Has ayu lost her touch?

[se7entheaven]

Evenbefore this CDL, everyone has been complaining about her. Whether it's the costumes, vocal, tour, etc etc.

After watching this CDL, I got this feeling that ayu somehow lost her 'touch'. I don't really feel it anymore. Everything is starting to get boring. Considering ayu produces her tour and everything, kuu-chan who produce he own tour always has creative ideas, dare to do sth different, be it song arrangements and performance-wise. ayu sometimes looks as if she's rushing everything...she's even not as busy as before...

1. Stage-wise (I know the concept of this CDL stage and AT stage with the steps are good) she's been using this design for like...3-4times???

2. Costume-wise, ok she have had a lot of costumes, and I must admit she recycled the design by adding different details and stuffs, coz Namie do it as well (think Namie's infamous short dress/skirt/schoolgirl outfits, she has like 1000 different versions each tours), but ayu....doing something different won't kill you. Performing Pride doesn't mean you have to wear HUGE dress, for example.

3. Performance-wise. Like how many times has she repeat the same thing again and again? why can't she just sing 1LOVE with the bands? I'm sick of the cage thingy and all the same antics that she do for the songs. you get the idea.

4. and more...

I'm sorry I'm just tired of seeing the same thing again and again...even NEXT LEVEL tour didn't surprise me that much, let alone this CDL, we've seen the same antics since 07-08, 08-09, and now this.

[nanakopy87]

i feel like she's lost.especially CDL09-10.i don't know why i have such feeling.i just feel she's like singing just to satisfy the fans.she's not singing because she wants to sing.

[pchan1986]

to me i think it was 2009. the whole year was so bleh to me with ayumi. Her album and singles were so weak to me. I LOVED AT2008(the costume was OMGOSH and the ship!) ,PCDL(so many great songs sung) but man AT09 it was soo boring i had to skip parts and i hardly do that. CDL i havent watched but the bad reviews of it is flowing nonstop.....

[AyUmIXx]

i think she's always been so busy every year..
releasing singles, album, ARENA TOUR and CDL every year..
where Kuu or Namie doesn't do as often as Ayu (well yeah, Kuu has her yearly Arena tour, but she doesn't have CDL like Ayu, and Namie barely release single or album...) so it makes sense if Ayu recycle her concert stuff since she and her staff doesn't have so much time to create new things...
that's the only thing i can think of why she recycles her stuff for these recent years..
but i still enjoy it though.. i still love her efforts.. i still can feel her singing to the fans..

[pchan1986]

i agree with Ayumixx
sometimes i wish i could :
Shake Avex and tell them 'shes not a machine, give a grl some rest!'

[pommy48]

Ah...I've felt like this for a long time

I mean just watching some of her older concerts is a fresh breath of air to me. In A Museum, she dared to do something different with "M". For A Song for XX, though the outfit isn't unflattering, at least it's something new

But now? Every concert we get those split-sided pants...I think Ayu need to get a new costume designer too

And the ribbon twirling and the hoops? Been there...done that~ When I first became an Ayu fan, I was fascinated by her concerts, but now I'm just bored watching them~

The 1 LOVE cage....why couldn't she do a different kind of cage then? She's been using it since AT02 with NEVER EVER...or maybe sooner. Recycling outfits/performances is ok, but when you do too much, it gets really tiring

AT08 was pretty great with the ship, but she just sounded terrible in some of the songs. If a performance is cute.....that doesn't mean you have to sing cutesy with it too....

This year has just been a big blur to me...I remember getting all excited for her releases, but now I can barely care what her newest single sounds like. I'm just not excited like I was when I was a newbie. Her old ballads used to make me cry and I thought they still did till the other day I realized that I was crying because I missed what her older ballads had to bring.

I'll still support her...but I don't see the point of buying her concerts if she's gonna sound like she does now. The other day...I couldn't even remember if I brought AT08 or not...

The gimmicks of her concerts really doesn't impress me. I would much rather have her there like for her MC and just sing her heart out. I was just watching AT02's Special Unplugged Version and I really miss that.

I don't think Ayu lost her touch because obviously many people still love what she does, but for me, she has as in the way her older songs reached out to me that her new songs just can't.

[AyUmIXx]

i don't think it's avex who forces ayu to be busy each year..
but it's Ayu herself.. she enjoys what she loves to do... i don't know, somehow i can just feel that she's enjoying it..
i want her to take a rest so badly.. really badly, in the sake of getting her great vocal back again.. but still nothing we can do about it.. she still loves to do things..
maybe Japanese fans don't complain to her as much as we do here?

are there any Japanese fans there think that Ayu should stop singing and take a rest?
anyone who go to Japanese forums can tell that?

[ExodusUK]

She needs to take a break and get a new creative team. The dancers and band are like pieces of furtinure now. The band is awful and can't do the songs justice (Evolution is a big example, they can never capture the energy and skill of the song's production) and the same cheap live arrangement of songs is wearing thin. The dancers, um where do I begin? That's a whole new topic in itself. Maybe use other people for costumes instead of that one guy, like use a designer or something.

[nanakopy87]

Originally Posted by GRACE

Have you been to any of those concerts? No? Then stop.

I can't say what she has, because I haven't been to the concert. I can make comments about what I see but that's it, I'm not going to say whether she's lost it or if she has it because I don't know. All I can say, is SHE'S having fun, even a fool can see that, and the crowd is having a blast. And in the end, that's all it's about

i don't know if this is true or not.but the audience isn't that hype in CDL 09-10.i can see people are screaming from the beginning till end of the show on PCDL08-09 but i don't see this happen on CDL09-10.there is.like teddy bear.the audiences screamed.but not all...so,thats my opinion

[GRACE]

I decided to delete my other post and start fresh here...

I don't think Ayu has necessarily lost her touch... but I think the way she's shown to us has caused US to lose something... if that makes sense. The music industry has changed in a greater part of the places we live, and even the Japanese music industry has changed. But I feel like Ayu... is still in her own place. She hasn't changed with the industry.

Suddenly, we're feeling left behind because we've changed, but she hasn't. I don't think she's necessarily doing anything wrong, other then ignoring her obvious need for a vocal coach. I think the problem is more with us... if that makes sense. Cause Japan doesn't seem to feel this way.

@nanakopy87: I think we're watching different concerts, but I heard them cheer incredibly loud at the beginning of CDL, and it took them even longer then usual to quiet down this year because they were all calling out to her

[njanjayrp]

First of all, if this was influenced by the recent CDL - it's certainly not the worst one she has ever had (imo both CDL 02-03 and 07-08 were pretty much worse than this one). So the answer is no - you're over-reacting. Oh as for people not cheering that much - they already knew what songs will she perform so there was no element of surprise for the most of those people, plus the sound of the file was bad enough and we could barely hear Ayu - in other words I agree with GRACE ^^

[Ayumi_lover]

Originally Posted by nanakopy87

i don't know if this is true or not.but the audience isn't that hype in CDL 09-10.i can see people are screaming from the beginning till end of the show on PCDL08-09 but i don't see this happen on CDL09-10.there is.like teddy bear.the audiences screamed.but not all...so,thats my opinion

O.o Are you serious? Audience was cheering A LOT this year! much more than at PCDL

[AyUmIXx]

whenever i watch Ayu's concerts, i always can hear clearly that they cheer very loudly!
if they don't cheer for Ayu why have to come to her concert then?

[nanakopy87]

Originally Posted by Ayumi_lover

O.o Are you serious? Audience was cheering A LOT this year! much more than at PCDL

i don't know.i don't feel they are excited
i guess i need to watch CDL09-10 again.

[foxhana]

how long has Ayu bee doing this? This is call constant. Not losing touch. After someone peaks, she remains constant. She cannot peak every year you know.. Ayu is in a transition period. After this she will peak again.

Kuu has been doing this for a few years only. of course she has new things she wants to do, yet has not done, or finish doing. and she will keep them coming.

also, there are many reasons for Ayu doing this, we are not in Japan, we don't see and hear her and her news and stuff everyday. We dont' get the littlest details from her away from Japan too. So we wouldn't know. If we live in Japan, and get in touch with her more, then we can understand, and acceptance level is higher. Again, we are not Japanese, so there are many things that are too hard to comprehend. Asians stuff are generally harder to understand than the west, because the west is all about "BOOM", but asians stuff aren't apparantly slower but better.

we need to wait. I'm not sure how her next album will be considering her recent singles, but her next next album will be much better.

Just like Elva Hsiao that singer, she had one baaad album. But her recent one is better. Transition period. Awkward period. Period of testing and experimenting, of the environment (us fans) changing as well and they need to catch us.

[love in music]

I don't think she has lost her "touch" but I think she has lost some of her creativity when it comes to her live performances. I think a new tour should have all brand new outfits and performance ideas, and so should a new CDL, it keeps things exciting/interesting. She has become too comfortable though IMO, she has her one designer for all her tour outfits, the same "lost love" theme for ballad sections in tours/CDL's, her one photographer she always uses, using the same video directors over and over again... I don't mind her using her same composers/arrangers though because I think 90% of the time they do a fantastic job, but here and there she could change it up and try working with new people, or even composing herself again.

[SunshineSlayer]

I don't think she has lost her touch, she still has her stage presence. But she has lost/is losing her voice. Also, creatively she has been pretty stagnant I feel. I really don't like it when people say things along the lines of "she's been around so long, there is nothing more she can do." Watch a Matsutoya Yumi concert or even a Johnny's concert and then say there is nothing more she can do. Or even just throw all the concert theatrics aside and do a stripped down show of just Ayu and the band because even that would be something different and mostly welcomed imo.

[AyUmIXx]

we can't expect ayu to be in her peak at all time... because no one can always bring her/his best at all time...

[Bigtop]

Especially when she is working on a new album and just recently announced a possible long tour in 2010, she might just turn things around a bit here.

[Coelacanth]

No. She just can't sing live...

People do expect a lot from Ayu because her early career was brilliant in every aspect. I'm sure it's a lot of pressure being held to such high standards, and it's her own fault for being so damn brilliant, but I mean.. at this point she's gonna continue to sing because it's what she enjoys doing. I do feel like she isn't trying as hard as she used to, I do feel that she's rather burned out after 11 years of consecutive singing and songwriting, but creativity does not come easy. We all think we can come up with the perfect show. It's easier said than done.

Concerns with creativity and "recycling" costumes/performances are imo really insignificant and superficial at the moment. We got a bigger problem: She can't sing live. She's a singer. I don't know about y'all, but I fell in love with Ayu the "musician", anything related to image is just secondary for me. I've never enjoyed many of her PV's and a lot of her stage ideas are just borrowed from Western artists such as Madonna, Michael/Janet Jackson, etc. Not impressed. (I will say that the most original and interesting stage performance she's ever done is Marionette at AT08, and that wasn't too long ago). And frankly, I don't know why we're bringing Koda Kumi into this discussion (Namie's coming next, guaranteed). I know fans of Koda/Namie are also fans of Ayu (I honestly don't comprehend why that is.. I really don't), but the comparisons are really ANNOYING. Honestly, I'm not surprised Koda Kumi is "creative" and "dares to be different". She has to make up for her music itself being absolutely awful. Nevertheless, I've heard her sing live before and she can hold her own, I'll give her that.

People want her to come out with some Madonna-style reinventions. It's not gonna happen. She's not Madonna. She does something weird and out of the ordinary, she'll alienate a lot of us, I guarantee you that. I'm a firm believer that pop music itself has run out of ideas. Everything has already been done. That's why we have this nuisance Lady Gaga with her ridiculous over-the-top image, the girl has got to be different to make a name for herself. The only way she can do that is by being as ridiculous as humanly possible. Her success came easy and it's not based on any coherent creative talent, just a bunch of nonsense she likes to call "art". Ayu is not Lady Gaga, either. And she better not try to be (still disgusted by rollin'/Sparkle at AT09).

Anyway, that's my incoherent two cents on the matter.

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

Or even just throw all the concert theatrics aside and do a stripped down show of just Ayu and the band because even that would be something different and mostly welcomed imo.

I would definitely welcome this! But you know nobody at AHS would have that. My impression of the fans here is that they are obsessed with stage theatrics and want everything bigger and more expensive, the big "diva / untouchable pop star" image. Which I enjoy.. to an extent.. her music has great theatrical potential. But idk, a nice simple live WOULD certainly be nice for a change.