Quote:
Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0
Ayu used to mention her drinking on TA often, and on TV she's mentioned having a mini-fridge just for beer... I guess if you really followed her alot, you knew she drank too much, but it was never really part of her image in a big way. The Party Queen album wasn't out of left field for me. I think the image didn't work because she never looks unhappy in the booklet. She has her big happy doe-eyes, smiles, etc. all through it. There's no darkness there - it just looks like "Whoo, she had a wild party last night!" And opportunities for the PVs to show the dark side of a partying lifestyle were lost - the NaNaNa video should have been her accompanying an OD'ing friend in an ambulance. The Shake It<3 video should have emphasized the low self-esteem ayu was really singing about. There should have been a Party Queen PV that showed a wild party, a depressed ayu cleaning up & taking headache meds & seeing an embarrassing photo of herself on an internet tabloid the next morning, but then drinking & partying again the next night anyway.
She tried to juxtapose fun & disaster, partying & loneliness on that album and she & her team simply did a bad job of it. It wasn't as much an ayu branding issue as it was a lack of direction.
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I love your ideas! I should be able to relate to the theme, I used to be 100% like that, but it just falls completely flat. And that "I'm a lonely queen, I'm a lonely queen" from the concert, so shallow and contrived, ugh.
Do you know the song "Chandelier" by Sia? It's about the same thing but completely nails it. Hell, the PV of "Sweet Season" does the idea better and it's about a bloody kids party.
Though to be fair, most of us here are hardcore fans, we'd know about her drinking, smoking and partying habits. The general audience might not? I don't know, I never asked about that when I was in Japan lol.