[tabloid] Japan Today - Ayumi Hamasaki vs Kumi Koda

[emi♡]

She's the only one working? that's quite untrue. There's a team working while she's recording. At each recording, they have to work all over again. avex doesn't exist for ayu's satifaction so that she can sit and make the workers her slaves. It surely isn't any good if you have to repeat the recordings over and over. If recording song were such a damn cool thing, I bet the RAINBOW songs would have come a little more polished and reviewed, instead of having ayu with too much hoarse vocals and overused vibratos. And well, it's pretty much well known that time is money.

I didn't exactly mean that she is the only one working. What I meant by my obviously sarcastic post, is that this "article" is just bull. And to be honest, if ayu wants to bring her dogs to work, then she can bring her dogs to work. They might calm her down, they might make her feel better. Whatever the reason, I really don't care. Ayu isn't going to produce any less quality of music because her dogs are there, it is absolutely irrelevant, as you said.

Because this is a tabloid, and they were completely unprofessional, I refuse to acknowledge their point. I will possibly listen to it if, they provide clear evidence that her dogs are actually disruptive and it somehow affects her music, until then, this article is worse than crap. At least other tabloids funny. This one was just horribly written and...it's just...smut.

[mininamie]

That's one interesting article. I thought it was pretty funny how Ayumi makes the staff watch after her dog. Anyway I hate how the keep comparing them but they both are the main female vocalists in Japan right now so it sometimes seems natural to compare them. I wonder how BEST 2 will sale and what the public will think about Ayumi if she doesn't come through in sales.

[ImpactBreaker]

Originally Posted by emiko

I didn't exactly mean that she is the only one working. What I meant by my obviously sarcastic post, is that this "article" is just bull. And to be honest, if ayu wants to bring her dogs to work, then she can bring her dogs to work. They might calm her down, they might make her feel better. Whatever the reason, I really don't care. Ayu isn't going to produce any less quality of music because her dogs are there, it is absolutely irrelevant, as you said.

Because this is a tabloid, and they were completely unprofessional, I refuse to acknowledge their point. I will possibly listen to it if, they provide clear evidence that her dogs are actually disruptive and it somehow affects her music, until then, this article is worse than crap. At least other tabloids funny. This one was just horribly written and...it's just...smut.

LOL it's really funny! A thread about "how to make a tabloid" should be created because they always follow a very very simillar structure. They usually begin "kinda" informative and positive in the first paragraph:

"JPOP star ayumi hamasaki who broke the record of selling x million records..."

The second paragraoph, they decide to clash ayu with somebody else, in a rather mild way:

"koda kumi, who surpassed ayu the past years on total record sales, blah, blah"

In the third paragraph they put some really random uncofirmed fact that will have a negative overtone:

"ayu treating her dogs like kings, being egoistical with the flight seats..."

LOL There we go, our tabloid is ready (and HOT) to be released

They usually use the last paragraph to sting fiercely because:

-fans won't get annoyed when reading the first paragraphs and end up reading the whole thing, so they get their point accross that way.
-conclusions are supposed to be in the end of every article. With them putting the negative information as the conclusion, ends up making that part (the end of the reading) to stick much more into the readers mind.

[Kikaru]

There should be a "how to write tabloid for Dummies" book.

[simonlau]

speaking of ayu's dogs
i remember someone told me she got 11?
xD

[AmyRoseM]

If the worst thing they can dish up about Ayumi is the fact that she makes other people look after her doggies, I think it's safe to say she's pretty un-diva-like.

so go ayu!

and yay for A BEST 2!

[OoxchocolatexmarblexoO]

I think some of you are overreacting to this whole thing..o0;;

[Dustie]

It seems like her dogs = her whole life, aside from working on music and all that. That's how it seems to me - she's with her dogs all the time, becouse who else can she rely on? Who else will be there with her for good and bad?...

If you're a megastar, you have to work - that means writing lyrics, recording, filming videos, commercials, doing photoshoots, appearing at promo events, rehearsing for and doing lives... Do you have some time inbetween? No. Becouse you spend all the time inbetween on traveling to all the places where you need to go to do all that work - to recording studios, filming studios, photoshoots, on location, to all the places where events are held, to rehearsing studios to practice for the lives...
You're basically in movement all the time, the only spare time is probably when you go to the hotel for sleep - and even then, you can't do much aside from sleeping, becouse the more things you would want to do, the less time you would have for sleep and rest.

She probably checks into her own place like few times per a week and she can't stay for coffee and some cookies, becouse there's constantly some work to do. If she wasn't bringing her dogs with her, she would barely be seeing them.

And if you're a megastar, you barely have friends, becouse it's hard to make friends with people who are in different environments and who go through different things. She's a solo performer, so nobody except her knows what it's like to do all the performing work, maybe except her dancers - who do know that one part of her career, going onto the stage almost everynight for few hours, dancing in a souna-like space and sweating so much you're soaking with perspiration. The band would also add up to that list along with dancers. But Yo-chan can't be with her all the time, neither can Naoto or Midoring - while her dogs can.

She definately goes paranoid over her dogs, after all, they're the only ones around her who don't get paid for being with her, and since people can get emotionally bound to an animal, especially a doggie, who knows if she doesn't percept them as the only true and honest beings around her... I wouldn't be surprised if Nagase left her becouse she spends more time with the dogs than with him.

I'm sure part of her staff is simply hired to take care of her and help her when she's working and I bet that includes taking care of her dogs as well - not like the bath them or something, but they definately have to keep an eye on them.

[kiseki89]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

You have to remember that in 2005 and 2006, Koda had best albums.

2005's big "woah" was because of the first best, and the 2006 "woah" was because of the large amount of singles and yet another best..

So if you subtract that "income" from 2005, Ayu is a bit higher than Koda. But for 2006.. even if the best hadn't come out, I think the DVD sales helped a bunch too x.x


Oh, and I think Ayu takes care of her dogs when she's at home and so on, but while she's working, there HAS to be people there helping with the care of the pets, otherwise they'll just roam all around, screwing things up. So it's not really inconsiderate of her to have other people take care of the dogs because she's busy with what she has to do as a singer ~

[and she has like 5 dogs, if I recall correctly. Or even more!]

Yeah I would not really compare ayu and koda given the number/type of singles/albums they had in 05 and 06...

Originally Posted by Demure_Dusk

Koda is also always dragging her dogs along with her during recordings and filming. Hamasaki has the money to have assistants anyhow so I don't think she doesn't take care of her pets.

I didn't know koda brings her dogs to the studio... Well, well airn't they alike...

[Raleigh]

^ Yeah many offshot photos from her official site have her with her dog/s. She also poses with them on various photoshoots like Ayu does.

[capsule]

Come on. This is just one of those lame stories I've heard. It's nonsense to compare well-renowned artist with newly emerging artist like Koda. They just don't have good stories to sell. So they make one just to get attention. Besides, It's not nice to compare the artist who have sold 50 million records throughout her career with artist whose record sales is just about to surpass 9 million mark. Even though i'm not really fond of koda, but she's a great singer and Ayu's great too. Japan's music industry is getting worse day by day and this kind of story will surely hurt the industry more.

[anayufan]

i don't think Koda Kumi can compare to ayu right now no matter what her sales are or what she puts out (and this is coming from a fan of both). ayu's been surviving here forever now and i think it's more about how long an artist can stay in the business than how well they are currently doing.

and when it comes to the (irrelevant) topic of her dogs, if other artists in avex are bringing in their dogs i don't think it's a "special right" that ayu is getting. and when i'm reading that people have to clean up after the dog when she's in the studio i think that would only make sense. i mean... where is ayu when they're at the studio? she's recording. it would be more troublesome if ayu had to keep going out of the booth just to pick up after the dog (although even then i think ayu would still leave it to her assistant hehe)... and she can't keep the dog with her because then it would definately get picked up in the recording. which brings me to the last point. so they had to re-record it again? don't artists during a recording session usually go through several takes before they get it perfect anyway?

the article tries to make ayu look like a mean diva, but even if it's true (we'll never know for sure and by the way we see ayu indulge herself...) they really didn't use strong supporting points =P

[Raleigh]

^ Yeah exactly. That's why I felt it was rather hypocrite of those who were throwing a fit. I'm sure I've seen other offshots with other artists and their dogs.

[orenji_jaro]

hahaha i ownder... its prolly maron who barked hahaha tahts so cute lol ayu is prolly gigling that her dogged barked whiel she's recoding and she prolyl lik e"suimasen!!!!" m(______)m ahahahaha ayu knows that some of her staffs are plannignt o kill her dogs nyahahah! but its still cute wiiii i also habe a little dogs to accopmpany me ^^

[PrismaticTears]

All the, "Ayu releases all of this to keep her throne and Kuu releases all of this to try to claw her way up," is also silly since neither artist would have complete say over when and where they are releasing whatever. Ayumi has considerably more clout than Kumi for obvious reasons, and Avex doesn't care who is favored so far as if they can stretch that favoritism into dollar amounts. Ayumi has been a reliable source of successful product so her pace is relatively steady and she's been already proven so I'd doubt there's any major pressure on her.

Kumi is a newcomer so of course they want to squeeze as much profit out of her as possible just in case she's another shining star that burns out quickly and fades from the limelight. She didn't gain major fame until her ero-kakkoi image was put forth (I still haven't seen a torrent for that documentary yet either even though it exists, just little clips on youtube) and she's stated herself it was the suggestion of someone else. It gained her fame and Avex made it clear that if she drops the image, she'll drop her fame and effectually get dropped by Avex.

It's a tabloid of confirmed dubiousness - all tabloids' main goal is to cause conflict and then discussion so it will sell, obviously this one succeeded.

[RoboNyanya]

*laughs at Ayu fans getting all defensive*

Especially to that person who pushed the small dogs argument. Small dogs are typically nervous little wrecks and with good natural reasons, not to mention pedigrees in particular like chihuahuas, Ayu's dog of choice. A Saint Bernard would probably be way more chilled out than any of those little beasts. I feel sorry for the crew; I'm willing to bet picking up dog poo isn't part of their job description.

I still love Ayu and all, but I still can't help but roll my eyes about her deal with having so many dogs. If you can keep them out of other people's business, fine, but if it intrudes, that kinda sucks. I also remember being annoyed to death how she seems to treat her dogs better than humans (has anyone noticed how traces of bizzatchyness leak out of her when it comes to the dogs) when she shows them off to others and surrounding herself with these cute...things, accessories rather. I don't think she has to act like an old lady and I know she admits to herself that she doesn't wanna grow up, but it's a little silly that she still clings so childishly to her precious pooches.

[Beauty4123]

interesting article. i never knew ayu loves dogs so much. i guess she and kumi have something in common

They have nothing else to talk about, so they bring up her dogs

[immel]

They have nothing else to talk about, so they bring up Ayumi & Koda .

[LEOyumi]

Originally Posted by Demure_Dusk

“She brings her dog to work, because she doesn’t want to leave her alone at home,” said an Avex employee. “She is kind to us, but becomes a different person when it comes to her dog. We have to keep following her around and catch the dog and clean up after it, which is really tough.”

Far from easing any tension in the workplace, the dog has the opposite effect. “We once had to re-record because the dog barked during the session,” said one staffer.



Link to article

How cuuuuute! lol