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Originally Posted by tokyoxjapanxfan
Her style was a good balance of J-POP and western influences, songs that wouldn't really be possible on western radar. Now however the J-POP-ness in her music is almost nonexistent. Mostly due to her very common usage of western produced back tracks that she buys and overlays lyrics onto. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but she certainly doesn't have the same amount of access to the "good" tracks that say, Beyoncé would. She her options, imo, are on the cheaper side. Her brand is stronger in Japan, so she'd get far better productions by using Japanese producers (in theory).
The layering of her music from the golden era of J-POP is largely gone, and I find her tracks to sound a bit hollow.
Obviously this won't be the case for everything. But I hope what I wrote makes sense.
And many of you are super fans, so it's very hard to disappoint you. Which is a great thing. But to not be able to see where other people are basing their opinions on is kind of a problem. Living in a bubble surrounded by people with the same ideals would be bad for anyone lol.
So while you may disagree (again, that's fine!) at least try to see our point of view lol.
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The "hollow" point is what I'm driving at. Don't get me wrong. I loved EX TAPE and HOTEL and really got to a point where WOML was a decent album. My problem is every song sounding like BLACK CANDY sounds like a lot less effort than every song sounding like TABOO / BUT / Under.
But even to that point, about her ballads: She's done some truly amazing and different sounding ballads (Stay / No way / Alive) and at times pulled out a ballad that later turned out to be absolutely classic (Koishikute). But I just don't hear anything beyond generic generic right now.
And for a double album that's supposed to have this deep concept to it, I'm really not impressed so far.
Quote:
Originally Posted by a❤martian
I think you summed up how I feel about Ayumi Hamasaki. I think this is relevant to most J-Pop atm. Unless you're a super fan it's just not great music being released by most artists.
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Absolutely true. The only artists I ever can truly bank on being worth it are the ones I happen to be super fans of -- lecca, KOKIA, RURUTIA, MIKA. But for the most part, I'm absolutely more blown away by what's happening in the Taiwan / C-Pop music scene than I am by anything coming out of Japan.
I actually cried when MADE IN JAPAN was released. It was such a significant blow to my belief that Ayu hadn't actually settled into fading into history.
Perhaps the biggest issue is that we're not seeing new solo artists get the same investment Kuu, Ayu, and Utada had because of the idol groups. I just wish avex, Sony, Warner and others would realize a lot of us are hanging onto these artists because there is literally NOTHING around to replace them for us.
Quote:
Originally Posted by a❤martian
I feel like Ultraviolet is like her older cheesy pop songs. It's messy as fuck, but it's like them. Just like LOL.
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Oh, I like Shh! too. Koda can do these real simple tracks like MONEY IN MY BAG, and she does them real well. But when that's ALL that's on the record...? It's just like -- COME ON, KUU. PLZ. PLEZ. PULEZ.
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Originally Posted by kaled kalil
^ But during that time people were often complaining that she was releasing the same thing over and over with TABOO ~ Driving ~ ECSTASY ~ Physical thing ~ UNIVERSE ~ AT THE WEEKEND and the list goes by. It's just the way it is, she does something and move on a couple of releases later. Even the erokakkoi style with Crazy 4 U ~ Cutie Honey ~ Butterfly ~ DDD was the same thing (not the complains, but you see where I'm going).
She's clearly going for a more "western style" for right now and it might not be your favorite style, but that's the way it is. It's like when you're really interested in something and you go crazy about it, doing for at least three years before you actually get tired and move on to something else. That's how her releases are for... her entire career?
Btw, this is not that situation of complaining about people complaining, it's just that the subject is quite often brought up, but no one is doing the same thing they used to do and people need to learn to move on. I love the old stuff and I try to embrace the new Kumi, it might not be as shine as you used to remember her, but that's the way she is, and that's what she wants to do.
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Similar response to complaints about Ayu every year. But the problem is the people who share your sentiment inevitably end up on my side of the aisle. I've literally found myself saying this before about Secret, GUILTY, NEXT LEVEL, RnRC, Love songs, and LOVE again. And I inevitably ended up on the other side completely by the time A ONE came around.
Still, it's certainly not that Koda can't make great songs in this stripped-down-hip-hop-Western-style. It's just that she literally has made almost three back-to-back records of it. Bon Voyage was her last remotely diverse album, but a huge step down from JAPONESQUE in terms of replayability. If I line up all the love across the oceans, TABOOs, BUTs, and FREAKYs, with tracks from WOML and now W Face, there's a noticeable decline in the complexity of the production. I'd be totally fine with a few Lippys and MONEY IN MY BAGs on each record. I'm just having a hard time stomaching 50+ tracks with the same slapstick beat and trumpets and repeating synths.
The best way I can explain what I hear is by saying that imagine if every song Koda has released in the last five years is just POP DIVA in a different key. That's really what I feel like we've gotten.
BUT. Her tours have only gotten exponentially more impressive. NOW. I don't get that. Her albums and singles have gone to hell, but I have never seen someone own a stage like Koda.