^ It's just making fun of their "image" and mapping it to the type of fan that might coordinate.

Koda Kumi: Raunchy, trashy image = promiscuous party boys at pride.
Utada Hikaru: The nerdy girl with video game tie-ins = Kingdom Hearts cosplay fans.
Namie Amuro: The ageless beauty who is always polished, etc. = Real Housewives.
Ayu: The Extra Diva = Over the top drag queen.

It probably could have been a lot more clever and funny, but it's a little chuckle.

Hahahaha this is brilliant

I've always thought that joke was really funny. XDDD

I love that image so much lmfao I literally look like that drag queen when listening to Love Songs

Yes, let's put everyone in a box and indulge in stereotypes.:rolleyes

Oh my god 🙄 It’s not that serious, chill

Even after having the joke explained, I don't really find it funny smh...

You're right. It isn't that serious.:laugh
I was being a bit sarcastic. I'm not upset over a meme. In fact, I have seen that photo before.

I'm hollering at Ayu's

Drag queens are freakin' talented though. Namie fans though are a little weird... I think the Koda/Namie side should just be teenagers but one is gay teens the other is female teens with long hair.

I don't think the picture is meant to be taken literally ;)

https://preview.ibb.co/dx6WHR/99_E81..._CA4135_A8.gif

Honestly, some people are so dull. I wonder how they make it through life with so little flavor.

It doesn't help though that it's low class shade imo.

Who doesn’t like to sit in the shade every now and again? Lol. It gives you the opportunity to prepare to throw it in somebody else’s direction.

That meme is sooo old.
It's not even up-to-date anymore, lol.

Keeping the meme talk... here's for the ayu and black mirror fans

https://i.imgur.com/mgN6ZRW.jpg

lol people are really really bored these days :D

I love BM though.

I don't get this reference, but when I first looked at #6, I thought the flame was a naked person from behind. >.<

I'm totally seeing things.

Come in Ayu! Announce April concert dates allready after you teased us at Saitama concert ><

Metalhead!!

hahaha this is awesome

Guess I gotta watch season 4 xD


The pic from her insta is beautiful. I love her hair and makeup

Dogs in Metalhead were so scary for me but now... lol

That's what I saw too! :D

Man, SIGNAL is such a bop. It deserves more love!

A lot of her older songs only really need some arrangement tune ups. They are great songs!

I would love if she sang new arrangements/mixes of her older songs. Not in an A BEST way but more like A BALLADS. That's my biggest hope really, Ayu-wise.

I love the A Song For xx album so much. Such an important release. It's too bad it gets criticised and sometimes ignored for it's 90's pop/rock sound. I wouldn't change anything about it. The acoustic orchestra version of the album found on ayu-mi-x fixes the dated sound and helps the songs really shine.:luv2

I've always loooved SIGNAL! It has such a "modern-retro" style to me xD I enjoy it tremendously and frequently play it. I preffer to listen to the AT09 live version though since I preffer a) live versios b) her more "recent" voice.

Hey bit of a long shot, but I was planning to do it by heart. I have got to do this in two hours:

For a school assignment I have to chat max. 11 minutes about my fascination. Of course I choose Ayu. I wanted to chat about Ayu seeing herself as a product (especially around A BEST), her hearing loss (or better to say: determination) and in short how fast she changes in style. I want to show the clip alterna at the end.

What is the thing I really shouldn't forget telling people about Ayu?
Note: it is a bit of a sales-talk. I am getting a teacher's degree, so I must warm up/excite my audience to a new idea/artist/etc.

^ Hmmm i would insist on how many CDs she has sold and how many records she has in the music industry, just to impress people lol

But well it's been two hours so you propably won't read it...

I have done a presensation about Ayu in my english class in high school 5 years ago (the topic was to make a short presentation about the person you look up to the most), it was a really fun thing to do! Every school year since then i hope the teacher will ask us a presentation where i can talk about Ayu again lol, but unfortunately it hasn't happened since then, always crap topics i don't care about.

^ Sadly, I did not read it. My presentation went well. My professor asked some hard questions. He found Ayu so Western, and wondered what was so authentic about her music then (I did not come further than her voice, because it is like describing Ayu, or any big female popstar like Madonna, who doesn't have 'one' sound in particular) . Also, in relation with the theme "girlpower", a lecture I gave yestersay about the age of female pop authors... he questioned Ayu's strong girl power, because in alterna she is attached to strings and even trown away at the end... (I responded with that she find her strength in lyricwriting, because she dares to (emotionally) express herself in a way which is not common under the Japanese folks... but I am not sure I really nailed that answer)

I am curious how you guys would have responded.

Sounds like a really fun opportunity but did you just learn about the assignment two hours beforehand or did you put it off until then? Lol. Sounds like a missed opportunity to really dig deep if it was the latter.

No, I knew beforehand. It was basically about choosing something that stands close to you and from own interpretation, fascination and why exactly this artist/work speak to you. I actually did have a clear story which ended great, just not too sure how to answer his 'high art crictical' questions.

Besides... I actually told about Ayu's sound. He claimed it was very Western and why Ayu is then so authentic/different (he suggested that she had adopted a Western sound)

I did prepare myself, but was kinda lost in words at the time he asked me those two questions. I did not answer that bluntly like I just wrote. I handled it much better, because the show must go on ;)

Zeke I am actually curious to read what you would have responded.

I would say her voice is a big part of it. One way I’ve begun to describe her sound is that she always sings as if someone is wringing her heart - twisting it in their hands. That high pitch that she has always gives me that sort of impression. It’s very emotional, and you can really feel that in her songs. It’s almost whiney in a way, but that in my opinion is what makes it so powerful. She feels emotions VERY deep, and her singing style conveys that. It also helps to convey the relentless fighting spirit, almost stubbornness, she has to never yield to the pain - to never give up or give in. She writes and sings her way through it, and you can hear and feel her plea. It’s “punchy” and the arrangement and composition/melodies of her greatest tracks are also heavily so.

Her decision and post she made about continuing to sing until the very end, until she’s physically cannot sing anymore, is also evident of her having such a perseverant mentality. I would have spoken about that and perhaps recited her post/confession about it, because to me that’s really moving and an embodiment of her character.

Since you mentioned the assignment was about why the artist and his or her work speaks to you, that’s the angle I would have taken because I love to feel emotion, and I love to express it authentically, whole-heartedly, deeply and honestly, and ayu does all that herself. I can’t sense the raw heart of other artists when they sing, but I’ve always been able to experience ayu’s through her songs effortlessly.

With regards to authenticity, I think you could've gone in a few different directions:
1 - Time and again, Ayu states that if she wants to do something, she will. If she decided she no longer liked singing, she would quit, and commit herself to whatever she wanted to do next. I think the same goes for her music style - she releases the type of music she wants to make, regardless of what is in trend, or might be more well received by a general public.
2 - I would cite her starting to use English in her lyrics. In her early career that was really something she was known for - NOT using English at all. Then during Rainbow she started to. When I Am... was released, she started saying how she now understood her responsibility as a public persona and her songs were not just about her own pain anymore. With Rainbow she stated she started using English to better represent her thoughts and to resonate with her overseas fans more. The fact that she has such a thought process really says to me that it is authentic to her.
3 - In the end, I think Ayu's super fame earlier on was really due to the fact that she is a "bad Japanese." That is to say, she doesn't fit into the mold. She literally was the voice of the lost generation in Japan, and that's why she was so embraced and loved. She spoke candidly in her lyrics, in her interviews, and she never did what was expected of a Japanese woman or pop-star. The flip side of that is that I think culturally things in Japan have done a 180 to revert to more "traditional" values, and that's why she's been abandoned. But that's a whole other discussion. :)

I would have answered : She has released like 20 albums in her career with various genres going from rap (lol) to pop to rock to trance to edm etc, which is something western pop stars would almost never do, they might experiment a little but in the end they will always stick to a genre that is popular and safe, Ayu is different in that way, so you can't really judge her from one or two songs.

alterna is not about her being a women that is thrown away, it's about her being a popular singer (/product) of the music industry that is thrown away once a new singer is there to replace her, the fact that she's a woman doesn't matter.

I think i would have talked about my name's WOMEN to answer this, both the lyrics, the pv (+ live performances) is a huge kick in the ass to patriarchy imo. Also We are the QUEENS, Beautiful Fighters, Shake it! ♥, XOXO are songs that praise women. In her live performances she likes to oppose girls dancers and boy dancers and always make the girls win lmao + girls are a lot in a position of power over boys in her live performances.

Never forget

And past this, there's actually a bit juxtaposition between the lyrics and the video. The lyrics are quite empowering, along the lines of - be yourself, because you'll be judged no matter what you do. Stand up, be strong and go forward, or step aside.

At the time it came out, Avex had just signed Ami Suzuki, who was sort of a peer around the time of Ayu's debut, and there was a mini-competition between them during debut (mostly media/fabricated, but you get the idea). So it was looked at like oh, Avex is trying to stick it to Ayu and replace her. And the news was always about the "next Ayu" at that time. This video was very much so a response to that in a rather bold way, that is actually quite empowering.

I love when discussions of strong substance appear on AHS.:luv2
I'm not sure if I can even add anything. So many thoughtful contributions.:heart
I might agree that alterna really isn't a feminists song or video. But maybe a little bit. Jpop has been dominated by females since the late 90s because of debuts like Namie, Utada, Ayu. Female artists in Jpop tend to have short careers and are easily replaced by a new, younger, prettier girl, and the female artists that came before them are tossed aside by the mainstream and the media. Destined to become "irrelevant" and criticized for many reasons. While male artists tend to become legends and gain much respect the longer their career is. The alterna video basically tells the story of Ayu's past, present, and future as a female pop star.
Things like alterna are one of the examples of something I really love and connect to Ayu with and that is her self awareness. Something unique about Ayu as an artist is that she knew from a young age and early in her career what her fate was as a female gaining popularity in Jpop. She learned quickly that her lyrics, music, fashion, and just about anything she created would have a strong effect on those that connect to her. This becomes most obvious with I am... ,where Ayu sort of embraces her identity as Ayumi Hamasaki and what messages she wants to convey to the world and her listeners. Ayu was smart enough to know how the world works and that reality can be so cold and cruel and unfair. Connecting back to what Zeke was saying about her persevering quality, I love that Ayu never lets anything stop her or defeat her, despite knowing the harsh realities of our world.
So I would have focused on how Ayu fans tend to connect very strongly to her, more so than many other artists. I think the bond between Ayu and people are one of a kind.

Oh Darling, if I wasn't gay, I would make you a proposal... ❤️
This bop is in my TOP10 favorite ayu Songs...

Even though SIGNAL gained some attention due to the PCDL and AT09, i think it's still really underrated - sadly...

^I love the song, but the live Version really gave it life

I know some are sick of the complaints about the lack of new music, but this time i won't even talk about how i miss new music :

I just wanna say i'm really bothered that it's her damn 20th anniversary year and ayu/her staff/avex does NOTHING to get us excited about it. For her 15th anni we had 5 releases every 8th of each month from november 2012 to march 2012, then for the 8th of april we had Tell All released digitally. Ok that's not the best thing ever but they were putting efforts into getting up hyped for her 15th anniversary...

I'm not even asking for releases but i mean, they could have changed the official website/her facebook layout with a new banner with a picture and a mystery phrase like "It's just the beginning... Ayumi Hamasaki 20th anniversary coming soon", that doesn't cost anything and it's enough to get us a bit excited and feel like something is coming. But nope, nothing, it just feels like 2018 doesn't mean anything, and that makes me upset because i wasn't a fan when it was her 10th anniversary (i got to know her in 2009) so i have been waiting for 2018 as if it would be full of surprises and now I really feel let down lol

For those who were fans in 2008, how was it? Was her 10th anniversary year exciting?

Maybe they start the celebration on the actual anniversary. As she is still touring till end of February.

I didn't know this is exists. Wonder why she never sing it live. It's a good one.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BdzwgeqHikT/

^ This is from concert tour 2000 vol.2.
We never know, after kanariya last year it is possible that one day she will sing ever free live, but i doubt it.

10th and 15th were similar. Not entirely too exciting, honestly... besides tour and "special" releases. IIRC, I was underwhelmed completely in 2008 for the 10th anni. I believe I actually even made a thread where I was thinking "Ok, what is going on here, why is the 10th so lacking? Shouldn't she be doing more?" at the time.

20th and 25th will likely not be too different for Ayu. I think they did try to hype it up slightly like this with the "Just the beginning 20" thing. I think Ayu doesn't see much value in the anniversaries other than concert names and slight commemorative releases given what we saw in 2008 and 2013.

However, A COMPLETE did eventually come out. I wonder if they will attempt A BEST 3 this time but in the sameish timeframe, not in spring like the others.

:love

I definitely got hooked on it from AT09. I can't believe I went all those years prior not giving it the attention it deserves.

I still get goosebumps from the fan remix of from your letter. It. Is. So. Good. [sleeperspaceborn]

Lol so weird you bring this up because a Japanese fan on twitter shared a fan remix of ourselves and I informed him of the remix contest AHS used to have and called out that remix as one of the particularly amazing entries. I’m currently in talks with him to upload the mixes I have to Dropbox for him.

^ Which remix is it? I have a folder with all AHS remix contest stuff but i never got to listen to them all lol

"sleeper/spaceborn remix," from 2008.

^ Oh no sorry, i misunderstood your post. I know the "from your letter" remix already, i thought the ourselves remix you were talking about was also from AHS remix contest :laugh

SIGNAL is definitely among her most underrated songs. I love it.

I too am somewhat disappointed in Ayu's 20th anniversary celebrations thus far, but who knows what she has planned? She seems to do everything last minute haha.

ALSO: There's an artist called Rina Sawayama, she's a London based artist who recently released her first ep called RINA. She's highly influenced by late 90s/early 2000s jpop. One track in particular, Alterlife, sounds (structurally, melodically and lyrically) like Ayu during that time period...I recommend everyone listen to it + RINA as a whole. It's not j-pop (all tracks are sung in English), but it is certainly influenced by it!!!

Alterlife PV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhf9gkkYaBg

Aw, sleeperspaceborn doesn't do remixes anymore. Has a lot of original content as Vetra Miga now though.

I'm not really expecting Ayu to do anything until this tour is over. When this tour is done we may get big announcements all at once. Or things may just continue to progress slowly into 2019. I'm nervous to get to hyped because I don't want to be disappointed. But then again, you never know what Ayu has planned. She could shock us with something big or unexpected, like she did with kanariya.
And I also like Rina Sawayama. I'll have to listen again to try and hear any Ayu influence.:)

Well, 2018 is supposedly to be Ayu's 20th anniversary, but so far NOTHING SUBSTANTIAL has been announced yet (other than the ongoing tour, which I don't consider that substantial)...

But I might have to agree with what @EndOfTheWorld just said above.

I don't know where to put this question, but does anyone know how to find this site? The old link doesn't work.

http://homepage2.nifty.com/morimasa/e-ayu.html

I think masa reupped the site somewhere else.

There is an interesting discussion on Arama Japan. The topic was "Is Arama Japan too hard on Ayu?".:laugh

http://aramajapan.com/aramaexclusive...ost-159/84094/

Thank you so much!

Yeah! She even mentioned Ayu as one of her favorite J-Pop singer. <3

So Koda fans are horny guys, Utada fans are all cosplayers because she did Kingdom hearts, Nami fans are all snobby middle age women and Ayu fans are all transvestites, don't get the Ayu part.

Do you think Ayu is happy because I don't

I love Rina Sawayama! I can definitely her Ayu's influence in her work, especially 10-20-40 and Alterlife.

I think a Koda fan made it because they couldn't come up with anything better for Ayu fans. Either way, drag queens are fabulous werk...

Drags are fans of good performers so... :P

I wish ayu would utilize auto tune in her tracks more. I think her voice paired with auto tune gives off a particularly amazing and enjoyable effect. The only original track she has utilized that in is NaNaNa, but DJ Amaya used it a lot in his earlier remixes of hers and it’s magical. It creates a unique kind of atmosphere, and I would like to hear more of it. (I’m talking blatant auto tune as a creative element, not auto tune in the sense that it has been used to “smooth” out imperfections)

I thought XOXO had a good bit of it too.

I hate XOXO so I never listen to it. Lol. But I still wouldn’t consider it as blatant as the effect DJ Amaya uses or the effect in NaNaNa. Like, it’s not as choppy. For example, when she says “Have (fun)” she hits two different notes when voicing the ‘a,’ but they blend into each other. It’s like there’s a blanket around her voice, which gives off a very different impression, imo.

You mean the way Cher uses and made autotune famous? Going up and down a bit during verses etc.? Well I think ayu preffers the "telephone" effect or however you call it...

Buuut, I do recall ayu using autotune in such way during parts of Rollin'. And altho it's an interlude - "glasses". God how I love this interlude xD For Sexy Little Things it was partly used as well (at least for background vocals) not much, I know but hey xP

So I was having my daily Girls Channel read (because I'm a masochist xD) and 2018 must be the end of the world because there is one recent positive thread about Ayu. It's about her "hidden gems" and these are some of the post-2010 songs mentioned:

Sky high
beloved
SAKURA
Last minute
Love song
Tell all
MOON
Don't look back
Microphone
blossom
Pray
progress
Out of control
Song 4 u
Missing
Melody
Last angel
FLOWER
Mad World
TODAY
BRILLANTE

NEXT LEVEL was mentioned 3 times I think.

Someone mentioned Feel the love and it got more negative votes than upvotes :mischief

http://girlschannel.net/topics/1502648/

Well, Feel the love is a little bit of a weird track for Ayu... I do think it's fun however, just weird to think about it being from someone that is/was in their mid 30s.

Pray-Out of control-Melody are rare gems :)

Melody - Out of control - Pray is an amazing trio... want to hear them all in one concert for an acoustic live or something.

Add in Ivy and Walk and that list definitely includes some of her best post 2010 songs

So no more ayu song from him now?????

fine by me!
until he already made something for ayu. Sometimes she pull out old songs

He wrote:
A Song is born
Love song
crossroad
sending mail
Last angel
Like a doll
Thank U
do it again
November
Virgin Road
snowy kiss
Ivy
You & Me
Feel the love
NO FUTURE
Anything for You
The Show Must Go On
Walk

+ Many Classic Moments and Departures

He made a bunch of great songs imo... Too bad.

Oh God... Tetsuya is such a mess. I get a bit frustrated with the fact that he was allowed to get back to the music industry after going to prison for selling the copyrights of songs he didn't had the license. And having lots of artists working with him again (Ayu included). And now cheating on KEIKO! Bye

This man is garbage lol, goodbye TK you won't be missed. His songs weren't bad but Ayu will work with someone else and it will be better for sure.
Ayu posted a clip of her singing A song is born with KEIKO with several #, like #KEIKO #TK #legend, is she supporting KEIKO because she was cheated on while sick or is she supporting TK because he's retiring? Messy.

Maybe both. Lol

Ayu has always admired KEIKO so I think she's showing her support for her.

Personal life shoud be separated from stage. The fact (is it fact? I didn't follow his news) that TK cheated didn't erase all his work. I don't like his music but I believe he had great inflience at his time and that can't be forgotten.
Before that twit with Keiko, ayu posted crossroad lyrics and that is one of the TK songs. I think she didn't join any team. She can't just immidiately stop to respect one of her composers.

I didn't know about that...

He produced my favorite Ayu song "Last angel", I don't understand why he's retiring but I respect his decision.

He was caught cheating on his wife KEIKO while she was sick with one of the nurses.

So he is retiring but some people (including me) think he was already planning to retire and is just using this as a way to go out because historically when men cheat in Japan it doesn't end their careers.

Disappointed that he cheated on Keiko and is retiring. I was always hoping Globe would make a come back.

For TA members : Can't we all spam the TA staff to f*cking get these promised english translation of her TA posts done? It's been 3 months since they stopped and i wonder if we'll ever get them.

Unfortunately I don't think it will make a difference but I guess it's worth a try :think

I won’t miss TK.
His throwback sound was cute for Love Songs and for A ONE but other than that the songs that he produced just sounded really dated -which I get is the whole point, but not one album after another!

Please bring back Daishi Dance or something instead.

The article from Kyodo News mentioned “top selling artist including Namie Amuro” well I know Namie is in the spotlight now but you guys come one Ayumi Hamasaki is still the best solo singer in Japan come on xD

So regarding Timmy’s tweet before about having scandal in Japan, I wonder if it is something to do with this??

Honestly, Im quite surprised that Ayu cared bout this matter and posted something on her IG, maybe because she is really close to them and had work with of them,they did gteat songs with Ayu hmm

^ Yeah but well TK was known for being Namie "mentor" during her early days as a solo singer and was the one who composed her first very big hits so it's understandable that she's mentioned. No one even knows he composed for ayu since she wasn't relevant 2010 onwards.

Ofc Timmy's tweet is about it, he can't keep his mouth shut when he needs to lol

Did Timmy delete the tweet? What exactly did he say?

This is from the social media thread but:
“You are probably right. Given the list of songs that TK has personally produced for Ayu that Keiko had no part in, she easily could have shared a video of her performing one of those songs. But instead she chose to share the one piece of work she did together with Keiko. At least Ayu got a good head on her shoulders regarding this matter. I’m kind of disgusted with all the support and sentiment for TK by most Japanese on twitter.”

Just my thoughts.

I’m so disappointed globe won’t be making a comeback anymore. I heard TK had always been a mess since the beginning of time lol not just because of the 2009 scandal. Not surprised but I kinda feel bad for Keiko.

Yeesh, I saw this and thought about Ayu's future tracks. Maybe there'll be some vault things they pull out.

I want Crea back for her 20th anniversary album. She composed her greatest and most beautiful hits. Why did she stop composing? She's so talented.

It was in his FB. He said that having an affair ruins your career and Japan must grow up.

He needs to grow up, IMO. Its not his place to. comment on a culture that isn't his in such a way.

What happend with the freedom of speech? %)