HAL when they added a female singer.

Yes it's true but it's somewhat logic isn't it ? lol

Oh yes I forgot to post this one ^^ this song would have been great for Ayu ...

My feelings towards this are basically, Ayu was to soloist singers then what AKB48 is to girl groups today.

Every company tried to capitalize on the current superstar(s), thus there were Ayu-esque girls popping up everywhere. Likewise, there's an influx of girl groups now because everyone wants a piece of the AKB success, but in both cases very few imitations remained relevant...

ironic that the girl is really look like ayu in evolution pv (hair, make-up) :innocent

pretty much all of the songs in this thread could be potentially on Ayu's discography lol i can pretty much hear Ayu singing them xD Obviously she is an infuence. Not just musically but visually as well.

Also if I recall correctly, Namie had a blue outfit in her Queen of hip-pop tour in 2004/5 iirc that really looks like ayu's Team ayu limited live 2003's pink skirty outfit. Namie probably liked it.

I was totally thinking about this PV from HAL.

Not that this shows through in their music, but the Gazette's lead guitarist, Uruha, says that Ayumi Hamasaki is one of his favorite singers. I found that to be so unexpected.

Uruha also likes kuu and his ringtone was once HANABI ~episode II~ from what I found, excellent choice XD

Some J-Rockers, even harder than ayu's seem to really like ayu.

I don't know if any of you know alice nine, but saga (bassist) and nao (drummer) and hiroto (guitar) are ayu fans, they even went to CDL 10-11. Saga's favourite song is step you. LOL.♥ no one can resist ayu's charm.

And IIRC it was x-japan's drummer that went to ayu's concert as well? Along with others like Namie, kuu and her sister misono. hikki also once said on TV that she sang ayu's M in karaoke.

That Sifow song does quite remind me of Surreal. I might have to check out some of her other stuff!

The first one also reminds me of Hikki's Uso Mitai na I love you

It's not ironic actually, it's likely completely deliberate.

Because of Ayu's success with the songs they arranged & produced, HAL became very sought after in the early 2000s - Dream managed to work with them, and then later Every Little Thing, Ruppina, KinKi Kids, Janne da Arc... Plus other producers started kinda ripping off their sound.

I'm fairly certain avex gave HAL a singer so they could get more of that group on the charts, and that means cashing in on the Ayu formula - high pitched voice, huge eyes, ayu-like hair. HALNA is shown from the back topless on the "Violation of the Rules" album jacket, making them one of several artists to do the LOVEppears thing.

I noticed Masami Mitsuoka/Mizca came up in the first post as well - the first 3 solo songs she ever released, between late 2007 and early 2008, were called "Hana," "Distance love," and "I am" sooooo there's that. :D

The first time I heard that sifow song when I listened to CLAЯITY, I immediately thought of SURREAL.

That S.H.E. song is a direct rip, don't care what the group says in regards. Everything is just so similar to About You.

@Deli: It always amazes me though how no one was ever able to fully to cash in on ayu's style.


That HAL singer makes me really appreciative of Ayu's vocals. I remember having a similar japanese "tinge" every now and then in a song for xx, but after that. Her voice is so unique.

To be honest EVERYONE who tried was able to cash in at least a little bit. The HAL sound took off cuz of Ayu - Ruppina and Dream did well at the time. Heck, Yuta Nakano's production sounds the way it does because he was in HAL once. Plus ayu's contributions to fashion back in the day - the people who adhered to the popular ayu-influenced style (big eyes, light hair, both hime-gyaru and tomboyish fashions depending on the time period) were certainly more successful than they would have been if they hadn't.

It's just that the more obvious duplicates - like HALNA, and to some degree Anzai Hiroko back in late 2000 - were nothing special outside of cosmetic similarities, and consumers are usually savvy enough to pick up on the obvious cash-in. These were no exception.

Artists that have been influenced by her in a more generalized sense are naturally going to succeed a bit better because they're more genuine (influenced rather than ripping off). After ayu showed up, there was a more "genuine" or "raw" sort of female singer that suddenly became popular - the 90s idols like Namie were getting shoved aside, at least temporarily, in favor of singers like Nakashima Mika, SAYAKA, post-TK hitomi, et cetera. And now, because time has detached everyone from Ayu enough that the influence isn't as outwardly obvious if you're not looking for it, we have singers like Nishino Kana who are becoming popular because they're the ones teenagers can relate to, just as Ayu was back between 1998 and 2002. Granted, Kana's lyrics don't talk about self-doubt, hopelessness, betrayal, and loneliness to quite the depth Ayu's lyrics did, but her songs about hope & heartbreak resonate with the kids these days regardless.

The songs that sound very simillar to ayu actually does because it has the peculiar H/\L sound, since they arranged/composed many of her most famous songs.
S H E is obviously a cover of About You. Since About You is one of my most favorite ayu songs, I obviously prefer the original (not just because of bias towards ayu lol). About You is very aggressive, and ayu nails it so well.

I'm a fan of Deep Freeze. The whooooo-ooooo-oooo always made me think I was into some frozen place, so her earlier songs were somewhat magical; a lot of JPOP was for me back then, and that's what sorta made me stick to it more than other kinds of music. I liked when Rina Aiuchi made songs like that, plain JPOP. She later decided to follow the rock trend but definitely didn't do well. She was better with the cutesy anime-y stuff.

Well, it's not a cover, the melody is entirely different. It's inspired by About You, absolutely, but it's not a cover.

Rina Aiuchi was definitely better doing pop like this. I COMPLETELY agree. Her voice is not suited for the more rockish stuff she did later, it's too sweet.

Another song of hers I'm SHOCKED I didn't think of earlier is "Ruby Stars" - I did a mash-up of it & A Song for XX a loooonnng time ago to demonstrate how close the structure & progressions of those songs were. Fun times :D

This thread reminded me of that one guy who did almost all the hits from the 90's to now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzRup5YFf8Y

People always say oh this band is better than the other, when it's basically the same
dude who arranges and composes the music. Maybe most of the artist that have been
posted here are under the same record label or they have worked with the same persons who composes the music.

I find it cool, sorry if it's kind of off topic.

Itano tomomi's music video is a blatant copy of a scene from the movie pans labyrinth