[Translation] [2013] ayu loses sales record to AKB48 (Article)

[Trinu]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

These comparisons are a bit ridiculous.

I don't think Ayu has die hard fans as crazy as AKB48's who buy 1000s of copies of each single so that they have tickets to vote for them. I think Ayu will forever be known as the biggest solo female pop artist in Japan with no real Western equivalent except maybe Madonna. To say that she's more of a "Christina Aguilera" doesn't really make sense since Christina never really made all that big of an impact to begin with.

I didn't mean the impact, but how she does music-wise.
Christina Aguilera has been trying to get back on the game since Stripped/Back to Basics and... well, Bionic and Lotus didn't do as well as she expected.

Same in Ayu's case.
Also, Ayu doesn't have die hard fans? Have you read the previous pages?

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

And I just love how a lot of funs enjoy talking about how Ayu loves or "disloves" her work like they were having tea with her weekly.

Well, she used to surprise once in a while before. I could sit through a DVD of hers like it was Star Wars and enjoy all of it. Since 2007 and the Asia tour it looks like she settled and every tour is the same as the previous one but with different songs. I don't see her trying to top herself, so I assume she's stopped caring.

4 songs from singles + 3/4 instrumentals + 4 new songs is an album for her nowadays.
And I won't even get into the LOVE + again SUPPOSEDLY minialbums treachery.

She might be the biggest Jpop act, but she can't live up to that. If she had retired, maybe. But she just can't hold her success up there if every album she releases sells less than the last one, IMO.

Originally Posted by artcika

You can also see the improvement of her vocals and the fact that she got involved into actually composing things and becoming lyricist.

You can see how bad she got too (and don't bring up the ear thing).

Some AKB girls write lyrics too, but mainly they're work of Aki-P, who brought one of the best songs Japan has given to the world (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1flpwnO7K0). The main song in the singles they release might be about going to the beach and whatnot, cause that's mainstream music 101, but in more than 800 songs you think they don't cover other issues?
This song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtjXOUi7LRs) is one example of that:

It was told so many times on the TV news
One single bullet took justice away
What did that brave person who fell
Inside the group of demostrators calling out for peace believe in?

Yep, prettuy silly stuff.

Again, don't take me for an anti lol
I wish Ayu made a comeback ala Namie that left Japan shaking, but I truly don't see that happening until she gets rid of Jimmy or whatever he's called and stops the whole "no bitches please" attitude. It really doesn't suit her.