Lets vent about ayu?/why did your fandom decrease

[rikku1994]

I really liked her "generic" songs in my opinion. Like tbh, almost all of her most famous songs are usually treated as "generic"

[channy]

When "Pray" first came out I'd immediately notice it's notorious western vibe but by now I feel like it's a pretty basic and solid song in terms of a Japanese ballad. Not that americanized as I had thought a few months ago. The "SEASONS" and "Far away" moments appear as though they were meant to resemble an homage to Ayu's most precious musical pieces from the past.

[Delirium-Zer0]

And the outro sounds like HANABI too... it does really have a nostalgic "let's explore retro ayu" feel. That can't be by accident.

[hsienko]

Her music is too generic and unoriginal. There is no innovation or originality its just copy cat off of her old styles and whats everyone else is doing. No one under the age of 30 years old would ever buy an album like Love again - it was just fucking terrible. She is just phoning it in and milking the coins from her dedicated fans' pockets, once her concert sales start to decline I'm pretty sure she will announce her retirement soon afterwards.

Honestly who in their right mind is paying money to see her with the same dancers that she has had for the last 10 years doing the same 15 year old choreography, crying over the same songs, making the same fake phony sad faces, singing the same damn set list that she has sang at almost every concert for the last 10 years. Stop encouraging this shameful behavior! "Felicia" needs to shape up or ship out. She's old, she's stale, she's irrelevant.

Namie has had a lot of success since she started doing more avante garde stuff ijs.

[rikku1994]

Originally Posted by hsienko

Her music is too generic and unoriginal. There is no innovation or originality its just copy cat off of her old styles and whats everyone else is doing. No one under the age of 30 years old would ever buy an album like Love again - it was just fucking terrible. She is just phoning it in and milking the coins from her dedicated fans' pockets, once her concert sales start to decline I'm pretty sure she will announce her retirement soon afterwards.

Honestly who in their right mind is paying money to see her with the same dancers that she has had for the last 10 years doing the same 15 year old choreography, crying over the same songs, making the same fake phony sad faces, singing the same damn set list that she has sang at almost every concert for the last 10 years. Stop encouraging this shameful behavior! "Felicia" needs to shape up or ship out. She's old, she's stale, she's irrelevant.

Namie has had a lot of success since she started doing more avante garde stuff ijs.

LOL Here we go with Namie again...

I honestly feel bad for Namie, it's like she's always being compared to Ayu ever since Utada went to hiatus

[NintendoHTF1242]

Originally Posted by rikku1994

LOL Here we go with Namie again...

I honestly feel bad for Namie, it's like she's always being compared to Ayu ever since Utada went to hiatus

What's the point of comparing modern day Ayu with Utada when Utada hasn't released anything except for ONE song since 2010?

Also, Namie has been shittin' on Ayu these past couple of years, that's why she's being brought up more often now.

PAST<FUTURE - 575,501 vs. NEXT LEVEL - 379,989
Uncontrolled - 539,585 vs. Party Queen - 148,290
FEEL - 392,092 vs. LOVE again - 88,825

#rekt

[channy]

Originally Posted by hsienko

She's old, she's stale, she's irrelevant.

Aren't we all?

Many of us are almost 30 and grew up with Ayu. She's a mirror of ourselves. Why try to be part of the younger generation and en vogue again by resorting to today's teen music.

Our time of youth is virtually over just like Ayu's time as a number one singer may be over. I feel perfectly safe following Ayu's path and continue listening to her music. The day she retires, her music will become truly legendary.

[Zeke.]

Originally Posted by hsienko

Her music is too generic and unoriginal. There is no innovation or originality its just copy cat off of her old styles and whats everyone else is doing. No one under the age of 30 years old would ever buy an album like Love again - it was just fucking terrible. She is just phoning it in and milking the coins from her dedicated fans' pockets, once her concert sales start to decline I'm pretty sure she will announce her retirement soon afterwards.

Honestly who in their right mind is paying money to see her with the same dancers that she has had for the last 10 years doing the same 15 year old choreography, crying over the same songs, making the same fake phony sad faces, singing the same damn set list that she has sang at almost every concert for the last 10 years. Stop encouraging this shameful behavior! "Felicia" needs to shape up or ship out. She's old, she's stale, she's irrelevant.

Namie has had a lot of success since she started doing more avante garde stuff ijs.

I don't see what Namie is doing that's avant garde. She's the epitome of riding that "music of today's teen generation" and copying other styles.

I hope she never does avant garde crap. I want catchy powerful and well produced music. Ai Otsuka did some avant garde shit when she was declining and that material was a complete flop.

[primavera♥]

People just stay worshipping Namie ever since she rose to the top again after years of meh. And then blame ayu for not doing the same when their careers and stylrs are completely diffrrent.

But whatever. Also, I can't say that Namie is avant garde. Like lol.

Also, maybe ayu's concerts are just still enjoyable. RnRC in 2010 was one of her better tours to me with themes and stuff. Like AT05 but not copying it. And then PoM was also changing things up as far as tours go, in a nice way. HLS is enjoyable to me because I really love the theme and the way the performances were, it was an interesting vibe from ayu. ABL was such a "standard" ayu concert, so there I can see complaints maybe. But honestly. I would still pay money to see ayu live.

Ayu can attempt to reinvent herself and she will most likely become even more irrelevant. Because she will never be like Namie lol. They are so different, people need to get with the program.

[Andrenekoi]

People who believe Namie is anywhere near doing avant garde stuff should leave their homes more and see the world, because really...

[Coelacanth]

I think Ayu will have the last laugh. Do you honestly think anybody will be listening to Namie's "hip-pop" noise 15 years from now? It will be dated, but in a bad way. That's the issue with production-oriented material. All these "hip" acts are seeking "hotter" production, while the emphasis on the composition of the piece is practically nil. It's style over substance. Melody, harmony, and lyrics shouldn't be an afterthought.

Gorgeous pieces like SAKURA and untitled story 2 will be more appreciated as we ourselves mature and stop worrying about what sounds "cool" and "fierce." Ayu's sound is timeless.

And lmao at avant-garde!!!! Namie's "hip-pop" material is pretty much comprised of cheap renditions of the tracks on Janet Jackson's flop trilogy albums (Damita Jo, 20 Y.O., Discipline).

The only reason that Namie has a career imo is because Japan still irrationally LOVES Janet Jackson. I mean, the Tokyo radio station J-WAVE plays several of her songs per day. The Japanese probably love female singers who whisper and sing-talk through their songs because they're easy to sing at karaoke LMAO.

[relmy]

I don't think people will care about SAKURA or Namie's latest single in 15 years time.

Ayu's current stuff sounds like a cheap rendition of her own stuff from 10 years ago. She's not doing anything remotely creative either.

[primavera♥]

^And when she tries to do anything random song differently, no one likes it anyway. So it's back to rehashing old stuff...maybe it's just japan.

Though I think later, I will appreciate a lot of her current songs. Especially when she tries new things. But the public won't.

Love again isn't ayu's best by far. Yet, for me sadly it's still better than what a lot of other japanese artists put out, imo. Sad world.

[Andrenekoi]

I searched for Sakura on youtube and most videos were people singing it at the karaoke...

I guess the song was better received than some people would like to admit...

[Coelacanth]

Most of you are unfortunately brainwashed by the Western mainstream music consumer's mindset of music that is fresh and "current" = good.

Not sure how any of you could be considered arbiters of good taste anyway since most of you, outside of listening to Ayu, only expose yourselves to K-pop, Namie, Lady Gaga, and shitty EDM. LOL

[relmy]

Originally Posted by primavera♥

^And when she tries to do anything random song differently, no one likes it anyway. So it's back to rehashing old stuff...maybe it's just japan.

She never does anything too different though, so I don't think it's a case of her being too ~avant-garde for anyone's tastes. Her style has always been Jpop tinged with whatever her thing is at that point. It's just that she's done everything 2 or 3 times by now so where is she meant to go next?

Combined with the same dancers doing the same routines, with the same format at tours, the same staff and team behind her work, it's all come to a head in the past few years. Love again being a 'throwback' album so soon after the, throwback sounding, Love Songs doesn't help either.

I'm not optimistic for the new album (not a fan of the music the people's she's working with produce), but I'm hoping that it'll be the first of a few shake ups that break the rather habit-based and friend-circle production she seems to have fallen into.

But, I guess I don't really know what it is on the music side. I wish I loved Love again/FtL/Pray as much as some people do here, but I don't, so what can you do. I'll just wait for whatever's next and hope it clicks.

[Andrenekoi]

^You know you can always stop following her, don't you? I mean, she doesn't seen to get anything right according to your tastes...

[Benikari47]

I'm a bigger fan of Namie than Ayu, but the only avantgarde song she's done would be Ballerina lmfao so let's not. Her EDM songs sounds like everything you hear in America, only difference is that she's doing the genre better than 80% of those artists over there.

[Pinguu]

I never post often but I thought I could contribute to the discussion here - first, I'm absolutely not disappointed or anything about ayu, actually my interest for her is pretty high, but if I could mention anything that actually bothers me is that every album is always some kind of compilation, I know it's kind of the same thing for the other very few Jpop artists I still listen to, but... Maybe you know Laure Shang, she's a very popular singer in China, and actually every album of hers are like one package showcasing everything she wanted to show, to voice, to picture, etc, one album is one artistic cohesive piece.
And I think that's what's missing with ayu, every album feels like a bunch of (good) songs, but just gathered together, and even though an album might have some vague direction (Next Level, Rock'n'Roll Circus kind of) it never feels cohesive. That's why actually I'm pretty excited for her next album, even though I'm not a fan of EDM at all I feel like it's going to be a cohesive project (well Pray might still stick out like a sore thumb though).
She doesn't need to do avant garde stuff (what's avant garde stuff anyway for a mainstream pop singer ?) but I think she needs to give some identity to every album she does, not necessarily reinvent her music, which anyway would be a disaster.

[Zeke.]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

^You know you can always stop following her, don't you? I mean, she doesn't seen to get anything right according to your tastes...

Omg I absolutely hate when people pull this card, more than anything.

We all love ayu and it's natural to hope she can do well and have an impact like you know she's capable of. It's not as simple as letting go when she's had such an effect on your life.

Ugh, such a self-righteous and self-sufficient comment.