Quote:
Originally Posted by emi♡
@Deli: It always amazes me though how no one was ever able to fully to cash in on ayu's style.
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To be honest EVERYONE who tried was able to cash in at least a little bit. The HAL sound took off cuz of Ayu - Ruppina and Dream did well at the time. Heck, Yuta Nakano's production sounds the way it does because he was in HAL once. Plus ayu's contributions to fashion back in the day - the people who adhered to the popular ayu-influenced style (big eyes, light hair, both hime-gyaru and tomboyish fashions depending on the time period) were certainly more successful than they would have been if they hadn't.
It's just that the more obvious duplicates - like HALNA, and to some degree Anzai Hiroko back in late 2000 - were nothing special outside of cosmetic similarities, and consumers are usually savvy enough to pick up on the obvious cash-in. These were no exception.
Artists that have been influenced by her in a more generalized sense are naturally going to succeed a bit better because they're more genuine (influenced rather than ripping off). After ayu showed up, there was a more "genuine" or "raw" sort of female singer that suddenly became popular - the 90s idols like Namie were getting shoved aside, at least temporarily, in favor of singers like Nakashima Mika, SAYAKA, post-TK hitomi, et cetera. And now, because time has detached everyone from Ayu enough that the influence isn't as outwardly obvious if you're not looking for it, we have singers like Nishino Kana who are becoming popular because they're the ones teenagers can relate to, just as Ayu was back between 1998 and 2002. Granted, Kana's lyrics don't talk about self-doubt, hopelessness, betrayal, and loneliness to quite the depth Ayu's lyrics did, but her songs about hope & heartbreak resonate with the kids these days regardless.