Is the "same old sound" the real reason of Ayu's declining sales?

[bluegie]

Originally Posted by EndOfTheWorld

Up until Party Queen I basically loved everything Ayu did. Her lives, her fashion, and most importantly the music. For me, the number one main issue is the music. Each album since Party Queen seems to have a small handful of memorable songs and the rest just blur together in my memory. I'll be watching a concert sometimes and it will take me a minute to try and remember what song she is singing.
So I don't want the the old Ayu back or the old sound back. But I wish Ayu's music would have the same quality as the older albums. The compositions, arrangements, and production of recent stuff just has nothing interesting going on. This is how the term "typical Ayu" came to be.
I can go back and listen to albums from the past and always enjoy them, I personally find that revisiting the old albums is rewarding. You can go back to those albums again and again. But after one listen of TROUBLE, I felt I had experienced everything it had to offer already. There really isn't a reason to go back to TROUBLE. I actually rarely listen to any albums after Party Queen. Usually just a few select songs from each album that standout and that's it.

I guess I'm on the same boat. Party Queen was exactly the moment I stopped buying her cds. Of course there were moments I wasn't too into ayu (I am... to RAINBOW era, which I felt she was overexposed, and also that her singles sounded similar to me; GUILTY, which I didn't really like her music that year), but she always had something to offer that I could come back to the fandom (I even bought a 2nd-hand I am... a few years after, cuz it was actually a good album). Gotta be honest, to me Party Queen was exactly the moment she started messing up her music with her private lives. Of course she always talked about her feelings (in her real life) in old albums, but those were subtle (at least compared to her albums after PQ). Also, like you said, many of her songs sound same to me. I tried listen to TROUBLE and I couldn't tell the difference between a few tracks (of course the lyrics are different, but I dunno Japanese).

It's sad because I still listen to her music often. After all, I followed her music career from 1999 (the day when LOVEppear/appears released) till spring time 2012. Her music has been with me for my entire 20s. Technically no one can replacahsforum.com0hikki) in my heart.

Originally Posted by tokyoxjapanxfan

And the older she gets, the harder it’ll be to get sales back. (I’m not banking on any form of comeback anymore.)

The focus was solo female artists, many who were essentially copies of Ayu. Much like AKB’s popularity resulted in the flooding of the market with other indistinguishable groups.

Not to mention, her brand/image is all over the place. It’s hard to really gauge her music anymore, and to be honest, predictability sells in Japan. Even at her peak, she was still predictable in sound. She shook things up with her look more so than music. Also, she had a normal release pattern. Had normal promotional structures. Dahsforum.comagazines, etc.

I stopped wishing for a 2nd peak for her a few years ago. Judging from what she has been doing for the past few years, I doubt we'll ever see a comeback. This is sad, cuz I've been wishing for another peak since 2008 (literally a peak like A BEST era), when it's obvious that her sales start declining faster than average. Namie could get one with BEST FICTION, hikki could do it after she returned from hiatus. But like you said, I don't see her passion towards image/songs anymore.

I really missed the solo female artists era. Hikki, ayu, ai-chan, Kuu... only hikki survives in general public. (I wasn't really into Namie until PLAY, so didn't count her here ).