[News] Utada Hikaru named the most influencial artist of the decade by Japan Times

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by DEEP RIVER

I don't think its really fair to call out the journalist on having too much bias....even we here at AHS are biased...if this was posted as "Ayumi Hamasaki named the most influential artist of the decade" surely everyone would be nodding their heads in agreement.

Possibly true. But the difference is, we are not journalists.

[ayu_ready?]

great news

[ayumisrael]

I also agree that hikki is one of the most influential artists of the decade in japan but I highly dislike how the journalist degraded the others in that sense it's just biased and ruins the article.

hikki had the biggest influent musically, but he totally turned down the influence that ayu and namie brought with both their music and fashions. And it's not like it was a small influence in the music part.
I wish he would also mention the hard work ayu and namie are doing just from their often tourings interacting with their fans and sing them their songs, since that's a thing for example that hikki lacks. hikki works hard too but that's only when she records songs and put out new albums and does a tour which is rare from her since 2003-2004.
There are many props for ayu and namie that hikki doesn't have that an artist should or would do even though her music is a top notch. But of course why the hell that journalist "should care".
The stuff about kuu were really unneccesary.

[ImpactBreaker]

Unprofessional. This guys needs to go back to journalism classes Shame on "Japn Times" for hiring bad writers with no professional skills.

[hpg23]

The article is quite unprofessional, but I agree that Utada is the most influential female artists of the 2000s, closely followed by Ayu. They are kinda tied in my opinion.

Namie doesn't even gets close, same for Koda and other influential female artists of the decade.

[keepsgettinbetter]

Oh please! If Utada was replaced with Ayumi all of you would be praising the writer and this article.

[Andrenekoi]

^I prefer Hikki over Ayu and I'm not in love with the article... It's not a matter of Hikki, or Ayu or Misono being named the most influential, it's a matter of bashing everyone else to make Hikki look good.

He even praised her by her failed USA career and used it as a argument to why she is better than the others... and Worst than that, Japan Times bashed TITO some months earlier as a sell-out

[Kingdom]

Originally Posted by keepsgettinbetter

Oh please! If Utada was replaced with Ayumi all of you would be praising the writer and this article.

lol, no i wouldn't. the article is unprofessionally written, regardless of who "they" named. it's not like it's an super official award or anything. japantimes is dumb enough as it is

[CoriKaru]

This will be a great headline for Utada and her team to have forever to use anytime they want when promoting her. Whether in her U.S. or Japanese career. "Japanese Artist of The Decade."

I mean, this is her decade now. We have her to thank for everything.

Could have used it for "This Is The One" promotion. Marvelous conversation opener.

This is good promotion in itself for her next Japanese Single as well.

I hope she comments on her blog concerning this.

Forever ingrained within the foundation of the Japanese Music Industry (Not that she already wasn't, but this all the more legitimizes it). Making it possible for other artists to have a place on the scene.

Can't wait to see what she has in store for the next decade.

[amorphose]

W00T! Hikki definitely deserves this title. No one deserves it more. I wish more of the article would've been about Hikki and what she accomplished this past decade though rather just bashing her competition.

[love in music]

The person who wrote this is an idiot and isn't funny at all. Whatever, I don't really care about the ayu comments much but the Namie and Kumi ones just pissed me off.

[ayumisrael]

Originally Posted by keepsgettinbetter

Oh please! If Utada was replaced with Ayumi all of you would be praising the writer and this article.

And that gives a legitimate to hikki's obsessed fans to act the same right?
Because if it's hikki and it's not ayu "it's fine".

[amorphose]

Originally Posted by identity

The person who wrote this is an idiot and isn't funny at all. Whatever, I don't really care about the ayu comments much but the Namie and Kumi ones just pissed me off.

The Kumi ones are sort of true, I think. I'm so disappointed about the route she went on after BEST ~first things~. Her music totally changed and it was all for image and sales. But I mean, hey... she wasn't selling when she was making her previous style of music so she was forced to reinvent herself.

I don't know much about Namie so I can't really say... and I didn't really think the mentions of Ayu were being negative. It seemed like they were bashing those who try to copy Ayu just because of her success. I don't know.

This:

Originally Posted by Paparazzi

This really put nobody in a bad lgiht except for Kumi. You guys are probably reading way into the "Hamasaki manques" statement too much.

They're talking about the idols who wanted to be like Hamasaki, not Hamasaki herself.

---

Regardless, it's one person's comments and it's not like Ayu is going to lose or gain any fans over this so those of you all flared up over it should chill out. Same goes for people upset about Kuu/Namie comments.

Just be happy for Hikki that this newspaper decided she was the artist of the decade, because she really deserves that title. I'm not going to be at all surprised if she ends up getting that title various Japanese publications and some other foreign ones in the near future because I think it's obvious she was without a doubt, THE artist of the decade.

Ayu came close but she developed a steady formula-- and Hikki never did that which is why I think Hikki beats her out here.

I'm curious to see if and when Hikki gets this title from other people/publications and there are not negative comments made about other artists if people will still get mad. Bitter?

[Andrenekoi]

^Every artist has their formulas... Even Utada...

[noidea]

@Andrenekoi

---loved how you got misono in there xD---

On the article:
While I do agree that Utada has clearly been one of the most influencial artists of the decade in Japan, I think that she is pretty much tied with Ayu, because Utada mostly influenced the music itself and Ayu influenced stuff like fashion to a VERY big extent, so they both got a giant influence that can't really be compared, just in very different ways. What really sucks in this article is how it bashes the other artists, why can't it just be "Utada Hikaru named one of the artists with most influence on music of the decade in japan" or something?

[CoriKaru]

*Sigh*

This isn't most influential Fashionista or Fashion Model.

It's Artist. What a Designer creates and what a Stylist puts on a product has no bearing on THE MUSIC or THE TALENT.

This is about THE MUSIC.
This is about THE TALENT.

This is why Utada was bestowed this great and grand title of honor. No one can take this away from her. Her record(s) speak for itself/themselves and so does "Japan Times."

I'm bursting at the seems with elation and happiness.

[Andrenekoi]

If sales really means anything in the end of the day, Mai Kuraki is one of the biggest jpop acts of all time

[Yumsushi]

Isn't it influential, not influencial?

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

He even praised her by her failed USA career and used it as a argument to why she is better than the others... and Worst than that, Japan Times bashed TITO some months earlier as a sell-out

Thank you for bringing this up, because I do recall reading the TITO review and agreeing with it. Heck TITO bombed in Japan.
By putting Mongol800 on the same level as Utada, it really makes the article lose all its credibility, lol.

[ayumisrael]

Originally Posted by CoriKaru

*Sigh*

This isn't most influential Fashionista or Fashion Model.

It's Artist. What a Designer creates and what a Stylist puts on a product has no bearing on THE MUSIC or THE TALENT.

This is about THE MUSIC.
This is about THE TALENT.

This is why Utada was bestowed this great and grand title of honor. No one can take this away from her. Her record(s) speak for itself/themselves and so does "Japan Times."

I'm bursting at the seems with elation and happiness.

But ayu and Namie also have their own records, music and talent to speak for themselves even if it doesn't correlate with some people's and the article writer's opinions.

After all ayu and namie always came to sell, produce and give their music, CDs and lives and not mainly to sell magazines (which hikki did herself as well, even if it's not in the amount that the others did).
ayu wrote all of her lyrics to this day and some of her biggest hits are songs that are both written and composed by herself (like M, evolution, and most of I am...'s singles for example), this is also all about the music and being artistic. Namie also has huge influence musically the heck she has the best selling single by a female artist and CAN YOU CELEBRATE? was that impactful that the japanese people aren't willing to stop using it as their wedding song (along with ayu's Voyage from what I heard even though it wasn't as popular), and Namie also could rise again on the recent year and make it with her pop/hip-pop.

hikki is definitely not the most influential alone, not even muscially. She is one of the tops for the least.
Just because the others didn't write & compose (both together) all of their songs and brought R&B to be mainstream in Japan doesn't say that they didn't influence in their music as well, even ai otsuka writes and composes all of her songs but you couldn't say she ever had a huge influence musically like the others. Just because they have less relatable images and they also set fashion trends it doesn't mean that their musical influence lacked in anything. hikki is not more a human or a musical artist than the others.

But gee it praises Mongol800 so much and Mongol were never as popular as the 3 females lol.

A 0 stars article, definitely.

[CoriKaru]

MOST Influential Artist, not ONLY Influential Artist.

What Utada did for the Japanese Music Industry is on a whole other level of its own and far beyond what anyone else did.