Has ayu lost her touch?

[waterballoon]

Originally Posted by Batera

I don't agree with you... it is not so simple as you think.
I'm sure the band knows perfectly that Ayu's voice is getting worse, but what can they do? Just sitting beside her and tell "Ayu, get a rest and look for a vocal coach, because you're singing off-key sometimes" will not solve the problem. Actually I think they've already done this, 'cause they are all professionals, just like you said.
But behind all of it, there's a lot of other factors.
I'm pretty sure that the best the band can do is support her, and that's what they're doing.

I considered that too, but if they indeed have advised Ayu then what a stubborn mule she is for not taking in their advice lol.

[Batera]

Originally Posted by waterballoon

I considered that too, but if they indeed have advised Ayu then what a stubborn mule she is for not taking in their advice lol.

lol, I thought the same!
Ayu is so stubborn that will be difficult to convince her to take a rest! lol

[JackieRos]

People are just waaaay to picky
"OMG EWW A RECYCLED OUTFIT"
Whenever I see comments like those I just want to shove a piece of paper down their throat.

How long has ayu been singing? 11 years! don't you think that she will run out of ideas.
And when she comes up with something new/different people don't like it!

Anyways I do think she has lost her touch in fact every Asian artist that
I listen to has lost their touch so is not even just her.

I don't mind her recycling anything she can do whatever she pleases as long as I like it.
The only thing that I want her to stop doing is FREAKING USING THAT STUPID SHUYA!
uuuuuuugh so damn annoying!

[FuNsTyLe]

^ You just did the same thing now though, about Shuya...
But I agree on Shuya... Can't she find someone else?

[waterballoon]

I think she heard us cos she's using Shu-ya less, right? At least she's using Maro more often now (oh my God he's so hot in the screen caps thread).

[tourniquet]

Originally Posted by JackieRos

Whenever I see comments like those I just want to shove a piece of paper down their throat.

How long has ayu been singing? 11 years! don't you think that she will run out of ideas.
And when she comes up with something new/different people don't like it!

every time I see these lame excuses I want to shove things up their ***.

for an artist as powerful as ayu to not have the courage to stand up to the money printing machine behind her is really an evidence of the incapacity of the music industry.
basically, she's sacrificing her own sake for the sake of others. that she still goes on with her physical disabilities increasing is just proof of how crazy she is.

her being not the creative bomb she used to be is just natural. but it breaks my heart to see her as down as in the makings of her recent PVs. she's always been emo, but omg, even her fake smiles can't hide anymore how much she's lost it. she's not in touch with her music anymore, at all.

[JackieRos]

Originally Posted by FuNsTyLe

^ You just did the same thing now though, about Shuya...
But I agree on Shuya... Can't she find someone else?

shuya yuckie shhhh hes an exception he just gotta go.

Originally Posted by tourniquet

every time I see these lame excuses I want to shove things up their ***.

lame really? I don't think an artist that has so many years in the music industry
will always come up with new ideas.
So what if she recycles her ideas, concerts, outfits, dancers even.
People just cant be happy on what she does so many people didn't like
You were... pv just because it was different and
ayu even said that it was something that she hasn't done before.

People complain so much that she recycles but when is something new they still complain.

And I agree with your whole statement she will try harder even if it sacrifices her sake just for the fans.

[yatenkouxoxo]

Originally Posted by 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.

Agreed. It's a transition period and I think she's just biding her time. This has happened before, and then she came out with MY STORY. So, with the next album, I sense some change.

[waterballoon]

But Memorial address certainly wasn't a "bad" album. It felt transitional, but the songs were really good, the PVs were good... basically it felt nothing like her "transition" period now where everything looks so messy @_@

[slavomiros]

i like that version with this "transitional period"...kinda makes quite a sense to me. It's so very true that there are lots lots of things happening in background, which are out of reach for non-japanese people...so we should take our judgements with ease ;-)
Maybe some new TA diary entries will provide certain fact? we shall just wait and see. Meanwhile, lets try to enjoy the "good" of Ayu's work up to date...

[tourniquet]

Originally Posted by JackieRos

lame really? I don't think an artist that has so many years in the music industry
will always come up with new ideas.
So what if she recycles her ideas, concerts, outfits, dancers even.
People just cant be happy on what she does so many people didn't like
You were... pv just because it was different and
ayu even said that it was something that she hasn't done before.

I agree with you on the first sentence but the thing is that she potentially could widen her release cycle to improve (also external) creative input, but she's not.

I didn't know that You were... PV was so badly received here. I thought it was decent but nothing groundbreaking. on the other hand, shuya in BALLAD PV totally killed what was a very nice concept.

[gallowsCalibrator]

I don't think she's lost her "touch" exactly, but I do think that 2009 was like...mostly experimenting with different things. I really think that 2010 will (hopefully) be much much better! Even though many people are complaining that she is recycling, I agree with what several other people have said: she's been in the music industry for 11 years, and she's been really busy... It's not like it's easy to come up with new things when you're working on a new single, album, and all of those live performances ... I think Ayu just needs a long rest.

[GRACE]

Everyone realizes and understands this is her JOB right? Telling her to take a break would be like telling someone to take a break from their job for a year without pay, it's just not gonna happen. The lady just couldn't do it, she dropped a grand or more on shoes in one DAY in Hong Kong(or was it Shanghai?). If she was suddenly not having a constant source of income, she'd go bankrupt.

The fact is, whether she releases music or not, she's ALWAYS going to tour. From a business standpoint, artist make their money TOURING, not releasing albums. When they release CDs, the label makes most of the money off it. I think saying she should take a break is fruitless, cause it'll never happen from that standpoint alone. And from another, despite sounding horrible, look at her face and how much fun she's having. I can't see her wanting to give that up despite sounding like a strangled cat

[RyRyMini]

^I disagree. She has enough money for the rest of her life EASILY. She won't become broke if she takes a break. I'm sure she could get advisers for how to spend her money if she had to.

I liked her album, and Rule/Sparkle this year.

But obviously, her live performances are lacking. I was soo looking forward to hearing I am... live again, but it was soo similar to the last time she did it that I was let down. I don't know if it was the version I have (which was the most HQ I could find), but I couldn't even understand everything she was saying, it's like the band overplayed her.

Also, I'm starting to be over her dancers and all the acrobatics. It's a concert, not a circus.

[Tom Punks]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

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.

Gosh, I find that so annoying. I hate it when people say that Ayu has to recycle everything because she's been around for so long. She really DOESN'T have to recycle every single thing; she hasn't used up every idea there is in the world and I'm sure she's capable of coming up with some new ideas, especially considering the budget she has. Even I could come up with some interesting ideas if I wanted to.

And I agree with the part about Johnny's concerts. Even though I am a pretty big hater of JE, I think that KAT-TUN have ridiculously entertaining concerts despite the fact that they themselves do little more than run around yelling into the mic most of the time. (Note: I don't mean yelling in the sense that they're trying to sing like Ayu does, but they're actually just yelling random stuff.)

Anyways, on the other end, I think ONE OK ROCK also have very entertaining concerts and they don't have any huge stage theatrics. They just stand there and play. So I don't think Ayu's problem is that her concerts are too big/grand nowadays, or that it's something that could just be fixed by her doing a stand-still-and-sing-with-the-band show (because I would find that almost unbearable with her vocals nowadays). I think she just needs to find a happy medium, get a vocal coach, and get a new designer and choreographer. Her costumes are just laughable, her dancers are cheesy, and her vocals are...

And like GRACE? said, I also feel like she's just writing what she thinks people will relate to, not necessarily what she relates to. And I feel like she doesn't put as much work into her music itself anymore. If you listen to her older music, most of it clearly has a lot of thought and care put into it. Nowadays, I feel like she just does whatever sounds pretty or fun, and a lot of her songs end up having really bad or boring arrangements because of it.

[GRACE]

Originally Posted by RyRyMini

^I disagree. She has enough money for the rest of her life EASILY. She won't become broke if she takes a break. I'm sure she could get advisers for how to spend her money if she had to.

The problem is, no one here understands how musicians make their money.

Musicians only make real money by concerts, that's it. They make a royalty on CD releases, but it's not that much. Why do Japanese artists release more often the western artists? Japanese artists get less royalties for their CDs then Western artists do. When Ayu releases a CD, most of the money from it goes into avex's bank account, not her's.

She makes her money with her concerts, it's a job like any other. And she's doing it successfully despite our complaining. She's still packing arenas full of people. And I think that's part of the problem.

everything is GOOD for her right now. She's maintaining decent sales for the current CD market, she's made great digital sales this year on Sunrise and You were..., she's got a #1 streak that's poised to break the record, and she's still packing arenas full of people. In my opinion, she doesn't see a need to fix anything because nothing is being drastically hurt by it, except, apparently, the opinions of fans halfway around the world.

For her to fix whatever's falling apart would require her to lose a lot first. The only thing that's going to fix anything is her going down in flames and having to claw her way back to the top

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by AyUmIXx

^
because that's the only way to do if it's to make all the international fans happy.. and not complain anymore..
why don't we ask someone who has the access to login to Team Ayu to write the message to her? someone in AHS has Team Ayu account right?

Oh trust me, I will when I have my Team Ayu membership in a couple of months. Of course I won't write anything hurtful, but I will definitely suggest that she take better care of her vocals and ear etc. I have a feeling it'll get deleted though. Maybe not, but that's just the impression I get. I read on a Japanese Ayu fanboard that someone once posted on Team Ayu that a staff member had been rude to them at a concert and the post was deleted off of TA.

Originally Posted by MirrocleHeaven*

she just gave us some GREAT perfomances (rule at kouhaku, for example) but as always, people always see the dark part x_x

There is a big difference though between those tv performances and concert performances, often times in tv lives the band is not actually live. The singers are almost always live, but the bands more often than not are just there for show and the CD track plays for the music. Otherwise switching from one artist to the next so quickly, you would have huge sound problems yet the music always sounds perfect. I remember a Blue Bird performance on Music Station where Yoshio's guitar strap broke, making him unable to hold the guitar properly, yet the music didn't falter at all, haha. So yes, her Rule performances haven't been too bad but she can also probably hear herself a lot better and she does not have to put as much power behind the vocals in order to make them heard because the music isn't live.

Originally Posted by waterballoon

I'm exaggerating but... I'm just shocked that none of them has told Ayu about her singing problems? Lol maybe they do, but man it looks like nothing much has changed.

And the LOL-est thing is, none of her staff whom she supposedly "trusts", is gonna tell her that touring "longer" is not helping her voice? Maybe she's secretly gonna take vocal lessons at 12am every night, but I doubt that...

That's what it feels like to me. If there were anyone at Avex saying that, she wouldn't be going out on tour next year. So apparently there isn't anyone. It seems Avex is only concerned with short term profit and making money now, not on her well being as a singer and the future profits she can make if she preserves her voice. It seems to me judging from various things that she is surrounded by a bunch of "yes-men" and no one would say something that might be critical of her because they would not want to put their job in jeopardy or something. Even everyone on her team too - if Ayu's not working, they are not working, so what incentive do they have for her to stop?

Originally Posted by AyUmIXx

yes, complaining isn't illegal.. and ppl are free to express their feelings towards Ayu, but what ppl have done to make her be better singer? what fans can do? aren't we the biggest influence to Ayu?
see, in Japan, Ppl still coming to see Ayu's concerts even ppl know that her voice sucks.. so why we the international fans are making a big fuss about it? since Japanese ppl still love her? Japanese fans themselves don't even care about her vocal being so bad..i think that what Japanese fans see on her is her best efforts in making ppl happy..

So, rather than complaining, isn't it better to discuss how are we going to make Ayu's improve to be a better singer? is there any other way instead of just complaining over and over again?

Originally Posted by AyUmIXx

see, in Japan, Ppl still coming to see Ayu's concerts even ppl know that her voice sucks.. so why we the international fans are making a big fuss about it? since Japanese ppl still love her? Japanese fans themselves don't even care about her vocal being so bad..i think that what Japanese fans see on her is her best efforts in making ppl happy..

Just like here, there are lots of Japanese fans who don't like what has happened to her voice. It's not like Japan is just happy with everything she does no matter what. You can go to any number of Japanese sources and see people talking about how she wasn't as good as before. As for TA, all the people in it are hard core fans and are likely to stick around even if things are really bad, but that doesn't mean even they are 100% satisfied either they are just more likely to overlook it than the average person. The Japanese personality also comes into play to, they are not very good at voicing criticisms even if that may be what they actually think.

And people have been suggesting what she could do to be better, many times.

Originally Posted by tourniquet

but it breaks my heart to see her as down as in the makings of her recent PVs. she's always been emo, but omg, even her fake smiles can't hide anymore how much she's lost it. she's not in touch with her music anymore, at all.

I actually noticed that as well in the PV making ofs for Next Level. It did not seem to me like she was really enjoying what she was doing compared to her other PV making ofs.

[Mai82Go]

^How does that work on TA anyway? Can TA members leave messages on a message board, or can they post replies to her blog entries?

[FuNsTyLe]

I think the last 3-4 years she has been the same, nothing nw. Nothing!
You know before how you could listen to one of her songs or see a phjoto of her and say "Oh, this is 1999-Ayu" or "Oh, this is 2002-Ayu"
She just looks the same now, never something new, all her songs sound alike. Rule, 1Love, Talkin 2 Myself, Because of you, Game are all several years apart, but they sound exactly the same "Dark" Rock....

And what about when Ayu a few months back said that her new single would be just super cool and innovative and not sound like anything she's done before?! And what do we get? Three new songs that off course sound nice, but they sound just like her previous songs...
It wouldnt hurt her to experiment with new music styles, like I mentioned Bold & Delicious. This was a nice change, even though the songs aren't among her best...

We are her fans, we support her, spend a lot of money on music, merchandise, dvds and concerts. Of course we are entitled to share thoughts about her career and how it has become rather dull the last years. I can already predict how 2010 will look: A new single in march-april, probably "rock", then in August we get a pop-ish summer single with a PV from Hawaii or Guam or somehere tropical, maybe two songs that are themed up like the last couple of years have had. Then an album sometime next autumn with the usual Ayu-songs.

And off course all singles alnd album will come in three versions with slightly different covers and different PV's inside, so we'll have to buy all three.

[Izzette]

I truly believe she is now singing to just keep fans happy. She hasn't had a "REALLY" good song since Glitter/Fated in my opinion. Well somewhat Green/Days was pretty good, but certainly not up to her standards. Rule/Sparkle were acceptable. Sunrise/Sunset were okay. But nothing really blowing fans away I don't think, Such as Heaven, Evolution, STEP you, and all those major hits of hers. Also you have to factor in people don't buy CD's as much as they used too.

But as a whole Ayumi's music to me hasn't been the same since the breakup with that one guy. If you notice right after that her lyrics seemed to of lost that epic feel, or maybe it's translations that have lost that powerful feel. I'm not sure who to blame there. Songs like Curtain Call and Days sound good musically, But they aren't good lyrically.

And though I love You Were/Ballad I feel like it's her first song shes actually tried on in sometime. I don't know maybe that's just me, but it feels like she actually worked hard on it. The lyrics though don't appeal that much to me, the music/vocal and videos are very creative and good to me. But I also feel in a way that Avex is trying to make her fail. I know that sounds weird, but they to a point have some control over her, someone needs to set her down and be like DUDE-ette you gotta come clean about what the issue is, before you release another "semi" good song, I think she's hiding something.. That legendary woman just isn't the same anymore. And it makes me sad. She was such a role model to me in her early years. I always wanted to be like her someday. (well not so much the fame part, but the highly respected as a person part). But now I look at her now and It's like a stranger. I don't even know who this woman is using the name Ayumi Hamasaki. I must quote a Japanese song "Where is that warmth?" or something similar to that.

And for my avex trying to fail her theory.. Did any of you notice Ai Otsuka's cover for "love is best"? Did you see how crappy it was? I had almost pre-ordered it but when I saw the cover it turned me away. So little things like that make me wonder if Avex is trying to fail it's artists, by allowing something like that to reach the public.

Idk I'm sure i've written up a million contradictions to myself, I don't debate or war really well in forums. Just random thoughts I've come up with.

I hope 2010 brings Ayumi back... But i'm sure some of you noticed a change between Guilty and Next Level.. Guilty was a very unique different CD cover. Next Level was americanized. I feel that the Japanese music industry is becoming to American.

And to me an American I try to find other styles of music cause American music gets old, and with Japanese more and more using american styles... Is there even a good authentic music to listen to anymore?

*breathes* I could rant on for hours, but I'm going to come to a close