputation, lol, but it doesn't change your overall status. :yes

And Ayu doesn´t make pop for children!!!

If it wasn't a single or a lead track off of an album, people probably didn't listen to it.

I mean, for a lot of American artists, I've never heard their album tracks, but I've heard a lot of their singles, haha.

^ i do that a lot

well i dont want ayu to make teen-geared songs (even if im a teen hehe)
and nooo childrens songs like hikki did. waste of space for some deep songs on an album

i like artists being deeper and adult-geared.
and maybe this is why i hardly listen to many other jpop artists. and situate myself in the deeper more complex world of jrock.

however ayus sales. any artists sales. its so hard to say.

Yeah, XD. It's something that you easily overlook if you're a fan (at least I do), but the general public has only ever heared of the singles, and maybe even only a few popular ones. Most Japanese have probably heared of M, or SEASONS, but I can guarantee you the number that have ever even heared of EnergizE is much, much, much lower XD

Hm, so the J-music industry isn't really that different from the American music industry. The young rule. And icons like Ayu, Hikki, Madge, and Britney are pretty much supported by the hardcore fanbase they developed at their peak.

It's weird, I'm still technically a teenager but oddly I never seemed to like major pop acts until they "grow up" in a sense. I didn't care for Britney at all when she was making music directed to my age group, now her music isn't kid friendly at all and I love her. Maybe it's because I'm such a recent Ayu fan but I've never considered Ayu to be an artist geared towards the young audience. Even as I go back looking at her material from Loveappears and ASFXX, something about her has always seemed really mature and deep to me. Something above and beyond just catchy songs meant to be enjoyed for that moment in your youth but things that just carry on throughout life. She may not be as "hip" as these young idols but she has something they probably wish they had, longevity.

Though there are exceptions like in the cases of Ai Kago and Koharu Kusumi, "graduations" in the idol world is just a polite way of saying "this person is no longer marketable so we'll send them on their way". Can you imagine Ayu or Kuu "graduating" from Avex? lol But it's so normal.

Right now, I'm into some of the H!P acts but they're the younger ones who haven't had any graduations yet, not sure I'll be into them once they start graduating. AKB48 is alright, most of their stuff (like that Ponytail song) is terribly boring though... they seemed aimed at older folks so I can't imagine how they keep the young people interested. No comment on the Johnny's groups b/c I don't do boy bands... I think they're all just really cheesy and too "teen girl and hormones" driven, lol.

^ Idol graduations often are because they are popular and marketable outside of the group or because of backstage problems. Both Kago Ai and Kusumi were very popular at the time of their graduations and both were rumored to be leaving because of backstage politics. There's also cases though that people are graduated because they look too old to be in the group, such as Nakazawa Yuko and Yasuda Kei - but those kind of graduations are more rare than the other kind.

Today on the surveys was more of the same except maybe an even heavier emphasis on Arashi if that was even possible. However, finally one person wrote that they like Every Little Thing and Do As Infinity - I was about to do backflips. :)

10th position, it's still good

Wow, Nishikino Kana tied to Namie Amuor? I thought Kana was MUCH MUCH more popular among this particular age group. Guess not... She must be really popular among High School girls though cause her digital sales are impressive.

Wow, that's really really sad. People who say they "don't like music" sadden me a lot.

I've actually saw a poll among US Jr. High schoolers. Nothing surprising: Bieber, Gaga, Taylor Swift and Disney kids ruled the list.

In the beginning of their career, they were actually huge among young girls. They had toys, cartoons on morning television and even a manga at some young girls magazine.

Oh hey there, nice metaphor for the Japanese society as a whole.

YAY!!!!!go to 300k ^^

LOL xD

back to the chart

today position

album : #30
DVD : #16

So it's like that by far:

1st Day
Position: #10

Out of the top 30

4th Day
Position: #30

DVD

1st Day
Position: #7

Out of the top 20

4th Day
Position: #16

RnRC is #30, great

I was purely referring to the current trend in the Japanese music industry; no need to make snide comments like that.


I'm glad it jumped back into the list :D I wonder what on earth it was selling while it was that low down the charts though

Just 298.xxx... I thought she would sell more copies... At least more than 500.000....

In an age where the top seller of the year sells only 560/570k, I doubt Ayu'd be up there. Even best albums that would've sold a million in 2005/2006 are only at like 400-500k now. It's... sad.

You do know that she's still selling, right? Haha.