Help me love Namie Amuro!

[Minttulatte]

SWEET 19 BLUES, GENIUS 2000 and PAST<FUTURE. <3

[Chandrachan]

Listen to
Style
Queen of Hip-Hop
Play
Past<Future
I believe that these are Namie's best albums

[Aditmi Krisnasaki ~II~]

her last 3 albums and BEST FICTION!

[nanakopy87]

hmm,as a new/going to be her fans,Best Fiction is the best CD to start with.Since its her BEST compilation cd,means most of her best songs are included .if you don't like it,means its hard for you to love her other songs,IMO.
just my 2 cents.if you insist to try,i'll recommend her old stuffs first.

[ImpactBreaker]

If you want to get to like her, I don't think it's exactly a good thing to just pick 3 albums and listen to them once and have a veredict. I disagree with a few people who said you "shouldn't try to lenjoy her just because she's popular". Of course, you shouldn't be pushging yourself to like everything else other people like, but that can be fun if oyu actually feel like you could try working that out, without forccing yourself. I believe one of the facts you are doing this is because you can't get why people exactly like her music and maybe who knows you might even have some sort of guilty pleasure with her, so you want to find exactly in yourself where can you get that good feeling that her fans do when listening to her music...it happens and can be fun! Well, some things can be an acquired taste. I used not to like Namie as much either, but after doing a bit of self questioning why, I started giving second chances to her and now I enjoy her music. The best example of this happened to me with Mika Nakashima. I coudn't understand how she was popular and why people liked those "boring and annoying" songs. I then picked an album in which I liked only one song, and then started to let it just play. In a couple of days, she started to become one of my favorite japasnese artists. The majority of those songs grew on me, and osme of them became much more pleasurable than the ones I liked better previously. I started to see the diversity in her, and she actually made me get interested into other japanese songs that had other genres other than JPOP. I even started to appreciate jazz, which I didn't previously. Nowadays, I'm thankful that I gave mika second chances because I personally feel I'd have missed a good part of waht japanese music could offer me to enjoy.

My advice is, if you pick an album, listen to that song you enjoy most, and then couple it with a few others you enjoy moderately, but doesn't hate. It's possible that your favorite songs might actually shift, and the one you found so awesome, become a little bland and some other you thought were mediocre can become really enjoyable.

It's like getting to enjoy eating vegetables after you've grown hating them. It happens, and it can be a cool experience

[Picaflor 7/4]

everything from queen of hip hop, and on.

[Karori]

If you want to listen to more Namie's stuff, I recommend you the following albums:
Dance Tracks Vol. 1
Genius 2000
Break the Rules
(it seems like I am one of the few people or maybe the only one here who likes her old stuff )

[Chiharo]

I know this thread is a bit old, but I'll reply anyway.

This is for people who wonder how to fall in love with an artist's whole discography;

You can love all of Namie's albums if you have A LOT of patience and time. This goes with every artist. Just take one album at a time, I've read you like PLAY a lot, so if there are any songs you still don't like on that album, listen to them again and again and try to find something good about them. If you still cannot seem to like all of the songs from the said album (which I think shouldn't be a problem, because all the songs on PLAY are awesome and likeable), move on to another album, preferably newer, PAST < FUTURE. Listen to it the same way you listened to PLAY, but if you don't like a song for first couple of listens, don't give up on it just yet! I can guarantee you'll be more fond of it after listening to it MORE. I know it sounds incredibly annoying to repeatedly listen to the song you hate, but at the end you will be so happy for finding out how actually awesome that song is. I believe everyone can do this with any song they dislike. I think if you already like a few songs by her, you can ADORE her whole discography too, and that's really amazing, if you want that to happen. And it's not for the sake of "loving all of her songs and being no.1 fan of her because she's popular" or something, it's because of the great enjoyment you'll discover in every and each of her songs. I'm not lying, I love ALL of Amuro's songs to date. Even ones with SUPER MONEKY'S. And it took me a lot of time for that to happen. I didn't force myself in any way, I just started from her newer albums - to her older albums. I was able to love all of songs by listening to a certain album lots of times. They just naturally grow on you. And honestly, Amuro has such amazing music and I'm glad I've discovered it and didn't give up on her.

I remember I had the hardest time trying to get into GENIUS 2000, and even if I still consider it her worst album, it is incredibly amazing! I love all of the songs now (and I remember thinking "gosh, I'll never like this ******", boy I was wrong). I also ADORE SWEET 19 BLUES and consider it among her best albums ever, and guess what? I used to LOATHE and despise the kind of genre this album is full of! It is just amazing when you can actually think more open mindedly and fall in love with something you hated.

The same goes for Ayu, I like all of her songs because of the chances I gave all her songs. I simply choose to try to like more Ayu and Namie's songs because in general they seem to have amazing songs. And why not discover and like more?

If you've only liked Namie's hip-pop stuff, and tried her older albums and think they are junk and you'll never be able to love them, think again.

Just go from PAST < FUTURE to PLAY, Queen of Hip-Pop, STYLE, break the rules, GENIUS 2000, Concentration 20, SWEET 19 BLUES and then maybe the more older stuff. Just listen to the albums more than once, for God's sake! It will be worth it, I promise!

I was speaking kind of generally for people who think can't get into certain albums or songs at all.

[tanachu]

Originally Posted by Chiharo

I know this thread is a bit old, but I'll reply anyway.

This is for people who wonder how to fall in love with an artist's whole discography;

You can love all of Namie's albums if you have A LOT of patience and time. This goes with every artist. Just take one album at a time, I've read you like PLAY a lot, so if there are any songs you still don't like on that album, listen to them again and again and try to find something good about them. If you still cannot seem to like all of the songs from the said album (which I think shouldn't be a problem, because all the songs on PLAY are awesome and likeable), move on to another album, preferably newer, PAST < FUTURE. Listen to it the same way you listened to PLAY, but if you don't like a song for first couple of listens, don't give up on it just yet! I can guarantee you'll be more fond of it after listening to it MORE. I know it sounds incredibly annoying to repeatedly listen to the song you hate, but at the end you will be so happy for finding out how actually awesome that song is. I believe everyone can do this with any song they dislike. I think if you already like a few songs by her, you can ADORE her whole discography too, and that's really amazing, if you want that to happen. And it's not for the sake of "loving all of her songs and being no.1 fan of her because she's popular" or something, it's because of the great enjoyment you'll discover in every and each of her songs. I'm not lying, I love ALL of Amuro's songs to date. Even ones with SUPER MONEKY'S. And it took me a lot of time for that to happen. I didn't force myself in any way, I just started from her newer albums - to her older albums. I was able to love all of songs by listening to a certain album lots of times. They just naturally grow on you. And honestly, Amuro has such amazing music and I'm glad I've discovered it and didn't give up on her.

I remember I had the hardest time trying to get into GENIUS 2000, and even if I still consider it her worst album, it is incredibly amazing! I love all of the songs now (and I remember thinking "gosh, I'll never like this ******", boy I was wrong). I also ADORE SWEET 19 BLUES and consider it among her best albums ever, and guess what? I used to LOATHE and despise the kind of genre this album is full of! It is just amazing when you can actually think more open mindedly and fall in love with something you hated.

The same goes for Ayu, I like all of her songs because of the chances I gave all her songs. I simply choose to try to like more Ayu and Namie's songs because in general they seem to have amazing songs. And why not discover and like more?

If you've only liked Namie's hip-pop stuff, and tried her older albums and think they are junk and you'll never be able to love them, think again.

Just go from PAST < FUTURE to PLAY, Queen of Hip-Pop, STYLE, break the rules, GENIUS 2000, Concentration 20, SWEET 19 BLUES and then maybe the more older stuff. Just listen to the albums more than once, for God's sake! It will be worth it, I promise!

I was speaking kind of generally for people who think can't get into certain albums or songs at all.

I love this post! Well-put!

[Kanzaki]

I...hate her too. I think her melodies are annoying and her voice too. I myself tried desperatly to like her music, but I just can't. When I heard "Body feels exit", I wanted to kill her for slaughtering the english language, and not even making a decent song out of it.

Don't try to like her if you don't, you shouldn't waste your time. Listen to some other artists instead.

[toniayu]

play

[Lady~Deviance]

I'm glad you were able to find some of her music enjoyable. I was also in your shoes not too long ago. I refused to accept Namie as an artist but that changed once she released WILD/Dr. I think her Past<Future album is amazing and now I'm a fan. Prior to that I felt her foray into the R&B genre was generic and laughable. I was immersed and grew up in the African-American R&B/Hip-Hop community. Therefore I was highly critical and disregarded her as an legitimate artist for years. I no longer bare those strong feelings.

But who cares right? I think her current works are amazing and once again, I'm glad you and others on this forum have come to accept her music. Cheers!

[tsuki]

style, queen and play.

I srsly lol'ed when I read some of these comments.. ;p
if you don't like her and what she does, why bother listen to her?

I've always liked amuro and some of her songs is very catchy... plus she's nice to look at and she doesn't act SUUuUPA-CuuUTe (fishmouth, ballon-cheeks etc etc) like some of your other idols...

[koumori]

Originally Posted by Crystal_Ageha

I hate her, too, and most of her fans. The only fans worse are Hikki fans, and a select few major Kuu-stans.
Amuro is a sell-out who's had everything handed to her from the beginning of her career, and I can't respect that. She's also completely, utterly talentless as far as singing goes.

She's had to go through the murder of her mother, a pregnancy, a break-up and being a single mother, and STILL fights back even after all the bad press in the early 2000's. Oh yeah, she's had EVERYTHING handed to her Listen up, the music industry - especially the asian one - is ruthless. If she hadn't fought tooth and nail, she wouldn't even be known.

My favourite albums from Namie are Queen of Hip-Pop, PLAY, PAST<FUTURE and Checkmate! .

1. Past<Future
2. PLAY
3. Queen of Hip-Hop

try from older albums:
1. STYLE
2. break the rules
3. GENIUS 2000

[terra]

The last three albums

[Not Fade Away]

Originally Posted by Koumori

She's had to go through the murder of her mother, a pregnancy, a break-up and being a single mother, and STILL fights back even after all the bad press in the early 2000's. Oh yeah, she's had EVERYTHING handed to her Listen up, the music industry - especially the asian one - is ruthless. If she hadn't fought tooth and nail, she wouldn't even be known.

My favourite albums from Namie are Queen of Hip-Pop, PLAY, PAST<FUTURE and Checkmate! .

Couldn't have said it better myself

She also had to fight to get people to love her new Genre. I know that sounds weird but, when she first tried 'Hip Pop' no one really bought her albums. It wasn't until 'Play' that people started listening to her again. Say what you want about her, but I think it's really admirable what she's managed to do with her career.

I think it's hilarious that people are mostly voting for her recent albums. Where's the love for her early works? haha

I know her voice is a bit....different, but it's still amazing material!

My top 3 would probably be:

(1)Past < Future
(2)Sweet 19 Blues
(3)181920

[kayokyokufan]

I'm sentimental toward Genius 2000 because that was when I started listening to her. I have to admit though that Namie doesn't have the best voice. She's not a powerhouse, but she has a nice voice. If you listen to her earlier work, then you can really hear the evolution of her singing ability and also her style. I think that if you start off with the earlier music then you'll definitely hear her voice improve as you move forward.

[kumiko.koda]

Queen of Hip-Hop
Play
Past<Future

[Chibi-Chan]

Break the Rules
Play
Past<Future