I don't hate Namie so it doesn't really bother me that much, that album and PLAY are probably her best.

I don't "hate" Namie either; some of her songs are nice to listen to. But, I don't get the same feeling listening to her music. I don't feel emotionally involved. I don't know, it's just like something to listen to.

I have very few absolute favorites by Namie but the following I adore:
Come (first Namie song ever)
White Light
NEW LOOK
the SPEED STAR

Then maybe one point less than those are:
GIRL TALK
No

I have others that aren't bad and I enjoy when listening to, but I am not drawn in by the entire "package" like I am with Ayu and to some extent, Ku.

Anyways, back on topic, after hearing about 2ch it's kind of sad that it's Ayu's 15th Anniversary year and nobody really cares. I guess you know you're a has-been when every chance you get to perform a song to the general public you go with your peak songs. It's like "Hey, remember this song guys!? YEAH!!" and the audience is like "Yes Ayu, we've heard it everywhere in 2001 and we've heard you perform it every year for the past 5 years any chance you get..." When you're promoting your prime instead of your present, that's when you know it's over.

Ayu really needs to take a short break and come out with a bang-on album. LOVE again, as beautiful it is, doesn't have that spark that her peak-era albums did. Maybe bringing back CREA would help :innocent

I'm going to the Yoyogi dates :) hope i can get nice sits!!!

i don't know who is better, but in the last years, kuu and namie's music videos are way better than ayu's pv's

I know it'll never happen but i wish she'd do a FULL world tour. Even if she missed Canada and came to NY, I could probably save the money and possibly make it there for a day to see the show. :(

Btw, is the voting for the songs thing in Japanese? How does it work?

You can't compare Ayu & these 2 ! Namie & Koda are dancers so their clips are full of dance behind a cheap background ! Ayu is much more researched sometime it's not well executed but there are a real work with symbolisms etc ... I don't say Ayu is better but the style is completely different ! I much more enjoy Song 4 u than any recent clips of Namie or Koda but all these things are subjective =)

thats why! we cant change them. we can only change ourselves to ignore these comments.

But she really HAS lost her spark. Or she's at least lost her edge. She's done nothing new, innovating or exciting since NEXT LEVEL / RnR Circus. She's been releasing the same album either in mini-form or in full form since Love Songs and her videos have gone downhill since Love Songs as well. I love, absolutely LOVE Ayu but it's so hard to love her so much and keep being disappointed time after time knowing that she has it in her to be so much better and more innovating.

Having said that, SAKURA is one of the best ballads of her career but one song salvage a career does not.

Keiichi_JPU
I have to disagree, she keeps releasing amazing and fresh new songs every single year.
And her PVs have always been bad to my mind.

I still get a hard time getting the whole "she is releasing the same album since xxx" when, even she is releasing mostly midtempos, she still is picking different music aesthetics for every album.

Unless people also believe My Story, Secret and Guilty sound the same for being all centered on pop-rock, even if they take different genres of rock as a starting point. ~~'

@mizuki-7

Namie is pretty much re-releasing the same PVs for two decades now... But for some reason people at AHS finds her dancing in front of a car with a bored face very artistc...

:yes

There's always a possibilty for a second peak is there not? Look at Namie, she's been selling over half a million in albums in recent years. There's no doubt that Ayu could probably do the same thing, add on promotions and her already great tours, and u have a chance at a second peak.

Instead of ayu taking a break, go on hiatus maybe the people that feel like that should take a break from ayu~

Poor Namie she always comes out on every Ayumi conversation. Keep on selling those albums Namie don't listen to haters.:lech

i have to agree with u. LOVE again was kinda a "blah" album for me. cos most songs are of the same genre. either ballad or medium tempo songs. But let's not forget epics like progress and BRILLANTE! :)

I know most people dislike Party Queen the album, but i guess the album was meant to be like that. it's a dark album. I hope ppl can look beyond the cheesy album cover and the sucky songs inside the album. at the very least, i like Shake it a lot =x

Sorry if I came out to seemingly dislike Namie, I like her music and I just thought she'd serve as a good example for 'second peak' artists :laugh

^^I :heart Party Queen album SOOOOOOO MUCH!!! I play it all the time!!

^I actually come to like it even more now after some time has passed
The album was ok back then but it seems that I wasn't in right mood for it then even though i ADORE Eyes , smoke, magic the first part of the album was bleh for me
Now it's just perfect,some things have happened and the album just clicked with me

@axmish87 Actually at first Eyes Smoke Magic was about one of the few tracks i didnt like, which is a bit odd for me considering i really like that type of music. Heck i love almost every genre of music except for heavy metal, country and western. :heart

I was so obsessed with Eyes,Smoke,Magic i listened to that song on repeat whole day long
I was even imagining the choreography for it in my head when Misa-chan posted translated lyrics and because of the lyrics i loved the song even more

This attitude is so naive. I know it's disheartening to see this type of discussion about Ayu's current state but it's the reality. If everyone took a break from Ayu the only place she'd get to sing is in the karaoke bars.

It's not "everyone", it's +-10 overly vocal people who can't recognize they aren't fans anymore... some hasn't beeing fans in the last 5 years or so.

edit: 5? I should have said 8, 10...

^ agree! if she did take a hiatus, her career my never recover. in that she may never regain her complete fanbase or stature back (that she has now or has before). there are so many competitors out there right now, she'd have a hard time coming back if she left.

Right. The same thing would happen if everyone took a break from Koda Kumi, Namie Amuro, etc. They would be singing in Karaoke bars too.

http://i.imgur.com/z8Qfs1R.jpg

Source: tats_pappy on twitter.

What I'm saying is that if you're not enjoying Ayu anymore, maybe she's just not for you anymore and you should move on. People grow out of things all the time. She's not necessarily the problem.

^thats cool!! :D

It's easy for people to say this, and I absolutely hate that. It doesn't mean you have grown out of Ayu if you aren't pleased with her current state of affairs. I am extremely passionate about her music. I listen to her every day, all day long. She's the one thing I'm always in the mood for. It's odd because I can't break away from her music for very long. When I have nothing to listen to, she's always my choice. But, it probably goes without saying that I haven't been too pleased with everything she's put out in recent times.

I'll quote another user who seems to have the same dilemma that I do.
It is not so easy to walk away from something that makes you so happy. I listen to my favorite songs of hers and I am swept away. To even contemplate the possibility of not having her music in my life anymore, or following her releases, is just not reality. Her music, when it's really good, is just above everything else.

So to say "stop listening" or "move on" is very frustrating, because you see, it's not as easy as it sounds when it's something you love so very much.

My feelings of disappointment do not make me a bad fan, or anyone else who has similar feelings. I really can't express this properly but to give up Ayu when you have been invested in her for so long is kind of like giving up a part of yourself. She has been the soundtrack to my life for an extended amount of time. She feels like "home" to me. If I were to stop, it wouldn't be long before I started to feel "home-sick" for her music once again.

Plus, there's always those times she'll release something that shows true promise. That makes you feel like "wow, there's the Ayu I know! There's the Ayu I love! She still has got it in her to release great stuff like this!" It just takes so long for one of those gems to show up in a sea of mediocrity.

^ I completely agree :yes
I never had a major artist I used to listen to before I discovered Ayu. She's literally my "home away from home" in terms of music.

I probably should have said this before, but when I say Ayu should take a short break, I don't only mean in the terms of her music and her career, but also for her well being. Look at her, she's been working straight non-stop for the past 15 years. That's a long time if you ask me. A yearly album accompanied by singles and tours, including CDL's just seems so tiring. :tired

This is so cool :D

This. Ayu released some turds during her peak, and she's released some brillant great tracks that are better than some of her biggest hits during her down time. Don't let the Oricon numbers daze and confuse u~

the video was changed, here's the one with the insane dislike bar.

I actually always thought this performance was awesome, with the bad ass glasses(?)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuuajjnUq_I

2nd you're excused for hating on namie lookin hot on her queen of hip pop cover.

you're no better than those people on 2ch now are you :eviltongu

/facepalm at the constant drama of AHS reminding myself why I never come here/

Anyhow, thought I'd pop in to say I've secured a ticket to 13/07 show in Hiroshima, and am aiming to get one for the 14th as well, so if anyone's in town for either show, let me know! :) It'd be nice to meet some fans. (And I'll make sure I can access my account while I'm away, unlike last year when I forgot my password and missed the chance in Fukuoka >.<)

Ayu's vocals drama this time? OK, I didn't like them in 2008-2009 but in 2010 they were phenomenal again but I still get most shivers from 2002-2003 vocals but that's my opinion. When it comes to music, I adore 2005. When it comes to fashion, I adore 2003. That's all. :D

On the other note, I'm pretty curious about the track listing for this tour. I didn't really appreciate her 10th Anniversary Tour because it didn't have too many oldies in it but I haven't lost my fate in this year's tour at all. :3

I completely agree with you., I'm in the same boat. I always have her music blasting on my iPod or iPhone. I do get a little upset when people say that too. but if they really feel that way and say move on, then why are they still talking about her (in a negative way) and complaining? shouldn't they be taking their own advice? it's kinda like when someone is your friend or claims to be, but talks trash and gossips about you behind your back. why stay friends with someone like that? they're not a real friend. I'm not saying they're not fans, but to constantly complain and tell others to move on....that's some very mixed messages. I also find it weird when people complain and talk negatively about her, yet say they just bought her new cd or bought a ticket to one of her upcoming concerts.

i totally don't get that either, when Namie got lost in the peak of Ayu and Hikki, none says a thing, cuz probbaly half of the people weren't even there, but now when Ayu gets lost in the good times of Namie and Koda, everyone goes nuts over those two and starts a hate march... Every singer has their golden time of career and it never lasts forever, no matter good or bad stuff they release...

Namie is easy to point towards as reference because she was in the dumps too at one point after her peak. Literally, she was left for dead lying in a landfill.
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps96142ab1.jpg
But ***** picked herself back up, took a shower, learned how to apply some make-up and ditched the Fat Jo/Lil' Wayne sound for something with a sharper image and hook.

I'd like to share a few insights that have helped me let go of some of the disappointment and anger I've felt when faced with mediocre material from Ayu.

I don't believe it's healthy to be extremely attached to one musician. Nobody should have such an artist-centric approach to music. It's as if people are obsessed with this idea of finding one perfect artist that they connect with on all levels and is, in a sense, the embodiment of music itself. That's insane.

There is a vast body of music out there. I've discovered new genres that I would've never imagined enjoying 3-4 years ago. Broaden your horizons a little.

I'm still very passionate about Ayu. When I'm an emotional mess, Ayu's music is the first on the playlist. However, I've learned not to dwell on her current shortcomings and eagerly await every new song and album in hopes that, this time, it will be something that will "blow me away."

To be honest, exploring and discovering new music has helped me appreciate Ayu's music even more. It helped me to understand her place in the musical landscape. All artists have their ups and downs, their peaks and falls.

To say that Ayu is "capable of better" is also easier said than done. The truth is, none of you know what it's like to be Hamasaki Ayumi or any other superstar of her calibre or magnitude. The stress and pressure that accompanies releasing material that always matches a prior standard of excellence is extremely overwhelming (It's ultimately why my other favorite artist, Michael Jackson, died).

Especially when Ayu likely never had lofty ambitions to create such excellent material! Do you really think Ayu was like, "Duty yes, my goal is to make this the best album of all time!!!11" I don't think Ayu ever put much thought into what she was creating. It just happened. Her success was somewhat of an anomaly. Read the lyrics of TO BE and no more words, it's obvious that Ayu was confused by her success and the hype surrounding her music. It was beyond modesty.

I have over 12,000 songs on my 120GB iPod. The music I am most passionate about is electronic dance music, most specifically trance, which is a very broad and extensive genre of music. But Ayu's music is just so easy to listen to. Although I listen to a lot of electronic music, it can become quite exhausting after a while. Ayu's music never makes me feel "tired".

For me, Ayu wasn't just an artist in a sea of artists - she basically became her own genre of music. To give up on an artist is one thing; to move on and find something new or similar in that genre... But to give up on a genre itself, to give up on the "Hamasaki Ayumi" sound, now that's something entirely different.

I understand the frustration.

If she had stopped making music tomorrow, however, this wouldn't be an issue. I'm sure you listen to her past songs that already bring you joy and solace, as do I. Honestly, I've learned to be content with having just those songs... Is it really worth investing so much thought into how "oh, she should do this, or she should do that, she should work with _____, I need another song like ______..."? It's not our job. It's her and her team's job.

IMO, most of the blame should be placed on her team of composers and arrangers, and not herself, ultimately. Ayu isn't a composer, arranger, or technical musician. Instead, she employs a team of people who have mastered the "Ayumi Hamasaki" sound. In fact, many of the same people who helped to create the "Ayumi Hamasaki" genre still work with her. These producers may not be perfectly expressing what Ayu wants to accomplish with her music. I don't think she has the musical expertise needed to take initiative and say, "No, I want it to sound like this. I'm feeling this way, therefore it has to sound like that." It's hard to transform those intangible, visceral feelings into concrete art - especially when you yourself do not have a hands-on process in the creation of your music, or the technical knowledge needed to create it. I think that's important to remember. If anything, it's likely a communication failure between her and her team.

Working with a new team of composers/arrangers is risky. She would need composers/arrangers who have studied Ayu's sound and can bring about innovation without losing that "Ayumi Hamasaki" sound. That's easier said than done.

The circumstances currently surrounding Ayu certainly don't help. She is surrounded by an impenetrable inner circle of yes-men, all on top of a struggling music industry. This makes it all the more harder for her to "snap out of it" and lose that complacent feeling.

I'm pretty sure I head kinda a lot of Ayu and Hikki bashing from Namie's fanbase when they are at their peaks...

exactly this. hyperbolic MFs lol

I voted for GUILTY, It was and Return Road (just cuz' I'm pissed they didn't stick it on the DVD and I'm desperate for a live)

I hope Ayu will do Dome tour this year, to finish off the celebration of her 15th anniversary...

and i hope it will be totally different tour than her arena tour, so we can get more DVD... i love concert!

i voted for 'JEWEL/kanariya - petal - Ivy' :D

Someone can translate what this tweet says ? It's a random list or something official ?

http://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/875981Capture.png

my japanese reading skills is really rusty, but it seems like a list made up by a fan or possibly fans called the "nationalist hamasaki republic"? :irked

Guilty
Criminal
It was

A very normal day

Seeing MY ALL having the most votes in that list made me lose all hope in TA... But then I saw Heartplace, Ivy, No more words, End roll, Who..., Memorial address, SAKURA and my hope was restored.

i really want to see a set list!!

It looks like a chart made by a user to count his/her personal votes

Yeah, they're probably just counting their own votes. MY ALL is a lock for the concert since Japanese fans LOVE it.

^
Even if My all is pretty hated here I find that this song is really good for the encore ^^

MY ALL is one of favorites even though I haven't voted this song.
Its lyrics is very suitable for ayu 15th anniversary~
I think it is what ayu wants to share with her fans in her precious 15th anniversary!!!

I don't hate it, I like it but I don't want her to perform it so often, like she does with Humming 7/4 for example. Although I'm sure that she'll be performing those two songs :thud

Anyway the songs are just the start, I'm looking forward seeing how they develop the concept for this tour :yes I hope it isn't just old presentations being recycled, I want new and epic stuff~~

Namie's international fan base has never been as big as Hikki's or Ayu's. Not to mention that she only started gaining a bigger fanbase outside of Japan in 2006...

I wouldn't mind MY ALL in the setlist. I really like that song. I wonder if Ayu will change the setlist a bit during the tour. I hope for a cool logo!

i'd replace MY ALL with winding road

She was pretty well known among japanese descendents, and those were a big part of the jpop overseas fanbase before the internet got this popularized. I know (and by "know" here, sometimes I mean "personally know") some people who actually follow Namie since her first peak. Depending on how big she was over Asia (and considering the So Crazy Tour was recorded in Seul, I believe she was pretty big), descentents or immigrants from other Asian countries also had a big chance of knowing her at that time.

Some people also got to known jpop because of anime before the 00s... The ways they had to get material was far different and it was very similar to people who bought fansubbed anime on VHS tapes... And those also tended to be her fans as she was the biggest thing at the time...

So, she HAD a western following way before 2006, but once internet got more accessible during the early 2000s, Ayu and Hikki got a massive fanbase... and Namie's failed fanbase (that reminds me of Ayu's nowadays fanbase) bashed both girls kind a lot because... well... they stole their idol spotlight.^^

*feeling old*

Namie has 130k listeners on last.fm
Ayu has 265k listeners on last.fm. Ayu is more popular internationally.

Ayu has more time of massive scrubing than Namie... And not everyone who listen to her songs are her fans... most are probably just casual listeners (as with any other artist)

Of course.

um what namie (j-pop/TK..) was huge in asia during the 90s :shakehead and there used to be tons of webpages/communities for namie made by western fans, some of them are even still up today http://www.oocities.org/tokyo/ginza/5185/Amuro.html

*cries* so *********g awesome! Thanks :love

｡ﾟ(ﾟ´Д｀ﾟ)゜｡good job! ↑

Again a discussion about Namie? lol

i've voted for crossroad, Startin' & EnergizE today
yesterday for SIGNAL, appears & ourselves
and tomorrow for
crossroad, Startin' & ourselves (and for these i want to vote from now on every day to get them *-*)

LMAO at you using last.fm to measure popularity!!!! HA!! :no

yes, because everyone in the world uses last.fm

OK let me try again :) When I said outside of Japan, I was actually referring to Asia. As andrenekoi has already said during the early 00's when imo JPOP was at it's prime Utada and Ayu didn't leave much room for Namie.

*high five* Someone else who loves 'crossroad' :D

i wanna a tokyo dome concertttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!!!!! please ayumi why don you do a dome concert?

As far as I know the accoustic of the big Dome is not good for her ear. You know when she first had that problem with her ear it was at Dome Tour 2001.

yes i know but she can do it in another dome like kyosera or any other .

^I don't think it matters which dome, just the size of the venue possibly.

Just received news that I got a ticket for the 14 April show at Saitama Super Arena !! Who else is going?????

This is my first Ayu concert! I'm so overwhelmed with joy~~~ :D

if you guys don't vote in criminal.......

I think the current top 10 results are out...
Think we need more help in voting for kanariya...
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y14...ps8a080de6.jpg
Glad to know 2 of my voted songs were in the top 10 >.< (JEWEL and A Song for XX)

I actually vote for a song for xx, Who... And Will, Will is like so underrated but it would really be nice to see it being perform. :love

It's the last CREA song she wrote.... (T__T)

YES JEWEL!!!
I know people are gonna complain but honestly a 15th anniversary live should have her classics than her obscure songs. I'm fine with the list. I miss A song For XX. Would love to see poker face again :)

too bad non of my voted songs are in there, wanna see Criminal =_=

I think it's only halfway done in terms of results, so keep voting for the songs you like! Hopefully the top 10 changes a bit when the poll is done.

As expected half of the list is songs that allready have been performed over and over.... <.<
none of my voted songs are in =/ (Didn´t vote for my fave A Song for XX because I knew many ppl whould vote for it anyways)

btw I wonder if that is the official Tour logo o.o

If I have to listen to My All one more time.....

wth!! everyone just picked the same old songs that she always performs!! Why do they even bother voting!?! Just go watch an old performance on YT. I can't.... lol

most of them are boring and already performed a thousand times -_-

Jewel and A song for XX are the only two I want in that list lol.

But remember, this is being advertised all over the place, if casual listeners bothered to vote, they'd probably only know popular well known often performed songs.

Even though I think all those songs except for two were sang at Power of Music lol. Lame

At last....Poker Face!!!

^
yeah thats why, thought I dont mind about Poker face, it surely needs its own performance after 15 years,cool

for others,err>.<

Let's get Daybreak chosen. She never sings that song. It's about damn time.

Geez... No kanariya on TOP10??? I have to keep voting it. Ayu must sing this song!!! (If I vote kanariya from single & A COMPLETE, will it counts as 2 points? lol :D)


No, she did it on ARENA TOUR 2002. The only single that she never sung live is kanariya.

Really?? JEWEL is the only good thing about that top 10. The rest are so prefictable

so those 10 songs are going to be part of the setlist?

LOL at Surreal and My All... She already sing those at least twice per concert xD

We can't blame them ! It's A BEST LIVE not NEVER PERFORMING LIVE ... Of course in that list there no songs I've voted but yeah look at Koda Kumi it was the same maybe worst ...And at the moment this live is for japanese in particulary not us even if I would die for some songs XD

Some songs in that list are really cool and in all case she would sing songs like My all/Who or surreal

No, the voting is still going on. Those are the results so far though. Ayu probably looked at the list as well and went "Really, guys? Really?" That's probably why they are showing the results so far, haha.

Yes, it would be great if Daybreak was chosen...

MY ALL :grumpy but oMG JEWEL, A SONG FOR XX, M AND MEMORIAL ADDRESS **** YEAH

Voting closes on the 31st, so everyone get your butts in gear and go vote!

Btw is that the logo for 15th anniversary?

oh yea i just notice about the logo, is that official for 15th anniversary?
if it's true, it looks very nice.