Ayumi is going downhill...

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by Kikaru

^I think she got number 1 by barely few thousands. I know for B&D it was like by 5K or something...

And for Heaven, it was beaten for the number 1 spot by kanjani8 in the first couple of days, but edged them out to be #1 for the week.

Originally Posted by nmskalmn

Assuming this is correct in 2005 only 2 female artists had a higher sales number for a single than Ayu. I don't think that's just getting lucky.

But that is for 2005. We are talking about her releases starting with B&D which does not count for the oricon charts in 05. And yes, for Heaven in 2005 she did get lucky.

[nmskalmn]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

But that is for 2005. We are talking about her releases starting with B&D which does not count for the oricon charts in 05. And yes, for Heaven in 2005 she did get lucky.

In the end HEAVEN still sold more CDs than the other female artists.

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by nmskalmn

In the end HEAVEN still sold more CDs than the other female artists.

But that is not what is being talked about. It's who is number 1 for the week, not who is the top selling female artist. But, if you want to talk about that, this year so far in sales for female artists, Ayu has been beaten by:

Ayaka - I Believe
Koda Kumi - Koi no Tsubomi
Koda Kumi - You
Otsuka Ai - Freinger
Yuna Ito - Precious
And based on the first week sales, it is quite possible that Ultra Blue will sell more than m(U) unless it really drops like a rock next week.
That's already worse than last year and the year isn't even over yet.

[Mad_Cactuar]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

But that is not what is being talked about. It's who is number 1 for the week, not who is the top selling female artist.

I'd rather Ayu sell 1 000 000 copies and be number 2 than for her to sell 50 000 and get number 1 by having no competition.

Yes, I do think ULTRA BLUE is indefinitely going to beat (miss)understood's sales.

[Kikaru]

^I think she got number 1 by barely few thousands. I know for B&D it was like by 5K or something...

[Dreamland]

I'll worry about ayu when everybody (and I do mean everybody) who is a fan of hers stops liking her not just people on ahs and not just tabloids ...

I'm not gonna give up on her that easily

[gx3394]

Ayu just wants to be the original ayumi hamasaki.Be herself.no matter go downhill or up .She doesnt care now.U can figure out from MU to now.She already been the TOP for many years.nobody could keep it forever.And its tired to keep it.Ayu wants to rest.Just like Madonna.Ayu is not the most popular one in japan.But nobody could ignore her exists.Real fans wont care about the sales,the PVs.how cheap it is ! Real fans just would wait there for ayu new songs.listen ayu's music.care about what she wants to do.Just support her ever.otherwise.U are the a fake fan like those millions who dropped ayu from A-BEST till now.Be real fans.otherwise shXt up plz.

[SunshineSlayer]

^ ^ Oh geeze. Far be it for anybody to want Ayu's products to be better.

[js_surrealism]

From what I've gathered from the first post, the guy only thinks Ayu's going downhill because he doesn't like what has been released so far; so is there anything concrete to suggest a drop in the quality of music? Clearly no.

I think that the decline in her sales is inevitable. Every Little Thing used to sell MILLIONS, but they aren't now. The same can be said for artists like Kuraki Mai and B'z, but everybody's taken a dip in sales. Instead, increasingly, we see newer (less established) artists taking top spots and selling bucketloads (in today's terms, relatively. for instance, 500k in today's terms would probably equate a million a decade back). So the only I can conclude is that audiences are fickle, they like obsessing themselves with different things every now and then, we can't expect someone to hold the top spot forever, and the same applies for Ayu. It's all a matter of popularity and changing tastes as opposed to a real decline in the quality of her music. If quality were a factor at all, we'd see many artists doing much better in terms of sales, and similarly, we'd see the 4312412984109 Johnny groups getting dropped.

And on a more personal note, the PVs. I get extremely touchy when people start using words like "teeny bopper" and "Britney Spears copy" to criticise PVs like the ones for Startin' and Beautiful Fighters. Because I refuse to believe that Ayu is mindless/stupid enough to blindly rip someone else off and expect her fans to think it's original! Anyone with an ounce of sense would realise that such a blatant imitation or the Kill Bill outfit or retro songs must have been a deliberate attempt at parodying these things. They are meant to be funny, and I think Ayu's intelligent enough to know that copying Britney won't exactly elevate her popularity.

Lastly, on opinions. Is it wrong to have an opinion? Absolutely not. Is it wrong to attempt to justify your opinion and put it in a light that suggests it is anything more than just your perception (i.e. Fact) with things that are clearly not absolute? Verily Yes.

[Dreamland]

Originally Posted by js_surrealism

From what I've gathered from the first post, the guy only thinks Ayu's going downhill because he doesn't like what has been released so far; so is there anything concrete to suggest a drop in the quality of music? Clearly no.

I think that the decline in her sales is inevitable. Every Little Thing used to sell MILLIONS, but they aren't now. The same can be said for artists like Kuraki Mai and B'z, but everybody's taken a dip in sales. Instead, increasingly, we see newer (less established) artists taking top spots and selling bucketloads (in today's terms, relatively. for instance, 500k in today's terms would probably equate a million a decade back). So the only I can conclude is that audiences are fickle, they like obsessing themselves with different things every now and then, we can't expect someone to hold the top spot forever, and the same applies for Ayu. It's all a matter of popularity and changing tastes as opposed to a real decline in the quality of her music. If quality were a factor at all, we'd see many artists doing much better in terms of sales, and similarly, we'd see the 4312412984109 Johnny groups getting dropped.

And on a more personal note, the PVs. I get extremely touchy when people start using words like "teeny bopper" and "Britney Spears copy" to criticise PVs like the ones for Startin' and Beautiful Fighters. Because I refuse to believe that Ayu is mindless/stupid enough to blindly rip someone else off and expect her fans to think it's original! Anyone with an ounce of sense would realise that such a blatant imitation or the Kill Bill outfit or retro songs must have been a deliberate attempt at parodying these things. They are meant to be funny, and I think Ayu's intelligent enough to know that copying Britney won't exactly elevate her popularity.

Lastly, on opinions. Is it wrong to have an opinion? Absolutely not. Is it wrong to attempt to justify your opinion and put it in a light that suggests it is anything more than just your perception (i.e. Fact) with things that are clearly not absolute? Verily Yes.

amen

[Mad_Cactuar]

Originally Posted by js_surrealism

From what I've gathered from the first post, the guy only thinks Ayu's going downhill because he doesn't like what has been released so far; so is there anything concrete to suggest a drop in the quality of music? Clearly no.

I think that the decline in her sales is inevitable. Every Little Thing used to sell MILLIONS, but they aren't now. The same can be said for artists like Kuraki Mai and B'z, but everybody's taken a dip in sales. Instead, increasingly, we see newer (less established) artists taking top spots and selling bucketloads (in today's terms, relatively. for instance, 500k in today's terms would probably equate a million a decade back). So the only I can conclude is that audiences are fickle, they like obsessing themselves with different things every now and then, we can't expect someone to hold the top spot forever, and the same applies for Ayu. It's all a matter of popularity and changing tastes as opposed to a real decline in the quality of her music. If quality were a factor at all, we'd see many artists doing much better in terms of sales, and similarly, we'd see the 4312412984109 Johnny groups getting dropped.

And on a more personal note, the PVs. I get extremely touchy when people start using words like "teeny bopper" and "Britney Spears copy" to criticise PVs like the ones for Startin' and Beautiful Fighters. Because I refuse to believe that Ayu is mindless/stupid enough to blindly rip someone else off and expect her fans to think it's original! Anyone with an ounce of sense would realise that such a blatant imitation or the Kill Bill outfit or retro songs must have been a deliberate attempt at parodying these things. They are meant to be funny, and I think Ayu's intelligent enough to know that copying Britney won't exactly elevate her popularity.

Lastly, on opinions. Is it wrong to have an opinion? Absolutely not. Is it wrong to attempt to justify your opinion and put it in a light that suggests it is anything more than just your perception (i.e. Fact) with things that are clearly not absolute? Verily Yes.

Worrddddd.

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by js_surrealism

From what I've gathered from the first post, the guy only thinks Ayu's going downhill because he doesn't like what has been released so far; so is there anything concrete to suggest a drop in the quality of music? Clearly no.

I think that the decline in her sales is inevitable.

Yes, it is inevitable. But I think I've addressed this in a few other posts - it is the very sudden and sharp drop in popularity since last fall that has me worried - this wasn't a gradual tapering off.

Originally Posted by js_surrealism

Lastly, on opinions. Is it wrong to have an opinion? Absolutely not. Is it wrong to attempt to justify your opinion and put it in a light that suggests it is anything more than just your perception (i.e. Fact) with things that are clearly not absolute? Verily Yes.

And that also goes for everyone who thinks the music lately has been excellent.

[js_surrealism]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

Yes, it is inevitable. But I think I've addressed this in a few other posts - it is the very sudden and sharp drop in popularity since last fall that has me worried - this wasn't a gradual tapering off.

No, her sales have been dropping since the Free&Easy single (The Daybreak single was limited so let's leave that out). The more significant drop in sales for the B&D single was probably due to the fact that everyone knew her album was coming out within weeks of the single's release and that the album would contain both new songs on that single. Her later remix albums have had sales that pale in comparison to her earlier ones, does this mean that the quality of the remixes in these later albums are necessarily worse? I don't think so (though I may be very, very wrong here because I will admit that I sometimes am unable to tell remixes apart)

And yep, I'm not exactly claiming that her recent music's excellent, but I like it well enough, the music makes me happy.

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by js_surrealism

No, her sales have been dropping since the Free&Easy single (The Daybreak single was limited so let's leave that out).

Like I've been saying through the whole thread, I'm only refering to her releases since B&D on.

[ayu_fan929]

Originally Posted by js_surrealism

No, her sales have been dropping since the Free&Easy single (The Daybreak single was limited so let's leave that out). The more significant drop in sales for the B&D single was probably due to the fact that everyone knew her album was coming out within weeks of the single's release and that the album would contain both new songs on that single. Her later remix albums have had sales that pale in comparison to her earlier ones, does this mean that the quality of the remixes in these later albums are necessarily worse? I don't think so (though I may be very, very wrong here because I will admit that I sometimes am unable to tell remixes apart)

No, because after Free & Easy, H was released and that sold a million. And on top of that Voyage and & sold more than Free & Easy. forgiveness was when her sales dropped, but she went back up with 'No way to say', which she became consistent all the way to HEAVEN. In less than a year, she has had a non-million selling album, and 2 singles (it wasn't just B&D, Startin' too, and it was an entirely new single) that weren't near her 'typical/expected' sales of 300,000.

Remix albums, I can see sales going down, because they don't have any new material and there really isn't much of an incentive to buy.

Originally Posted by js_surrealism

If quality were a factor at all, we'd see many artists doing much better in terms of sales, and similarly, we'd see the 4312412984109 Johnny groups getting dropped.

No, because fangirls are powerful. They'll stay with their group until i) the guys get married ii) either the fans themselves grow old and die or the members.

Originally Posted by emikotogawa

what do you mean she got lucky? How much did they sell? I mean, did they sell more than others?

HEAVEN sold like 5000 more than K8. I call that lucky.
Bold & Delicious/Pride sold 1300 more than Seishun Amigo which was 2nd, and like 2100 more than Remioromen which came 3rd

Originally Posted by gx3394

Real fanswont care about the sales,the PVs.how cheap it is ! Real fans just would wait there for ayu new songs.listen ayu's music.care about what she wants to do.Just support her ever.otherwise.U are the a fake fan like those millions who dropped ayu from A-BEST till now.Be real fans.otherwise shXt up plz.

who made you the controller of the universe?

[Mad_Cactuar]

Maybe after BLUE BIRD, it's bound to change? So far promotion for BB has been good, so I think we can see a sales rebound.

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by MC Tatsujin

Maybe after BLUE BIRD, it's bound to change? So far promotion for BB has been good, so I think we can see a sales rebound.

Yeah, there should be a sales bump considering the promo compared to the promo of Startin'. If there isn't a significant bump though, then Ayu definitely has her work cut out for her.

[ImpactBreaker]

Of course ayu is going downhill - it's the snowball effect all the way down. No it's not my opinion, I actually don't really think she's going downhill. It's just that it gets really simple why people think her releases are getting worse and worse. If ayu had never released trauma, vogue or SEASONS but had released all the rest of the songs she released so far and she just decided to release these songs now, a lot of people would rate them plain, mediocre or unoriginal. It's just that each time ayu releases something new, things get at a proportion of a snowball. Some people (not all who have a negative opinion) seem to be living to compare anything new that's released with her previous stuff. Now just think a poor single like BLUE BIRD being compared against all the best songs of A Song For XX, LOVEppears, Duty, I am..., RAINBOW, Memorial adress, MY STORY and (miss)understood? Her next single will be these+BLUE BIRD compared against it and next year when she has already released her album and is going to release a new single, the snowball will grow bigger and people will use that (unfair) fact to judge that ayu's positively declining for sure.
For example, people blame ayu for recycling at this moment, making songs such as BLUE BIRD (comparing it to fairyland + July 1st + w/e...) and yet they say her best album ever is "I am..." which I think is her only album that batantly recycles a song that is already in the album (featuring a song and a recycled version of it: yeah evolution and UNITE!).
It's pretty easy to say that all of her past stuff was beyond excellent, when you actually only have in mind her best hits and mentally erase all the regular/average songs released back then.

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by ImpactBreaker

If ayu had never released trauma, vogue or SEASONS but had released all the rest of the songs she released so far and she just decided to release these songs now, a lot of people would rate them plain, mediocre or unoriginal.

While I agree with some of your post, I don't think you can necassarily make that claim - there is no way to know that for sure. A good song is a good song regardless of when it is released.

[SheFliesHigher]

Originally Posted by ImpactBreaker

Of course ayu is going downhill - it's the snowball effect all the way down. No it's not my opinion, I actually don't really think she's going downhill. It's just that it gets really simple why people think her releases are getting worse and worse. If ayu had never released trauma, vogue or SEASONS but had released all the rest of the songs she released so far and she just decided to release these songs now, a lot of people would rate them plain, mediocre or unoriginal. It's just that each time ayu releases something new, things get at a proportion of a snowball. Some people (not all who have a negative opinion) seem to be living to compare anything new that's released with her previous stuff. Now just think a poor single like BLUE BIRD being compared against all the best songs of A Song For XX, LOVEppears, Duty, I am..., RAINBOW, Memorial adress, MY STORY and (miss)understood? Her next single will be these+BLUE BIRD compared against it and next year when she has already released her album and is going to release a new single, the snowball will grow bigger and people will use that (unfair) fact to judge that ayu's positively declining for sure.
For example, people blame ayu for recycling at this moment, making songs such as BLUE BIRD (comparing it to fairyland + July 1st + w/e...) and yet they say her best album ever is "I am..." which I think is her only album that batantly recycles a song that is already in the album (featuring a song and a recycled version of it: yeah evolution and UNITE!).
It's pretty easy to say that all of her past stuff was beyond excellent, when you actually only have in mind her best hits and mentally erase all the regular/average songs released back then.

This is a great post! I think what you said is so true.