[2002 article] About Ayu's Singing Style
 

I was doing some research in a scholarly journal and found an article about Japanese music. Technically it's not a new article (it was published in 2002 by Cambridge University Press), but I don't think anyone has seen it before so I thought I would post its brief part about Ayu here.

"One of the most persistent qualities of singing in both traditional and popular music since the time of the first recordings of Japanese performances is that of a thin, somewhat rasping yet strong tone produced by forcing a narrow, dense air stream through constricted vocal cords. This effect, and the techinque of producing it, is described in general musical discourse as jigoe (literally, 'ground' or 'basic voice'). It is particularly clear in high-pitched passages, where there is often a conspicuous avoidance of uragoe, a kind of falsetto - in effect a weaker, purer sound produced with loosened vocal cords. Jigoe technique is evident, for example, in the Edo period shamisen song genre of kouta, as well as some styles of minyou singing.
...
More recently, the extremely popular singer-composer of dance-style pop, Hamasaki Ayumi, almost invariably sings in jigoe when she moves into higher registers, as can be clearly heard in the choruses of 'Monochrome', the opening song of her 1999 album, A.* The distinctiveness of this vocal tone-quality in the contemporary musical context can be appreciated by comparing Hamasaki's style to that of Utada Hikaru, whose vocal technique in representative songs since her 1999 debut is devoid of jigoe, and is distinguished by skilful use of falsetto in much the same manner as American R&B singers whom she cites as influences."

by Hugh de Ferranti

*A technically wasn't an album, but was a single with 13 tracks, very much like an album. It was her first quadruple a-side.

i dont get it

It's just explaining her Vocal Techniques.
It's nothing to do with any like actual songs or anything.
Just the style she sings in.
Quite interesting. Thanks for the new information. :)

How don't you get it?

I think that's a brilliant description! It's a really good way of detailing Ayumi's vocal qualities.

Yea, very interesting, thanks for posting.. but.. A wasn't her 1999 album :P

^ the article is interesting
thx for sharing

Interesting article even thoough some of their information is a bit.... ummm... not-so-correct

Well, A is just as long as an album, which is why most other sites call it an album. What single has what, 13 tracks?

Pretty good description, nonetheless.

it's interesting article..
thanks for post it

Thanks for the article..
Yeah A is not considered as an album even the number of tracks is quite like an album.. :D

wow...interesting article! thanks for posting!

thanks for the interesting article. :D!

thanks for it

I've always said Ayu is the true Empress of J-pop over Hikki because there's nothing particularly j-pop about Hikki's music, and now it's not just my opinion, rather an informed opinion backed by an article published by an affiliate of the very prestigious Cambridge University. :D

Thanks for positng. Tns of japanese ladies uses this techinique though.

Wow! Nice and interesting article.
Thanks for posting it! :)

Wow...interesting...and it was published by an university. XD A is a single...but its as long as an album...wow...XD

That's an interesting read =)
I think it's a great description too.

Thanks for posting.

Edit: I included a little clarification about the A/album deal :)

thanks for sharing lol.

thanks for sharing the article

verynice article:) thank you:)

Hey that's pretty cool! Thanks for the info

Perhaps it's that "nasal" thing people criticized Ayu about... well at least we all know that is the TRUE JAPANESE WAY... GO AYU!!!

i guess YUI sing in the same way too ^_^;

hmm i'm trying hard to understand wad's the article is trying to tell me -.-|| ( sorry my EL failed, lol )
anyway, thanks for the info :D

It's interesting!

Thanks for sharing the article ^^

Thank you!
It's very interesting, I loved the article~

Cambridge University Press publishes a lot of printed material, whether it's a scholarly journal or something else. I'm curious, what is the name of the journal in which you found the article? I have a lot of university resources and would like to try to dig it up and read the whole thing.

Very interesting article. :)

Thank you very much for sharing.

Maybe its just me but I can't tell if they're being negative or positive. So its a good thing right?

I think the author is just making observations without being neither positive or negative. usually academic journals aim to be neutral.

AMEN TO THAT. though i am a hikki fan and hikki collector too... :D

cool!

p.s. your set is adorable! ^^

Hey that was pretty neat! I bet it was cool to find them talking about Ayu in an academic journal! All of the journal articles I've had to read were nowhere NEAR that interesting! :D

thanks for sharing! =)

Why do they talk about Utada there? I don't get that part.

I actually found it while looking around on JStor :)

Thanks for sharing this article.

Wow. Even they acknowledge Ayu 0_o. But I stilll don't get the jigoe part. When does Ayu use the jigoe? Is it during the high-pitched parts or something?

Finally! An intellegent article about J-pop :P

I've always thought Ayu sounded more Japanese than Hikki when singing. Her voice always reminds me of old J-pop and enka. It could also be that Ayu's primary language is Japanese whereas I can only guess that Hikki uses and thinks in English more often. It's a very noticeable difference in the way they phrase the words of their songs.

I love this article! Most Ayu vs Hikki arguments about their vocal styles come down to "she-just-sings-better-you-teh-suck". It's refreshing to read about it from this point of view, without too much subjective bias or value judgment.

Omoshiroi

Arigatou for the article ^^

I guess Ayumi and Utada really are super-famous. Still, her A single was a while ago - Ayumi's voice has changed since then (it's become stronger).

I always thought that in term of J-Pop queen, it always Ayumi rather than Utada. Utada is more to western style. Now, i think i can clarify my thesis wih this article

yEs, hER vOICE iS sO dIFFERENT nOW i lOVE tHE wAY shE dOES iT, lIKE iN eVOLUTION iNTRO [tOUR oF SeCRET, BEST of CDL] or eNDING iN HEAVEN [ARENA TOUR 2006]

hA hA i jUST lOVE iT

Thanks for sharing! This is quite interesting!*O*

thanks for this article

interesting article about her singing technique
thnks for sharing :)

I guess Ayu's voice always had this traditional sense to it, which is cool. But it's fun to read an intelligent article that seems to looks at the Ayu vs. Hikki in a neutral perspective. I think the same vocal style can also be applied to Hitomi Shimatani.

Thanks for the article. :D

10x for sharing :)