Actually I think that it's the contrary. On 2007-2008 she was like this, shouty and out of tune but since 2009 NEXT LEVEL show she gradually got better with each show that now she got to singing and technical singing stability in both of her voice sound and singing.

Save for TV performances, I don't know why there she doesn't make more effort to sound like in her lives, maybe she barely can't rehearse it and it's hard to monitor her vocals with the music with not many rehearsals before hand or she gets more excited than before and can't control it I don't know but in her shows she still sounds mostly great. INSPIRE in kouhaku was pretty decent. Better than last year's vocal performance. You can see sometimes that she is struggling not to shout and actually sings decently or even great, while not shouting the songs at all (unless if they are her crowd songs and has more original shouty parts or parts she herself decided to shout instead of sing, every time sing sings these lol - Boys & Girls).

It's always going to be this way, unfortunately. You can't please the whole fandom.
Even in her most successful days, I'm sure there were a lot of people complaining she wasn't doing what they would have like her to do. It's just natural.
If she stays true to her signature sound, people that want experimentations are gonna be disappointed.

Her voice really is an issue.
I personally hate some part of Love Song, because of the way she's singing it, and it's such a great track!

I love her voice, it's unique and when you hear it you know in an instant that it's her! However, there are some things I dont enjoy anymore:

1. Poor quality music videos. I usually get inspired with amazing music videos. Forgiveness or M are some of the MVs I ont get tired of watching.

2. I want unique merchandise. An Ayu stuff that is worth the price! Die cut, matte laminated, spot UV, pop up or whatever crazy collateral - I would definitely buy that!

3. Before Lady Gaga, Ayu was the most creative person I've known when I was in high school. But in all fairness, I like the classy Ayu I see today. Lux and simple. ;)

4. I want to follow her in IG. So I hope she updates her account often. Seems like I am spending more time in IG now, heart-ing all other artists but not ayu.

Lately I've been thinking of another reason.
I think it has to do with jpop in general tbh. It feels as if most albums aren't sonically consistent and are just messes. Sometimes I think beyonce was right when she said that people don't make albums anymore and just release quick lil singles. You know, they put one out then burn out then put one out then burn out. The albums seem like afterthoughts. And even if they don't have 'singles' (party queen), they're still a kinda mess. Albums like duty and even sweet 19 blues (the consistent trashy lounge music) are really albums I gravitate to these days in terms of jpop. Also rainbow, ASfXX, and feel. All these albums feel completely (or nearly) consistent. Except for feel, which is just a lyrical mess at times. The opening song does NOT set the mood for the album. First talking about her lover then dumping him then sex then dumping again. A mess. But sonically it's great.
Love again was so incohesive even though I liked it at first. Maybe it's a reason why almost erryone loved love songs because that album is basically quite cohesive. Ayu's last best album? It's such a nice album I think. And the photoshoot! It's the same old same old done quite nicely. Love again was overkill, like 99,999 in FFX overkill.

I only want to speak for myself in this thread and I'd like to say that I've been following Ayu since 2005 (omg it's almost 10 years) and I used to LOVE her to death but my fandom decreased for the following reasons:

- Her vocal quality isn't as good
- Her lyrics aren't as lyrical (but I still applaud her concert entertainment)
- I appreciate that she's trying new things but those new things don't always work for her therefore I don't have the time/effort to appreciate it - perhaps she should stick to her ballads side
- I've lost a lot of interest in JPOP

Also, I'd like to make a comment to those who think it's because she's 35 and she's getting old.. etc - Veterans like Namie Amuro can still make a COMEBACK to me. So it's honestly not about the age.

I still love a fair bit of Ayu's stuff, but I haven't liked her newest things. Her music video's lately have... well been pretty awful in terms of what I like for music videos. :( Her last.. 9 or 10 I think I've positively hated. I haven't really gotten into the songs lately either.

BRILLANTE and Return Road were the most recent PV's that were actually good.

I am hopeful that this next album will actually be good.

The music videos have been lacking a bit but I thought Sweet scar/Song 4 u were some of her better recent ones. The rest have mostly been overseas love stories....

I am actually considering for the first time about whether or not I want to even listen to any of Ayu's music anymore because I just watched the "Feel the love" PV and am extremely hurt at the implication that fat girls don't deserve love (I am overweight myself). But the video on her official YouTube channel says it's the short version (it seems like the full one though, am I wrong?), so I keep thinking that maybe I just missed something... But then I heard that Ayu made a tweet saying she hates fat people (is this true?). I am so shocked and appalled, not to mention heartbroken since I've been a fan for about a decade. :(

Omg, of course not! I don't know who said this to you but I don't remember of hearing something like this. Also, the message of the pv was quite different saying that people should take more care of themselves?...I'm not too fond of the pv but I admit that it's quite funny. I'm sure that ayu wouldn't convey something so ugly in one of her pv. It's just that she didn't made it very clear.

Celebs always make stupid comments. I think Ayu maybe is just more comfortable with what she says, even if tackless. Think of American artists and how much they vent like Gaga though she preaches tolerance of course she can be a hypocrite. I myself I don't 'fat' people, as in I wish everyone to be in good health even though I went through a depressing year and gained 20 then lost it.. It's just, I think Ayu just doesn't care about being perfect anymore like some dull J-pop star as she has been influenced being in the states and just being a typical clean cut j-pop singer.


Though feel the love is crap, I am sure the budget for her videos will come with the rest of her singles ;) her 16th anniversary seems to be big to make up for her lacking 15th so if anything be more excited haha

The comments she made on Twitter are like this (she doesn't really mention fat people unless there was a Japanese tweet about it, but most articles just called her a 'heroine of a Hollywood-comedy-style video'):
The execution was a little iffy, but I think the message was there. You could interpret it any way you want, but the message was definitely positive in the end.

The REAL ending was the guy looking her (overweight girl) with a disgusting expression on his face.
http://i62.tinypic.com/2aiiirp.png
Really inspiring, yeah.

And this:
http://i.imgur.com/fIrulQC.png
was fake xD

He's confused as to where his ideal ayu went. But the point was to not portray such a great image of him. He clearly doesn't deserve the girl. She's just really confident and comfy with herself now no matter what her crush thinks. And no, ayu didn't call anyone fat. If she did, I'm pretty sure she would have lost a lot of her foreign fans immediately.

What true happiness posted is ayu's intentions. It's a response to some tweet some girl wrote to ayu about her being upset by the video.

You can choose to do what you like about your fandom and to believe whatever you want, Mirrorcle. That's what everyone else does anyway.

I remember that one guy who gave up after the 'vulgarity' of Lady Dynamite or something lol people do whatever.

^ The guy was the admin of eneabba.

I'm not so interested because she's too quiet. I want to see her on tv, I want her to release new singles and etc. I liked Feel the love and I hoped to see a new single release in the first half of 2014 :/ but there's nothing so I think it's ok to be interested in other things like AKB and Nogizaka. Since I like them I always have new music to listen, new tv-shows to watch and I feel "up-to-date".

But still I like to listen her old music :) and find something I haven't yet watched on YouTube.

I don't think we need another discussion over this PV as there were pages for you to read on the PV's thread... And they were serious heated and long posts lol. Many people might hate the PV but the message was somewhat clear to me, like it was said at some post above, interpret the PV however you want, but I'm sure that Ayu's message is positive and isnt't anything mean or hurtful, it's mostly because of the poor production. The tweet was definitely fake, I can confirm this because I remember myself stalking her twitter every second I could around the time the PV was out and Ayu never tweeted something like that. Anyway to sum it all up, it's not what you think ^^

^ But what matters is what she felt watching that clip (I myself felt disapointed, tbh), not what ayu (later) wanted us to feel.
And I think it's a valid reason why Mirrorcle maybe felt her fandom/love/whatever decreased.

^ If you're talking about that then yeah I do agree with you.

In the end of the PV the girl turns back into herself and hugs the confused guy. The message most likely was that the girl embodied the confidence of her idol (Ayu IS the girl's idol, she was watching Ayu on TV and she was singing Feel The Love on the scenes she was using headsets) and that confidence made her beautiful, and by feeling confident, not by losing weight, she got the guy.

But people should keep in mind Ayumi is from a different culture than her western fandom and that her aproach to several topics won't be the same a western popstar would have. They don't really have that "you are beautiful no matter what" mindset over there and their narratives have a strong focus on effort and discipline (think Superman x Dragon Ball... Clark was born the most powerful being on earth, while Goku has the potential of being powerful, but he only get there with sacrifice, discipline and tons of training).

Hahaha, omg some people can be so gullible lol :rolleyes

It was simply a very crappy music video that made everyone confused. Obviously, they're are trying give a positive message on that music video but failed to do so... :shakehead

^ :yes Exactly !!! And honestly the PV was trying to be "funny", that's all.

Lmao, wtf. I died at the way this sentence is structured and expressed.

Yes that was intentions, but I remember a while back discussion over scandals such as every racial culture getting upset when their icons are used for purely artistic purposes and without regard for the history or nature of such symbols. I was told that intention doesn't rule out insult. :rolleyes

There's a huge diference between portraying important aspects of someone's culture on a rude/ignorant way and portraying something that isn't really part of any culture on a way people from a different culture than yours missunderstand. But of course fat weeabos get offended once they are reminded they are fat weeabos... :P

Maybe because overweight people already have enough of that around to tease, and now her/his favorite artist do the same (or he/she felt as if)
It is a delicate issue, because a Japanese or Spanish will not get a disease because their country is represented in an absurd or wrong way (chinese jokes for japanese, olé and sevillanas for spanish); however an overweight and low self-esteem can develop an eating disorder.
But of course, they are "fat weeabos" so whatever.

Criticizing obese people is not okay, remaining obese, either. Having other people pay your medicinal therapies because of diseases that derive from obesity (in case your country has a Statutory Health Insurance) is just as bad as smoking cigarettes or taking drugs. Some people do not realize that their undisciplined way of living is not just hurting themselves but the society in general.

If Ayu was to state such an opinion, I bet lots of people were likely to freak out. I beg you, Ayu. Don't have real human points of view or thoughts. Always please, never be the real thing, keep constructing your answers.

Perhaps Ayu hates the audience/fans for being that hypocritical. Just that she does not dare to voice it. Keep smiling, the rest happens behind the curtains, tehe.

OT:


This PV was one reason why I felt disappointed with ayu, if she was to talk about being positive and change for yourself, I'd not chosen that ending nor that way... So plastic and empty for me, like every PV she do lately.
And I don't think her fans are hypocrites, she is criticized for her opinions/actions not for being herself.

I'm obese, and the PV didn't offend me. Some people's opinions here are pretty offensive, if I took them to heart. But at the end of the day, it's just one PV of an average song, it won't make me like Ayu any less. I just don't see why some people (in society) think its okay to yell obscenities and abuse at a fat person walking down the street, but would never yell abuse at someone smoking or drinking. If they're just as bad as each other, why don't people treat them the same?

actually, there are tons of problems caused by wrongly representing other people's cultures, from low self-steem agressive guys harrassing asian girls, people having problems with the police because their group is perceived as criminals, muslim people being harrassed for being "terrorists", rape cases against women from certain cultures being seen as not a big deal, etc. So, those missconceptions on a large scale can lead to violence, rape, prision and even death. :)

And if you are obese you most likely already have a eating desorder, as compulsive eating falls on that too... If that's the case it's not up to Ayu, but to doctors and psicologists to help you.

Btw, this is all coming from someone who is 30kg overweight himself.

Oh, so everybody who has overwheight it's for eating desorder, right?
Thanks for that wrongly information.

Come on. Now if I'm fat I have the obligation to excercise until I remedy this, right? Even if I haven't health problems, but of course, everyone who sees an overweight person has the (wrong) idea you have health problems.
But well, as something you can change, you should do it, right?

That's the mentality I don't fit. Ayu has always said "love yourself for who you are, no matter what", but it seems that now we need to add "unless you're fat, then try your best to change it" and everyone here accept it without criticism because, hey! is their culture and mentality, not be hypocritical and don't criticize her for being herself.

Okay...

[arg! I can't explain in english, sorry for the misspelling or whatever I write wrong xD]

The girl still is fat after the PV ended, so what are your arguments about ayu being "hypocrital"?

And yeap, generally speaking obese people do have problem with compulsive eating, people who get obese because of hormone disorders are a minority. That's why most of the time bariatric surgery pacients get obese again, as they still have untreated problems with compulsive eating.

I hated Feel the love PV, and I said so, many times, because I just hated it that much. But inside I see nothing fat-shaming. If anything, I finally saw a fat girl portayed as a happy, energetic and charming human being. The guy's reactions are opinable, but he's not the focus point of the PV, she is.
Honestly, her charisma was the only thing that made that PV bearable, for me. That, and the echo of a very nice idea that went downhill, because of a low budget I suppose...

Very interesting. I agree with a lot of things you wrote: as much as I still like albums, I feel like consistency is no longer a priority, and I can't quite decide if it's a very important issue or just the musical approach changin because it was bound to happen.

^
Mh... actually, you're right on a lot of things.
Especially saying there are FAR worse things to worry about than people being fat (which can mean EVERYTHING, because really, one can be fat in various degrees and not every single one of them is dangerous for their health, and I really doubt society is SO touched by it anyway).
But I still don't see how they make fun of her. I mean, I see how they try to make the video funny, but not really at her expense.
If I got your opinion right, I think you mean they are trying to show fat people can be happy, like it's supposed they usually aren't. I don't know if that was the purpose behind it, I personally was just glad I saw a person with a different appearence behaving just normally, for a change (much like I enjoyed a lot Woman's World video by Cher, because it displayed a lot of variety of women having fun in the same way).

Can we just agree that the PV had shit execution and stop talking about fat people.


Actually, I think that's the bigger problem anyways. Ayu always has these grand ideas for things, and can never execute them properly.

Another reason why people get disappointed with her.

For people who thinks that the PV is offensive to obese people, have you guys read about the witch theory? Somebody pointed out that the main character is a witch and ayu is her idol. Now you might be saying, what's the point of having a fat girl in the PV then? But in my view, I'm thinking it's so great that they choose this girl as the main character. They've proven that a obese person could star as a lead in a pv. It's just up to the individual mind to think whether it's offensive or not.
same theory with a glass half full or a glass half empty.

No, no one should be telling anyone else how to feel about anything.

Fat people are not a hive mind lol
but it also makes her seem inconsiderate and offends people. So. Some negative trade-offs there maybe lol

I didn't see the PV as offensive to overweight people in the end after we got the full thing. I was more concerned with the idea that the main character decides that being dishonest about who you are is just fine.

It's like, "oh haha no, I'm not who I am, but it's okay! It's not like there's man bits between my legs or anything........AS FAR AS YOU KNOW I CAN DO MAGIC REMEMBER."

Omg. People stay trippin bout this pv. I can't lol. It's so basic, it's not even that serious. Some of the arguments for it being offensive are kind of irrelevant because it would make other things offensive when they aren't. And neither is this. But that's a totally different topic. You can start a thread on fat - shaming in the general chat room.

^^Was there any bad feedback from her japanese public?

First of all, I don't have to be fat to say discriminating someone because they are fat isn't ok. And just because there are fat people who don't feel offended makes it any less offensive in some parts.
There are also women saying that men hitting women is ok and the right of a man. Does it make domestic violence any more legit? No.
In the same way just because there are fat people who don't feel offended by stereotype portrayed fat people makes it any more legit to reproduce the stereotype of the dumb, lazy, ugly weirdo fat people are often discriminated as.
And I find it not ok that those people who said they felt personally offended were told "it's no big deal".

Second the PV has nothing to do with japanese culture despite the fact that it's coming from a japanese popstar. By the way, japanese culture counts in many aspects to western culture and Ayu was aiming with the PV at american sitcoms and portrayed a fat girl the exact same way as sitcoms do.
The "white savior complex" thing really doesn't work here because the whole fat shaming topic is about how western cultures (Japan included), discriminate fat people and tell especially women (and it's all about a woman in the PV) to be as thin as possible. Since I'm a woman myself I have every right to critizes how people react on fat women or what they consider a fat woman. Like I said I'm not fat, but I was never as thin as those models and therefore called fat (another reason why I don't have to be fat to know what it feels like to be discriminated for being "fat"). I know exactly what it feels like to be valued by body shape and not being able to wear size zero. There are many aspects why this is not a "japanese people's" topic but a "women's topic" but I would never tell you not to state your opinion just because you're a man and you don't know how this whole cult of thinnes and obsession with beauty constantly discriminating every woman who doesn't fit in the category "sweet little princess" feels like.

If people don't agree with me on this topic I can live with that, discussions are often all about agreeing not to agree. But that you are constantly trying to say that my opinion doesn't matter is intolerant.

^
1 - You CAN state your opinion (and anyone can disagree with it), and you can even tell fat people how they should feel about this or that (something you DID), but freedom of speech also means I can disagree with you and point out that you are not the world wide referee for fat people subjects, even if you feel entitled to be it. On the same way that's not my place as a "white" male how non-white women should feel about racism and sexism, even because not everyone from those groups will agree on what is or isn't problematic. Once you do that you are always silencing the own group's thought of it. And please, don't compare comedy videos featuring fat people to domestic violence.

2 - The PV message would be "being fat is not ok" is the girl wasn't fat anymore when it ended and she got the guy... She was still fat, just better dressed, more confident on herself and acting less ackward. This is actually very, VERY common (and very common in Japan with the whole otaku subculture): A person that can't really socialize or date someone because they have poor social skills and blame their appearence on it.

3 - And nops, you don't know how is it like to be a fat person because you were called fat once or twice on the same way I don't know how is it like to suffer with sexism because I was sexual harrassed once or twice (and yeap, I was, 2 weeks ago the last time). Once people start looking disgusted at you in public, once you can't buy clothes because stores don't sell stuff that fit your body, once strangers bash and bully you based on what are you eating, once someone you are not even interested in tells you "if you lose 2 or 3 kg I would date you", once those stuff happens to you daily or almost daily, you don't know how is it to be discriminated against for being fat.

4 - Again: The "acting weird" thing (that is just overacting) is very common in japanese humour, the facial expressions and poses the girl did during the video aren't that different from japanese comedy shows or humour scenes on animes and mangas.

5 - Even if the PV is based on sitcoms and rom-coms, it still is a japanese produced by and for japanese people, and this can't be ignored just because you feel entitled to ignore cultural context. Unlike American (and now European) culture, Japanese culture don't believe on the "you are born special" thing, they believe effort is the only way to get your way (and that's why I compared Superman to Goku). The girl on the video isn't just some "fat and beautiful special snow flake", she needs to get out of her confort zone to get the confidence to go after the guy she likes. It's pretty clear on the video she started exercizing to get "fit and beautiful" for the guy, but she gets confident enough to do it without losing weight.

6 - Starting a character as a strawman for easy laughts and flashing them out with the advancement of the narrative to make them sympathetic, likeable and releatable is a common narrative structure. The girl, who starts lazy and sedentary gets the viewer cheering for her more and more as she overcome her obstacles and stop caring about changing for the love of others and starts loving herself. You can take the "bad" parts out of the video context all you want, they are still part of a narrative, they still go from point A to point B, and you can't analyse the video intention ignoring either point A or B.

And I'm not saying your opinion is irrelevant, I'm saying you are not spokeperson for fat people and has no right to tell them/us how to feel about anything on the same way I have no right to tell women how they should feel about this or that. Limit yourself to state your opinions as opinions.

oh, I was debating with my friend about Ayu today and I saw the thread so here we go:


Hm, just see:
Party Queen - 1 slow ballad
Love again - 8 slow songs....

I don't like "love-dovey" music in general, I find them meaningless. If I want meaningless music, I prefer "party/electro" music or any other. (thats why I like Party Queen :P It may be found as immature music or sth, but I listen to them for bits/music/dancing to it, not for meaning). It doesn't mean I don't like her "slow" songs - they can be very powerfull (see, her power ballads) or they can be very emotional within the lyrics (BRILLANTE, ever free etc)

And I hate putting US in Japanese music, so I hate putting Japanese culture in western music (see: Avril's new video). She will NEVER sound good in english. She will never be "US diva". She will always be japanese diva. That's why I will never like her "You & Me"/"Feel the love" inspirations. It just don't fit her.

Feel the love PV was quite funny. I just don't dig the style she went in the music for it.

I definitely feel like her creativity doesn't excite me the way it used to, but honestly, my interest in her music decreasing has a lot more to do with my waning interest in japanese culture and music in general. Around the time I became a fan (2003), my weeabo levels were too damn high :D But even so, her music was still very exciting, different in arrangement compared to popular western music and even jpop at that time, and I hardly listened to music, because it was all the same old. Today, I almost feel like it's the other way around - the original and exciting songs in jpop are getting fewer and fewer, but I keep getting introduced to really amazing western music.

So, it's a combination of many things. Ayu does pretty much the same thing over and over (and why wouldn't she? It works for her, and her music is decent. And well, with the exception of a few songs where she still manages to surprise me), I don't have the enormous levels of interest in japanese music I used to, and western music just is overall better, I feel. I can't really bash Ayu, musically, she's had few misses and a whole lot of outstanding songs.

I assume a lot of J-Pop fans fancy Japanese singers prevalently for their "Japaneseness". The moment their illusionary teenage-interest in Japanese pop culture fades, they abandon the formerly beloved artists as well. That's a phase of growing up. Music in general is often a phenomenon among younger folks because adults are planning their careers and don't have much time for pop madness anymore nor would they identify with role models made for teenagers whatsoever.

I for one refuse to let my Ayu fandom go because I once swore I will have her music play on my funeral. It's sick-minded, I know. Industrial plastic music on a funeral, blimey. However, as a 90ies kid, you don't know any better. We were raised with fake emotions, so why not perish along with them at the end of our time?

ever since TK started composing crap for her my interest dropped slowly

I agree with most of your posts comments. However, I have to call out this assertion because it's one of my biggest concerns.

Men may not feel pressure to be thin but the male physique is very much asserted to men. The strong, muscular, "sex appeal" type. There is still pressure to live up to a physical standard and it's very tough because men aren't supposed to care about beauty. That is slowly changing. However, the pressure is still there that "I am not good enough" and to assert more sex appeal in the form of physique. On a side note, the task of achieving a muscular built physique is much more difficult, time consuming, and draining than it is to achieve a thin body type - so the work a man has to put in to fit that image is much more than women who merely want to be thin.

Men suffer pressure to fit in a certain physique, but is nowhere near the pressure women suffer. You just have to observe how common is for fat men to be married to "skinny hot" women on media, or count how manny famous fat men are against how manny fat women.

That's a difficult topic and although I think the pressure for women is much harder (not the becoming thin part but the overall assumptions about women that come along with it, like women are just pretty dolls and that their worth is measured by their appearance and not their skills - in simplified terms) I agree that men also suffer under the sexism that actually is directed at women. While women have to be pretty and gentle men have to be tough. That's especially a problem for little boys who should be kids and not bothered by the "men don't cry" shit.
I hope one day girls can be loud and play dressed up as a pirate and boys can be shy and play with "My little Pony" if they want to without anyone telling the kids they aren't "real" girls or boys. ;)
And I find it interesting that you say men don't have to care about beauty, because here in Germany they have (not as much as women, though). A friend of mine who comes from the US always says that people over there think European men are all "gay". Is this true?

all this drama just because of Feel the Love MV? ._.

^ Sometimes you just have to sort things out *leans back and lights a cigar*

^
Lol.
Yeah, I thought so too.
Even if for me it's more a problem Ayu started to have recently, 'cause before I always felt she could deliver her ideas just perfectly.
In the last few years, instead, it's like I have this feeling a lot of times, when I think I understand where she wanted to go, but she just didn't quite get there.
I think her budget is kinda low nowdays, too.

I feel like this is a HUUUUGE problem for Ayu lately. The fact that people are arguing about the Feel the love PV almost half a year later is very telling about how ineffective the message there was.

I think honestly if James Ellis hadn't looked around all confused at the end, and if he looked at her like "Wow, you're a knockout" when she was back in her overweight form, the whole PV would have been saved. Her confidence makes her attractive even if she doesn't look like Ayu, right?

And speaking as a girl who was getting the most dates & the most bow-chicka-wow-wow when she was at her fattest, that's completely true advice for the real world, too! Would have made the video totally fine IMHO.

But no, James Ellis can't act or the director couldn't direct or someone didn't suggest the right thing or something. I dunno what happened. But that one tiny moment killed the whole video.

It's becoming more accepted to be a man who grooms but concern with beauty is still predominantly seen as a female thing. Also, at least women can talk about feeling pressured by media (this is a public issue, women stand together, etc), where as you don't see men speaking up on pressures because it is engrained in men's minds to just deal. Not to express, etc. So they have less outlets and in turn feel more loss or pressure.

Ha, I guess I've heard jokes about Europeans being gay. But there's jokes about everyone being gay now.

I miss the Ayu with a meaningful yet low-budget PV like Daybreak.
She should continue doing that.
But then, to be a real artist, maybe she needs to stop having a luxurious lifestyle IMO.
Closer she is of a real life, the closer she is to the feelings of a normal person. That way she will convey all of this into inspiration for fantastic lyrics like those she wrote at her earlier era.
A life made of champagne, chocolates, Luis Vuitton bags, diamonds and houses around the world would eventually kill any trace of creativity, IMO.

I mean, look at artists as creative as Eddie Vedder, yet the guy still carries a pretty normal life.

Maybe I'm wrong, but this is just my opinion. :/

Rich people can have hearts. And creativity. And difficulties in life. Ayu has been rich like this for a while though fans are more aware of it now certainly. Also, I really would prefer no more pvs like daybreak

In my personal view

I really don't know if Ayu's luxurious lifestyle really affect the way she writes her lyrics, interpretation of her videos, etc. We know her that ever since she loves luxury things (i.e. Louis Vuitton bags in A Song for XX booklet), clubbing, champagne, jewelry, etc. but I believe that because there are so many things happened to her, these changes her point of view as an artist. She is opened to try new things, even different from her style because that's the way she is. I'm trying to be optimistic of her change of image path, both musical and artistry. But it just doesn't work out for me.
I'm a prisoner of her older persona and music. Mysterious and haunting. Inspiring and sensational.

And I'm not so fond of her current voice now. Even her own renditions of her old songs in her live concerts now, failed to impress me.

Ugh.. I really don't know. I still love her. She's still my most favorite artist of all time since 2002 and nobody would ever gonna beat her! But my hype of my fandom faded out drastically as time goes by. That's inevitable.

What are those non-meanful PVs she is having so much lately? At least GREEN, Sparkle, Curtain Call, You Were, Sexy Little Things, Don't Look Back, Lady Dynamite, How beautiful you are, Progress, Brillante, Beloved, crossroad, Sweet Season, Song 4 U and Sweet Scar are all pretty meanful... She also has a lot of eye-candy pvs, but she always had those.

You do know that she always had that kind of lifestyle?

And when your name is Ayumi Hamasaki it's pretty impossible to live a "normal" life.

Same! Ayu will ALWAYS be my most favorite artist; nobody will ever create such a strong impact on me as she has. Her music is truly an extension of myself, and I think most all of us feel that way.

And when she releases awesome stuff, oh how it makes us have an eargasm and other ...gasms and we are back to be fanboys like we just discovered her and fell in love with her music.

I don't think her rich lifestyle makes her write bad lyrics. I mean, let's just look at Party Queen ones.
It's her personal, unique way of seeing life that makes her write such brilliant lyrics. She will always have that, Louis Vuitton bags or not.

And, on a side note because I can't help myself, Daybreak is an amazing PV. Kinda like Sweet Scar: nothing happens, yet they're brilliant. And so thoughtful, in a very delicate but powerful way.

^ Not to mention the PV version of Daybreak is amazing too.

I think it's a terribly boring video where nothing happens, and that's it. Nothing more to it. I really doubt there's any hidden meaning or intense beauty I'm missing.

I like Sweet Scar a lot more than Daybreak. It's prettier. I like the snow part too. Idk. Liking it is fine. I don't care. But if there are fans who want another pv like daybreak and don't like her current ones then I don't know what ayu should do. If they like all of them. Then whatever I guess.

Yeah, it's not even logical to think so since she is probably very rich already since LOVEppears/concert tour 2000 era, just that with her continues success and her really slow decline she became richer and richer, and in years where things artists do worthed more money than today.
So yeah, if anyone thinks that her being rich=bad lyrics then it means that her lyrics since LOVEppears/Duty are mainly bad.

Her lyrics are more about things that change in her life and her sorroundings, topics she feels close to write about them and a direction she wants to take. It just happens that in recent years she got less lonely, she has friends and a lover now (after some lovers and failing relationships), we got it all in lyrics and albums, Love songs-FIVE-Party Queen-LOVE again even though the theme was repeated, but it's because that's how her love life have been on recent years.

Now that she supposedly finally, hopefully found her love so maybe she will experience different things or experience stories from different sorroundings and write about them. Hello new me isn't a love song but more of encouragement song, so maybe she will start to write at least a bit of different stuff. Maybe also stuff just like having fun.

Well, when I was reading this thread though, I realized that since late 2012 I've lost more and more interest in J-Pop as a whole. Only artists that I actually REALLY care about are Kuu and Namie. Others just makes me go meh. And sometimes even these two makes me feel very uninterested too, which is a pretty unexpected because they're my all time favorite J-Pop artists. :D I have started to take more and more interest in K-Pop since 2010 because I love the music style so much.

One thing that made my fandom decline as well is that she isn't that active anymore. I understand that, but it still sucks because I'm one of those people who still remembers Ayu as someone who released singles often, doing TV performances and all that stuff. It just feels weird (yes, even after 4 years) that it doesn't happen so often anymore. She also tends to recycle stuff in her concerts way too much for my liking. I love it when artists bring new to the performances instead of using old stuff over and over. I love her older concerts because I feel they were all so different compared to each other.

Don't get me wrong, I still respect Ayu as an artist and especially as a lyricist. i think her songs are beautifully written lyrically even of the music itself may be dull (sometimes her lyrics has made me love musically shitty song in my opinion). I still prefer her older songs more though, because as a whole I find more relatable songs from her older releases. I also like her voice these days though I still think her best vocals were in 2002 (RAINBOW era). But I know she willl never get back there so it's OK. :)

I don't think anyone's really nailed the problem, although most of what you all are saying is contributing to it.

Think of it like this... Ayu and her career before were like... the wrapped-up gift under a Christmas tree, and we LOVED the shiny wrapping, which was folded and taped with care, clearly time was taken on it. We loved the sparkling, hand-tied bow on top. And clearly money was spent on the foil-embossed gift tag, which was carefully hand-selected after ages of browsing. Everything was so pretty and neat and exciting. She was the one in charge of that wrapping, hinting at the box's contents with the type of wrapping she put around it (like wrapping an Elsa doll up in snowflake wrapping paper). And we liked guessing! What's inside? It's so pretty, I bet it's something amazing.

But then she unwrapped the present in an effort to get closer to her fans. We'd earned the right to see her with the wrapping off, but under the paper... It was just a cardboard box. Not a bad one - it's in good shape, not many dents, not dirty, not flimsy. But... it's so NORMAL. So easily torn, so blah brown colored, taped up in a few places to keep it in decent shape. Just like any other box, but clearly well taken care of. The present was simply not that interesting anymore. And maybe there's more shinyness inside that cardboard box, sure... but Ayu is self-conscious for one thing, and has things inside that she doesn't want to think about. So she'll never just dump the contents out. She'll bring them out a little at a time, but whenever she does (see "Party Queen") no one likes it. So she just keeps the cardboard clean, shows us all HOW she keeps the cardboard clean, and goes on with her life. But fans want the wrapping back.

I think the key issue is "distance." There's a certain specific amount of distance that I think is ideal for a popular figure to hold onto - one where little solid, specific personal information is revealed, but where we THINK we can probably figure it out through lyrics and videos and interviews. This gives us just enough information that we think we have a good idea of what a person is like, but not so much that we can't project our own ideals onto her. That exact mixture of honesty & secrecy is what makes a public figure like Ayu relateable.

We saw one room of where Ayu lived in that 2000 NTV documentary and that was AWESOME. But even at the time, while she did live in an apartment, it was a ridiculously huge fancy new york type of apartment that's totally inaccessible to any normal Tokyo resident. She was unattainably rich even then, but she still seemed like a "normal girl" and her lyrics were still personal and relateable. So no, it's not the money making her distant. It's how much she's chosen to tell us.

Once she'd hit a turning point of trying too hard to get close to us, and her sales hit that permanent slump, she then catered to mainly the Gyaru community and her built-in fanbase rather than the general public. She no longer had the allure of relateability that made her popular with teenagers. Sales were no longer based on the quality of the product she was selling - she just needed to hang on to fans & the gyarus. So she had to go safe.

While other artists like Namie have taken a slump of this nature and used it as an opportunity, Ayu hasn't. It feels as though Ayu is desperately trying to remain "safe" because when she isn't, people react with such vitriol, and she's a rather sensitive and self-conscious person. When she tries new things, the reactions range from "Oh hey, not bad" to "WTF IS THIS!?!? WHERE IS MY AYU FROM THE PAST!!" Whenever that happens, she tries to recapture what she did in the past by using older songwriters and such, and even on this new album she's going back to doing dancey music since that was such a HUGE part of her image & brand back before "I am..." All these attempts to recapture the past are failing, however, because she's missing the specific level of distance from her fans that made her charming.

Now she does seem to be aware that fans have lost a feeling of "connection" with Ayu, and she's trying to fix that, but things like "ayu LIFE STYLE BOOK" and the upcoming TA q&a sessions and twitter are all overcompensation. She SHOULD be putting wrapping paper around herself again. She should be using deliberate & methodical symbolism and imagery in her album & single shoots, wearing fashions that create a brand for each new release, being "vaguely specific" in her lyrics again... give us HINTS about what you're saying so we think we can figure you out. Don't show us your actual bed - sing about how you feel when you're in it alone, & then put a photo of you on the cover where you're the only black & white person in a colored crowd, or where you're sitting alone in a sparsely furnished cell of some kind. Let us assign the specifics - our own bed sheets and ourselves and our rooms, our own missing lover, our own sad faces. That way the song can be about us too.

The amount of lip syncing during her recent CDL made me sad.
Countdown Live 2013-2014 lip synced songs include:
1) Feel the love
2) Free & Easy
3) Because of You (except final refrain which is weird)
4) CAROLS
5) Momentum
6) is this LOVE?
A BEST LIVE tour had 3 songs she lip synced - poker face, Fly high and HONEY.
Now when I think of her new concerts I can't help wondering how much of the show is actually going to be LIVE. Of course I still like Ayu very much but realizing that your favourite artist is heavily relying on lip syncing isn't a pleasant thing.

^I think I'd actually be okay with her lip syncing Feel the Love. I don't want to even know wth that sounds like live. Leave it at home Ayu.


And Deli up there, telling hard truths~ +1

I really doubt from the preview that Feel the love was lip synced, it was way too edited for it.

People should notice there's a difference between lip-synching, using heavy backtrack, using backup singers, using backup singers AND backtrack and using voice filters live... All of them are used to make the singer sound better than they actually are, but the amount of effort the singer must put on each case is completly different.

Ayu (and almost everyone else in the business) use all of those techniques, but Ayu rarely lip-synchs more than 2 or 3 songs all the way... From both live reports and video releases (that aren't very trustable), she isn't lip-syching whole tracks since 2009 or so...

I don't believe to all this lip sync stuff because most of the time when people on the board says a song is lip synced it doesn't even sound like that, and she will probably never lip sync more than 1-3 songs tops since the japanese will ban her for good. (Even though BoA did more some lip syncing to up beat songs too).
I know that songs like poker face and Fly high on A BEST LIVE and ANGEL'S SONG/HONEY in PCDL were like that but even from this digest vid, no way Feel the love is lip synced and sounds like that. CAROLS is NOT lip-synced. ayu lip-syncing got too overrated, like people just throw X performance lip synced in the air. People that were there usually state what performances were lip synced too, but did they say anything about the recent CDL? And what Andrenekoi said.

For what deli wrote, I think that ayu is in a big conflict, I don't know if she really thinks of foreign fans but it's like - Japanese fans want only the old ayu, foreign fans want a new ayu all the time. With no relation to fans she probably wants to try new things from time to time but she has hard time doing stuff with the Japanese audience.

Feel the love is probably live, so you do hear how it is, regardless of live filters and editions.

I like what Deli said. So on point. As always.

Also about lip sync. I highly doubt she did that for all of those songs if any. If it ever seems like she does, it's always just a couple at most.

You forgot the pre-recorded full-playbacks, which, based on my own perception, are also a very common gimmick for Ayu's concerts. Thus, it is somewhat hard to differ between live singing with realtime-sound/voice-enhancers and pre-recorded playbacks. However, that's why they use this technique after all and it probably takes place in most of Ayu's concerts.

Pre-recorded pretty much means lip-syncing to it like was mentioned, but even if she does 1-3 songs, it's not very common in one concert to lip sync more than 2 songs on average, and these are usually really high pitched up beat songs, that get short versions (in medleys for example).

I'm also sure that if all the songs above were lip-synced (had full pre-recordings) the tabloids would probably eat her up for this since it's kind of a big deal in Japan. They ate her for much less and if not the media then the fans. Even 2ch never mention lip-syncing in their trollings (probably because she doesn't do that much and if she does it's 1-2 songs in a concert usually so it's not worth trolling).

What's more I don't know how Feel the love and CAROLS were lip-synced to be honest since even from the digest video they don't sound/look lip-synced.
I don't think she would lip-sync first song in a concert either, otherwise she would just change to a song she could sing live from the first place.

I don't know about the other 3 but they don't seem like songs she would lip-sync. She would lipsync cuter songs/really high pitched ones maybe that are not ballads.

I need a November on this album or I'm going to freak out and bulldoze my Ayu disograpghy.

@ Delirium-Zer0:
Honestly, I can't really feel you on this.
Your description is on point, and I think it's probably the reason a lot of people's interest (especially the general public) decreased, but it doesn't make sense to me (and maybe that's why my interest in her is still, like, VERY HIGH, lol).
I liked her when she was this mysterious emotion-vessel supreme lyricists icon and I like her now that she's open and relaxed and allowing herself to be a more normal woman. In my eyes she just changed and grown up, not only in her life, not only in her music, but in her priorities and musical approach too.
If she's going back to her old ways of promoting, fine. But it's not really the point for me, I still find her lyrics and persona very relatable (relatively, because she's much older than me). She's so emotional and stuff.
But I totally agree with you saying Ayu started keeping it safe with her dropping sales, relying on her hardcore fanbase and gyarus. And I feel too she's trying to rediscover her past, but I don't think she's so desperate doing so...

Ayu once said in a documentary that her time/era is about to end even 12, 13 or 14 years ago (don't know the exact date). So I doubt she's trying to sustain any standards of bygone times. Avex and Ayu know that her time is over but it's still possible to have her sell music to the die-hard fans. I feel, that has been the selling point of the past couple years.

That was from the 2004 documentary, and yes she did say "My era is over". I agree with you on the bolded part. Ayu never intended to be a musician in the first place. I'm positive that she only wanted to make music so she can be herself and express her feelings.

there's a difference between acknowledging your era is over, liking being a musician and then.. not putting in effort at all recently.

the question is, can she be like this again? perfect music with amazing arrangements and effort.. something that clicks and links everything together.. a musical package that we've loved so much?

The only thing I see there is a incosistent singer with a runny nose dressed on a birthday cake while singing a generic ballad...

A generic ballad with an interesting, beautiful melody and gorgeous lyrics.


Makes all the difference when you actually have good, well-produced music.

I think when releases are accompanied by decent promotional efforts by ayu herself, personally I would feel that it was well thought-out and planned. So even if I don't like it (sunrise/sunset), I still respect that there was a concept, extensive preparation and thought process behind the whole thing. It was an effort by ayu standards that set her apart from so many other artistes for me.

These past few years I found it very lacking. For eg the moon/crossroad/L with the 'trilogy' concept just pasted onto it and no promotional effort outside of her live concerts. Just from the songs and pvs I knew that the much effort was put into the production but I also felt that ayu didn't prepare her schedule well enough to have time to promote it. That was a dip in her lofty effort standards and then with subsequent releases it seemed to sink lower and lower.

At this point I feel so attached to ayu on a personal level that I'll probably hang in until she retires but I find myself wishing she would improve her act. I think it's fitting her decline is how it is (unlike r&r circus period which I thought was awesome and didn't get what it deserved).

That being said I always hope she does well in her musical endeavours and I'm crossing my fingers for this new album.

Oh jesus, the generic ballad talk. She doesn't need to do some offbeat, avant-garde trash in order to make music that is enjoyable. Honestly, the "generics" that ARE well produced, composed and arranged are what she's good at and ENJOYABLE listens. I hate when people get all uppity and exude that "this is too basic for me" attitude about a lot of her songs that had wide market appeal. What the fuck do you even like then? Gut-it-pez?

^Something that couldn't be releases by pretty much anyone...

@emi
As yourself say when I praise her songs based on lyrics to you, I don't speak Japanese. :p Still not crazy about the melody either, the arrangment is nice, the singing is crap.

runny nose? Have you watched AT 12? That's a real runny nose.

I'm still a big fan, and as generic her recent albums are, she still dishes out songs that are WAY better than most others I listen to.

I just feel that she used to be so coherent with everything pre-2009, and that she always had brilliant ideas which she executed so, so, so, well and beautifully. From LOVEppears to (miss)understood she really was at her prime because every era felt like a package. IDGAF that she was shrilling in the Duty album or that her hair was shit in the RAINBOW era.. what matters is that as a whole, each era was complete - a nice little package that felt consistent, with effort, and well thought out.

Recently, she's been haphazard. Good examples are her 10th and 15th anniversary. I love Days to death but the 10th anniversary singles were quite lackluster in terms of a whole package; A COMPLETE was nothing special. 15th was worse because she didn't do anything but tour, and you can argue that she's touring even more blah blah but FFS she's ayumi hamasaki, she's THE Queen of J-Pop, yet her 15th anniversary felt like a muted song in a corner of the room.

the 50th singles project was rubbish as well; the link between MOON/blossom, crossroad and L is..?? Though we did get Love songs which was her best album since MY STORY imho, the whole era felt so disconnected and I couldn't believe her 50th single was about her one year husband.

Which brings me to my next point - the way she's handling herself these days makes me :rolleyes because it feels a reverse; she should be behaving like how she did in 2010 - 2013 when she was younger because those silly mistakes are so.. unprofessional and unbecoming of someone like her.

I'm still unhappy about pasting Mannie's face on the PVs of her 50th single, I'm even more appalled and disgusted with the whole Maro saga, pasting his face on PVs and an album cover is just.. self-indulgent.

That's it. I think she's getting self-indulgent, and you know what that reminds me of? Lady Gaga. She's self-indulgent and she doesn't make a buzz anymore.

I repeat what I said on another thread that AT 12 was so disgustingly self-indulgent that I couldn't stand watching it. There's something attention-seeking about the "I am the Lonely queen" shit that puts me off.. however low her life was (ASFxx - Duty, I am.../A BEST, GUILTY) she was never self-indulgent, attention-seeking and being a baby about it. I hate Party queen so much, that year was her lowest to me.

And the discussion on Feel the love? We wouldn't be getting it if she had proper execution for it. She touched on dangerously scandalous topics in the past (price of fame, politics, homosexuality) in her PVs and every idea was executed with a nice thought process (Endless sorrow, Dearest, GREEN, Lady Dynamite, my name's WOMEN, alterna, Free&Easy).. in the past we may not always get her message, but none was offensive or at least came across offensive, and what we understood was what we perceived. Yet we can't point a finger and be so certain because nothing was obvious.

In Ftl, she had a good albeit typical concept for loving thyself but like what emi mentioned, the execution was so so so bad. I cannot believe she let the last part with James Ellis slip; if this were evolution she would move from the director's camera, to James, told him off and get his shit together to get THAT expression SHE WANTS to convey the message she wants. But she didn't.

Which brings me to my next point. She really doesn't care anymore sometimes does she?

We discussed this earlier. I think she does care. And I don't think we can truly know how she feels compared to the past anyway. I still like how Deli describes ayu's career and why a lot of fans feel the way they do.

So, when she was singing about how much the cruel evil world made her suffer, and about how much it hurt to be such a naive person on a world so cruel to her, she was being brave/mature...

When she was singing about how she was fucking up her own life by avoiding pain by partying and drinking and blaming others, she was imature and self-indulgent?

Ok...

^ she didn't need to blatantly spell it out "I'm the lonely queen." She had to explain Party Queens cover but it was unnecessary to be so upfront with asserting herself that title. It's like when Kumi claimed herself queen of live or even how ayu raps in self indulgence in m-flos songs - it's gross to be self indulgent. It's just not likeable.

I do miss the "package" feeling. I can't complain about 10th anni singles though cause I do believe those were put together well. The photo shoots and covers were some of her best, if not the best. Stunning.

Also regarding manny in the PV, that's how they met lol. She wasn't married to or dating him when he was cast.

^Her fans didn't really get it without the lonely thing, did they? Western fans even started disturbing her about it on twitter.

Even if the album by itself was pretty dark, if it's mostly about loneliness and if she does call herself lonely queen on the album.

And the thing is, she is blaming herself for being the "lonely queen", for the first time on her whole career she is blaming herself for her life being fucked up, and this is pretty mature considering people tend to overlook their own fault on their life condition.

How can one lyrically like A Song for xx but not like songs like reminds me and its whole section and even songs like SAKURA is beyond me.

Personally, AT12 was one of her best tours both in concept and entertainment (vocally as well) especially better than most pre 2009 tours. I get that people get/got disconnected with her, but there's no need to be extreme in the matter of voicing opinions of her like she became a drug holic nonchalant killer. At least with her recent relationship/marriage it doesn't seem like she is going to shove her husband in her work and she's gonna try new stuff (which shows she cares a lot).

I also have a theory that the fact that she is not promoting as much as she used to and don't have long full eras of styles, performances and promotions on TV/mags don't let people feel her or that she has an era going on, or a concept for an era/album/album promo.

Also it was said earlier that A COMPLETE was nothing special. It didn't have a lot of stuff but overall it was a really great package, -especially- for the Japanese (which is her most thought of target audience if not almost the only) and it bared fruits too successfully. From just before starting to sell less than half a million it got her back to 850,000 on that time for this album. Except for a new single song and a new version for a 10th annivesary song she didn't really have to do much since anniversary albums usually don't celebrate new material. (Nor best albums but a lot have 1-2 new songs to promote them).

I feel like some people get carried away on this.
She didn't decide to be the Queen of J-Pop. It happened and if she doesn't want to be thebestofbestesevah anymore, it's totally her right to do so.
She doesn't have to prove anything. It's like people think she has this legacy to carry on, while she explained very bluntly in her interviews recently that she no longer feels the need to be perfect to protect herself from the world.
Now, I think her effort lately isn't adequate, but not because of some high standards I have, but because in general if you do your job, you kind need to do it right. Especially if I know you can do wonders, because you already did in the past.
And I think she does her part nicely. She put nice ideas and great lyrics. People screw them up a lot of times with horrible production. I'm not asking her to take the camera and film her thing like she would have done in the beginning, but to just step in sometimes.
Like with her 15th anniversary. Like, I don't even want to talk about it. I wanna forget about it. I'm just taking the music and closing my mouth about it, because if I start on that disaster, I'm never gonna stop complaining, lol.

I don't really get what people wanted from her anniversaries...

Massive promotion, so she could annoy the public impacted with her almost 10 years long superexposition more efficiently?

Two albums a year, considering she released new music on both anniversaries?

Multiple tours so she could start selling 1/3 of the DVD copies she was selling before like Koda?

Really, I don't get it...

I don't get the big deal over party queen. I love the concept of her being a lonely queen yet showing the facade of a party queen. It's a lovely concept and one some people can relate to. I like when ayu talks about stuff like that. I mean, she's done it before much earlier on the past. It's always nice. I remember some thread forever ago about a young new artist singing a sad song about her parent's divorce, and people were complaining about it. Just saying she wants attention and stuff. So stupid. People can express whatever problems or issues they want in their art. Whether it's the lonely child or the lonely queen. Also, ayu is known for her illustrious career that may be misunderstood, while kuu really does put on great lives. They can call themselves whatever they want. Artists don't have to let other people always define them.

I get that. But when it comes to songs that are generic, I think it makes a difference for a lot of people, and especially for Japanese people, when they have to watch a performance with nothing else happening, and an orchestral arrangement.

And actually, it's funny you say that. I always saw Dearest the other way around lol Nice melody, generic arrangement lol

I feel like that about a lot of her ballads though. Like No Way to Say. Or Days (even though I hate that melody, it's at least interesting).


As for Party Queen...I didn't mind the concept. I just don't think that sort of thing is relateable for most people. Like, the vast majority of people who don't know what it's like to be different and placed above others. If you've never felt that, how can you know? lol
It would be different if they were saying this shit in like every other song, or if they acted like Mariah Carey all over the place....but they don't. I think it's also a very..."western" thing, to do that. In Kpop, they're always doing crap like that, saying they're on top, or saying their names. To me, it's less about how they feel, and more just, another thing to throw in the song because it seems *cool* to their culture.

She's just being trendy.

^I like the live arragment usually, but the official arrangment is pretty generic too... :P

Let's say I love both Dearest and Pray.

What I like about Pray is how unnusual it is for an Ayu ballad!
(Done! :P)

Lol, Pray is like the one of the most generic things she's done. Really, calling Dearest generic and favoring Pray. :rolleyes

^It's not like you praise anything that isn't generic and done by everyone to ever sign a label contract... :P

Ayumi Nakagawa. Loved that damn song so much but she stopped making music zzzzzzzzzz

Lol. I think we just have different definitions of generic, etc.
For me, ayus classics aren't generic at all. And I honestly CANT see anyone else doing them. Her greatest hits have a melancholic subtlety to them, and I love the songs in which they sound "born" to be that way. Songs that seem almost as if each note was constructed out of a pattern of rules. Songs that may seem as if they have the simplest melody, but are genius because of it.

Her "generic and done by everyone tracks" for me are everything that does not have those qualities. Which means most of her recent tracks. Pray seriously sounds like an anthem anyone could've sang, and the arrangement certainly is less spectacular and less modern than most of the tracks she released 10 years ago.