The 17th Tasty Apple & Cinnamon Thread of Utada Hikaru!

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

i still pretend like her first name is utada...even though i know it isnt, and have always known it isnt. i think it just sounds better hahaha. on my playlist i have ayumi hamasaki, koda kumi, utada hikaru, namie amuro---even though both ayu and namie are listed by first name, and kuu and hikki are listed by last name--i think they sound better xD

[CHE.R.RY]

Originally Posted by bluegie

True I agree . But what I love about her Japanese songs is that they are like poets with deep meaning reveal the facts about life (e.g., Deep River, Dareka, COLORS). Some are pretty straight foward and... just beautifully written (e.g., FoL, First Love, letters, etc.).

Oh yeah I completely agree that Hikki's Japanese lyrics are MUCH better and have a whole lot more meaning than her english ones. I was just trying to saying something positive about Exodus cuz we were kind of putting it down. It's a great album, but I think her Japanese works are x100 times better.

Originally Posted by tokyoxjapanxfan

i still pretend like her first name is utada...even though i know it isnt, and have always known it isnt. i think it just sounds better hahaha. on my playlist i have ayumi hamasaki, koda kumi, utada hikaru, namie amuro---even though both ayu and namie are listed by first name, and kuu and hikki are listed by last name--i think they sound better xD

I too, call Kumi and Hikki by their last names often. Whenever I talk about Hikki I never call her by her fan name, I say 'Utada'...'Hikaru' always seems like her last name rather than her first name for some reason lol. And I refer to Kumi as 'Koda' a lot when I say her name aloud even though ocassionally I'll call her 'Kumi'.

[ayuayu798]

^ I love her japanese lyrics soo much more than her english lyric, I'm pretty sure that if hikki were to put more of that magic into her english lyrics she would go far in America. My favorite lyrics from her are be my last and COLOR, those lyrics touch my heart!!

Originally Posted by criminal

I agree that Hikki's getting even more popular and stuff, but in order for it to be a real comeback, she would have had to leave.. or something, which she didn't. She's been relevant and popular all these years, now she's even more relevant and popular. :O

She kind of did leave though... I mean, she didn't have an original album for 4 years, which is huge in Japan. And I'd definitely call her ULTRA BLUE singles-era a major slump, so she has had a big comeback from that. I'm so happy for her.

On another note, if (when) this album hits the million mark, do you guys think it'll be the last female studio album to sell one million? I think so. I can't see any of the big female artists right now (Kuu, Namie, Ayumi) hitting one million again, and the newcomers (Aoyama Teruma, ?, ?) aren't in a position to sell that much.

[Tom Punks]

^ Ever? No. That'd be crazy. Unless they stop releasing physical CDs anytime soon.

[DOLCE]

^^^Do BEST albums count?

I'm praying that Namie's new one will hit the million mark . Ayu, Kuu & Namie just need to release amazing singles like Utada did for Heart Station.

[Zachery!]

I defintely agree.

I can't see any female artists selling a million anymore, which is sad.

[GRACE]

With sales on the decline as they are, I could see it happening soon, but not with Heart Station, maybe in a year or two we'll have our last million seller.

[bluegie]

I dun think the female million seller will be gone soon. Look at ayaka's debut album, who would have thought that she could sell over a million copies? So this tells any new female artist may have the unknown power to sell probly more than million copies.

As for boys... well the johnny boys are never album sellers... And I dun see EXILE will be able to pull off million seller in about 1 or 2 years (once the public are bored with them). Again new power is also born without being noticed. Also, we can't ignore those good vocal boybands such as kobuburo.. So who knows?

And hikki... well she will be doing so perfectly on digital sales anywayz, so I'm not really worried about her. I'm worried about ayu instead, as her selling power is getting less..

[Celaphorce]

Originally Posted by dddaiyamondo

She kind of did leave though... I mean, she didn't have an original album for 4 years, which is huge in Japan. And I'd definitely call her ULTRA BLUE singles-era a major slump, so she has had a big comeback from that. I'm so happy for her.

On another note, if (when) this album hits the million mark, do you guys think it'll be the last female studio album to sell one million? I think so. I can't see any of the big female artists right now (Kuu, Namie, Ayumi) hitting one million again, and the newcomers (Aoyama Teruma, ?, ?) aren't in a position to sell that much.

Well Ayaka had great sales for First Message even if it did take a while, I'm kinda feeling like Sing To The Sky will hit the million mark too.

[[kokoro♥]]

Originally Posted by tokyoxjapanxfan

i still pretend like her first name is utada...even though i know it isnt, and have always known it isnt. i think it just sounds better hahaha. on my playlist i have ayumi hamasaki, koda kumi, utada hikaru, namie amuro---even though both ayu and namie are listed by first name, and kuu and hikki are listed by last name--i think they sound better xD

Same x3 I have them exactly like that also haha.

Originally Posted by Tom Punks

^ Ever? No. That'd be crazy. Unless they stop releasing physical CDs anytime soon.

Well, the only female million sellers that I can think of in the past few years are First Message and Black Cherry. It doesn't look good for girls hitting that mark in the future after HEART STATION, IMO.

Originally Posted by Celaphorce

Well Ayaka had great sales for First Message even if it did take a while, I'm kinda feeling like Sing To The Sky will hit the million mark too.

I really don't think that ayaka's new CD will do that well... unless you count WINDING ROAD, the singles pretty much all tanked. I don't know about ORIGINAL albums, but I think Namie's best might hit 1 million, or at least close. Although I have my doubts since Ayumi's didn't do that well.

[Celaphorce]

^I don't base album sales on their preceding singles...it seems most of the time that some singles are good but the albums suck, imo the singles for Heart Station weren't all that, but the album as a whole was an instant hit!

[Melon Panda]

Originally Posted by Celaphorce

^I don't base album sales on their preceding singles...it seems most of the time that some singles are good but the albums suck, imo the singles for Heart Station weren't all that, but the album as a whole was an instant hit!

I completely agree! I thought I'd hate HEART STATION because the singles bored me, but the album flowed incredibly well and I was an instant fan.

[Celaphorce]

^My point exactly, I though that (miss)understood would be awesome because of Step You/Is This Love?, Fairyland c/w Alterna, and Heaven c/w Will, all amazing singles, but the album overall was complete mediocrity.

So in the end my point is you can't base album sales on single sales, it just doesn't add up.

[bluegie]

Originally Posted by Celaphorce

^I don't base album sales on their preceding singles...it seems most of the time that some singles are good but the albums suck, imo the singles for Heart Station weren't all that, but the album as a whole was an instant hit!

Partially true, but in ayaka's case it will be different. There's a stable fan base for hikki (let's say currently at least 700K people will still buy hikki's album no matter what). Also, in general public's eyes, hikki tends to give a better performance on single songs AS WELL AS album songs. Therefore, people feel "safer" to buy her album.

Ayaka is still pretty new to the industry, and it's always a formula that when the artist is quite popular with the debut, his/her 1st album tends to sell better. Once the heat is leaking, the artist will fade off unless s/he has been providing better music as s/he goes on. Ayaka didn't do too well during the last year, so I dun really see her next album will be a million seller at all.

Originally Posted by Celaphorce

^I don't base album sales on their preceding singles...it seems most of the time that some singles are good but the albums suck, imo the singles for Heart Station weren't all that, but the album as a whole was an instant hit!

I wasn't talking about quality, or how much you like the song... just that album sales are easy to predict by singles sales. Her singles have not been doing well lately, so I'd say it's safe to say that her new album won't hit 1 million. I really think HS may be the last female studio album to hit that mark ever in Japan.

[Luv ~Venus~]

OMG! Hikki's #20 today...I hope she can get back into the top 10 tomorrow. At least POL is till hanging in the top 20 too. Since there are a lot of new releases this week, I wonder will it go back to the top 10. *can't til after LF airs to see its results on POL/HS this week*

As for last million female album, I hope Hikki accomplish that record like Ayu did with H single. I wanted Hikki to break her record so bad with FOL. Maybe Hikki shoulda had a DVD verison plus 4 different covers to get it to get to a million.

[ayuayu798]

^ I know I was very confident that she would hit the million mark with FOL, I love that song,it was such a let down when she didn't, but it still sold pretty well...

[Amai Yume]

Yeah, it may not have hit a million but she's got the best selling album in Japan and let's face it, who else possibly has a chance of beating it. Go Hikki!