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

[mcluva420]

i never thought of hikki as influential or anything. just super popular and much respected for her music.

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

If we reaaally want to argue about who first brought the R&B style to Japan, I think a case can actually be made for Mariah Carey. At the time that I lived there in the mid-90s her albums were everywhere - it was basically the Mariah Carey + Namie Amuro show over there then. She was quite influential and is the only non-Japanese artist to have overall sales in the top 50 of the Oricon charts. I agree though that Hikaru was the first Japanese person though to make it popular, but the seed had already been planted by Mariah and to a lesser extent Amuro who did have some R&B influenced things going on at the time, especially in her album tracks.

yess go mariah!!! I would also say that the R&B(/Hip-Hop) was generally influenced from USA / Europe, and it was popular because of the foreign influences. I dont think I would give much credit to hikki for doing that o_O

Originally Posted by Crystal_Ageha

3. Do people recognise her "awesome" lyrics? I, personally, have never come across a single person who has thought of her lyrics as anything special. And really, I couldn't care less about her lyrics, because a lot of them are either....weird (for lack of better words, lol) or flat out stupid (like her English lyrics).

disagree. i think her lyrics are amazing. some my put aside her american lyrics, but i think her american lyrics are actually great (minus easy breezy & others) her lyrics are extremely unique and even poetic, so much inspiration from all the loads of reading that shes done. weird = unique imo. lack of better words? i think not. Shes one of the best female J-pop singer-songwriters imo. I assume that you just wanna prove that Ayu is the most influential J-pop artist + putting down Hikki's points?