why is ayu videos got americans always? o.o
 

why is there always american in videos of ayu? and smae goes to other avex artists...

why does avex uses american people...

and also i foudn out that most ayu fans are foreingers and peopel not from japan.. why? o.o

not much of japanese really dont liek ayu nowadays.. but why is ayu is stil promoting and her fans is foreings she shoudl just go international.....

Ayu rarely uses americans in her music videos, it happens now and then. I mainly see her own dancers.

Ayus mainpart of her fans are from Japan, this forum is mainly for people from outside Japan, we are the most obsessed ones and that might make us seem many ;).

There is no way she could go international, her fanbase of foreigners might seem big but is really small compared to the Japanese audience.

immel: as in BLUE BIRD PV, ayu used her own dancers..but not in Beautiful Fighters, she used lots of Americans (i guess there's not only american people, let's say white people..)

lots of ayu's videos (old 'til the new one) "using" white people..
i've always been wondering too, why's that?

Probably because it's a 'cool thing' with foreigners. It is in general in Japan :P.

There's black people featured in the BF PV aswell.

but other japanese artists do not seem always using White people in their videos...right?

*the more i see ayu, the more she looks like an american woman now...especially her appearance in Sweet magazine..she really looks like an american...*

this not only happen to ayu.. also in other artists.. moist of em are from avex.. is avex tie-up with caucassian people? o.o anyway it's good that ayu used her fans int he video.. of beautiful fighters.. but most of em.. are white? o.o
how bout the japanese fans.. now we don't love her cos she didn't use us instead.. bleh..

joke! hahaha! ^^

Her looks isn't very 'ordinary Japanese', people say she's of mixed blood, we don't know who her dad is. She doesn't look American to me in any way, but who knows?

well Ayu also likes America (NY/Hawaii etc.) so that could partially be the reason.

^True.

previously, you can see tonnes of caucasians in her PVs. jus to name a few, Endless Sorrow, No way to say, ourselves, Startin', Dearest.... alot more. now she seldom uses caucasians. she uses her own dancers which is boring. i see them almost everyday. XD

Also vogue, Far away, SEASONS, walking proud, kanariya, For my dear, WHATEVER, TO BE, Fly high, evolution, Free & Easy, Moments, alterna, HEAVEN + Bold & Delicious. :D

^omg u remember nearly single thing of all the PVs? :thud

@orenji : it is true... I have no idea why they started to do this... In my opinion, this may piss some japanese fans off for not using Japanese in japanese PVs... Well I said SOME not all and that doesn't include u... ;) In fact, I think there is nothing wrong with Ayu... Something is wrong with avex (as you said)

@immel : I'd say she use kinda lots of american/white people/whatever in PVs such as startin' and such... I seriously have no idea why... I mean I don't hate them but why American/white people/whatever instead of Japanese? Does the American/white people/whatever have better dancing/any other skills than Japanese? I don't think Ayu is an american either... She doesn't looks like one... Besides if she is, she probably would have know SIMPLE english...

@alternarist : Everyday? Everytime, you mean.... Well, I guess probably they shall change the dancers but that doesn't explain why American/white people/whatever is in there... :P

P.S : I am not insulting American... I just don't know what you guys refer them as... ;) :(

ayu hates japanese people.. thats it



XD XD XD

Ah, I love when people come up with simple, sensible and understandable answers!

Makes the world easier.

because she wants to. :yes

Thats the trick ;)

that cant be it... hahhaha :no

She wants it? May be... Ahhhh avex!!!! *stares at avex angrily*

well i still liek her materials.. she's liek the icon of japan.. but she should look also to her japanese fans not only putting her point of view on being international.. even if she doesnt promote alot outside nippon... fu~ .... -_-"

now i';ve come to my senses.... lol

i think avex has the authorities to hire whatever people on most of ayu's PVs..
and ayu just agreed with it..
avex is one who settle everything that's going on with its artists...

o yea..about the dancers.. i think avex is trying to lower the cost for the PV making without hiring any other persons..because ayu's record sales are not that good anymore....*just an opinion*

but it's just a common thing to use own dancers on the PVs..

she always looks like an American to me.. haha :D

When it comes to what people to include I belive the director of the PV has the most to say. He's given money from avex to make the PV, Ayu does probably discuss a lot with the director how to shape up the PV so I belive she can voice what she thinks aswell.

i think the director thinks it looks better with more people from different places...especially with Beautiful Fighters....i wonder if the same guy who directed BEautiful Fighters directed Dearest, Fly High, and all the other PVs that have a lot of people from different countries....

[QUOTE=AyUmIXx]but other japanese artists do not seem always using White people in their videos...right?QUOTE]

There's Namie Amuro in Please Smile Again, Want Me Want Me, Dreaming I Was Dreaming, How To Be A Girl, and many other videos of hers that are old.

Koda Kumi in her old days had mainly black guys in her pv's.

I've seen americans in some Exile pv's, Halcali, Olivia Lufkin, and some others too, so we can't just say that Ayu's the only one doing this, but to answer your question Other artists do seem to use foreigners included in their videos.

Let's not forget those scantily clad African American male dancers in Body feels EXIT O.O Foreigners and black people are considered "cool" which is why most of the Japanese artists put them in their PVs.

Not nessesarily Americans.. could be white people who moved to Japan.

Because it's cool and looks very professional.

Most of Ayumi's fans ARE Japanese. And nearly every J-pop artist uses foreigners in their videos. There are quite a few forgeigners living in Japan just for that purpose - because foreigners are always in demand for CMs, videos, doramas etc.

My parents always speculate about that. (both are in the military and have been stationed in Japan at various points in their life) Being from Fukuoka, there would have been more foreigners around there durring that time than other parts of Japan - it would also explain why her father just suddenly left. Many of her features don't look typically Japanese, but really, who knows. I wouldn't completely rule her out as having mixed blood though.

I don't think anyone in here is actually *****ing about it, neither are we being racistical, to me this is only a discussion about why she chose to have American/European people in her PVs instead of Japanese people.

INSPIRE and my name's WOMEN also had lots of non-Japanese people in it

^A nice and polite way of giving an opinion... There is no racism here... We are just voicing your opinions why there are always americans instead of japanese? We are just curious and asking for opinion...

Racist most probably won't join this forum because this forum is international (i guess)...

Good question, I've always wondered about it.. But whatever the reason, I think it's part of making it look international and professional. It looks so high-quality too with white people. Strange... o__o I like it better when she does that. And besides that, the people in her videos seem more European than American.

^ And that is why we say white people instead of american... Well, don't mind the topic title... ;)

maybe Japanese people are really looking at WHITE PEOPLE as a group of people with high educational effort on them? haha :D
like a worship to them, i guess..huahuahuahuahuhaua :D
*I myself, somehow really salute to WHITE people (American people mostly) for their braveness when they're doing something dangerous which other people probably unable to do it..)

*LOL..don't listen to me~*

Gosh..somebody just misunderstood us for having a racism discussion here..Gosh..and no, we're not racism in here..we just want to know why and may have guessed for the reason that may come up to the closest reason as Ayu & Avex may think about....

^You salute to white people? I salute to Japanese... Not because Ayu is Japanese or anything... It's just that the way Japanese do things... Somehow, they never give up on doing anything and became very good at lots of stuff...

Yes and don't listen to Ayumixx!!!! Jk jk!!! hehe *hides from ayumixx*

I thought about it a lot and honsetly, it makes me mad. I mean, making Ayu vids so American :/ (it's not that I dislike America, don't misunderstand me please!). I know what Ayu wants to achieve by that. She thinks that because of Western look, she'll gain more fans. In one hand this is very true - if we consider Japanese fans (as we all know, Japanese teenagers love everything what is Western, American especially). But on the other hand, she won't get more foreign fans... Mainly, most of us (non-Japanese) find Ayu amazing and great because of her Japanese roots, Japanese apperiance etc. Ayumi underestimate the beauty and advatages of being Japanese.
But this is only my opinion. Please don't feel angry with me if you don't agree ;)

^breathlessly agree...

Nice one... True... If her PV has japanese instead of Americans, it MAY attract more people...
I don't hate Americans please do not misunderstand... Thank you..

I really dont see what the problem is with having americans or anybody else in your videos doesnt mean ayu is losing her asian touch maybe she just wants to do something a lil different me personally I like to see a variety

It might seem like I am, but please understand I'm not at all angry, I just want to make a few points and I do respect your opinion very much ;).

The fact that she includes American people does not make her PVs seem American-ish to me. Do you tend to watch a lot of American PVs? Or watch the American version of MTV? Really, I don't think anything can compare in any way with Ayu's PVs... hehe.

Don't say you know, because you can't possibly know. And as has been mentioned earlier, please don't say Ayu, say The Director of the PV, because we don't know how much control she has herself over the making of them.

This does give some ground to your statement, but I still don't really agree.

I don't think that's neccesarily true, she's been going for many years, with many different styles and has never had an internation breakthrough. Possibly mainly because avex don't dare to put their artists on the international marked due to early trial-and-error results from doing so.

^I agree with you except the last on on the "But on the other hand, she won't get foreign fans"... Some people may think like "Hey! Ayu has american in her video!" and may consider on listening/buying her songs/albums/watever...

If there is no american, some people may think "Huh? Ayu? Nah..."... they wouldn't even consider because there is no american... And I refer to first time listeners americans... Some people whom may be a fan of ayu will be obsessed/or what you may call it a true fan after knowing her PVs have americans...

So having Americans in PV isn't a bad idea yet having Japanese isn't a bad one too... In fact I think it is better because you attract more pretty pony~pretty pony~pretty pony~ fans... MAY BE some japanese who hates american won't buy her cds bcuz there is american inside... So, the whole concept is a mess... hahaha

I think the use of 'foreign' actors in her PV's is done very well. 'Endless sorrow', 'Free&Easy', and 'kanariya' just wouldn't be the same if they had Asian actors. That's just my opinion. I don't think she's trying to look cool, I just think they make the PV's more diverse and mysterious. Not to sound offensive in any way, but I think a crowd of foreign people would catch people's attention better than a crowd of Japanese. You know what I mean?

I think I have uncounciously been waiting for a post like this to pop up, makes sense and in my opinion this is very true :). Thanks for posting this, hehe.

LOL, I have completly no idea how a crowd of non-Asians is more interesting than a crowd of Asian people.... ?_____? I don't see any difference.

The only reason she has non-Asians in her PVs is becouse she has a thing for them. That's obvious. I bet many Asians have a thing for non-Asians (hence the double eyelid removal surgeries and stuff to make you look non-Asian) and see them as somewhat "better".

She doesn't seem different and she probably feels it's more sophisticated of her that she has non-Asian extras (so that every Asian that sees her PVs can look at it with a tiny inch of jelousy).
I dare to think her visits to mainland USA (I mean excluding Hawaii, which in fact has to be for the looks) are also a part of this sort of sophistication, that she's the star and she can go to America, which is such a cool place after all.
I don't doubt she really enjoys NYC, but I think her only experience of real life in the city was that 3 months for vocal training -- which wasn't even that much of 'experiencing America', since she admit herself she stayed in the hotel and was too scared of dangerous streets (she said so on MS when both her and Utada were first time together on tv). After that, whenever she was going to USA it was for shooting and filming, which is all the "star-ish" stuff, and that is no experience of casual life in a particular place. As I said, it's her showing all the Japanese she's big and she can go to USA to enjoy herself.

Oh well, but that went a bit offtopic....

hahahaha :D
not only to american people..
but of course japanese..that's why i like Ayu too...

i think japanese and american people have some common personalities..

Yeah, I guess Ayu has a 'thing' for foreigners.

But I don't understand why fans of J-pop music and Japanese culture always judge things like 'Oh, it's too Americanized/Westernized, I don't like it.'

So it's alright for (us) non-Japanese people to have a fascination with Japanese culture, but it's wrong for Japanese people to have a fascination with Western culture?

All J-pop is Westernized to some extent anyway, if you complain about things being too Westernized all the time you mine as well listen to Enka.

It might be the casting director's choice. It's not Ayumi who puts out the casting calls for these actors. Ayumi might be the star but she's ultimately not the one who does all this stuff.

Yeah. Both pop and rock are two American genres, when they came to Japan they for some unknown reason became J-pop and J-rock, it's not like the European counterpart even made it to E-pop. :)

Don't think so. People often state that she didn't have much creative control over her PVs. She did have quite a lot, certainly since WHATEVER. If you watch NTV 2004 interview, you'll see scenes of her discussing what the PV [WHATEVER] will be like. And it's seriously her talking and others listening, like boss and employees. It's known she was picking the extra ladies for the crowd scenes for my name's WOMEN (there was a girl at AHO who was an extra in that PV, she posted backstage photos and wrote about how she was picked). I think it's her idea to have non-Asians.
Exactly :yes


xD
Well, I guess it was Asia vs. rest of the world comparison. Hence all the J-, K-and C-pop's and rock's.... I think most of the "rest of the world" is highly unaware of what's modern music like in Asia. They wouldn't be able to mention a single artist, while everyone from Europe knows at least some American or Australian artists.
It's not like it's only Asia, becouse I guess South America is a bit similar. I have no idea what artists are there creating in South American countries, to be honest... I got to know about one, but I don't even remember her name now. When I first found out about her, it was from a guy who seemed obsessed with her as much as I was obsessed with Ayumi -- I imidiatelly thought "Oh, it's almost like when I discovered Ayu. The same kind of stituation."

That's interesting, changes a lot when you get access to new facts :). Thanks for the information, let the speculation continue :D.

Haha, nice. Does there actually exist people who are obsessed over other people than Japanese artists!?

^What happen to your avatar and your sig.... :( :no

@Dustie : In fact, I actually thought that everybody knows about how well the music industry in Asia is actually immerging very quickly... Guess I am wrong.. :(

Well, it's the same thing with being asian in a crowd of white people. America is a pretty diverse nation, but Japan is not. It's different than what the japanese see every day.

Just like the time when I was in 4th grade and I went to briefly in this school where I was like 1 of 2 asians. People keep looking at me -_____- and everyone keep asking me about questions about Asia because they thought I was "new".

I totally don't think using foreigners has much to do with her or her directors wanting to make Ayu more popular overseas. It seems that she is really only concerned with Japan.

I do not think that representing other cultures and backgrounds in her videos is spitting in the eyes of her own countrymen and women, or means that she underestimates the beauty or whatever non-Japanese people get so excited about when they think about Japan.

It's about music. Whether or not she has ambitions to make her mark out of Japan, I think that the inclusion of other people besides Japanese people makes her message more universal. She's not just making Japanese rock, or Japanese pop or what have you. Music has a message and makes you feel something no matter who you are or where you're from.

"White" and "American" are not synonymous.

Looking at it from a promotional point of view, it could be argued that non-Japanese people in a PV would catch the audience's eye more going by what Kikaru said. But as the first post says, it's not uncommon for a PV to have an entirely non-Japanese cast (aside from the artist). It really may just be more of a business thing rather than favoring one group over the other. And there's always the whole western stuff being cool thing. There probably isn't a specific reasoning behind this stuff, they do it because they can.

Dustie - Good points. But Ayumi gets a lot of help from the staff behind the PV and a director wouldn't be needed if she could decide/come up with everything by herself. With the casting process, more likely than not, Avex puts out the casting call (with or without specific notes from Ayumi or the director), the casting staff assembles who they think would be good, and Ayumi can greenlight and/or place the actors as she likes after most of the work is done (because of her schedule). She most definitely participates more when it comes to choosing people she'll work with on a long term basis (like dancers, as was show on Asayan).

Exactly.

A lot of times the white people that she uses in videos are Russians.

^How sure are you that they are Russians?

It's almost sure for me she isn't doing it to gain international attention. How would a crowd of non-Asians help in that?...
I don't think she is representing other cultures or backgrounds at all - becouse a crowd of non-Asians doesn't represent anything particular. Ethnic diversity? Well then she would need Asians in there as well...
I dare to think she's doing it mostly for the "coolness" of showing non-Asians, not for any extra message. Japanese or Asians must be so "daily" and "casual" to her, or even boring... it's so cool to have non-Asian faces in a video, isn't it?...
No, a director is needed becouse it's the director who chooses how camera will be set, what angle, how's it gonna show the action taking place. However I'm sure she still pulls her own ideas trough as well, not like she decideds every single take by take, but I'm sure she does make up some takes which she wants to be exactly her way.
The casting people must have orders from those who develop the idea for the PV, becouse how else could they know who is needed?... It's already then when it's known that, for example, only non-Asian faces are needed (it would be senseless after all to cast 100 people of mixed background and then say 'well, we need only American-ish faces'). The obviously don't need her personal advice at that point becouse it's not hard to tell who looks clearly non-Asian, but I'm sure it's her (rather than director or anyone else) who puts "non-Asians" into the casting instructions/order/whatever.
Now that's interesting ^^"

I think that reason seem one of the most likely.

In the second part, you repeated what I had already put in my previous post [(Avex puts out the casting call (with or without specific notes from Ayumi or the director)] but I'm just putting in my two cents as someone who has worked in a casting office.
The director isn't the person who only decides shots nowadays, they can and do have creative input. What I find funny is that when a video is lacking plot (like B&D) people blame the director, but when it's a good PV, they say Ayumi had a good idea. It's a collaboration effort between the director and artist. In Vivi diaries, you can see that she writes she is 'having a meeting' with the director. They both have ideas but we don't know how much is actually thought out by either (as it's not shown in any making-of vids). But I think we will both be stubborn in our opinions, particularly since we never see the PV notes.

Immel - More and more, I'm leaning towards the "because we can" reason. Artists like Kuraki Mai, Laruku, Masaharu Fukuyama, and many more have used a ton of non-Japanese cast for many PV's.

The more I read the more I do aswell, I don't think anything is pointing anywhere so it seems like a likely conclusion.

It's always great with inputs from people with experiance in the discussed subject, we uninformed souls can but speculate in a void consisting of un-knowledge... hehe.

I like reading others' points of view ;)

Aww.. Now I see my mistake. I didn't wanted to say her pv are American. I meant she tries to make her pv look American :yes

Ok, I know it doesn't sound good. But I strongly feel that everything what Ayu is now, is so Western. I don't think that Ayu being queen of po has nothing to say. I believe that she chooses how does she want to look, also all the ideas of pvs have to be confirmed by her.

woww..this thread is getting the warming up now..
it's getting interesting too :)
love to read all of you guys' brilliant opinions.. :)

Oh, it's been posted here a million times when we have discussions about the people she uses in her videos (this is not the first). I think it might be shown in the making of videos for Vogue-Far Away-Seasons and/or Endless Sorrow, since I'm thinking the kids in those videos were all Russian. I wish I had something more concrete, I know it's on here somewhere I just have to find it.

But, if she wanted to use Europeans it would only make sense to use Russians since it's the closest European country to Japan.

The best part is... Enka was also born due to western influences in music. ;)


I was just thinking, do you think there would be any foreigners in a PV made for f.ex an "ondo" type of song or "traditional" folk song?

You said with or without specific notes. I have never worked work in a casting office but I can't imagine casting people whitout specific notes from the bosses/"upstairs"/whoever. Or with "unspecific" notes...
Well I know that, I wrote about that too XD I'm just saying I'm sure it's her who puts "non-Asians please" into the casting instructions. She has the position to pull such "wishes" through.
Oh, those lil brats were so darn lucky! xD
But there's one thing about them. You can see Ayumi talking to them in the making of. The camera guy is away so it's on a big closeup, you can't hear her exactly and it's subbed in Japanese [what she says]. It seems the kids are answering to her, nodding at least. I'm not sure if there was a translator around her....
But oh well, the fact they could maybe speak Japanes doesn't mean they couldn't be from Russia, that's right. I'm not sure if Russians are keen on traveling to Japan, but... oh well [again], they could be from anywhere.

It doesn't necassarily mean that Russians were especially flown in for the job. There are quite a few Russians who actually live and work in Tokyo. :)

^ LOL, your playlist looks funny :D BLUE BIRD, Beautiful Fighters, Ladies Night, BLUE BIRD, Beautiful Fighters, Ladies Night....

Yeah, I just somehow thought Russians don't go to Japan. Dunno why I thought so. That's discrimination. Shame on me.

That's ok. :) I was actually suprised by how many live there. A lot are Russian models and they even have clubs in Tokyo where all of the waitresses and err entertainers are Russian women.

And yeah my playlist is funny right now. hehehe. It was when I was writing my review of the new single for the thread in the chat room section.

I've there's pretty much a lot of women from outside Japan/Asia who do that -- they go there to work as "hostesses" (not sure if it's the right English word). I bumped on a Polish girl on one board and she talked about her job. It's pretty weird and usually not legal. But I'd love to go to Japan to do something like modeling or maybe extra on the set, becouse it's surely easier to get a job as an extra rather then a model, especially if you're a male :P One thing that stops me is the legal stuff, allowances, visas.. it's hard to get them.

Yep, getting the working VISA is a hard thing. Most people end up going over there on a visa to teach English and then start looking for work in other fields. (even though you are not supposed to do that lol)

And just so you know, being an extra ain't that great. :) It gets real old, real fast. But at least you get paid more for it in Japan than you do in the US.

Ayu wants to be the Japanese equivalent of Gwen Stefani? XD

Nah, it's just recently she has had Americans in her PVs. =/

Yes, if you get a visa it's usually just letting you work in one particular company... And it's not like being an extra is my dream, I don't want to do that forever, it would be simply for the living :P At least in theory, becouse it's not always sure you're gonna get the job or that there will be any gigs on the way at all...

Just recently? They've been there from the very begining.

I think it's funny only because people aren't Asian they are American. I'm sorry to be harsh but that's very ignorant... I know it wasn't on purpose but still. And it's not caucasian only, I've seen quite a few black people in her videos (but they're mostly white, I know).

Anyway, I think she puts lots of Ocidentals because she wants more variety I mean, japaneses are more alike (by that I mean they have mostly the same/alike skin-tone and hair color, etc) while there are lots of more obvious difference among Ocidentals.

Ocidentals? I think 'ocidental' describes the features of the eyelid, doesn't it? (thus Japanese would be 'Ocidentals', I think). If I'm wrong please correct me quick... o.o


And you think that's very ignorant of who? Of Ayumi to do so, or of us to think it is that way?...

I don't think it has nothing to do with eyelids o.o. But I dunno, you are confusing me... lol

Anyway, ignorant of us for assuming the non-asian people at her PVs are americans. That's dumb.

Ah, I messed it up, it's the other way, Westerners are Ocidentals ^^" it was supposed to be oriental...