Quote:
Originally Posted by Lady_Eowyn
I can't speak for others, just for myself. And i don't wanna hate Panda, but it's just that i have never liked mainstream pop music until i met Ayu and j-pop. electropop it's just not my thing. I don't want ayu to be another copy of Namie Amuro or Lady Gaga or Rihanna or anyone of them. There are too many artists out there making average sounds of pop music with average, stupid lyrics; i mean, there's more than enough of that. But Ayu is different. She is one of the few artists (that i know) that manages to be mainstream, popular, but intelligent and deep at the same time. i don't really wanna see she is going to lose that touch with this new album and the titles doesn't look very promising; Tho i'm really hoping i will be wrong  |
This kind of reminds me of how people react when an indie band "sells out". To us fans, sure, Ayu is very 'different' and 'unique', but there are also people all over the world that see her very differently, as a really, very, run-of-the-mill popstar. I get the impression that a lot of people are more bothered by Ayu being grouped into a category with such 'average' pop artists. I don't know, to me, it comes off as being somewhat like a musical 'elitist' or just kind of uptight. Yeah I understand, Ayu is different, you have different expectations for her. I totally get that. I totally agree with you. Personally, I try to stay optimistic at these early stages, because I end up liking much of what Ayu puts out naturally. Image, song titles, and genre do foreshadow what the album is going to be like, of course. But I know some people, to this day, that don't like her image, her song titles, or the genre of music she does, yet they're still able to enjoy her music for some reason. Ayu has this incredible power over people, you should have confidence in it. If she wants to go in a different direction, fine. Electropop isn't your thing, it isn't mine either. It isn't Ayu's either. What is Ayu's 'thing'? Ayu shows strength in many different genres and subgenres of music. In my opinion, she pulls off everything pretty damn well. If she wants to follow music industry trends, so what? We all know Ayu looks up to Madonna very much, and that's exactly what Madonna did with her latest album. She employed Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, etc. It's arguable, but the album still turned out very 'Madonna'. Imo, Ayu has the same musical versatility to make it work for her. She proved that to me with several songs, most of which are on (miss)understood.
In terms of lyrics, I mean, people are pretty much assuming that this album is going to be full of 'mindless' lyrics, much like 'Sparkle'. I just want to make sure that there's a clear line between mindless and uninspired. GUILTY, though not mindless, was an uninspired album. Period. She admitted to this in interviews, she had no inspiration to make this album. Depending on your personal definition of 'mindless', NEXT LEVEL may be just that. It may not float your boat, but I have a feeling already that if it isn't seen as the 'NEXT LEVEL', but rather some kind of degeneration, people will be quick to call this album uninspired. People already have called the album rushed, which it was in a sense, but I truly think that this album was made out of inspiration. This might be one of Ayu's more cohesive albums in a very long time. It's clear from CMJK's blog, that she has gotten him as one of the main masterminds of the album's production. This is the first time, I believe, that CMJK actually commented about one of her album's as a whole and not just the song's that he worked on himself. To me, this looks like an inspired piece of work. Of course, it doesn't mean the music is going to be good, but it leaves me feeling better at the end of the day knowing that she put a lot of thought into the direction and attempting to make a cohesive album. I think this should be exciting for a lot of us!
Sorry about the long post, I'm totally jolted on caffeine right now and I can't get to sleep.
