Lets vent about ayu?/why did your fandom decrease

[Andrenekoi]

^Something that couldn't be releases by pretty much anyone...

@emi
As yourself say when I praise her songs based on lyrics to you, I don't speak Japanese. :p Still not crazy about the melody either, the arrangment is nice, the singing is crap.

[emi♡]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

@emi
As yourself say when I praise her songs based on lyrics to you, I don't speak Japanese. :p Still not crazy about the melody either, the arrangment is nice, the singing is crap.

I get that. But when it comes to songs that are generic, I think it makes a difference for a lot of people, and especially for Japanese people, when they have to watch a performance with nothing else happening, and an orchestral arrangement.

And actually, it's funny you say that. I always saw Dearest the other way around lol Nice melody, generic arrangement lol

I feel like that about a lot of her ballads though. Like No Way to Say. Or Days (even though I hate that melody, it's at least interesting).


As for Party Queen...I didn't mind the concept. I just don't think that sort of thing is relateable for most people. Like, the vast majority of people who don't know what it's like to be different and placed above others. If you've never felt that, how can you know? lol

Originally Posted by Zeke

It's like when Kumi claimed herself queen of live or even how ayu raps in self indulgence in m-flos songs - it's gross to be self indulgent. It's just not likeable.

It would be different if they were saying this shit in like every other song, or if they acted like Mariah Carey all over the place....but they don't. I think it's also a very..."western" thing, to do that. In Kpop, they're always doing crap like that, saying they're on top, or saying their names. To me, it's less about how they feel, and more just, another thing to throw in the song because it seems *cool* to their culture.

She's just being trendy.

[primavera♥]

We discussed this earlier. I think she does care. And I don't think we can truly know how she feels compared to the past anyway. I still like how Deli describes ayu's career and why a lot of fans feel the way they do.

[Andrenekoi]

^Her fans didn't really get it without the lonely thing, did they? Western fans even started disturbing her about it on twitter.

Even if the album by itself was pretty dark, if it's mostly about loneliness and if she does call herself lonely queen on the album.

And the thing is, she is blaming herself for being the "lonely queen", for the first time on her whole career she is blaming herself for her life being fucked up, and this is pretty mature considering people tend to overlook their own fault on their life condition.

[ayumisrael]

How can one lyrically like A Song for xx but not like songs like reminds me and its whole section and even songs like SAKURA is beyond me.

Personally, AT12 was one of her best tours both in concept and entertainment (vocally as well) especially better than most pre 2009 tours. I get that people get/got disconnected with her, but there's no need to be extreme in the matter of voicing opinions of her like she became a drug holic nonchalant killer. At least with her recent relationship/marriage it doesn't seem like she is going to shove her husband in her work and she's gonna try new stuff (which shows she cares a lot).

I also have a theory that the fact that she is not promoting as much as she used to and don't have long full eras of styles, performances and promotions on TV/mags don't let people feel her or that she has an era going on, or a concept for an era/album/album promo.

Also it was said earlier that A COMPLETE was nothing special. It didn't have a lot of stuff but overall it was a really great package, -especially- for the Japanese (which is her most thought of target audience if not almost the only) and it bared fruits too successfully. From just before starting to sell less than half a million it got her back to 850,000 on that time for this album. Except for a new single song and a new version for a 10th annivesary song she didn't really have to do much since anniversary albums usually don't celebrate new material. (Nor best albums but a lot have 1-2 new songs to promote them).

[marty]

I feel like some people get carried away on this.
She didn't decide to be the Queen of J-Pop. It happened and if she doesn't want to be thebestofbestesevah anymore, it's totally her right to do so.
She doesn't have to prove anything. It's like people think she has this legacy to carry on, while she explained very bluntly in her interviews recently that she no longer feels the need to be perfect to protect herself from the world.
Now, I think her effort lately isn't adequate, but not because of some high standards I have, but because in general if you do your job, you kind need to do it right. Especially if I know you can do wonders, because you already did in the past.
And I think she does her part nicely. She put nice ideas and great lyrics. People screw them up a lot of times with horrible production. I'm not asking her to take the camera and film her thing like she would have done in the beginning, but to just step in sometimes.
Like with her 15th anniversary. Like, I don't even want to talk about it. I wanna forget about it. I'm just taking the music and closing my mouth about it, because if I start on that disaster, I'm never gonna stop complaining, lol.

[Andrenekoi]

I don't really get what people wanted from her anniversaries...

Massive promotion, so she could annoy the public impacted with her almost 10 years long superexposition more efficiently?

Two albums a year, considering she released new music on both anniversaries?

Multiple tours so she could start selling 1/3 of the DVD copies she was selling before like Koda?

Really, I don't get it...

[primavera♥]

I don't get the big deal over party queen. I love the concept of her being a lonely queen yet showing the facade of a party queen. It's a lovely concept and one some people can relate to. I like when ayu talks about stuff like that. I mean, she's done it before much earlier on the past. It's always nice. I remember some thread forever ago about a young new artist singing a sad song about her parent's divorce, and people were complaining about it. Just saying she wants attention and stuff. So stupid. People can express whatever problems or issues they want in their art. Whether it's the lonely child or the lonely queen. Also, ayu is known for her illustrious career that may be misunderstood, while kuu really does put on great lives. They can call themselves whatever they want. Artists don't have to let other people always define them.

[NintendoHTF1242]

Originally Posted by primavera♥

I remember some thread forever ago about a young new artist singing a sad song about her parent's divorce, and people were complaining about it. Just saying she wants attention and stuff. So stupid.

Ayumi Nakagawa. Loved that damn song so much but she stopped making music zzzzzzzzzz

[Andrenekoi]

^I like the live arragment usually, but the official arrangment is pretty generic too...

[ayumisrael]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

^I like the live arragment usually, but the official arrangment is pretty generic too...

Let's say I love both Dearest and Pray.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by ayumisrael

Let's say I love both Dearest and Pray.

(Adrenekoi - Please make some room for Private Messages).

What I like about Pray is how unnusual it is for an Ayu ballad!
(Done! )

[Andrenekoi]

^It's not like you praise anything that isn't generic and done by everyone to ever sign a label contract...

[Zeke.]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

^It's not like you praise anything that isn't generic and done by everyone to ever sign a label contract...

Lol. I think we just have different definitions of generic, etc.
For me, ayus classics aren't generic at all. And I honestly CANT see anyone else doing them. Her greatest hits have a melancholic subtlety to them, and I love the songs in which they sound "born" to be that way. Songs that seem almost as if each note was constructed out of a pattern of rules. Songs that may seem as if they have the simplest melody, but are genius because of it.

Her "generic and done by everyone tracks" for me are everything that does not have those qualities. Which means most of her recent tracks. Pray seriously sounds like an anthem anyone could've sang, and the arrangement certainly is less spectacular and less modern than most of the tracks she released 10 years ago.

[rikku1994]

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

[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.