When you became an Ayu fan, what was it like?

[Delirium-Zer0]

I've been an Ayu fan for way too long now. I dunno what it's like to be a new ayu fan now, or three years ago, or five, or seven... And I'm curious what it was like for all of you guys when you first became an Ayu fan. What was the overall community like? how easy/hard was it to find info on ayu? What confused you? What excited you?

I discovered ayu in spring 2000, just as the Trilogy was being released. We'd already seen the "vogue" and "Far away" covers and we were waiting with EXTREME anticipation to see what the "SEASONS" cover was going to look like - we knew it was intended as a trilogy, and we'd noticed that the "Far away" cover was the full photo from "vogue." We were wondering if "SEASONS" would maybe be the whole, un-ripped photo, or if it would show the photo sitting in the shallow water on the beach. It was really fun to guess - and then we were all very disappointed when the cover was just Ayu holding the photo & staring into space. XD!!

When Duty came out, it took forever to find mp3s of the whole album. There were mp3 sites out there at the time, but torrents didn't exist yet and neither did file storage services like Megaupload. Alot of mp3s were hosted on free web hosts, so bandwidth was a serious issue for sites that had them. I could download maybe 2-3 mp3s from an album before their bandwidth would be gone for the day/week/month, lol. Nowadays thanks to torrents and MU, people get entire albums days before release, and listen to them entirety multiple times before the CD is even officially out. That was REALLY rare back in the day - getting an album via p2p programs like Napster took several days sometimes, even if they were available that early.

A BEST.... oh man, what a fiasco. NO ONE had real rips of that album ANYWHERE, they were all just constructed from ayu's previous releases. It took me MONTHS - not kidding here, MONTHS - to find mp3s of all the re-recorded/re-mixed tracks.

Speaking of remixes, ayu-mi-x II NSMM was really hard to find as separate mp3s, the only mp3 going around was one big long one.

Mislabeled mp3s were also extremely common back in the day, as data on Ayu's albums and sound clips and such were basically nonexistant. You had to download separate mp3s one at a time rather than full albums, so I would like, download individual songs and sorta "construct" ayu's albums. LOVEppears, as you might imagine, was full of wrongness, lol... I had WHATEVER "version J", immature "JT Original CM Mix," and monochrome "original version" on there, for example, since I had no idea what versions of those songs were used on the album until I got it as a christmas gift.

I also had from your letter "dub you crazy mix" and And then "Acoustic Orchestra version," and since they weren't labeled as such, I had no idea they weren't the originals.

Okay, I've rambled WAY too much here. Time for your stories everyone!

[KarenPang]

I have been a fan of her for 2-3 years now , which started during the Secret era . I was getting very bored with Eng music & my younger sister suggested to me to try jpop because she has been listening to it for a very long time , like about 8 years now

I was so lost initally . I didn't know who should I listen because Eng & Japanese music are so different if you know what I mean & I started initally with the more well known female solo artistes & naturally ayumi was the very 1st jpop artiste I listened to

Secret was the 1st album I listened/bought of her . Song wise , it was About You (I heard Dearest before but I didn't know it was her back then lol) while for PV wise , it was BLUE BIRD

I joined AHS last year on my 21st birthday & I have to say I didn't regret doing so & let alone decide to cross over to pursue/listen to jpop music full time .

I'm sure in many ways or another , everyone has been inspired by her be it musically or not . I sure have & it looks like I'm not going anywhere for that matter

[ownsarai]

I also became a fan in 2000, a friend of mine had a lot of her music and videos on his computer that his ex wife had acquired in China on her visit to see her family. A lot of things excited me back then about Ayu. I remember watching the CM's for poker face and A Song for xx and just thinking, she just so darn CUTE!

I had my friend burn me some of her music because at the time I couldn't afford to buy any of her goods. I pretty much wore that CD out. My ex got so tired of hearing Ayu everyday. xD I also remember seeing evolution for the first time, I thought Ayu was taking sort of a "diva/sexy" persona on at the time. I don't think it was until about 2003 or so when I really started looking up stuff on Ayu, doing graphics and so on. Mainly because I had my own computer at that time.

One of my best friends gave me her copy of A Song for xx because she was just a casual Ayu listener and she knew how much I loved her. And whenever we went out to karaoke, I would make her sing Dearest for me. haha I'm sure she still hates me for it. She also tried Depend on you, but she always tried to get her voice pitch high like Ayu's but could never do it, so she would end up skipping the song.

I still love Ayu as much as I did when I first discovered her. She's been pretty much a constant in my life. All of my friends know that I love her.

[TakaSama]

Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0

There were mp3 sites out there at the time, but torrents didn't exist yet and neither did file storage services like Megaupload. Alot of mp3s were hosted on free web hosts, so bandwidth was a serious issue for sites that had them. I could download maybe 2-3 mp3s from an album before their bandwidth would be gone for the day/week/month, lol. Nowadays thanks to torrents and MU, people get entire albums days before release, and listen to them entirety multiple times before the CD is even officially out. That was REALLY rare back in the day - getting an album via p2p programs like Napster took several days sometimes, even if they were available that early.

Mislabeled mp3s were also extremely common back in the day, as data on Ayu's albums and sound clips and such were basically nonexistant. You had to download separate mp3s one at a time rather than full albums, so I would like, download individual songs and sorta "construct" ayu's albums. LOVEppears, as you might imagine, was full of wrongness, lol... I had WHATEVER "version J", immature "JT Original CM Mix," and monochrome "original version" on there, for example, since I had no idea what versions of those songs were used on the album until I got it as a christmas gift.

Oh man, all of this ^ . I first heard Ayu around the release of Ayu-mi-xII, from a website that had only one working .mp3 link to a remix of Seasons. However, at the time I didn't like it! Mostly that was due to it being a remix, which I wasn't a fan of anyway, and the fact that said remix highlighted her squeaky notes!

Later that same year though, the president of my high school Japanese club (basically the president, me, my friend, and her sister! That's it!) gave me the Seasons single since he got DUTY the album. I definitely liked it better hearing the original, but what really stuck out to me was the Acoustic Orchestra version of To Be. I overplayed that one. My single had a scratch on it near through the last few tracks though, and no cover, so I quickly grew tired of it.

I saw various other Ayu things here and there after that, but what really made me a fan was the Endless Sorrow music video. Once I saw that, I HAD to have the single and the album I am... (I got the single once I found out that the album wouldn't have the original version). These became my first official Japanese CD purchases from CDJapan in the winter of 2002!

[MissElin_]

The first time I saw/heard Ayu was in 2002. My friend showed me this music clip (it was Fly High PV) and we both got stuck. Reaaally stuck. Since that clip I started to dowload some of Ayus music that I keept listening too all the time. Naturally, it was Fly High and evolution that warmed my heart the most in the begining. Then it was like that for a bunch of years. I just listened without taking more intrerest in her, then just by listening to her music.

While I already got many many songs at my computer with her (but the same problem as Deli wrote about, I had no idea how the albums looked and all mp3 was kind of a mess), MY STORY was the first album I got after copied it from my friend who bought it. That copied CD is totally lost now since I listened to it soooo much, kind of obsessive. Lol. But I was pretty naive back then. I really didnt think farther then just to my local CD store, I thought I would never get an Ayu album if I didnt find it in the local CD store (my wish ) or by ebay. But I was reaaaally scared of ebay for some reason. Lol. Didnt trust it at all. But around here I started to take more intrest in Ayu as a person too. I looked at YouTube ALOT. Many many PVs, some documentrarys etc etc. But here once again, I was pretty naive, I couldnt imagine that there was any forums about her. But I was really green in that area by then since I had never heard about forums almost. Lol.

Anywho, in 2007 my friend showed me this ebay auction with Ayus A BEST 2 black and white in it. It was a preeorder auction kind of, cuz the albums itselves wasnt out on release yet. But we decided to buy on pair of each album fron the auction. Then our CD's came home we watched the DVDs nonstop. Like a spell or something. It was amazing really. Haha. XD After here I stared to reaaally obsesse about Ayu. Me and my friend also saw these concert tickets for AT07 in Hong Kong that we dreamed for so long to go to. It was kind of crazy. I wanted to talk about Ayu so much, my friends got a bit tired. So I googled after forums and found JPM right away. I was sooo happy to find a forum to talk Ayu in and get so much info about her too. And now I got tips abut this internet store called YesAsia and my ordening time (and less money time) got started!

After some time I started to plan to go to Japan (since the Hong Kong trip didnt work out) for real. I started saving up money like crazy, made a very exact excell project where I wrote up everything that I bought! As a student you dont have much money in the beginning but I really saved up for this, is there a will, noone can stop you! ^__^ My parents got really supriced and cheered me on about this cuz I have never been that good with my economy like during that time. Then finally I took a plane to Tokyo in december and went to see Ayu on CDL07-08. After all this time, since my first discover of Ayu back in 2002, I was so happy to see her. I cried for like 7 songs. XD Here I also started to by everything, starting up my Ayu collection.

Then in the spring 2008 I went to AHS and here I am now. At AHS I found not only more Ayu news and stuff but also friends that likes Ayu just as much as I! Now Im living in Tokyo and have already seen Ayu 3 more times since CDL and I will see her more times. I cant help it, but I love to be one of her fans! And I tend to stay like this for so long I want to, cuz this makes me happy. ^__^

Sorry for not making it short. >.< Didnt know I had so much to write about really. XD

[aura~]

The first time I listened to ayu was just for the release of Memorial Address... so at the end of 2003... sooo 6 years already?? OMG I didn't realise how long I've been an Ayu fan since now... I was 12 by the time (almost 13)!! but I always have the feeling I'm a newbie in a lot of things... how to say...As some of you, my feelings about Ayu's music hasn't changed at all since I first listened to her... they have increased!! ^^

I wasn't aware of how all worked in Japan and for Ayu until My Story and Fairyland release... I didn't know that Ayu was selling new songs as singles the whole 2004... I was only searching for pics and songs in programs like emule... and without order I had them all in my computer... I even thought that one Naturally remix was actually the original track... xDD

So between My Story and Fairyland I became aware of this selling pattern of single-> albums, and found AyumiPrimenova with lyrics, so I could put each song in their respective album... by Fairyland release I already knew pretty much about Ayu's biography and I found a smaaall Catalan Forum (where I'm now one of the moderators) about Ayu and was then that I could follow Ayu's career fully, her TV appearances, magazines everything!! So (miss)understood album was the first time I was aware of an album release and the searching of mp3...

It was a bit crazy before it... And not because the info wasn't there... it's only that I didn't know where to find it... When I came to AHS (not joined, only came here XD) was around between BLUE BIRD and 1LOVE/JEWEL when everybody was expecting for a single... And by this time all the downloading thing and search of scans and so was pretty similar as how it's nowadays... but before I got to AHS... I suppose all depended more of bittorrent and e-mule kind of programs... and now there's a lot of direct download... Si in terms of getting info I haven't suffered a lot...

And was for Secret album when I started buying Ayu's album through YA ^^

So I was a fan (a lost one, but a fan after all) for MA release, and became fan with knowledge by Fairyland single XDDD

(I think I've wrote tooo much XDD)

[ayumasing]

I believe the first time for me was when around...gosh, I might get this messed up-but around the Memorial Address era (so 2003, yes?). Wow, that is a long time....

Anyways, we moved from Japan to America at the end of 1998 (right after Ayu's debut, so if I stayed longer, I might have been an Ayu fan since the start!), and I am Japanese through mommy's side. So I think she wanted me to hear Japanese music to stay in touch with my Asian side, and found a website called "Music Fever" (Though I do not know if it is still up). Out of all of the artists, I listened to Ayu the most, and voila! I started from there! Though I am pretty sure she somewhat regrets it, because for me, all it was was "Ayu this!" or "Ayu that!" for YEARS (I think now, even to this day!). The first CD of hers I got was either Inspire or Forgiveness through my relatives in Japan, and my first albums (at the same time) were Rainbow and Duty at Christmas! Still a loyal Ayu fan, though, even if I am listening to other artists!

[~StarCatcher~]

I first listened to Ayu back in the spring of 2007.

I ordered A BEST 2 Black and White with the CDL DVD and I fell in love with her after a few times of listening to her songs.

I was a huge Kumi fan before and I wanted to start getting more into J-Pop and since Ayu is so famous I wanted to start with her!

And I didn't like her as much as Kumi even now not, but I love her and her music so much,too.

Everytime I listen to her music or see her I am happier=)

So I know her since A BEST 2 era!

♥

[AyumiBest]

My friend advertised BLUE BIRD on her blog. She was all like "YOU MUST GET THIS SINGLE!" and all that. Of course I didn't buy it but I did listen to the single and thats when I became a casual listener. I wasn't a fan yet until I went to Hong Kong in the winter. It was after Secret was just released and I thought "eh...why not?" and bought the album. I got hooked onto the DVD and I would keep watching it every night. The album was meh...to me at first but it grew to become my favorite. After watching ayu OVER and OVER again, I became a fan.

I decided to search up on her. I did a LOT of research. Because of my research, I am proud to say that I wasn't a victim of the 'Butterfly - Ayumi Hamasaki' thing. The funny thing is that I heard of this forum while searching up Ayu but didn't actually click on the link until I was searching up Jolin Tsai.

I didn't join AHS yet. I actually didn't want to join AHS. I thought everyone would be mean to me. Of course I sucked it up and joined anyways. I don't regret it. If it wasn't for this forum, I'd be completely lost on Ayu News and I wouldn't be introduced to new artists. Of course now I know that most of the members here are nice.

I guess that's my story. XD

[aloopy]

I randomly found out about her on the internet early 2004 and I downloaded a few songs, Trauma and Dearest and some remixes, and decided to burn the songs on a CD.
then I forgot about her for a while. but 2 years later I found the CD with the songs, and I enjoyed them more than before, so I downloaded more songs and watched the AT05 concert and got hooked .. yeah

[Earth_maiden]

Ayu didn't really interest me until my friend got me a copy of her (miss)understood album back in 2006. After listening to it a few times I was hooked.

[C+R+E+AYUMI]

Interesting question! LOL

I became a fan of ayu in early 1999, God, i was only 12 that time.
the very first song I listened to was Depend on you.
Suddenly a feeling of surprise and excitement came on me.
I was so stunned by the force of the song and then strenght of her lyrics.
At that time my feelings, my law self confidence were much nearer to Ayu feelings and I could find in her music the courage to live my blank days.

Then I started to download as much as I could but I could find so little mp3 s at that time that it was difficult to build a proper fandom shrine.
That time there weren't many websites talking about her and most of them were japanese so i found pretty hard searchin some infos about her.

I collected every picture i was able to find and every little interview was like a Bible to me.

The very first album i've been able to purchase (and it was so difficult for a teenage Italian girl without CC and most of all without money) was A BEST.
A japanese friend of mine gave me as a gift one copy, followed by I am.
Listening them 10 times a day I believe I ruined those copies and i oughta buy 2 more copies for my collection later.

My excitement touched the top in I am...-Rainbow era. I was totally addicted watching her PVs on my laptop times and times a day, trying to imitate her style as well.

The first delusion I had was when I discovered Memorial Address should have been a mini album....during MA era my economy was much better and I couldn't wait to pre-order the new full album.

Actually I still follow her here daily but i'm no more so addicted as that time.
maybe I cannot find myself no more in her lyrics as I could years ago.

[Suteisi]

Such a good idea for a thread!!

I love to read about everyone n_____n

I learned about Ayu around April 2003. I had this downloading system (kind of like limewire, but older, I can't remember the name) on my computer when I lived with my father, the internet was REALLY slow. So on day after I watched Macross Plus (old anime movie) on TV, I decide to go on the internet and search for anime music. I downloaded a few songs and in those songs, there was Ayu's evolution I really liked it, so I tried downloading more and I also downloaded music videos. The first music video I downloaded was RAINBOW. I thought the concept was so cool, with two Ayu's, one running after the other. I loved it!! I didn't understand what she said, but I could really feel the emotion through the music and the way she sang. So I downloaded as many songs as I could find, and I listened to her very often. I burned some CDs so I could listen while in my room on my old stereo.

On Summer of 2003, I traveled to Montreal with my mother and I found a small shop that sold Ayu CDs and DVDs (they were bootlegs but I didn't know!!) I bought A BALLAD and A MUSEUM Dvd. The time in between then and 2005, I don't remember well. I think I stopped listening to Ayu for a while, it was an off and on kind of thing. In 2005 (I think it was end of the summer), I traveled to Toronto and my boyfriend (now ex, haha!) showed me this shopping center called "Pacific Mall" where there is all things asian. I found Ayu CDs!! These ones were real! I bought MY STORY CD+DVD and I remember the feeling! It was such happiness!

After that, as time went by, I found different websites to download more of Ayu's music that I never listened to before. I moved out of my town and didn't have a good job, so I couldn't buy anything online, I didn't really care though. I listened to Ayu off and on. I came back home around Feb 2007, and then I was lost and confused (long story) so I fell back into Ayu's music. This time it was more than ever! I was going through a lot in my life and I could related to a lot of Ayu's songs and music.

When re-started working full-time in September 2007, I started shopping on eBay for Ayu stuff because I could not find anything in my city. And then I found AHS around Christmas 2008 and finally I made an account!! I was so happy to find this forum! And I learned so much since I joined here! There was so much stuff I didn't know about you. And even now I feel I don't know a lot.

Ever since May 2008 though, I really started buying all of Ayu's CDs. I went back to the asian mall in Toronto and bought as many CDs as I could get my hands on.

And this year, in October 2009, I traveled to Tokyo to see Ayu in concert for NEXT LEVEL AT09! I was so happy to see her for real, I cried a lot during the last show, especially at the end!!

I've always loved Ayu very much, but since I was in Japan it has grown even more! I never thought I could love a singer so much!! I'm even thinking of getting an Ayu logo for a tattoo. I hope I can travel to Japan, and see her again next year n____n Love Ayu! <3

[Delirium-Zer0]

I am loving these stories.

What kinds of websites were around when you became fans? Who remembers acrea for xx, ayuppears, hce's site, clubayu, or ayu_everfree?

[aura~]

^I don't know these XD As I said AyumiPrimenova helped me a lot... I saw a lot of CD's and I couldn't understand why she had so many!! XDDD And there's a channel for teenagers here in Catalonia that broadcasted a lot of anime, and in their forum I found a thread about Ayu with the link to catalan forum about Ayu... After that AHS came, and it's like the best place for Ayu fans!!!

Neffiline, you're so lucky to had been in an Ayu's concert... with all the crisis, and me starting university, going to live to Barcelona in a students flat... means a lot of money... for my career I'll have to be living in Japan for a whole year!! I'm so happy but this will be in 2-3 years -_____- and don't know if I'll be able to se ayu before!!

[dawnss]

I am so embarassed to say this, but I first loved Ayu when I listened to Dearest, on you guessed it, Inuyasha. However I did not become a fan until I found youtube in the summer of 2006 and the only songs of hers that I listened to were Blue Bird, Carols, and Dearest other than that I was so scared to venture off into the unknown. Thankfully I did and I can say that this is the only artist who I have listened for over three years. For me that is a long time, so yeah. However before I was a member of AHS I remember watching the pv for Jewel and moments over and over again. And I remember the excitement I got when I heard part of me for the first time or when I listened to some of the tracks on secret. So i do kind of miss the nostaglia, that word is in Carols LOL I am soo weird sometimes, that I get when listening to those songs. However I have drove myself crazy with some of my first Ayu faves like bluebird (I can not even remember what it sounds like but I would probably go crazy if I heard it), voyage (I am soooooooo sick of that song I have probably listened to it 10 or 15 times in a year), dearest (I am beginning to love somewhat again), and I sometimes love to listen to carols.

[Kanariya.]

I just discovered her this year. ^^ Thanks to Youtube where I found a video of her. ♥ The song played in this video was Rainy Day and I listened to it over and over again. At the first listen I was thinking "What a beautiful voice this cute asian girl has". Then I tried to find more about her and discovered her huuuuuuuge discography. She has sooo many songs and I wanted to hear them ALL. XD
I`m very excited about the new single "You were.../BALLAD" and hope it will be much better than Sunrise/Sunset, because I didn`t really like them. v.v

[TeddyGrahams]

Back in the days, in the 2000s everyone who had interest in Japan at the time was a fan of Ayu. It started with my cousin saying Ayu is the best singer in the world by showing me a PV of Evolution. I liked it, but music didn't become important in my life until much later on. Then Dearest from Inuyasha appeared, it was my favorite ending. I thought her voice was still horrible thou. Haha.

A friend of time introduced me to more ayu again with Duty, Loveppears, and I am... albums. That didn't interested me at all, I told her she's crazy to be obsessing so much.

Warped to 06, Summer. Bluebird = instant love. Her music helped me cope with real life issues. I just looked on Wiki and Primanova site for lyrics. Finding her music wasn't hard since it's the age of file sharing. Went on AHS around the end of 06 with secret on board. Just lurked around, mostly in the news thread for a while because I was only interested in new releases. The forum was more active, even with down times I guess. But my thanks goes to Masa, a shout out. "thank you very much for your translations." I swear, without him and AHS, I wouldn't be a fan today.

Secret was like my fandom finally started. It erupted! At the time, Ayu was getting better and better, with a rich history. It was so much fun looking through her past with MU, My story, Memorial Address, Rainbow etc. And it was fun looking towards the future with A Best 2 heading on the way.

My fandom slowed down considerably Ayu with the release of T2M... I literally had to force myself to listen to decision and it to like them... making me stop listening to music all together, but that changed with GUILTY. Since then, she hasn't disappoint me and my fandom is fairly stable. But I finally became a member of this site, due to the Anticipation of GREEN/days. *-*!

Funny how now, there seems to be less and less ayu fans around. Like my cousin and friend stopped listening to ayu, well at least to the new releases. There's like no real ayu fans in my japanese classes either. The Japanese international students know about her, and buys her stuff, but aren't really fans either. They only say, "oh I liked her old songs and a few new songs so and so." Even my teachers don't like her. I find it weird because before, I was under the impression of she was liked by the majority of people who are into JPOP.

[noidea]

This month, around a week ago, was my first ayu-versarry, I have known her since ~July 2008 though. I saw a list of the most expensive PVs of all time and when I noticed there was "some japanese girl" on it I looked the video up. It was fairyland, I liked it, but didn't love it, ripped it and put it on my iPod, overplayed it and forgot about it.
In november that year, I thought about her again, visited a website that let you watch all of her pvs and started from mirrorcle world. It was instant love, within the next minutes and hours I watched most PVs back to MY STORY era, I only liked around a third, downloaded all the songs, overplayed them, downloaded GUILTY album - FELL IN LOVE!
It was the same month I registred in this forum^^
I remember we just got the two PVs for Days and GREEN and were all looking forward to PCDL very much...and that her fall was a giant shock!

[koumori]

I was introduced to Ayumi through an old friend over four years ago ~ Now, I live in England .. and I had no contact with the J-Pop scene other than through anime and manga, so when I heard her for the first time, the first thought that came into my mind was "Wow, the music is so different .."

I was around twelve and I had never heard anything like it. I'd listened to foreign music before a lot; my step-dad had an old CD of Deep Forest which is an old band...if you could call it that, they're pretty unique. I was addicted because they were different. Although I liked various English bands, I was still more into that old CD. And as soon as I heard Ayumi, I was addicted.

~ That same old friend let me borrow her single CD only of Moments, where I promptly listened to it non-stop for the week she let me borrow it and I learnt all the words, recording it in 30 second pieces on my phone xD

~ I started to download her music slowly..everytime I got a new song, I'd be so excited to hear it ~ Knowing nothing of MP3 sites and the like, I depended on random song-sends from that old friend and some from Limewire..because of this, the songs I owned were very random. But when I listened to them I get so nostalgic..I know the words to each one and I remember the feeling of first getting into Ayu <3 Some of those are still alone, ourselves and Rainy Day ~

~ Then, I started getting more into Ayumi as a person. I researched everything I could about her and started to introduce people to her music. I still had no concept of her albums or PV's or anything..

~ I started to get her songs into albums and to watch her PV's and lives on youtube. I think this was where I became really obsessed, late 2007-2008.

~ I lost all her music earlier this year and I had to wait three months to get it back. Her last single didn't really stand out and I'm now more into other artists..however, I'm hoping this new single catches back that Ayu sparkle for me <3