Why did Ayu become popular?

[pimenta]

Great explanation, Delirium!! You described the situation really well.

I think that besides what Delirium explained, there's also the fact that Ayu was releasing music way faster than other artists at the time, and that got people's attention. In just two years she had released about 13 singles, 2 albums, remix albums... People were impressed with the speed she would release new things, she would be recording songs for a new single and, at the same time, she would be already writing the lyrics for the next one, though Ayu herself didn't really realize she was doing things differently. She said on later interviews that she didn't really understand at the time how other artists used to do things, so she didn't know that she was releasing much more than the average.

And, of course, there's the sound. LOVEppears sounded quite different than the common j-pop sound at the time.

Sometimes I think that a big part of how brilliant her first years' music was was due to how little she understood of music and the industry at the time, which allowed her to make things her own way without trying to do what was common at the music industry at the time.

Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0

ANYWAY, back on topic... "Trust" was Ayu's first top 10 single, and interviews often brought up how her popularity was growing because of its use in an AUBE commercial. She made her hair wavy after she turned 20 (which began more steady appearances as a fashion/makeup example in magazines), so like.... she finally had her own identity as a pop star, but part of that identity was that she came across as stupid. TV & radio talk show hosts would make fun of her being kind of spacy and referring to herself in the third person. Meanwhile she'd frustratedly explain that the album title "A Song for XX" was pronounced "ee songu foo" and not "ah songu foo daburu ekkusu", and the title actually MEANT something, but she was treated rather dismissively and even ignored by the hosts when she did that. You could tell she was trying to go for the "I want fans/listeners to relate to this stuff, fill in the blanks themselves" thing but it was like anyone who interviewed her couldn't be arsed to care.

It's sad how true this is. I remember reading interviews from that time and they would ask people on the street what they thought about Ayu and people would say things like "she doesn't seem to be very smart" and others would be like "but it's ok because she's pretty". I was quite surprised at that dialog and how people used to see her as a pretty but dumb artist because of the way she used to speak.