Quote:
Originally Posted by Uemarasan
I have a different take on things, though. If you'll notice, female artists are expected to constantly reinvent themselves (Madonna, Namie Amuro, Taylor Swift) to maintain their success and relevance, with very few exceptions. Otherwise, they become lost in the dialogue (Barbra Streisand, Mika Nakashima, Mariah Carey). However, male artists are expected to remain true to their musical aesthetic (Bob Dylan, Eminem, Mr. Children). Personally, I believe it's a function of old, deep-rooted and unconscious sexism (men are expected to be stable providers and women are expected to be exciting partners). Personally, I prefer artists, male or female, who stay true to their musical personas, and that's why even though I agree Namie Amuro is more exciting and relevant, I always return to Ayumi regardless of the good or bad because she's stayed true to who she is. I'm just waiting for her to take the next step and mature as an artist instead of reinventing herself.
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It was a nice reading and I agree with the male/woman comparision. But please, can someone explain me how does Namie reinvents herself? It's not like Namie released a hip hop album and then she got into rock music. So comparing herself with Madonna is a bit off. I mean, I like Namie but Madonna was always ahead of her time with releases like Erotica or Ray Of Light. Plus, she always changed her style from new swing jazz on Erotica, to r&b on Bedtime Stories, electronica ambient on Ray of Light, experimental stuff on Music, folk on American Life, retro dance on Confessions and so on. Namie's discography is made of three big parts : the TK era (1995-1998), r&b/hip hop era (1999-2007) and her dance pop/ electronic stuff (2008-2014). Namie has great albums and songs but I don't really see that she always reinvents herself. Sure, there were moments of transition into her music (from Concentration 20 to Genius 2000 or from Play to Past Future) but not anything groundbreaking. In jpop, I always considered Ayu to be rechanging constantly. The thing with ayu is that she always have all kind of genres into one album so it's a bit hard to describe an album of hers (for example Next Level is electropop but at the same time is rock). So maybe that's why people are sometimes confused about her music. But she definitely changed more often than Namie. I mean, when you play Uncontrolled and than FEEL, you can say its one big album of dance pop tracks. On the other hand, ayu always seem to incorporate new elements into her music : for example lets take Colours - we have Hello New Me and Pray which doesn't really bring something new to the table, but than she comes with Terminal, Angel, Lelio, XOXO, Merry Go Round etx. and you know for sure that she experimented again.
I did not wrote this to diss Namie because I'm a fan of hers too. This is just a personal opinion.