Ayu ~Anything Goes~ XVI

[Bigtop]

Getting prepped up for the next edition of AHS' general discussion thread about anything Ayu.

Because I have an exam on Monday, so I might not visit AHS on Sunday... (well, it is Sunday already, but it's still "Saturday night")

[4Seasons]

Does anyone know why she isn't releasing singles anymore since Love songs, except Feel the love? Has she or someone else official talked about it?

I don't understand.
She already broke her #1 streak and every artist releases singles. It was cool with Party queen but now I'm just sad that we get all the new songs in big chunks. A member named Zeke(Zede?) wrote a beautiful post about it in another topic.

[//ABEST]

Originally Posted by 4Seasons

Does anyone know why she isn't releasing singles anymore since Love songs, except Feel the love? Has she or someone else official talked about it?

she did Zutto... / Last minute / Walk tho

Originally Posted by ExodusUK

This is really the most amazing thing.

ugh i love this performance to death

[ExodusUK]

This is really the most amazing thing.

[4Seasons]

hmm. subpar vocals and melodramatic acting.

Arena Tour 2006 acoustic performance is an emotional masterpiece. (although her vibrato is a bit heavy at the end, which I don't mind)

[4Seasons]

That was a physical single release?! Oops!
I guess I'm confused because Love songs is the last album she had a proper era/cycle for. After that it's all mini-albums, no-singles, or a digital single, a random physical single here and there, or release the album in parts...
Why doesn't she do 2-3 singles before each album anymore? Has that been discussed on this forum? I'm curious to read the reasoning.

Edit: Btw totally OT but I love Finland XD I've been to Helsinki airport too many times haha. It's really my favorite airport and Finnish women are so pretty. If you're landing late in the afternoon the sun casts super long shadows from the trees all over the snowfields. It's really beautiful!

[Baernash]

Originally Posted by 4Seasons

Why doesn't she do 2-3 singles before each album anymore? Has that been discussed on this forum? I'm curious to read the reasoning.

Times has changed, sales has changed and way of promotion has changed. It's not just Ayu but other artists too (except teenage-idol bands and H!P). It's kinda like asking why they still not releasing her PVs/concerts on VHS/VCD. People loosing interest in buying physical singles and there are multiple reasons behind it:

1) a lot of people prefering digital downloads nowadays - most of people will rip CD and will listen to it on their smartphone/mp3 players anyway, so CD is more like collectible for fans by big "F"
2) content of singles started to shrinking - remember old Ayu' singles? Some of them had multiple remixes and 10-11 tracks at all. Later you could find just A-song, B-song and instrumentals, so if you're not a fan who cares for instrumentals you don't really need it in your collection
3) agressive marketing discouraging to buy - when they started releasing each single in multiple versions (with small difference like different bonus track or just cover), they tried to "encourage" fans to buy more than 1 version (to raise sales) but it didn't work. Fans would like to have all versions to not miss any content (like remixes or making of movies) but not everyone could afford it, so some of them just stopped to buy any version. In the past when she was releasing for ex. 3 singles + 1 album per year than total cost to buy it was Y6839. Now just to buy 1 single in all versions available you would have to spend about Y6000... Besides don't forget that japanese society is rotten by consumerism - they love to buy but they don't really have enough of pace in their appartments to keeps all the goods.
4) Ayu lost a lot of "old" fans - she changed and her fans changed too. People matured but can we say the same about Ayu's music? Sorry but no. She was composing songs, had great PVs with meaning... Now she's giving us things like "XOXO" and "Lelio" - empty, mainstream, Americanised.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by Baernash

Times has changed, sales has changed and way of promotion has changed. It's not just Ayu but other artists too (except teenage-idol bands and H!P). It's kinda like asking why they still not releasing her PVs/concerts on VHS/VCD. People loosing interest in buying physical singles and there are multiple reasons behind it:

1) a lot of people prefering digital downloads nowadays - most of people will rip CD and will listen to it on their smartphone/mp3 players anyway, so CD is more like collectible for fans by big "F"
2) content of singles started to shrinking - remember old Ayu' singles? Some of them had multiple remixes and 10-11 tracks at all. Later you could find just A-song, B-song and instrumentals, so if you're not a fan who cares for instrumentals you don't really need it in your collection
3) agressive marketing discouraging to buy - when they started releasing each single in multiple versions (with small difference like different bonus track or just cover), they tried to "encourage" fans to buy more than 1 version (to raise sales) but it didn't work. Fans would like to have all versions to not miss any content (like remixes or making of movies) but not everyone could afford it, so some of them just stopped to buy any version. In the past when she was releasing for ex. 3 singles + 1 album per year than total cost to buy it was Y6839. Now just to buy 1 single in all versions available you would have to spend about Y6000... Besides don't forget that japanese society is rotten by consumerism - they love to buy but they don't really have enough of pace in their appartments to keeps all the goods.
4) Ayu lost a lot of "old" fans - she changed and her fans changed too. People matured but can we say the same about Ayu's music? Sorry but no. She was composing songs, had great PVs with meaning... Now she's giving us things like "XOXO" and "Lelio" - empty, mainstream, Americanised.

The most I can't disagree Japanese society is very consumist, I can't stop finding ironic the first point I bolded considering you are from the UK, one of the central countries of the capitalist world. Really, "rotten"?

The 2nd point is a mere matter of opition. If japanese people were bothered by Ayu not being mature enough they wouldn't be buying music from AKB48, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Kana Nishino and Namie Amuro who is almost 40 and still releasing teenager club music. That being said, everything she done from RnRC until now, Colours being the only expection, dealt with more adult subjects than most of pretty much any act who is having yearly top 10s in Japan right now.

And your post is filled with factual errors, the digital music market in Japan is very small compared to the physical one, and acts considered cool still have people willing to buy several copies of the same single, that's what make AKB48 have strong sales, for example.

Ayu isn't releasing as many physical singles because there's no market for her to do that. She is selling alright considering everything (her peak being over 14 years ago, her super exposition during most of her career, she not fitting in current jpop trends that prefer digestible idols, her controversial personal life, etc), but if she starts flooding the market with new releases she will lose money both because there isn't enough people buying her stuff and because production costs depend on volume to get lower (what means the most copies of the same single produced, the less the single costs to the label) and she would be putting tons of physical releases to not really get much profit from it. Also teenagers are the core consumers of the music market, and almost 20 years into her career, there isn't millions of teenagers willing to buy 3, 4 copies of her same release like it happened back in the early 00's, that's why acts tend to release less physical stuff the older they get.

[Baernash]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

The most I can't disagree Japanese society is very consumist, I can't stop finding ironic the first point I bolded considering you are from the UK, one of the central countries of the capitalist world. Really, "rotten"?

Japan is the only country I know where people buying stuff (just because it's trendy), not using it and than (during "spring cleaning") throwing it away. You walking the street and you passing by sealed items, new toys, clothes with tags etc. dropped next to litters. I live in UK since few years and sorry but you can't compare consumist here to what's going on in Japan.

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

If japanese people were bothered by Ayu not being mature enough they wouldn't be buying music from AKB48, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Kana Nishino and Namie Amuro who is almost 40 and still releasing teenager club music.

Japanese pop-culture was always cheesy and they always loved what's cute and young. People loved Ayu for maturity when she started her career as teenager, so they expected she'll continue this direction - they don't need her to act like she's 14 years old. If they want to listening silly songs with immature vocals they have a lot to choose from. Whatever you're calling Namie's recent releases this style works for her but things like "Feel the Love" not working for Ayu.

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

And your post is filled with factual errors, the digital music market in Japan is very small compared to the physical one, and acts considered cool still have people willing to buy several copies of the same single, that's what make AKB48 have strong sales, for example.

Do you know why digital downloads are not popular? Because instead of buying online is cheaper to rent CD, rip it to hard drive and return it (yes, it's legal). And people who buy several copies of '48-bands or H!P sigles selling them as fast as full album is released or sometimes even faster (you can see how many used copies is available on auctions and in 2nd hand shops day after their release).

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

Also teenagers are the core consumers of the music market, and almost 20 years into her career, there isn't millions of teenagers willing to buy 3, 4 copies of her same release like it happened back in the early 00's, that's why acts tend to release less physical stuff the older they get.

Sorry but in 00' teenagers didn't have to buy 3-4 copies of the same single/album, because there was just 1 version.

[luna7996]

Originally Posted by Baernash

Sorry but in 00' teenagers didn't have to buy 3-4 copies of the same single/album, because there was just 1 version.

1999
#neverforget

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by Baernash

Japan is the only country I know where people buying stuff (just because it's trendy), not using it and than (during "spring cleaning") throwing it away. You walking the street and you passing by sealed items, new toys, clothes with tags etc. dropped next to litters. I live in UK since few years and sorry but you can't compare consumist here to what's going on in Japan.

Don't call other people's culture rotten. Actually, don't even do that with your own, this is disrepectuful as fuck.

Japanese pop-culture was always cheesy and they always loved what's cute and young. People loved Ayu for maturity when she started her career as teenager, so they expected she'll continue this direction - they don't need her to act like she's 14 years old. If they want to listening silly songs with immature vocals they have a lot to choose from. Whatever you're calling Namie's recent releases this style works for her but things like "Feel the Love" not working for Ayu.

And again, her only recent album with a more carefree sound was Colours, and again, her lyrics are still dealing with far more mature themes than the stuff you usually find on the Japan's top ten. It was a experiement, it was 2 years ago and it doesn't define the standart of her releases. About people liking Ayu because of her maturity, I don't know how far that's true when we talk about casual listeners, who are the ones that can actually make someone sells millions of copies of anything, considering the biggest part of her mainstream hits consist of innofensive summer pop tracks and pedestrian romantic winterish ballads. She was even seemed as some kind of dumb cute girl for a good part of her career.

Do you know why digital downloads are not popular? Because instead of buying online is cheaper to rent CD, rip it to hard drive and return it (yes, it's legal). And people who buy several copies of '48-bands or H!P sigles selling them as fast as full album is released or sometimes even faster (you can see how many used copies is available on auctions and in 2nd hand shops day after their release).

Most of the big acts among the teenagers actually have pretty strong digital sales, people like Kana Nishino, whose digital sales from singles are far larger than the physical ones. This doesn't happen with anyone that got big after the digital era, or whose sales are aimed to anyone who started buying music before the digital era. Still, neither the start of the digital era or the rented CDs are affecting Ayu as much as lack of interest from the public.

Sorry but in 00' teenagers didn't have to buy 3-4 copies of the same single/album, because there was just 1 version.

They always did buy 3, 4 copies of the same release, and not only in Japan. I'm not talking about artists who release the same stuff with different covers, I'm talking about people actually buying several copies of the exact same release in order to prove their artist is the biggest when chart numbers are out.

[mizuki-7]

^
If I remember well she stated in interview back to the day L was released something like if it was the last single of her carrier it would be ok ! Singles are useless today we are not in 90's/00's anymore ...they don't have the same impact as before and are not promoted as well like before ! Furthermore singers in japan with long career tend to release less and less singles at some point ... Ayumi is definitly not an exception !

[4Seasons]

Originally Posted by mizuki-7

^
If I remember well she stated in interview back to the day L was released something like if it was the last single of her carrier it would be ok ! Singles are useless today we are not in 90's/00's anymore ...they don't have the same impact as before and are not promoted as well like before ! Furthermore singers in japan with long career tend to release less and less singles at some point ... Ayumi is definitly not an exception !

I wouldn't call singles useless, especially lead singles are critical for album promotion, but I understand your point and thanks for the interview excerpt

[Yoake]

4Seasons : In the Majesty Japan 2013, Ayu said that :

"Up until now I always had certain time frames in which I had to release something. […] But I will no longer create music for the sake of a release date. I will collect songs that I like and once I've reached the stage of thinking 'this will become an album' I will create an album. […] I think the pace at which I live my life will change a lot."

source

sorry I coudn't find the full translated interview. It's possible that's the reason why she didn't want to release single anymore (even if we had Feel the love/merry-go-round and zutto... singles since then but she surely created the songs and decided the release date as a single thereafter).

[oaristos]

"Up until now I always had certain time frames in which I had to release something. […] But I will no longer create music for the sake of a release date.

That's weird because, if I recall correctly, she didn't even have any lyrics written when Zutto... was announced, and everything had to be done in, like, a month. That's why the single version of Last minute has really poor mixing.

I understand her reasons for not releasing singles anymore, I just wish she could really follow that line of thought. Her albums usually sound like a collection of tracks that were clearly written at different times and that's why they never "flow nicely" throughout the record--and that's a problem with Japanese pop music in general, in my honest opinion.

[4Seasons]

Originally Posted by oaristos

That's weird because, if I recall correctly, she didn't even have any lyrics written when Zutto... was announced, and everything had to be done in, like, a month. That's why the single version of Last minute has really poor mixing.

I understand her reasons for not releasing singles anymore, I just wish she could really follow that line of thought. Her albums usually sound like a collection of tracks that were clearly written at different times and that's why they never "flow nicely" throughout the record--and that's a problem with Japanese pop music in general, in my honest opinion.

Yoake, thank you for the quote.

I think for Party queen it worked well. She made a concept album and the songs wouldn't work as singles. That seems to be her reason: wanting to release an album as a "whole". Tell a story, instead of release a single for sales.

However, after Party queen she really hasn't done that, so she might as well have released more singles. I think she might just be more comfortable following her own schedule and creating what she wants without worrying about singles and release dates.

It's a pity, because we used to have new Ayu material several times a year, and it was great fun to guess what the album would be based on the singles. Now just an album drops and that's it....nothing else to look forward to for another year+.

Even with western releases at least we have PVs and performances to look forward to AFTER the album.

The MADE IN JAPAN era would've been a lot better if she had released a new single before CDL and performed at CDL. Then another single in March, then release in May at the start of the tour. (Of course, this is assuming the album is really just going to drop soon without any singles.)

Edit: Lastly, singles are just vastly superior in quality to album tracks. I generally prefer album tracks: they're more interesting and raw. But it's just fact that singles are much "better". They have to be. I kinda miss knowing that each album will have at least a few of those "hit songs". Those songs act as a guide to the rest of the album.

[truehappiness]

With an artist as diverse as Ayu, you will never get that "nice flow" which will often get interpreted as samey or boring if ever attempted IMO.

[Andrenekoi]

Colours maybe being the exception, IMO all of her albums since Love songs actually have a pretty nice flow sound wise

[truehappiness]

I feel the same way tbh. Rock'n'Roll Circus was a bit of a departure since she purposefully went for very different things IMO.

[280301]

I hope we get some interesting PVs for MADE IN JAPAN. I don't mind if she sticks to her minimalist trend, but gawd, I would love to see her do something completely over the top like 1LOVE, Ladies Night, or fairyland.