Quote:
Originally Posted by njanjayrp
Pure gold ^_^ Commercial success has at times little to do with the quality of the songs, of course it has up to some point, though I know many examples when crap sold (EXILE lol). Great songs ! = great sales. Of course it all depends on what you think the great music is. Since Ayu's albums always sold less & less I am positive the NL sales have nothing to do with the music.
First of all, the bold part is pure nonsense - someone was that desperate they had to try the EU in the end cuz it flopped in the States (now you don't go further and release singles for an album you don't have faith it will sell). Excuses aren't always the best arguments 
Oh and I just love how people were all comparing Ayu's and Hikki's NINKI and now that NEXT LEVEL outsold TiTO the two became instantly incomparable. End the needless Hikki talk before a fight breaks out.
(miss)understood was the last Ayu album that was certified as a million seller (shiped copies) by RIAJ
So, my Ayu album list:
I am../MY STORY
GUILTY/LOVEppears
(miss)understood/Secret/Memorial Address
RAINBOW/NEXT LEVEL/A Song For XX/Duty
I still love all the albums ^_^ |
as rude as it is to continue this off-topic discussion, i'm going to do it anyways because I don't think your point makes sense. She didn't know the american pop scene well at the time. If you watched her exodus interview she even stated that she doesn't understand the pop radio and that she was experimenting with english because its different from japanese. Yes she tried to sell her music to the american market, but in terms of releasing it to make it favourable was another thing. Honestly i think her experimenting was the reason why exodus was able to sell well in Japan. She was just lucky her experimenting was favourable in japan :S and VERY unfavourable in the US, which was unlucky.
Second Hikki does not choose her releases, DefJam Island does. Its just like How avex can throw out A best and ayu really cant argue with it. I thought this was common knowledge...
I think the NINKI wasn't a comparison and u're taking it too seriously... everyone knows NINKI is just a interest survey, and people were just shocked to see TITO's ninki higher than next level. I never said you couldn't compare them :S but I mean the way she compares them against me is so stupid and then calls it my standards. I just htink its ridculous. I personally feel that comparing hikki's TITO that was directed towards an american audience to Next Level which was directed towards a japanese audience which is the selling target is unfair, but of course you're free to compare it. Its just my personal opinion. I might've pushed that point too much lately, and I'm sorry if I did. I'll admit sometimes I get a little defensive about this album, but thats because people call it a FLOP or try to make her look bad with it and ignore the fact that her HEART STATION album just sold a million copies meaning she's honestly not doing that bad.
I'm not the one making excuses here... I don't know if Utada was making excuses, but I persoanlly believe her because she's an oldies fan (she stated this) and she was in japan for a long time so obviously she didn't receive much information about the the american pop scene, this making her behind in the american music scene. I'd be overwhelmed too. When I stopped listening to american music for a few years, and finally like 2007, I started again, I really felt behind too. Even now I still feel slightly behind haha.
Once Again, u just restated what I posted. When you count sales, you use oricon. when you count shipments you use RIAJ. The difference is that oricon counts people buying the album while RIAJ counts how many albums avex was able to ship to the stores. I stated that she got shipments of 1 million but in terms of people buying it, it didn't reach a million making it her first album not to sell a million. Secret is the first album to not get shipments of a million though. Don't you wonder why hikki fans were sad when untra blue only didn't make it to 1 mill in oricon sales? it still received shipments of a milllion but it didnt sell a million making it hikki's first album to not sell a million ( This is not a comparison btw. This is an example of the difference between shipments and sales)
And I find it funny how you can call EXILE's sales as an example of how crap can still sell well when you say that music is in terms of taste. If its your opinion then fine, but that doesn't mean they're now officially an example.
Anyways I love the piano to Next Level. Maybe its because i love piano versions of songs haha. I love going to this asian grocery that plays piano versions of Jpop songs because it sounds so nice : ) Maybe these songs just didn't suit ayu for me because I really LOVED loveappears but I really dislike this album =/ but i do love the piano versions of the songs so I don't hate the songs in that context.
If I had to rank ayu albums:
1) LOVEppears <3 I loved the whole album.
2) (miss)understood - Same as the top but not as much
3) My Story - The album had a nice flow to it and I really liked the songs on it.
4) Duty - I like this album, but the main reason I loved it was for the three single tie-in
5) Memorial Address - It was very good, but I liked My Story over it XD
6) I am.../Rainbow <--- they;re really similar for me. I like it, but I felt it was overrated
7) Secret - I said this before, it wasn't the best, but it was definitely a decent album : )
8) A song for XX - I mainly liked the single tracks.. and not even all of them. Its ok tho
9) Next Level - I really don't like this album overall but it had 2 tracks I liked.
10) guilty - I don't want to recognize this as an ayu album because I don't like anything about it