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I'm caught on this one. At first I wanted to say, "Hell no, Ayu's not an idol!" but I think that has more to do with my desire not to see her listed in the same category as AKB48 than anything else. It's an interesting question, though, because I don't think there is a specific definition for an idol (or at least a definition that is specific enough). We can easily identify what is an idol (i.e. AKB48, or Arashi, etc.), but it's harder to define what isn't an idol.
Sure, Ayu's career is very much musically-oriented, and based more on the quality of the overall experience/product that, say, AKB (I apologize to any fans), whose entire shtick consists solely of trying to be as cute as possible to appeal to the minutae of Japanese boys' interests. That said, however, being an idol has a lot to do with marketing yourself based on image and personality. I was thinking about this the other day, and to be honest, why is/has Ayu been famous/popular? It's certainly not for her voice. Her voice, generally speaking, is all right, but if you took away everything else, her career could not survive on that alone (she's no ayaka, Christina Aguilera, etc. - people who can blow you away with an acapella performance because of their vocal skills). It's really the whole Ayu "package" - she's a great performer. She knows how to put on an awesome show that combines a lot of elements, a lot of noise and glitz and kabam. A big element is her image: she's famous for her giant eyes, her style, her cute personality, and so on. Those are kind of idol-ish qualities. When she was younger (before she was famous), she was a sort of B-idol, I think (if there is such a thing), but now...it's difficult to say. Still, after writing all that, I'm tending towards the answer that no, Ayu is not an idol, or at least isn't an idol anymore.
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