Lets vent about ayu?/why did your fandom decrease

[pepper]

oh, I was debating with my friend about Ayu today and I saw the thread so here we go:


Hm, just see:
Party Queen - 1 slow ballad
Love again - 8 slow songs....

I don't like "love-dovey" music in general, I find them meaningless. If I want meaningless music, I prefer "party/electro" music or any other. (thats why I like Party Queen It may be found as immature music or sth, but I listen to them for bits/music/dancing to it, not for meaning). It doesn't mean I don't like her "slow" songs - they can be very powerfull (see, her power ballads) or they can be very emotional within the lyrics (BRILLANTE, ever free etc)

And I hate putting US in Japanese music, so I hate putting Japanese culture in western music (see: Avril's new video). She will NEVER sound good in english. She will never be "US diva". She will always be japanese diva. That's why I will never like her "You & Me"/"Feel the love" inspirations. It just don't fit her.

Feel the love PV was quite funny. I just don't dig the style she went in the music for it.

[Kanzaki]

I definitely feel like her creativity doesn't excite me the way it used to, but honestly, my interest in her music decreasing has a lot more to do with my waning interest in japanese culture and music in general. Around the time I became a fan (2003), my weeabo levels were too damn high But even so, her music was still very exciting, different in arrangement compared to popular western music and even jpop at that time, and I hardly listened to music, because it was all the same old. Today, I almost feel like it's the other way around - the original and exciting songs in jpop are getting fewer and fewer, but I keep getting introduced to really amazing western music.

So, it's a combination of many things. Ayu does pretty much the same thing over and over (and why wouldn't she? It works for her, and her music is decent. And well, with the exception of a few songs where she still manages to surprise me), I don't have the enormous levels of interest in japanese music I used to, and western music just is overall better, I feel. I can't really bash Ayu, musically, she's had few misses and a whole lot of outstanding songs.

[channy]

I assume a lot of J-Pop fans fancy Japanese singers prevalently for their "Japaneseness". The moment their illusionary teenage-interest in Japanese pop culture fades, they abandon the formerly beloved artists as well. That's a phase of growing up. Music in general is often a phenomenon among younger folks because adults are planning their careers and don't have much time for pop madness anymore nor would they identify with role models made for teenagers whatsoever.

I for one refuse to let my Ayu fandom go because I once swore I will have her music play on my funeral. It's sick-minded, I know. Industrial plastic music on a funeral, blimey. However, as a 90ies kid, you don't know any better. We were raised with fake emotions, so why not perish along with them at the end of our time?

[PURIN]

ever since TK started composing crap for her my interest dropped slowly

[rikku1994]

all this drama just because of Feel the Love MV? ._.

[channy]

^ Sometimes you just have to sort things out *leans back and lights a cigar*

[maneayu]

I miss the Ayu with a meaningful yet low-budget PV like Daybreak.
She should continue doing that.
But then, to be a real artist, maybe she needs to stop having a luxurious lifestyle IMO.
Closer she is of a real life, the closer she is to the feelings of a normal person. That way she will convey all of this into inspiration for fantastic lyrics like those she wrote at her earlier era.
A life made of champagne, chocolates, Luis Vuitton bags, diamonds and houses around the world would eventually kill any trace of creativity, IMO.

I mean, look at artists as creative as Eddie Vedder, yet the guy still carries a pretty normal life.

Maybe I'm wrong, but this is just my opinion. :/

[primavera♥]

Originally Posted by maneayu

I miss the Ayu with a meaningful yet low-budget PV like Daybreak.
She should continue doing that.
But then, to be a real artist, maybe she needs to stop having a luxurious lifestyle IMO.
Closer she is of a real life, the closer she is to the feelings of a normal person. That way she will convey all of this into inspiration for fantastic lyrics like those she wrote at her earlier era.
A life made of champagne, chocolates, Luis Vuitton bags, diamonds and houses around the world would eventually kill any trace of creativity, IMO.

I mean, look at artists as creative as Eddie Vedder, yet the guy still carries a pretty normal life.

Maybe I'm wrong, but this is just my opinion. :/

Rich people can have hearts. And creativity. And difficulties in life. Ayu has been rich like this for a while though fans are more aware of it now certainly. Also, I really would prefer no more pvs like daybreak

[rikku1994]

Originally Posted by maneayu

I miss the Ayu with a meaningful yet low-budget PV like Daybreak.
She should continue doing that.
But then, to be a real artist, maybe she needs to stop having a luxurious lifestyle IMO.
Closer she is of a real life, the closer she is to the feelings of a normal person. That way she will convey all of this into inspiration for fantastic lyrics like those she wrote at her earlier era.
A life made of champagne, chocolates, Luis Vuitton bags, diamonds and houses around the world would eventually kill any trace of creativity, IMO.

I mean, look at artists as creative as Eddie Vedder, yet the guy still carries a pretty normal life.

Maybe I'm wrong, but this is just my opinion. :/

You do know that she always had that kind of lifestyle?

And when your name is Ayumi Hamasaki it's pretty impossible to live a "normal" life.

[rusuke]

In my personal view

I really don't know if Ayu's luxurious lifestyle really affect the way she writes her lyrics, interpretation of her videos, etc. We know her that ever since she loves luxury things (i.e. Louis Vuitton bags in A Song for XX booklet), clubbing, champagne, jewelry, etc. but I believe that because there are so many things happened to her, these changes her point of view as an artist. She is opened to try new things, even different from her style because that's the way she is. I'm trying to be optimistic of her change of image path, both musical and artistry. But it just doesn't work out for me.
I'm a prisoner of her older persona and music. Mysterious and haunting. Inspiring and sensational.

And I'm not so fond of her current voice now. Even her own renditions of her old songs in her live concerts now, failed to impress me.

Ugh.. I really don't know. I still love her. She's still my most favorite artist of all time since 2002 and nobody would ever gonna beat her! But my hype of my fandom faded out drastically as time goes by. That's inevitable.

[Zeke.]

Originally Posted by rusuke

In my personal view

I really don't know if Ayu's luxurious lifestyle really affect the way she writes her lyrics, interpretation of her videos, etc. We know her that ever since she loves luxury things (i.e. Louis Vuitton bags in A Song for XX booklet), clubbing, champagne, jewelry, etc. but I believe that because there are so many things happened to her, these changes her point of view as an artist. She is opened to try new things, even different from her style because that's the way she is. I'm trying to be optimistic of her change of image path, both musical and artistry. But it just doesn't work out for me.
I'm a prisoner of her older persona and music. Mysterious and haunting. Inspiring and sensational.

And I'm not so fond of her current voice now. Even her own renditions of her old songs in her live concerts now, failed to impress me.

Ugh.. I really don't know. I still love her. She's still my most favorite artist of all time since 2002 and nobody would ever gonna beat her! But my hype of my fandom faded out drastically as time goes by. That's inevitable.

Same! Ayu will ALWAYS be my most favorite artist; nobody will ever create such a strong impact on me as she has. Her music is truly an extension of myself, and I think most all of us feel that way.

[Andrenekoi]

What are those non-meanful PVs she is having so much lately? At least GREEN, Sparkle, Curtain Call, You Were, Sexy Little Things, Don't Look Back, Lady Dynamite, How beautiful you are, Progress, Brillante, Beloved, crossroad, Sweet Season, Song 4 U and Sweet Scar are all pretty meanful... She also has a lot of eye-candy pvs, but she always had those.

[ayumisrael]

And when she releases awesome stuff, oh how it makes us have an eargasm and other ...gasms and we are back to be fanboys like we just discovered her and fell in love with her music.

[marty]

I don't think her rich lifestyle makes her write bad lyrics. I mean, let's just look at Party Queen ones.
It's her personal, unique way of seeing life that makes her write such brilliant lyrics. She will always have that, Louis Vuitton bags or not.

And, on a side note because I can't help myself, Daybreak is an amazing PV. Kinda like Sweet Scar: nothing happens, yet they're brilliant. And so thoughtful, in a very delicate but powerful way.

[orangeakira]

Originally Posted by marty

And, on a side note because I can't help myself, Daybreak is an amazing PV. Kinda like Sweet Scar: nothing happens, yet they're brilliant. And so thoughtful, in a very delicate but powerful way.

I think it's a terribly boring video where nothing happens, and that's it. Nothing more to it. I really doubt there's any hidden meaning or intense beauty I'm missing.

[ayumisrael]

Originally Posted by marty

I don't think her rich lifestyle makes her write bad lyrics.

Yeah, it's not even logical to think so since she is probably very rich already since LOVEppears/concert tour 2000 era, just that with her continues success and her really slow decline she became richer and richer, and in years where things artists do worthed more money than today.
So yeah, if anyone thinks that her being rich=bad lyrics then it means that her lyrics since LOVEppears/Duty are mainly bad.

Her lyrics are more about things that change in her life and her sorroundings, topics she feels close to write about them and a direction she wants to take. It just happens that in recent years she got less lonely, she has friends and a lover now (after some lovers and failing relationships), we got it all in lyrics and albums, Love songs-FIVE-Party Queen-LOVE again even though the theme was repeated, but it's because that's how her love life have been on recent years.

Now that she supposedly finally, hopefully found her love so maybe she will experience different things or experience stories from different sorroundings and write about them. Hello new me isn't a love song but more of encouragement song, so maybe she will start to write at least a bit of different stuff. Maybe also stuff just like having fun.

[Minttulatte]

Well, when I was reading this thread though, I realized that since late 2012 I've lost more and more interest in J-Pop as a whole. Only artists that I actually REALLY care about are Kuu and Namie. Others just makes me go meh. And sometimes even these two makes me feel very uninterested too, which is a pretty unexpected because they're my all time favorite J-Pop artists. I have started to take more and more interest in K-Pop since 2010 because I love the music style so much.

One thing that made my fandom decline as well is that she isn't that active anymore. I understand that, but it still sucks because I'm one of those people who still remembers Ayu as someone who released singles often, doing TV performances and all that stuff. It just feels weird (yes, even after 4 years) that it doesn't happen so often anymore. She also tends to recycle stuff in her concerts way too much for my liking. I love it when artists bring new to the performances instead of using old stuff over and over. I love her older concerts because I feel they were all so different compared to each other.

Don't get me wrong, I still respect Ayu as an artist and especially as a lyricist. i think her songs are beautifully written lyrically even of the music itself may be dull (sometimes her lyrics has made me love musically shitty song in my opinion). I still prefer her older songs more though, because as a whole I find more relatable songs from her older releases. I also like her voice these days though I still think her best vocals were in 2002 (RAINBOW era). But I know she willl never get back there so it's OK.

[tasking]

^ Not to mention the PV version of Daybreak is amazing too.

[Zeke.]

Oh jesus, the generic ballad talk. She doesn't need to do some offbeat, avant-garde trash in order to make music that is enjoyable. Honestly, the "generics" that ARE well produced, composed and arranged are what she's good at and ENJOYABLE listens. I hate when people get all uppity and exude that "this is too basic for me" attitude about a lot of her songs that had wide market appeal. What the fuck do you even like then? Gut-it-pez?

[primavera♥]

I like Sweet Scar a lot more than Daybreak. It's prettier. I like the snow part too. Idk. Liking it is fine. I don't care. But if there are fans who want another pv like daybreak and don't like her current ones then I don't know what ayu should do. If they like all of them. Then whatever I guess.