Quote:
Originally Posted by bluegie
Just remember one thing: no one will be on top forever.
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Sad but ultimately the truth. Even the most popular artists eventually aren't "whats hot today" anymore because people get tired. Instead, people begin to appreciate not seeing their favorite artist 24/7 and rejoice when their artists release new material. Take for example Bon Jovi, who have had tremendous success up until today. They aren't the focus of discussion in the rock community anymore with new bands like Fallout Boy being the "in" group today. However, whenever they release a new album they still kill the Billboards charts and they still get sell-out crowds when they go on tour.
Same thing has pretty much happened with Ayu. She's not the main focus of J-pop anymore; Kuu is because shes younger and newer. However when Ayu releases new material, she still tops the music charts. You can talk about how the routine gets old of a summer single/rock single blah blah blah, but her singles still are the top sellers in their debut weeks. After 8 studio albums , her 9th studio album GUILTY debuts #2 on the Oricon charts. Thas still AMAZING for someone to do so well after so much time. You would think after 10 years in the music industry an artist would have been in the past and forgotten by now but she still remains quite noticable and really high up there.
Ayu's marketing strategy seems to be expanding fanbase in other Asian countries. For Japan, the strategy seems to be keeping the fanbase she has instead of trying to increase it. Reasoning behind this is her continuation of releasing music and concert tours while decreasing the amount of magazine shoots and public appearances. Musical releases and concert tours are usually for satisfying and maintaining fanbase, which she continues to do so. Publicity is what increases fanbase, and these days she seems to do a lot less advertising and magazine shoots.
Why is this so? Well she already had all of Japan in her hands at one point in her career, what more is there to grasp for now? When you have it all, only thing that can happen is losing it over time because theres nothing more to gain. What she does know is that her fanbase is just starting to grow in other Asian countries like Singapore and Taiwan and she seems to be focusing more on those countries now. A lot of artists have done so in the past. Boa moved to Japan when her Korean popularity waned once Hyolee started taking over Korea. Se7en moved to Japan too because he was getting more popular there than in Korea which was all about Rain at the time.
It does not mean Ayu's career is going down the drain. She still has millions (or do I dare say billions??) of fans worldwide today. Although her pattern of releasing material does not change and some people here seem to be annoyed by it, tons of people still buy new albums she releases and digitally downloads them onto their computers for mp3s. Shes focusing more on other Asian countries these days because that is where her fanbase has capacity to grow more, and that is the most logical marketing strategy to do.
And what is all this about hating her recent diva image? Yeah she is becoming a diva because shes 29 years old now. Yeah you will find that you cannot relate to her as much as you used to, but that is inevitable because of the age barrier. My friends in college can't communicate with freshmen anymore because they are atleast 4-5 years older now and they cannot remember or relate to being that young freshman anymore. If you want Ayu to act like the old Ayu shes been the past 10 years, then people are going to say "she should start acting her age and stop trying to pretend like shes still young". I think she makes a fine diva, and although the time has passed for her to set trends for teenage girls, shes going to start setting trends for young adults.