japanese vs western views on ayu

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

Whenever I tell Japanese people I like Ayu, I usually get one of two responses.

The first one is: "Really? You like Ayu? Why?..."
And the second: "Oh, wow, is she famous in America too??"

Haha.

Generally speaking, the youth now don't really care about her...
But if I talked to late 20's / early 30 year olds, they usually like her more.
She's not trendy like she used to be, and she's also been in the public eye since her debut and people get tired of her.

In other countries, like for many of us here, we don't see her on TV constantly, hear about her on the radio, see her commercials, etc. so we can't really get tired of her, unless it's because of our own doing. While, granted, she isn't in advertisements nearly as much as she used to be, the "like" factor just sort of wore off a bit.

But that's the same for most popular artists. Especially female ones.

[truehappiness]

Another thing that is interesting is that usually the Japanese people's favorite songs [if you happen upon an Ayu fan] tend to be the same. It's usually evolution, appears, M, and a few other classics. Very rarely do they like her more recent stuff, it seems.

Regarding her sort of lack of ~super fame~ nowadays in Japan, I guess that's just the way the cookie crumbles over there. It's hard to maintain a career for so long, and I think despite the dip in sales and casual listeners, Ayu is still doing rather well for herself. She can't exactly compete with some of the other acts that are so "IN" at the moment that it's crazy, but she at least has been able to remain stable unlike many other acts from her time [late 90s] and even some that have debuted recently!

[hsienko]

I think a lot of people are just jealous of her. They see ayu living this famous rich and glamorous life style and they want that but can't have it, so they say mean things about how she's a narcissus, an ego manic, and lazy to try to knock her down a peg.

[truehappiness]

Well, sometimes there are people on top who are like that... but many of the people who are on top made it there because they worked their butts off to get there.

[ayuuk]

I think people in Japan are exposed to her for a long while, so they tend to become less addicted. (That said, I know a Japanese fan who is crazy about her. He has always bought two copies of all versions Ayu's releases--one for use, the other for collection.)

Overseas fans like me have to fly all the way to Japan (or Asia, in 2007 and 2008) to see her live, and we overseas fans cannot buy her goodies as conveniently as people in Japan do (we always have to pay a lot of fees in order to buy stuff from mu-mo, Amazon, YAJ etc). Hence I guess overseas fans "cherish" her and her goodies much more. So maybe this means "distance is beauty" holds true?

[toniayu]

Originally Posted by ayuuk

So maybe this means "distance is beauty" holds true?

[relmy]

I only see news about Ayu that the fandom wants to post, we don't get to see all this negative media that Japan is exposed to. I listen to Ayu when I want to, I'm exposed to her when I want to.

I imagine if I lived in Japan with no choice in my Ayu exposure I'd probably have a more negative attitude towards her. Although, while I do adore Ayu, there have been plenty of times I've seen this diva attitude that she gets criticised for, and criticised her myself.

[Aditmi Krisnasaki ~II~]

well yes, I've met and talked with a Japanese couple (but they lived in US) and they asked who my biggest idol was, and I replied "Ayu" and they were like "OMG, she's so... (forgot what the said.. )" but certainly it's something negative~~ T__T and they said that they preferred Hikki than Ayu.

well yes, Hikki has a better vocal, but she's just a singer-songwriter and that's it! Ayu's an icon, a very influential one, influenced people's life, fashion and whatever at her career's peak...

It's just very annoying to hear them speaking bad about ayu... :'(

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by Aditmi Krisnasaki ~II~

well yes, Hikki has a better vocal, but she's just a singer-songwriter and that's it! Ayu's an icon, a very influential one, influenced people's life, fashion and whatever at her career's peak...

Out of all those things songwriting is the thing I respect the most, I couldn't care less if she's influential or not or that people used to like her sense of fashion. In other words, just because Utada isn't a fashion icon that doesn't mean she's worth less. She composes and arranges most of her songs, so imo that's a bigger plus.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by Aditmi Krisnasaki ~II~

well yes, I've met and talked with a Japanese couple (but they lived in US) and they asked who my biggest idol was, and I replied "Ayu" and they were like "OMG, she's so... (forgot what the said.. )" but certainly it's something negative~~ T__T and they said that they preferred Hikki than Ayu.

well yes, Hikki has a better vocal, but she's just a singer-songwriter and that's it! Ayu's an icon, a very influential one, influenced people's life, fashion and whatever at her career's peak...

It's just very annoying to hear them speaking bad about ayu... :'(

Well... Hikki is an icon to japanese too, even if she dress like a homeless person...

While Ayu position as an icon also has more to do with her songs than some people like to credit...

[shizukanaotoko]

My personal experience with Japanese people (and I've interacted with like a hundred college-aged friends) is that most people think she's cute or pretty and has catchy, albeit easy, songs to sing. They love the songs "Voyage" and "SEASONS" most often and the most recent song they enjoy is "BLUE BIRD". "JEWEL" is also pretty popular and so is "Days". Nothing after that has EVER been mentioned. Even my Ayu fan Japanese friends RARELY mention liking anything after Days. In general, they seem to have a neutral to positive opinion of her. I have noticed that, out of my friends, more guys like Ayu than girls! Same with Koda Kumi.

In California, my non-Asian friends who don't know anything about Japanese pop culture think she's pretty-looking but don't care much for her music though a lot of the non-Asian friends who like Asian pop culture tend to think she looks strange and unnatural like a doll or an alien (these people tend to prefer the more 'Asian'-looking celebrities like Shiina Ringo, Koyuki etc.) I think it is just that Ayu looks very Caucasian-ish and it's not typical of Asians to look the way she does and her look is also more "common" in America.

My non-Japanese Asian friends tend to be polarized in that they either think she's gorgeous or think she looks like an alien haha. It's funny because a lot of my girl friends love how Ayu looks but guys tend to have more mixed feelings. I think it is the negative association we have here with dolls that makes a lot of males not care much for her sometimes overly cutesy looks.

[lightningrod]

I don't give it a crap about other people's opinions