Ayu ~Anything Goes~ XVI
 

Getting prepped up for the next edition of AHS' general discussion thread about anything Ayu.

Because I have an exam on Monday, so I might not visit AHS on Sunday... (well, it is Sunday already, but it's still "Saturday night")

Does anyone know why she isn't releasing singles anymore since Love songs, except Feel the love? Has she or someone else official talked about it?

I don't understand.
She already broke her #1 streak and every artist releases singles. It was cool with Party queen but now I'm just sad that we get all the new songs in big chunks. A member named Zeke(Zede?) wrote a beautiful post about it in another topic.

This is really the most amazing thing.

hmm. subpar vocals and melodramatic acting.

Arena Tour 2006 acoustic performance is an emotional masterpiece. (although her vibrato is a bit heavy at the end, which I don't mind)

she did Zutto... / Last minute / Walk tho

ugh i love this performance to death

That was a physical single release?! Oops!
I guess I'm confused because Love songs is the last album she had a proper era/cycle for. After that it's all mini-albums, no-singles, or a digital single, a random physical single here and there, or release the album in parts...
Why doesn't she do 2-3 singles before each album anymore? Has that been discussed on this forum? I'm curious to read the reasoning.

Edit: Btw totally OT but I love Finland XD I've been to Helsinki airport too many times haha. It's really my favorite airport and Finnish women are so pretty. If you're landing late in the afternoon the sun casts super long shadows from the trees all over the snowfields. It's really beautiful!

^
If I remember well she stated in interview back to the day L was released something like if it was the last single of her carrier it would be ok ! Singles are useless today we are not in 90's/00's anymore ...they don't have the same impact as before and are not promoted as well like before ! Furthermore singers in japan with long career tend to release less and less singles at some point ... Ayumi is definitly not an exception !

I wouldn't call singles useless, especially lead singles are critical for album promotion, but I understand your point and thanks for the interview excerpt :)

4Seasons : In the Majesty Japan 2013, Ayu said that :

source

sorry I coudn't find the full translated interview. It's possible that's the reason why she didn't want to release single anymore (even if we had Feel the love/merry-go-round and zutto... singles since then but she surely created the songs and decided the release date as a single thereafter).

That's weird because, if I recall correctly, she didn't even have any lyrics written when Zutto... was announced, and everything had to be done in, like, a month. That's why the single version of Last minute has really poor mixing.

I understand her reasons for not releasing singles anymore, I just wish she could really follow that line of thought. Her albums usually sound like a collection of tracks that were clearly written at different times and that's why they never "flow nicely" throughout the record--and that's a problem with Japanese pop music in general, in my honest opinion.

With an artist as diverse as Ayu, you will never get that "nice flow" which will often get interpreted as samey or boring if ever attempted IMO.

Colours maybe being the exception, IMO all of her albums since Love songs actually have a pretty nice flow sound wise

I feel the same way tbh. Rock'n'Roll Circus was a bit of a departure since she purposefully went for very different things IMO.

I hope we get some interesting PVs for MADE IN JAPAN. I don't mind if she sticks to her minimalist trend, but gawd, I would love to see her do something completely over the top like 1LOVE, Ladies Night, or fairyland.

The single and album versions of Last minute have different mixing???

I think it's a slight difference? But it is veeerrry slight.

Also, I am relistening to HOTEL Love songs and this concert had AMAZING songs in it.

Those sounded more like mastering/equalization differences to me, honestly. VERY slight. I wouldn't count them as a mix change at all.

Ayu's album flow literally hasn't been good since "Duty." That was such a short album, like, you can tell she had some idea of what the flow should be as she worked on it.

There's an art to building an "album" as opposed to just a collection of songs that's mostly become more and more lost since the turn of the millennium, not just in Jpop either. It's a global thing.

I remember that around 2010 I saw a lot of people complaining about ayu's interludes, saying they added nothing to the album but make it seem like there was more material in it (as if interludes were not actual songs...), but now I see many posts saying they want interludes back, an album with 15 tracks and such. I guess we get too used to what the current trend is and will always think of how much better it'd be if something changed :P

I myself do not feel like her interludes were that necessary for her albums, but she did have some great ones that helped building up to the next songs really well (Marionette -prelude- and montage are the first ones that come up to my mind )

I'm sorry, that's what I meant! I got confused with the terms "mixing" and "mastering." :) It's a slight difference, yes, but I can't listen to the single version of Last minute ever since A ONE was released.

Personally I've never been a fan of her interludes. Only two or three in her whole discography I actually love. The rest, I can't even remember what they sound like, and I hear her full albums a couple times a year mind you. But as long as a full-length song isn't replaced by an interlude (which I doubt is ever the case) it doesn't bother me.

I always liked the interludes since they served as nice little bites inbetween songs that would otherwise clash.

The thing is, we wanted an album without interludes because we didn't know how that would sound. Now we know that they help building up the album, we want them back ^^

Closest thing we had was Duty at the time IIRC, and honestly she knew what she wanted from that album, so it was amazing. However, without interludes, her albums feel a little jarring.

Yoake, thank you for the quote. :)

I think for Party queen it worked well. She made a concept album and the songs wouldn't work as singles. That seems to be her reason: wanting to release an album as a "whole". Tell a story, instead of release a single for sales.

However, after Party queen she really hasn't done that, so she might as well have released more singles. I think she might just be more comfortable following her own schedule and creating what she wants without worrying about singles and release dates.

It's a pity, because we used to have new Ayu material several times a year, and it was great fun to guess what the album would be based on the singles. Now just an album drops and that's it....nothing else to look forward to for another year+.

Even with western releases at least we have PVs and performances to look forward to AFTER the album.

The MADE IN JAPAN era would've been a lot better if she had released a new single before CDL and performed at CDL. Then another single in March, then release in May at the start of the tour. (Of course, this is assuming the album is really just going to drop soon without any singles.)

Edit: Lastly, singles are just vastly superior in quality to album tracks. I generally prefer album tracks: they're more interesting and raw. But it's just fact that singles are much "better". They have to be. I kinda miss knowing that each album will have at least a few of those "hit songs". Those songs act as a guide to the rest of the album.

I don't mind interludes. I like shorter albums, but I also wound't mind if she included one or two interludes on MADE IN JAPAN.

I still think Love Songs is her most cohesive album lyrically and musically. Lyrically the songs describe what its like to fall in love someone so fast and unexpectedly. Musically, TK and Ayu's signature dosages of melodrama slays us.

Agreed
The album has this magical fusion of cliche and innovation. Didn't know how exactly they did it. Lol

The introduction of Komuro was nice.

She needs to work with producers that she never has before to get that freshness IMO. Sweetbox did it, Komuro did it... who is next? DAISHI DANCE? A female singer-songwriter? B'z?

interludes are great for the most part and they make me wish they were a bit longer as well ^^

a cup of tea SLAYED!! <3

XD it will never happen she never works with women for her music lol

She has sung with them so I have hope!

Just remembered how much I love Song 4 u. I have good memories of getting LOVE and listening to Song 4 u every day in high school when I transitioned from math to creative writing. My campus was big so it'd take the entire song to get from one class to another. I'd always sit down right at the "2 u yeah, 4 u yeah" part. :)

Lol don't say that! :D I want her so badly to work more with women xD

Same. It sounded okay in context, but now it just sounds REALLY thin to me.

Well we've gotten DAISHI DANCE more than once and it has not been his best work.

I do think Tak Matsumoto would have been a very good fit for her at one point but his sound (when he writes for other people) is a bit cheesy for the current climate... but clearly he CAN do "pop that rocks" really well, as shown in the songs he wrote for KAT-TUN, Misia, etc.... Hell, he can do it well as shown by his work in B'z lol. I'd love to hear what he would compose for Ayu.

I would mostly really like for Ayu to bring in unknowns (or relative unknowns) again though. Do As Infinity and HAL and Miki Watanabe and Huge and so many other writers, producers, and remixers have (or had, RIP Huge) their old school Ayu work to thank for either their discovery or a huge boost to their early careers, and Ayu picked those people not because they were well known names but because their sound matched up with what she wanted. I think far too many of Ayu's producers & songwriters lately have been trusted, established names rather than people who "get" what Ayu wants to do.

When do you guys think we'll get a change of troupe? It's been almost 5 years since her last performance with just two female backup singers. I hope she goes back to that format in the next few years. Or at least stop with the circus/show concept. It was never my cup of tea, so having it non-stop for 4 years is truly agonizing.

1 year... WARNING performance hahahahahahahaha :P

I think just having one song sometimes isn't enough like for DAISHI DANCE. If he has a whole album to work on things, maybe it would turn out different?

Also I love how a lot of the one off songs on mid-2000s albums were like accidents a la Liar and how it was never supposed to be given to Ayu and yet she made it anyway and it was AMAZING.

Having listened to DAISHI DANCE's material for YEARS, nah, his stuff pretty much all sounds the same. It sounds nice, but honestly so little of it recaptures the magic of "Haru Haru." Even with Ayu we've gotten his "HEAVEN" remix (which was fantastic, and Chieko Kinbara's violin really added a nice earthy sound to the mix that was delightful), "What is forever love" (which was really tinny and thin and not his best work at all, REALLY not as epic as it could have and should have been) and now "Sayonara" (which was a departure for DAISHI DANCE.... into the land of more generic EDM, which I am not glad happened because it didn't play to his strengths at all).

But in general, DAISHI DANCE does these things: common time, synth piano, heavy dance bass, pretty melodies, and cheesy spoken or rapped intros & outros. That's his thing, it's what he does, and it usually works really well. But listening to his whole solo album, or listening to a playlist of his stuff, is EXHAUSTINGLY BORING.

That's actually an amazing example of Ayu going with a song that felt right for what she wanted rather than the person's name or past work. She never needs to make those songs "hers" because they're already right in line with what she's feeling. This, so much this.

Thinking about it...

Merry-go-round was a fucking amazing track and I need to listen to it for like 2 weeks right now.

Merry-go-round is an extremely refreshing track imo. It's well produced and is very breezy and just...well done. The problem is that because it's featuring someone we'll probably never hear it live again -_-

I can't stand Merry-go-round %) I even cut male part from it, so song became a bit more hearable

For an Ayu song though, it's just such a breath of fresh air. I can't NOT love it, lol.

Merry-go-round is one of her best songs in her whole discography :yes

I hope Ayu will surprise us by sticking a weave in or going blonde for when the tour starts.

Amen!

Ugh I LOVE that song so much.

Maybe a bright red weave.

I would love that haha

Lets never have a repeat of this wig.
http://st.cdjapan.co.jp/pictures/l/09/31/AVXD-91633.jpg

^ So those cheap sparkling effects have been a thing since 2006 lmao

2006 was the year of Photoshop light flares
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...miHamasaki.jpg

What season of RuPaul's is this?

God how I love both of those Secret covers and EVERYTHING about that era. Music and PVs her perfect straight blond hair.

I like Merry-go-round, it's very fresh. :yes

And those cheap light effects on Secret are so lame, otherwise that would be her best album cover art in my opinion. At least the CD only edition doesn't have that Photoshop fail on her hair :laugh

I wholeheartedly forgive them for any kind of Photoshop fail since the CD+DVD cover is my favourite. She is stunning on that cover.

Yes!
It's so different in a way, especially with a feature in the song, but it still feels "Ayu" as opposed to something like Sayonara (which I still like).

Verbal's rap in it is so good too! When his part comes in I get so pumped up.

I just love VERBAL so much and I have for YEEEAARRRS and years and years so it just makes me so sad when people don't like his rapping XD

The problem with interludes is, that they pop up in random playlists and are out of place XD just kidding..

I like them, if they add to the mood (like in MY STORY) but in recent albums they were more like those divider on a bookshelf - they just parted the album into sections. It was prettty obious on Secret for example.

Waiting for TA to translate her 3 latest blog entries, come on.

Well you do need to remember that Secret was a mini album initially so the fact that they went from mini to full and made it work so well (IMO) was INCREDIBLE.

It was so nice to finally hear him on an Ayu song! I prefer Merry-go-round to My Way.

Eh, I'm one who doesn't love Merry-go-round. I adore the instrumental of the beginning and the verses, but the chorus spoils the song for me, it goes totally in the opposite direction of what the song builds up to imo. This technique can work sometimes, but it didn't for me in this case unfortunately. And I don't mind VERBAL, I think he's a nice addition and brings something new to her music.

I think they did the chorus switcheroo on purpose. I feel like it just works as a whole. Predictable choruses are so not the drama imo.

Yeah, I also think it was on purpose, and I agree it works as a whole. I just don't like how it sound if only there was a remix of it on some ayu-mi-x or some singles oh the good times

If she ever goes for this kind of song, I'd love to hear something like Ami Suzuki's Kiss Kiss Kiss, I love how smooth everything in that song goes and I think ayu's voice could KILL it. Like an extended electro version of everlasting dream <3

I think we'll get a remix one day. ayu-mi-x come on, 20th anni!

Pictures like this just make me think...

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

Ayu really is beautiful.

Chaku Uta full (or Single track/ full songs)

A Song for xx : A Song for xx (100k)
LOVEppears : Who... (250k)
Duty (2): SEASONS (100k) / teddy bear (100k)
I am... (3): M (250k) / evolution (100k) / Dearest (100k)
RAINBOW (2) : HANABI (100k) / Voyage (100k)
Memorial Address (2): No way to say (100k) / Memorial address (100k)
MY STORY : Moments (100k)
(miss)understood (3): STEP you (100k) / fairyland (100k) / HEAVEN (100k)
Secret (4): Startin' (100k) / BLUE BIRD (100k) / JEWEL (250k) / momentum (100k)
A BEST 2 : part of ME (100k)
GUILTY (6): Glitter (250k) / fated (100k) / talkin' 2 myself (100k) / Together When… (250k) / MY ALL (100k) / Mirrorcle World (100k)
NEXT LEVEL (3): Days (250k) / GREEN (100k) / Rule (250k)
Rock'n'Roll Circus (3): Sunrise ～LOVE is ALL～ (250k) / Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~ (100k) / You were... (250k)
Love songs (4): MOON (100k) / crossroad (100k) / Virgin Road (100k) / Love song (100k)
FIVE : progress (100k)
Party Queen : how beautiful you are (100k)
Love again : You & Me (100k)

no Colours, A ONE and sixxxxxx.

Looking through my ayu certification list and I'm really amazed at how many certifications GUILTY has. Love songs and Secret too. Also, few non-single surprises like momentum, JEWEL, teddy bear, MY ALL etc.
I'm surprised Last minute or Zutto.. didn't get any certification.

A lot of the certifications came later so it is possible that some could pop up later on down the line. I had a thread for it but I don't think I updated it too much in Enquiries after the RIAJ certs stopped happening too often.

that picture in blue top/dress is drop dead gorgeous :love

Same, I think they purposely did this. I'm fine with it, because I find Ayu's voice very pleasing in the chorus. This song is so underrated, though.

I was listening to July 1st and forgot why that day was really important to Ayu. Can someone enlighten me?

I believe it was the day after someone would have a huge party for their birthday and it would last for a whole night from June 30th to July 1st.

- from masa's site

However, she's probably changed quite a bit from then, so who knows if she still tries to get in touch.

Another addition.

I still enjoy masa's articles to this day. I wish someone would do stuff like that again... I would make some sort of attempt if I had access to all interviews from eras and such.

Hey guys,
At what time should I be at Yoyogi to be sure to get all the goods that i want? At what time do they usually start selling them??
Also do I have to pick up my tickets EXACTLY 1 hour because the opening of the gates? They keep talking about "pick up your ticket one hour before the show" but i haven't understood well.

That would be my first time so i'm so nervous i might do something wrong

http://avex.jp/ayu/live/tour.php?id=1000566
last column is goods sales start

^ Thanks, but i guess people will be waiting in line already before that time, huh?

Judging from photos taken pre-concert, it's never TOO many people, but it's good to get there probably like an hour early just so you make sure you get the things that tend to sell out within an hour.

https://www.instagram.com/evanbon1017/

This guy on Instagram really loves Ayu! Has some really expensive taste in clothes too... has A BEST t-shirt in one of his looks and replicated Ayu's Opening Ceremony look on Instagram!

I remember I was at Yoyogi at least a couple of hours before they started selling the goods, and some stuff was already sold out, like some sizes of the parka. But last year I went to both shows in Yokohama, I went to get the goods after the sales started because I was queueing for the TA booth, and I was able to buy everything I wanted.

You can pick up the tickets one hour before they open the gates. You may pick them up at any point after that, you don't have to be there exactly one hour before, but don't pick them up, like, 1 minute before the concert starts because you'll be late for the show :D

^ Okay! Thank you for the information! :)

Times has changed, sales has changed and way of promotion has changed. It's not just Ayu but other artists too (except teenage-idol bands and H!P). It's kinda like asking why they still not releasing her PVs/concerts on VHS/VCD. People loosing interest in buying physical singles and there are multiple reasons behind it:

1) a lot of people prefering digital downloads nowadays - most of people will rip CD and will listen to it on their smartphone/mp3 players anyway, so CD is more like collectible for fans by big "F"
2) content of singles started to shrinking - remember old Ayu' singles? Some of them had multiple remixes and 10-11 tracks at all. Later you could find just A-song, B-song and instrumentals, so if you're not a fan who cares for instrumentals you don't really need it in your collection
3) agressive marketing discouraging to buy - when they started releasing each single in multiple versions (with small difference like different bonus track or just cover), they tried to "encourage" fans to buy more than 1 version (to raise sales) but it didn't work. Fans would like to have all versions to not miss any content (like remixes or making of movies) but not everyone could afford it, so some of them just stopped to buy any version. In the past when she was releasing for ex. 3 singles + 1 album per year than total cost to buy it was Y6839. Now just to buy 1 single in all versions available you would have to spend about Y6000... Besides don't forget that japanese society is rotten by consumerism - they love to buy but they don't really have enough of pace in their appartments to keeps all the goods.
4) Ayu lost a lot of "old" fans - she changed and her fans changed too. People matured but can we say the same about Ayu's music? Sorry but no. She was composing songs, had great PVs with meaning... Now she's giving us things like "XOXO" and "Lelio" - empty, mainstream, Americanised.

XOXO and Lelio are fun experiments though. I say that it was mostly a diversion for her and a way for her to 'run away' from Japan, but now since then she has gone back to being herself.

"Party Queen" or "Colors" it's not Ayu I used to like but does it really matter? Few years ago I became disapointed in direction of her career and couldn't say a good word about it. I think I just accepted things as they are now, because I'm starting enjoy songs like "XoXo" or "Lelio". Ok, it's not the same "wow" feeling as in the past but...

The most I can't disagree Japanese society is very consumist, I can't stop finding ironic the first point I bolded considering you are from the UK, one of the central countries of the capitalist world. Really, "rotten"?

The 2nd point is a mere matter of opition. If japanese people were bothered by Ayu not being mature enough they wouldn't be buying music from AKB48, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Kana Nishino and Namie Amuro who is almost 40 and still releasing teenager club music. That being said, everything she done from RnRC until now, Colours being the only expection, dealt with more adult subjects than most of pretty much any act who is having yearly top 10s in Japan right now.

And your post is filled with factual errors, the digital music market in Japan is very small compared to the physical one, and acts considered cool still have people willing to buy several copies of the same single, that's what make AKB48 have strong sales, for example.

Ayu isn't releasing as many physical singles because there's no market for her to do that. She is selling alright considering everything (her peak being over 14 years ago, her super exposition during most of her career, she not fitting in current jpop trends that prefer digestible idols, her controversial personal life, etc), but if she starts flooding the market with new releases she will lose money both because there isn't enough people buying her stuff and because production costs depend on volume to get lower (what means the most copies of the same single produced, the less the single costs to the label) and she would be putting tons of physical releases to not really get much profit from it. Also teenagers are the core consumers of the music market, and almost 20 years into her career, there isn't millions of teenagers willing to buy 3, 4 copies of her same release like it happened back in the early 00's, that's why acts tend to release less physical stuff the older they get.

I think she is changing, which is good. evolution is inevitable and I think a lot of people expect her to be the Ayu she used to be when she just can't do that. She's always going to be a new Ayu with every album.

Japan is the only country I know where people buying stuff (just because it's trendy), not using it and than (during "spring cleaning") throwing it away. You walking the street and you passing by sealed items, new toys, clothes with tags etc. dropped next to litters. I live in UK since few years and sorry but you can't compare consumist here to what's going on in Japan.

Japanese pop-culture was always cheesy and they always loved what's cute and young. People loved Ayu for maturity when she started her career as teenager, so they expected she'll continue this direction - they don't need her to act like she's 14 years old. If they want to listening silly songs with immature vocals they have a lot to choose from. Whatever you're calling Namie's recent releases this style works for her but things like "Feel the Love" not working for Ayu.

Do you know why digital downloads are not popular? Because instead of buying online is cheaper to rent CD, rip it to hard drive and return it (yes, it's legal). And people who buy several copies of '48-bands or H!P sigles selling them as fast as full album is released or sometimes even faster (you can see how many used copies is available on auctions and in 2nd hand shops day after their release).

Sorry but in 00' teenagers didn't have to buy 3-4 copies of the same single/album, because there was just 1 version.

Actually, in Japan there were several versions of some things depending on the release. There were also the different additions of things like a "single DVD" separate from the actual single or fanclub editions.

The idol way of doing things has always been around and it's only recently been HORRIBLE with like 15-20 versions of one CD.

1999
#neverforget

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7p7944at.jpg

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...psb3nwpchg.jpg

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...psskckrvuc.jpg

:laugh:laugh

Don't call other people's culture rotten. Actually, don't even do that with your own, this is disrepectuful as fuck.


And again, her only recent album with a more carefree sound was Colours, and again, her lyrics are still dealing with far more mature themes than the stuff you usually find on the Japan's top ten. It was a experiement, it was 2 years ago and it doesn't define the standart of her releases. About people liking Ayu because of her maturity, I don't know how far that's true when we talk about casual listeners, who are the ones that can actually make someone sells millions of copies of anything, considering the biggest part of her mainstream hits consist of innofensive summer pop tracks and pedestrian romantic winterish ballads. She was even seemed as some kind of dumb cute girl for a good part of her career.


Most of the big acts among the teenagers actually have pretty strong digital sales, people like Kana Nishino, whose digital sales from singles are far larger than the physical ones. This doesn't happen with anyone that got big after the digital era, or whose sales are aimed to anyone who started buying music before the digital era. Still, neither the start of the digital era or the rented CDs are affecting Ayu as much as lack of interest from the public.


They always did buy 3, 4 copies of the same release, and not only in Japan. I'm not talking about artists who release the same stuff with different covers, I'm talking about people actually buying several copies of the exact same release in order to prove their artist is the biggest when chart numbers are out.

^but thats not the music faults but rather your minds. Studies showed that we connect to everything with were exposed to be for 25 much heavier, so everythinga fter that will never have that effect on us.

http://i.imgur.com/1f4KQ4Z.png

This photo is just like... hilarious to me, cause it makes me think Ayu is gonna DEVOUR that child.

Well, IMO a lot of Ayu's best material were released on the later part of her career. I also really like Colours as a dance album, even if the lyrics aren't as mature as her usual.

I don't see any issues with Colours IMO other than maybe that it is kind of a hodgepodge compared to even her most grab-baggy of albums.

It's such a good pop record if you're looking for variety.

Before Japanese artists would release music very similar to western artists. The difference was that foreign release were far harder to see.

Now, like the rest of the world, young japanese people are using youtube and easily viewing music from the west.

They no longer have to wait for japanese versions of western music, because they can get it instantly straight from the source.

Sure they might not understand the lyrics right away, but I mean, most people here don't understand japanese either lol


I think that's the biggest difference between now and before youtube

YouTube really changed the game, too bad it took as long as it did for record labels to embrace it.

Yes it's definitly something to be taken in consideration the new generation is really open to western music now even in my country we don't really have french singer able to attract teenagers most of them have turned to English-speaking singers when I born in the begining of the 90's the only foreign singers I heard were the very popular ones now things like youtube, itunes etc.... etc... really changed everything !You can really find the artists that fit your tastes instead of being "forced" to listen to what is actually popular like lemmings ... it's really a global phenomenom !
I don't see the appeal Ayumi could have now on the new generation I prefered her to stay true to herself and make effort to be more appealing among people who followed her in the past I will say the 30/40 !

^Yeap, nowadays some C-rate american popstar grab the attention from teenagers from times to times... Back in the 90's or even the 00's nobody outside of the USA would give 2 shits to the singing careers of Selena Gomez or Demi Lovato for example.

But covers and content was still the same - it was more like "pick up disc color you like" :)

Where I called anyone's cuture rotten? I only refered to consumerism as negative behaviour.

Now you writing about fanatics, not fans. Also who else is buying multiple copies? People who want to earn later reselling brand new 1st Press few months or years after release.

It's like that since a very long time, so it's not only new generation. In Japan young people used to love anything related to USA, especially music. It's the same in Europe - western music is distributed globally and that's giving a people feeling of it's splendor over local artists (as kind of "world standard"), not counting the fact that a lot of local artists trying to follow styles popular in US, sing in english etc.

Listening to (miss)understood..I don't know how Ayu has gone from making bold and strong tracks like Alterna, Fairyland, Ladies Night, Pride, Heaven, etc to midtempo bland ringtone music garbage like Summer/Winter Diary and the rest of the boring ballads from A ONE and Six.

I want to say that she was making music that was a part of the front she was putting up. While it was incredible, I feel like she was so in control of how we perceived her that it seemed like that was the "real" Ayu.

IMO, a big part of it though is that she just isn't working with the same people she used to and because nowadays she is a very "Yes"-woman type that says "OK" to everything without demanding TOO much from people, we probably won't ever get Ayu like that until she decides she wants to do things like that again.

For the songs you listed, basically she doesn't do anything with any of them anymore aside from tasuku who composed but now only really arranges for Ayu unless it's an interlude. (alterna, one timer or two timer, HEAVEN was Kikuchi aka alan's owner, and then Sweetbox for the others).

I think this album may be a bit more experimental than the last two efforts and I would say Colours was bold and strong even if a little jumbled.

oopT

My main questions nowadays for critics are:

1) When did you become an Ayu fan?

2) Why do you like Ayu?

3) Do you see yourself as someone who enjoys change?

Note: I want to say you do not have to love everything BUT there is a limit IMO to how far things can go before it gets tiring of hearing that you hate X or Y.

If you’re afraid of change
Look at it from a distance
If what I did do and didn’t do
Are the same, be honest

It’s not such an outrageous thing
Don’t think too hard about it
I just mean that all I want now
Are the things I really want
That’s all

1) When did you become an Ayu fan?
Spring 2005.
2) Why do you like Ayu?
Her music.
3) Do you see yourself as someone who enjoys change?
Yes but not change that results in negatives.

Not saying Ayu still doesn't have brilliant songs (TSMGO and Anything For You are just as good as any other older song), its just now they're a minority,