[orbitalaspect]

Originally Posted by Zeke.

I think it is easy to assume so because in the past it was clear that she had more FIRE and PASSION regarding her releases. Hell, it used to be so visual, so cross-promotional, more conceptualized and planned out. It seemed like she always had a concept, there was a LARGER picture to be seen and everything seemed consistent with getting that message across. That's what fascinated me. I have no doubt that my appreciation for strategic communication, branding, and creating concepts that reach into the depths of cross-promotional media was hugely inspired by watching the visionary "HAMASAKI AYUMI" evolve over the years as I came into adulthood. She was never an artist who was "just there," she had cultivated an entire universe around her image, her brand, her sound, and her fans. That's probably why I was so drawn to her; her image was so well crafted that she seemed to be a mirage of sorts.

Fast forward to the present, and there's little to no remnant of THAT "HAMASAKI AYUMI" today. I know people grow and change, but her brand and image has made a severe de-evolution recently and it just seems so... foreign. It's a head-trip that's for sure. In that environment she had created (which also translated well into her music, the ability to create soundscapes that constructed vast environments for the listener to become lost within), I felt unbelievably happy. I still feel the best when I can escape into her world and her music, making it part of my reality and my scenery. I often flashback to my thoughts and feelings regarding her "previous" states as they were "current" and how I compared them to that "past" and it was never quite like this. She seems virtually absent in a way. With Ayu and her music, I never felt lonely. Now it's as if an important character in my life has taken a far away trip and I'm uncertain as to when I will ever see or here from them again in the ways that I have in the past.

People can continue to act as if the fans who feel this way are overreacting, but the emotions we have are real and highly understandable. Ayu was always the megastar - anything but average - and for me she was unlike anyone or anything I had ever encountered before in my life. Now, her brand and her image seemingly continues to regress. I used to think in the past that I could never imagine the day she actually "fell" because even if she wasn't selling as much as time went on, her brand, her aura, her environment, her drive and her sense of concept continued to grow and excel. There's not much we can do but eventually I feel she may return with more passion than ever before. Even if the sales aren't there, when Ayu finds that creative drive and begins expanding upon her empire once again, I will be the first to walk through that door with pride.

^. It's not the fall in sales driving that lack of fandom, but they reflect the lack of investment on her part. The real fall was after her marriage to Manny. Around then, it seemed that her string of high-profile relationships became her new career. (Rather than new singles, she released new boyfriends.)

We had FIVE. FIVE respectfully followed Ls. It sold relatively well, going platinum and spending two weeks at #1. While we were disappointed there wasn't a new single, the album was still very much Ayumi. I still remember the chatter on AHS about beloved being bland but ultimately being one of the most memorable tracks. Some people were ecstatic over progress. We unanimously jaw-dropped at BRILLANTE.

Party Queen
The real fall started with Party Queen. It wasn't Tim, and it wasn't the shake up of her dancers around that time. It was that PQ had no singles prior to its release. It was that PQ was--and even still is today--the most inconsistent record Ayumi has released. How someone came up with the idea of putting dance-pop, electronica, rock, hard rock, R&B, dubstep, cool jazz, swing jazz, and classical music into a 14-track album with no singles, no live performances, and only one digital single is beneath intelligent planning. It is the Daybreak of her albums; the album that we can all find a good song or two on but ultimately have to facepalm when it comes up in casual conversation. (We were all shocked when GUILTY hit #2, but GUILTY was and remains a solid example of Ayumi Hamasaki as a person and an artist.)

Apart from a few songs, the lyrics on every track were a poor reflection of Ayu's talent as a lyricist. If you don't believe me, re-read the lyrics to Party Queen. (Hint: That's the %@$%! TITLE track.) The PVs were a nice attempt to make a boring album interesting, but you can't save a bad song with nice promotion. (Japan isn't the United States. The only reason Pitbull has a career left is because the majority of the music buying population in the US eats up the image of wealth. So all you have to do is put Pitbull in a $10,000 suit with a few hookers and cigars, and he becomes "talented". if you put misono in a million-dollar dress, people would still think she sings like a dying camel.)

Of course ABC deserved his first #1, but it would have happened another time if the same drive and thoughtfulness that had been slowly fading over the years did not unexpectedly disappear. The sales reflected a lack of investment: PQ collectively sold less than Love songs' first week sales.

LOVE, again, LOVE again
So, after A SUMMER BEST arguably came as an attempt to try to keep the consecutive years of #1 album releases going, we end up with a new mini-album announcement for LOVE. We collectively sighed at the fact it wasn't a mini-album, but a single marketed as a mini-album.

LOVE debuts at #4. Compared to L, it sold around 60% of L's sales. Compared to FIVE, it sold less than half of FIVE's first week sales. again comes one month later--another single marketed as a mini-album--and debuts at #7, ultimately selling less than LOVE sold in its first week. The only real take-away from the entire 15th anniversary releases turns out to be A Classical, which becomes the first #1 classical album in Oricon history.

LOVE again was more coherent than PQ, but the album was lacking in the details. First, the only PVs were for songs released within the three months prior to the album. None of the album-only songs had a video. You & Me, a song intended for the A SUMMER BEST collection, had been tacked on. If you bought LOVE and again, you were only getting the Melody PV and 5 new songs. (Think BoA WHO'S BACK?) Really, we had some beautiful PVs for Song 4 u and Missing, but we were ultimately left with videos that were lacking in substance. (This has been a long-running problem though.) The whole "Love" theme had been present in this album, PQ, and Ls, and even the news was tired of the LOVE this, LOVE that, new boyfriend today, independent woman tomorrow, new boyfriend the next day, independent woman again by Friday at every turn.

LOVE again sold like a stale concept album: It collectively sold less than PQ's first week sales. It made it to #1, which may be a testament to the power of releasing a few singles before putting out a new album, building up interest and giving people something to look forward to. (It may also just be good planning / luck.)

Feel the love / Merry-go-round, Pray, Colours
We had a very quiet 2013 after LOVE again. We had two DVDs and then news of Ftl/Mgr came. The first new single in 3 years. We got the covers. We loved the covers. We got the songs. We loved the songs. We got the PVs. We were all a bit happy to see something interesting again. Ftl/Mgr was not going to be a #1 single. Hell, if Namie Amuro can't land a #1 after one year of no singles in this market, Ayumi is not going to do it either. But Ftl/Mgr was a good first step in getting back to the right direction.

Pray was announced around the same time. I hoped, like many of us, it would be single 52. It turned out to be a digital single, which was disappointing only because, even for a ballad, it was one of her most solid recordings in years.

Information on Colours comes along and interest divided faster than Moses could part the red sea. Ayumi decided to work with western producers on almost every track. Why was this a big deal? Well, because the album isn't J-Pop. It's some hybrid of US-Pop, produced by a bunch of people who don't have any market in Japan. (Just like BoA's self-titled album wasn't BoA. It was some hybrid of US-Pop, produced by people with less talent at electronic music than most K-Pop producers.) Either way, some of us are excited to hear tracks like XOXO and Lelio. Then there's her collaboration with Urata Naoya, who we can all agree has pretty much used Ayu's popularity to be noticed as something other than an idol group member. (Anyone remember JUNO?)

Then Colours is leaked, on purpose, over a month before its release. By the time the album hits shelves, it's been weeks since everyone has heard every song, seen every video, and had hopes and fears either confirmed or denied. The videos were at least different. They consist of: XOXO, in which Ayu, now a middle-aged woman, wearing hooker heels and lingerie while riding a young guy cowgirl style on the floor of a club with her best friend who is also just as obsessed with selfies; Angel, in which Ayu in a beautiful dress lurches and over-lip-syncs the lyrics before being helped into God's handy-dandy human lifting machine because apparently she's too heavy for THREE angels to pick up...?; and Lelio, in which Ayu honestly takes second place to cheap video effects which can make her dancers disappear but somehow cannot make Ayu a reasonably good dancer.

But there are two core problems with Colours: A) Colours is not a J-pop album. B) Japan does not have a market for oversimplified American pop music. Namie's style will sell. K-pop will sell. capsule will sell. But RedOne and Armin van Buuren... frankly... do not have the talent to produce for the Korean or Japanese EDM markets.

Moving forward...
I've taken the time to type this out because I think my line of thought will help explain from where my comments evolved.

Since Love songs, Party Queen, LOVE again, and Colours have each sold cumulatively less than the prior albums first week sales. That's a HUGE drop in interest we're talking about. To put this into perspective, MIKA NAKASHIMA, Kato Miliyah, BoA, Otsuka Ai, Utada, Koda Kumi, and even some idol groups have not recovered from sales drops that steep. (For example: GIRL NEXT DOOR tried to rebrand to save their group after Destination cumulatively sold less than half of NEXT FUTURE's first week sales.)

The reason Terminal's charting matters is because, regardless of being recut, this is an actual single. Do you realize how rare it is for an artist to sell more copies of their next release?

I can only think of a few instances. The first being MIKA NAKASHIMA's VOICE, which came after her career plummeted from the disaster of the YES era. And Namie Amuro, who had to reinvent her entire career after STYLE. If you can think of anyone else who has managed to bounce back after a very bad release, please let me know. Until otherwise, however, I have to believe this single is like a terminal diagnosis for Ayumi's career because it's extremely rare that J-Pop artists bounce back from a huge sales drop.

The fact this single actually made it to press is a sign that, as I said, I'm like a boyfriend hanging on by a thread because I don't want to accept that it's actually over. Think of Terminal as getting a Hallmark anniversary card... with no personal message written in it. It's like your partner knew it matters to you, but instead of taking an extra few minutes on the card, they just picked the nicest one off the shelf, put it in a nice envelope, and gave it to you because it's what they felt like doing. You want to appreciate the thought, but you know they feel like what they did is good enough even it's obvious it isn't.

EDIT: Wow, it took me awhile to put this together. This is all my perspective though, and I hope it's respected as just one experience. But still, the general drop in AHS interest in Colours and now... well, Terminal is so unpopular no one has bothered to make an Oricon thread for it... That doesn't seem wrong to some of you?