[Official Message] ayumi hamasaki 『Just the beginning -20- TOUR 2017』

[TeamAyu2004]

I don't care for her cutesy voice either. She isn't a teenager anymore... she hasn't been for a VERY long time.

One of the problems I feel with Ayumi is that the things that made her great and connect with a lot of people back in the day are not the same things that people are concerned with now.

Her fan base fell in love with what she was saying. What she was doing.
Her fan base grew up.
She did not.

[!Lawi!]

Originally Posted by TeamAyu2004

I don't care for her cutesy voice either. She isn't a teenager anymore... she hasn't been for a VERY long time.

One of the problems I feel with Ayumi is that the things that made her great and connect with a lot of people back in the day are not the same things that people are concerned with now.

Her fan base fell in love with what she was saying. What she was doing.
Her fan base grew up.
She did not.

I don't think I agree with the last bit. She changed a lot since the era when she was "in". And her lyrics still really talk to me, some songs may be more forgettable but I can relate to a loooooot of her recent lyrics. Breakdown, wake me up, the next love, now & 4eva (it's too late to check the typo) are incredibly deep and mature for me, and they're only examples!

I just don't think it's fair to think she didn't grow up. I have to agree that a lot of songs from her early days and incredible lyrics wise, but I don't think she's any less good today

[EndOfTheWorld]

I think Ayu has always been inconsistent vocally. But I always have found that interesting because I haven't really seen any other artist that can go from one extreme to the other.
Some performances are so powerful and moving and then another performance will be embarrassing and cringey with shouting or sometimes strange techniques/pronunciation.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by !Lawi!

I don't think I agree with the last bit. She changed a lot since the era when she was "in". And her lyrics still really talk to me, some songs may be more forgettable but I can relate to a loooooot of her recent lyrics. Breakdown, wake me up, the next love, now & 4eva (it's too late to check the typo) are incredibly deep and mature for me, and they're only examples!

I just don't think it's fair to think she didn't grow up. I have to agree that a lot of songs from her early days and incredible lyrics wise, but I don't think she's any less good today

I agree, and I even believe she tends to aproach several subjects with more complexity nowadays. In the past some lyrics felt like she was playing the victim sometimes.

[Chris85]

Originally Posted by Ad Eternam

I've seen her twice in live and her vocals were amazing.
I really don't think her voice is always edited and autotuned. I've studied a bit of sound design and when you use too much filters on a voice, it's getting almost robotic (Cher for example... Or worse, Madonna when she tries to sing live). .
And sometimes, you just can't sing right. It happens.

I also think that Ayu re-recorded her vocals for the CDL 2015-2016 and that's why it took so long to come out on DVD. The best example is "Many Classic Moments". They couldn't edit her vocals that well. It would have sound robotic.
But that's a theory. I'm maybe wrong.

I really doubt that she re-recorded that song.It does sound robotic. They just edited it with more care, so it wasn't extremely robotic.
Auto-tune (known for awful pitch-correction artifacts) is not the only pitch-correction software. Melodyne for example treats voice much more gently, voice still sounds pretty natural. If a person was slightly off-key, it can fix your voice the way it's even hard to tell that something was fixed. I used that program and it does wonders.

[BlackSilence]

Hmm i'm seriously curious on this whole screaming thing and her vocal technique or the lack of it. I'll have to give some TV lives for a friend of mine who's a vocalist in training to have a listen. She straight out told GACKT had folk influences on his voice not even knowing him at all. Which he did. So i think she might give some insight in this. To compare her older performances and very new ones.

[pedronekoi]

And the vocal/screaming/off key/high pitch/edition discussion is back again

[koumori]

Originally Posted by pedronekoi

And the vocal/screaming/off key/high pitch/edition discussion is back again

Well, it'll be a relevant topic in a thread about her tours for as long as Ayu keeps doing it.

[truehappiness]

It is kind of a broken record-type discussion though since nothing new is really discussed IMO. Always the same people saying the same things. I think a big issue is that she's probably touring a bit too much since she sounds fine early on in the tours/performances but then things get way off due to illness or overdoing it. With the tour being her longest ever this year, I'm a bit worried for her midway through and during the finale.

[koumori]

As someone who casually flips in and out of these threads, I always appreciate the updates from people who have seen her live more recently and can compare to older tours. I can appreciate that it's a more tired topic for those who check more regularly though.

[BlackSilence]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

It is kind of a broken record-type discussion though since nothing new is really discussed IMO. Always the same people saying the same things. I think a big issue is that she's probably touring a bit too much since she sounds fine early on in the tours/performances but then things get way off due to illness or overdoing it. With the tour being her longest ever this year, I'm a bit worried for her midway through and during the finale.

I gave some Ayu's live performances to a friend who's a trained vocalist (been doing that for 10 years now) to listen, the MA one from 2002(?) in that red dress and ASFXX from a couple of years ago, because i cannot hear her shouting a lot while singing like at all, and while my friend said her technique at times is unrecognizable and that she also has this folk feeling in her singing that's so common amongst asian artists, there's no shouting whatsoever. Why it might feel like she is, is probably, according to her, because it kind of feels like while continuing the note she changes register, which makes it sound like shouting to an untrained ear hears in between the runs . She also said that Ayu's voice is more on the head register or caught somewhere in between her nose and throat in the earlier video, rather than coming from the chest, but she definitely has the support that most somewhat trained artists do in her way of singing. Apparently, to her, she sounds much better in the newer live clip than the older one. She clearly wasn't impressed, but couldn't say anything bad about her way of singing either. Sooooo, that being said, Ayu might have "a note or two off" moments but she's got the skills to support the voice while singing and she obviously does that. How my friend said "She is definitely not going with a bare voice, there is support in it clearly noticeable to someone who knows how it all works".

[AyuCanada]

Originally Posted by artcika

I gave some Ayu's live performances to a friend who's a trained vocalist (been doing that for 10 years now) to listen, the MA one from 2002(?) in that red dress and ASFXX from a couple of years ago, because i cannot hear her shouting a lot while singing like at all, and while my friend said her technique at times is unrecognizable and that she also has this folk feeling in her singing that's so common amongst asian artists, there's no shouting whatsoever. Why it might feel like she is, is probably, according to her, because it kind of feels like while continuing the note she changes register, which makes it sound like shouting to an untrained ear hears in between the runs . She also said that Ayu's voice is more on the head register or caught somewhere in between her nose and throat in the earlier video, rather than coming from the chest, but she definitely has the support that most somewhat trained artists do in her way of singing. Apparently, to her, she sounds much better in the newer live clip than the older one. She clearly wasn't impressed, but couldn't say anything bad about her way of singing either. Sooooo, that being said, Ayu might have "a note or two off" moments but she's got the skills to support the voice while singing and she obviously does that. How my friend said "She is definitely not going with a bare voice, there is support in it clearly noticeable to someone who knows how it all works".

I think her off keys are mostly due to her ears than her technique.

[Chibi-Chan]

Originally Posted by artcika

I gave some Ayu's live performances to a friend who's a trained vocalist (been doing that for 10 years now) to listen, the MA one from 2002(?) in that red dress and ASFXX from a couple of years ago, because i cannot hear her shouting a lot while singing like at all, and while my friend said her technique at times is unrecognizable and that she also has this folk feeling in her singing that's so common amongst asian artists, there's no shouting whatsoever. Why it might feel like she is, is probably, according to her, because it kind of feels like while continuing the note she changes register, which makes it sound like shouting to an untrained ear hears in between the runs . She also said that Ayu's voice is more on the head register or caught somewhere in between her nose and throat in the earlier video, rather than coming from the chest, but she definitely has the support that most somewhat trained artists do in her way of singing. Apparently, to her, she sounds much better in the newer live clip than the older one. She clearly wasn't impressed, but couldn't say anything bad about her way of singing either. Sooooo, that being said, Ayu might have "a note or two off" moments but she's got the skills to support the voice while singing and she obviously does that. How my friend said "She is definitely not going with a bare voice, there is support in it clearly noticeable to someone who knows how it all works".

First of all, thanks, that's interesting! But we weren't complaining about her shouting in 2002 or 2010, but during the last 2 or 3 years and especially LAST year.
I mean, we already knew that she wasn't shouting in 2002. Not to mention that her voice sounds totally different nowadays than 15 years ago.

[Katsuyuki012]

Originally Posted by Chibi-Chan

First of all, thanks, that's interesting! But we weren't complaining about her shouting in 2002 or 2010, but during the last 2 or 3 years and especially LAST year.
I mean, we already knew that she wasn't shouting in 2002. Not to mention that her voice sounds totally different nowadays than 15 years ago.

"...ASFXX from a couple of years ago", I think they probably mean the AT15/ABL one, which would be with her new voice but I'm not 100% sure.

[Chibi-Chan]

Originally Posted by Tio/Tayumi

"...ASFXX from a couple of years ago", I think they probably mean the AT15/ABL one, which would be with her new voice but I'm not 100% sure.

For me a couple of years ago means something like 4 to 7 years or something and not 2 years. 2 simply can't count as "a couple of years".

[Zeke.]

I always felt "a couple" referred to more than merely two as well. Like I would interpret it as four or so. I know that's not really correct but in cases where someone would say something like "grab me a couple of those" and I'd say "ok like how many" and they'd say "two" it felt weird. Lol. If you use the term a couple to me it signifies that you don't have a set amount in mind, otherwise why don't you just say two?

[EndOfTheWorld]

couple-
noun: couple; plural noun: couples
1.
two individuals of the same sort considered together.
"a couple of girls were playing marbles"
synonyms: pair, duo, twosome, two; More
informal
an indefinite small number.
"he hoped she'd be better in a couple of days"
synonyms: some, a few, a handful of, one or two
"I have a couple of things to do"

That is what google says about the term "couple".
To me, when someone says a "couple" years, it means at least 2 years. Not an exact time but a small amount.

[aliceshields]

I'm wondering if her first date of the -Just the Beginning 20- tour will be on 8th of April, it's Saturday.

[Aderianu]

^too early. Usually it's ~2 months between announcement and first date

[dreamalley]

Maybe she'll divide the tour in two with a month of rest in between?

I just hope she'll be touring in September/October