Has ayu lost her touch?

[ストロボ・EdGE]

She's just burnt... like really burnt.

She should take at least a one year break where she does absolutely nothing and come back inspired. Go to Africa, build a school and help starving children or something Ayu.

Then come back and write about it.

[SunshineSlayer]

@Coelcanth
Yeah I agree. Creativity is obviously an important factor, but if she just can't sing at all, then that point really doesn't matter. I've been saying this about her voice since 2006 though and hardly anyone agreed with me then, but I could tell that unless she did something quick, what we hear today is how she'd end up. And unfortunately her voice CAN actually get worse still, so hopefully she finally starts really taking care of it unless it is already too late. And yeah, Koda and Namie really shouldn't be brought into this especially since neither of them (or even Ayu) put out the biggest and grandest stage spectacles in Japan anyways.

And I agree about Gaga too, lol.

[GRACE]

Originally Posted by 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 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.

Your two cents basically say "everything that was good is dead, and nothing will be good again." You're a positive person, has anyone ever told you that :l?

Really, all you did was say that Ayu's career was doomed for an eternity of stagnation. That'll alienate a lot more people then if she tried something different imo. That's the whole point of this thread, saying that's the PROBLEM with her. Your comments about Lady Gaga were unnecessary and really unfounded, especially after you brought up "why are people mentioning so and so" and then you bring up Lady Gaga for no reason. Classy.

If you want my opinion on what's the biggest problem in her career it's not that she can't sing live, it's that her lyrics have gone from being personal tales, to being contrived to touch someone. I don't feel like she's trying to express herself anymore, but she's trying to write something she thinks someone will relate to. What she needs is to write about herself again, and then everything will fall into place again. She's falling into music as a "career" instead of a "passion" imo, and it's not healthy for her future.

[zyoeru]

Originally Posted by ストロボ・EdGE

She's just burnt... like really burnt.

She should take at least a one year break where she does absolutely nothing and come back inspired. Go to Africa, build a school and help starving children or something Ayu.

Then come back and write about it.

That's something everyone of us could do with, imo. But yeah I think that Ayu needs a year out to re-find herself.

If Ayu wants to continue singing, that's fantastic, I love her, I loved CDL0910, I thought her vocals were great.
But you know, a lot of us don't realize that Ayu is doing this because it's what she wants to do. At this point, Ayu could retire from singing and still stay in the industry as a lyricist, but obviously she'll do whatever she wants.

But I think she needs a break from this constant music releasing and touring.

[foxhana]

kuu screams porn. i don't undestand teh comparison between kuu and ayu either. kuu's music is horrible to an extent I don't even want to see her face in people's icons and signatures. (>_<)

kuu and ayu very different, so we should stop about kuu already. since this thread is ayu based. ^^

so ayu needs to rest. but if she rest, then her competitors will come up, just like how utada kinda disappeared for a while. and ayu rise to her pedestal. O_o

[emi♡]

Originally Posted by pommy48

Spoiler:

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.

I've felt like this for about 2 years.


@SunshineSlayer: Everyone just thought her voice had changed, and was lower in 06, and therefore exciting. No one paid attention lol

@Coelacanth: Your position...about falling in love with Ayu the musician, thats also how I feel. I fell in love with the brilliance of her music, its originality and creativity.

And as a huge fan of Ayu, Koda, and Namie, I'll tell you, that I happen to like them for different reasons.

My love for Koda and Namie doesn't have to do with the creativity of their music, which is nearly nonexistent. I love their presence, and their ability to be entertaining. I also love the part of me that gets to come out when I listen to their music.


Anyway, the way I feel about Ayu is turning quickly to them. I can't love her for her music when it's total crap. It's no longer great music...just boring.

So, I love her, for her, and the person she is, and the influence she's had over my life. And I really do love her...it's just not enough for me to like her music, and it never will be.

[GRACE]

imo, I think she's complacent because nothing's really going wrong for her. As much as I think it'd destroy her position in the avex hierarchy, I think losing her streak and actually having to WORK for something for once would influence her in a positive way, I feel like she'd put more feeling into it I guess?

[Andrenekoi]

Yeah! I wish she dies before she kills her career!










Ok: Let's get the facts straight...

She can't change her stage every year, it's the most expensive part of the concert... it would coust her +- one house (and a big one) every year... it doesn't matter how rich she is, she is not made of money

Since Best of CDL, CDLs are concerts for fans... they repeat loved performances and test new stuff for the main tours... And that's very common, testing new themes/outfits/songs with a live audience before touring with that

She is testing costumes on CDLs and reusing them on ATs... Ayu is not considering her lifeless die-hard fans that download or buy every little fart she recorded by accident... She is considering her japanese/asian fanbase or casual listeners that don't dig everything she does but go to her concerts... her hardcore fans would never sell out 35 dates of arena performances

She is not repeating performances often on her tours, she only did that on Stadium Tour medley, At07 (and all the performances she reused where improved, like at02 evolution or a museum appears) and mnW at At08... other than that, only CDL performances reused on main tours of the same year and AT loved tours reused on cdls

About outfits, photographers, etc... She used only Kazu for Next Level era videos and photoshots mainly, end of NL era? She released 4 pvs, and no Kazu at all... Her fish mouths are gone... And I'm pretty sure the side-opened pants will be too on the next tour... this is not being repetitive, this is being coherent with her image for the whole era... But it's very annoying how people complains about she using the same thing for 1 year or 1,5 year like she were using it for the entire decade

Still, I agree her voice is sucking... and I believe she needs to re-learn how to use it after getting deaf... But IMO she is getting slowly better over the time...

The only main problem I have with her right now, and it's not even a new problem, is that she should slow down the pace of her releases, not cuz she is releasing bad material or that I'm afraid she is going to die or anything... but that relasing an album and a tour every year works agains her...

[Piccolo]

Lost her touch? I wouldn't so much as to say lost her touch as to say that she has changed over the years. For better or worse is up to the listener.

[zyoeru]

GRACE: Well that's true...it's a well known fact that most artists can't work unless they have tragedies going off. But that's where I'm split.

I want Ayu to make fantastic music like it was from Duty-MY STORY (even though I love all of it). But I don't want her to be the sad person she was from ASFXX-I am...

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by emiko

@SunshineSlayer: Everyone just thought her voice had changed, and was lower in 06, and therefore exciting. No one paid attention lol

The change to deeper was fine. But I began noticing probably with the tv lives of Startin' an ever so slight decline in the quality of her voice when compared with 2005 and imo it only very gradually got worse from that time on until finally we get what we have today.

Originally Posted by emiko

And as a huge fan of Ayu, Koda, and Namie, I'll tell you, that I happen to like them for different reasons.

My love for Koda and Namie doesn't have to do with the creativity of their music, which is nearly nonexistent. I love their presence, and their ability to be entertaining. I also love the part of me that gets to come out when I listen to their music.

Nicely said, and that same goes for me.

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

She can't change her stage every year, it's the most expensive part of the concert... it would coust her +- one house (and a big one) every year... it doesn't matter how rich she is, she is not made of money

You mean Avex. If they really wanted to put the money and effort in, it could be changed every year. There are a number of artists who have new stages for just about every tour. Even with the same amount of money she currently budgets on her tour, you can still come up with something else you just have to come up with more creative/effective ways of using that money.

[nanakopy87]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

The only main problem I have with her right now, and it's not even a new problem, is that she should slow down the pace of her releases, not cuz she is releasing bad material or that I'm afraid she is going to die or anything... but that relasing an album and a tour every year works agains her...

i thought she's slowing down already?she released 2 or 3 singles before an album.the only thing she's still insist to do that much is the tour.she can't stop herself from the concert!i hope she will not have a long tour,but she announced that she'll have a long tour on 2010?

[AyUmIXx]

how i wish that we all could give comments on her Team Ayu blogs, so she would know how much we want her to be better....

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by 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.

Not to be mean, but so far I've seen 2 NEWS concerts which I can't even tell apart, besides the fact they sang different songs and the clips I saw from KAT-TUN concerts were terrible - the only thing they shared were REALLY ugly, kitsch costumes and JE dancers, not to mention that in each of those bands only 2-3 people have good vocal skills (and the others are there to create hype) while the rest sound pathetic and choke to death when left to do their solos (Nishikido Ryo can't possibly handle code and ordinary), so let's not even get into that.

When left without all the noise and heavy instruments in teddy bear, she actually sang really good, so yeah she just needs REAL TRAINING. You can't force creativity on someone, she might be out of fresh ideas. Of course she is going to do the same Because of you performance! - she hasn't done it in years and there is nothing wrong with it. Could you think of a new performance for evolution every time she performs it? Hardly.

As emiko said, I don't like Ku for the same reasons I like Ayu and I could hardly say I like Amuro (even though I like her music), so yeah those two pretty much have nothing to do with this, they have their own issues.

As for the change in Ayu's voice, imo the STEP you/is this LOVE? TV lives were the very first "signal" of her voice getting worse, even though those performances were mostly murdered by Peco.

[Coelacanth]

Originally Posted by GRACE

Your two cents basically say "everything that was good is dead, and nothing will be good again." You're a positive person, has anyone ever told you that :l?

Well sorry but, music died on June 25, 2009, imo.

Originally Posted by GRACE

Really, all you did was say that Ayu's career was doomed for an eternity of stagnation. That'll alienate a lot more people then if she tried something different imo. That's the whole point of this thread, saying that's the PROBLEM with her. Your comments about Lady Gaga were unnecessary and really unfounded, especially after you brought up "why are people mentioning so and so" and then you bring up Lady Gaga for no reason. Classy.

She's not even stagnant though... not like people here are making her out to be. I thought NEXT LEVEL was a step in a different direction. But people generally didn't like it, so it wasn't acknowledged as a step in any direction, lol.

Stagnancy can be good, anyway. Honestly, as long as she's singing correctly, ***** can be as stagnant as she wants.

I know there's Gaga fans here and I know most of them would love to see Ayu try and be weird like that. Just a hunch. Mainly I brought her up cuz she is NOT an example of where Ayu should be headed. Pretentious bizarre electronic hipster pop diva = NO. Sadly, Gaga may have a profound influence on our industry in the coming decade. We're gonna see a lot of copycat acts and stars trying to compete and catch up with that - both Western and Asian, I'm sure.

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

@Coelcanth
I've been saying this about her voice since 2006 though and hardly anyone agreed with me then, but I could tell that unless she did something quick, what we hear today is how she'd end up.

It's weird because I remember coming here in 2004, and I used to talk to this one member a lot. He complained all the time about how terrible Ayu's voice had gotten live AND in recordings. I was only 14 at the time and really impressionable, so I believed him when he said A MUSEUM was horrible vocally.

I look back now and I would KILL for her to sound like she did back in A MUSEUM (where she sounds great), even if it wasn't quite as good as say, CDL 00-01 or DOME (I prefer these vocally because I think her voice here is the iconic, quintessential voice that people will remember her for and is found in many of her best recordings).

[Zeke.]

The koda-ayu-namie sea monster rears it's ugly head... Lol.

I wish people could discuss that openly in a tell-all-topic. I like them all for different reasons, with Ayu being the Goddess.

But I see nothing wrong with comparing as they all have been "the" top "it" idol at some point or another (Namie hitting up there again). So it's natural to compare as the bulk of the Japanese public favored one more than the others at different stages.

BUT:

Ayu hasn't lost the touch. I feel like she's just not releasing amazing material anymore. She could - she just needs a better team. Like, who still isn't baffled by the Sunrise/Sunset photoshoot they used? It's just not all "THERE" in perfect form anymore. I have faith.

But someone also mentioned that the "excitement" for a new release coming out isn't there. I tried not to get my hopes up for "You were.../BALLAD" mainly because I thought Days was amazing and it couldn't get better. So I was only hoping for something nice. But You were... is all shouting and the chorus is boring and ends completely wrong (the notes the chorus ends on - the ending of the song itself is perfect). BALLAD I ended up liking but it's still a song that I'll just "take and accept" - I'd trade it for something better.

I really don't know what is in store for us as Ayu fans but I hope it's good. I don't think she can rely on herself - her name - as a selling standpoint alone anymore. Now it has to be amazing - more amazing than before - or she'll spin out quickly and end up like Seiko!

Lol, but I know she'll do well and if not - I'll always support her!

[Piccolo]

On second thought, maybe Ayumi just needs more talent around her like in the past.

[ayu_ready?]

I feel like she lost her touch long time ago...I believe that after MY STORY everything went wrong. at least for me. that's what I think.

somehow. probably she's tired of smth. I can understand that though. I luv her no matter what, but being honest, the production goes very bad nowadays. I thought (m)u to be a disaster, then, I managed to get over it. I LOVED NEXT LEVEL so much except some songs. so I hoped NL would be a fresh start...

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by njanjayrp

Not to be mean, but so far I've seen 2 NEWS concerts which I can't even tell apart, besides the fact they sang different songs and the clips I saw from KAT-TUN concerts were terrible - the only thing they shared were REALLY ugly, kitsch costumes and JE dancers, not to mention that in each of those bands only 2-3 people have good vocal skills (and the others are there to create hype) while the rest sound pathetic and choke to death when left to do their solos (Nishikido Ryo can't possibly handle code and ordinary), so let's not even get into that.

But I'm not referring to any of those kinds of things (vocals, costumes etc), but about the stage and different things that can be done in a concert. And everyone in Japan knows that Johnny's concerts are spectacles - they are basically infamous for it. Going to a SMAP concert is considered a big family event and people who are able to get tickets are considered extremely lucky. I don't know what NEWS concerts you've watched (I never have seen a News concert because I generally find them to be a boring group) But every Johnny's show I have seen from SMAP concerts to Arashi concerts to the Johnny's countdown lives - it absolutely can't be argued that they put on amazing stage productions. My simple point is that there are many things Ayu could still do in her lives and that no one should even be bringing Ku and Namie into this topic when their stage productions aren't nearly as grandiose as some other acts in Japan are anyways, so really they aren't the best that Ayu could be taking cues from.

[asmAyumi1992]

Ayu don't lost her touch for me. She always fresh to me.

I don't care everyone's opinion about her latest CDL. But for me, CDL09-10 is so much better than her other CDL 3 4 years back.