[Charts & Rankings] The Official Oricon Thread of ~You were.../BALLAD~

[jbrat2219]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

I thought MY STORY was a rather good album, but because of the large amount of new tracks and the sheer length of it all, it's hard to listen to as an album. (It's her longest original album and had her most new album tracks ever, I think.) It did spawn the amazing AT05, so for people that didn't like the album, at least something good came out of it. MY STORY and RAINBOW are among some of her most underappreciated works from the first 6 years of her career. And as for a generic album, ASFXX's arrangements were straight out of the mid-90s and most people seem to dislike it because of how dated it sounds. I desire a rearrangement of that album so that it can get the credit that it deserves.

You're right, it's extremely hard to listen to as an album. And I'm not saying it's bad. Some of her best songs obviously came from that album. Strong singles and a few strong album tracks. But to me, it's the only album I feel is really in this "comfort zone" people seem to speak of. Even RAINBOW had more experimental and interesting tracks. And as far as A Song for XX is concerned it's her first album. I honestly don't think they expected her to succeed as much as she has so they didn't invest that much into her first album. But even from that, one of her most beloved and most performed song is on that album.

[Bigtop]

Originally Posted by ayumisrael

Thank you. ^^
Then now it looks like that.

1st+2nd Double Week
Position: #1
1st Week Estimated Sales: 89,739
2nd Week Estimated Sales: 12,793
1st+2nd Week Estimated Total Sales: 102,532
Official Total Sales:

ayu officially got another #1 for her streak!
2 more to go to be with seiko and 3 to have the most #1 singles streak of female solo artist.

Hopefully the official total sales will be higher. ^^

If we go at this pace, with her next two singles #1 again, maybe at her 50th single she could really cap it off with a record for the longest streak, but this is only January 12th (11th here), so why bother? It's still too early to tell!!!

But I think Avex might have made the right move for this single to move back from the 16th of December to the 29th...

[waterballoon]

Well even with her original/safe sound in MY STORY (though I don't really think INSPIRE was your typical summer pop song) , it was still a stellar album. Since she has mentioned in her interviews that her next album will be something "old" (was it? I can't really remember the exact word), I really hope it's gonna be something like MY STORY, cos that album screams Ayu.

[jbrat2219]

Originally Posted by waterballoon

Well even with her original/safe sound in MY STORY (though I don't really think INSPIRE was your typical summer pop song) , it was still a stellar album. Since she has mentioned in her interviews that her next album will be something "old" (was it? I can't really remember the exact word), I really hope it's gonna be something like MY STORY, cos that album screams Ayu.

If by MY STORY you mean only songs like moments, About you, GAME, INSPIRE, CAROLS, and walking proud then yes. Hell yes.

[waterballoon]

You don't like HONEY? It's one of my favorite bubblegum-cutesy-whatever pop song from her. XD

[truehappiness]

Since she has mentioned in her interviews that her next album will be something "old"

From the translation:
"The next album, which is already in the works, basically has the feeling of old times. A feel which is of Hamasaki Ayumi, of adventure, as well as digging deep into the basics."

It's up to the reader to interpret the translation though.

As for MY STORY, I think that the "new trilogy" as I like to call the three ballads that all seem to fit together are greatly underappreciated, as are tracks like Replace and winding road which just blow me away whenever I listen to them. Very rarely does Ayu ever have two concert-finale worthy tracks in an album. I don't think I'll ever understand where people are coming from when they say that those tracks are "bad"...

[jbrat2219]

Originally Posted by waterballoon

You don't like HONEY? It's one of my favorite bubblegum-cutesy-whatever pop song from her. XD

Oh God no!!!! Ç_Ç But you know it does get stuck in my head ALL the time and I swear I never heard the song all the way through! I just keep singing the chorus -_-;... But it's not because I don't like her cutesy songs. I love EnergizE, Beautiful Fighters and Beautiful Day if that counts? xD;

[waterballoon]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

From the translation:
"The next album, which is already in the works, basically has the feeling of old times. A feel which is of Hamasaki Ayumi, of adventure, as well as digging deep into the basics."

It's up to the reader to interpret the translation though.

As for MY STORY, I think that the "new trilogy" as I like to call the three ballads that all seem to fit together are greatly underappreciated, as are tracks like Replace and winding road which just blow me away whenever I listen to them. Very rarely does Ayu ever have two concert-finale worthy tracks in an album. I don't think I'll ever understand where people are coming from when they say that those tracks are "bad"...

Totally agree with the bolded part ahaha. And yeah old times... I wonder if she meant a sound that's similar to MY STORY - just very simple pop/rock/ballad songs... the singles thus far for this new album are pretty simple in that aspect imo, so...

Originally Posted by jbrat2219

Oh God no!!!! Ç_Ç But you know it does get stuck in my head ALL the time and I swear I never heard the song all the way through! I just keep singing the chorus -_-;... But it's not because I don't like her cutesy songs. I love EnergizE, Beautiful Fighters and Beautiful Day if that counts? xD;

omg the irony! I hate EnergizE! XD

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by Tony G

I agree with those who say that she plays it too safe with her singles and experiments a lot more on her album tracks. I think that's what made Green/Days out of place on NEXT LEVEL as just not fitting the theme of the album. And I'm afraid it'll happen with her next album as well. Its hard knowing what you want for an album right from the moment you release your first single, but I think Ayu needs to think about what sound she wants leading up to her album. I feel like she just pens songs for the moment without thinking ahead to making a consistent album - and in the end, the singles do come out sometimes sounding the same. I mean, You were... and BALLAD are great tracks but she's done similar sounding ballads before. Then there are all these fantastic album tracks that are never discovered.

Out of the NEXT LEVEL singles, Sparkle was the song she should have promoted the most, because it represented the sound of the album. But it was drowned out by Rule.

I just hope with the next single, she promotes the right song, the song that represents the album.

Well, actually... this is a jpop problem, not an Ayu one... she needs to release a single like, 2 months after she just released an album, and she needs to release at least 2 or 3 singles before each one... in the end, there's a high chance of an album first single being released one year (or more) before the album... it's impossible to set a new sound for an album 2 months after an album, and it's very hard to release 3 or 4 singles over 1 or 2 years and have all of them conected to the album theme...

[Yumsushi]

Originally Posted by waterballoon

You don't like HONEY? It's one of my favorite bubblegum-cutesy-whatever pop song from her. XD

Agreed. HONEY is the best bubblegum cheesy song she has ever released. I really wish it got a PV instead of About you.

[jbrat2219]

Originally Posted by waterballoon

omg the irony! I hate EnergizE! XD

Awww... D':

Originally Posted by Yumsushi

Agreed. HONEY is the best bubblegum cheesy song she has ever released. I really wish it got a PV instead of About you.

You know, I'm actually happy HONEY gets some love because it's definitely one of those songs I would think no one would love LOL.

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by jbrat2219

Many might disagree with this but I have to say, MY STORY is one of Ayu's most generic albums around. The best tracks were the ones that were on A BEST 2 and the rest is just boring pop music. I don't see how anyone could find that an experimental album let alone her last experimental album. I didn't even bother purchasing it.

Whaaa? Liar is boring pop? No no no! MY STORY did take a while to appreciate as yeah it had so many ballads, which all have amazing lyrics and it just needed some time to get into the melodies I consider MY STORY to be an album that's hand in hand with I am... it's a masterpiece ^^

[truehappiness]

These should be accurate...

*1　103,351　浜崎あゆみ
*2　*34,789　福山雅治
*3　*29,421　GACKT
*4　*19,699　関ジャニ∞（緑）
*5　*18,665　℃-ute
*6　*17,160　関ジャニ∞（赤）
*7　*16,566　関ジャニ∞（白）
*8　*16,382　9mm Parabellum Bullet
*9　*10,741　嵐
10　**9,713　北島三郎

This is a pretty terrible showing for an Oricon double week... but considering that barely anyone released anything, it's okay.

115-120k max total for this single?

[ayumisrael]

Thank you truehappiness. ^^

1st+2nd Double Week
Position: #1
1st Week Estimated Sales: 89,739
2nd Week Estimated Sales: 12,793
1st+2nd Week Estimated Total Sales: 102,532
Official Total Sales: 103,351

New Achivements
-Artist with most top 10 singles (45) beating B'z, ZARD, SMAP and Southern All Stars, SMAP and all others.
-34 #1 Singles.
-22 Consecutive #1 Singles.

Maybe there are more achivements (and maybe not) I wonder where are those articles oricon release for #1 artists. >_> (or record breakers)

[keikeiaznqueen]

I think maybe there's another achievement like-- the only female artist to have a #1 single each year for the last 10 years, or something.

CONGRATS TO AYU though.

[ayumisrael]

Yeah! thank you!

-The only female artist to have #1 single each year for 12 years. ^^

3rd Week

1st Day
Position: #2
Sales: 1,090
Total Sales: 104,441

[proserpine]

isn't it 12 years ????

1 1999
2 2000
3 2001
4 2002
5 2003
6 2004
7 2005
8 2006
9 2007
10 2008
11 2009
12 2010

why only 10 years ? it was for mirrorcle world in 2008....

and nobody is interested in asian sales here ?
i posted charts for taiwan but no one commented anything
and no one created another thread, it is sad...

[ayumisrael]

^Yes thank you. ^^

Well sales outside of Japan are unknown.
We can only know rankings (or % for Taiwan) but we can't know the sales.
Also Japan is the biggest selling music market in Asia and 2nd/3rd overall in the world.
That's why sales outside of Japan are not really interesting for most I suppose. Also they wouldn't be really high since sales in China and Taiwan are not like in Japan.

It's still nice to know the rankings and %s so thank you if you want to share. ^^

[Jwiz]

^You're wrong. You shouldn't undermine the power of asian market (points to China) and especially since ayu's popularity in increasing in other asian countries while it decreases gradually in Japan.

[AyuWorld]

Originally Posted by ayumisrael

-The only female artist to have #1 single each year for 12 years. ^^

3rd Week

1st Day
Position: #2
Sales: 1,090
Total Sales: 104,441

oh,is it has been confirm and officially annouce that this single is another Ayu's #1 single? i,m happy if so

and yeah, Ayu's becoming more popular in other asian country i think she has bright future for the asian market, if japanese didnt want her anymore (which is i hope not)