~Chart & Sales~ talkin' 2 myself Single

[ayumisrael]

Originally Posted by ayu_fan929

Actually boybands also experience large (or even larger) drop in sales.


Well usually female singers show their strength in albums.

Yep, boy bands has larger drops but their first week sales are high enough to outsell most of the other types singles...

Female artists do show a strong perfromance with albums.

sales must be pretty bad this week, because even though it was last week Kinki Kids are at #3 with only 3,000 copies sold. so what are the other new entries like then?..!

[ll moments ll]

ohhh dear. that's not that great. :O

i hope it maintains longevity, but that's saying a lot.

[Chibi_Venus]

So this is low? Guess her sales are the things I know least about. ^^;;

[Norrel]

OHMYGAHwhyayugetSUCHLOWsales?

Because. Deal with it. New artists have come, and are in the spotlight now.
Don't make a big deal out of the sales, as long as you got the music, and you like it, its all that matters.

[Beauty4123]

at least she got number one, despite the low sales.

[namiie]

Originally Posted by Akutenshi

I seriously wonder what some of you will say the day Ayu's #1 streak finally breaks. Some of you are WAY too accustomed to her being on top: you need to accept that there will come a day she won't be anymore.

Anyway, I think, considering how low sales in Japan have been for the past year, that this is actually really good. Some artists who have singles in the top 10 don't even debut for the week with a number like that.

I AGREE OMFG. And just because this single isn't selling well doesn't mean Japan has bad taste.

a) Bad taste is highly subjective.

b) ALL of Japan? Really? That's a helluva lot of people to generalize for.

It just means that regardless of how good the song quality is, the current trends of the industry + Ayu's long run at the top having to end SOMEDAY accounts for the not-as-expected sales. It's not doing badly, but we should just all chill out. No offense, but stop accusing an entire nation of bad taste. Maybe WE have bad taste. glitter/fated sold more than t2m on the first day and lots of people here hate that single and praise t2m.

Sometimes I don't really like a song at first but after hearing it live it REALLY grows on me (example is Bold & Delicious). This could also backfire---a poor performance of a song can really turn people off. IMO her performances of t2m so far are not that great. =\ Shaky vocals, etc. I think avex's weird promotion (less-than-spectacular PVs, strange cover concepts, etc) is also at blame, but other than that I believe it's mostly just the current times.

Yes, it's sad that what we consider to be a great single is selling not so well. But I think we should just relish the fact that Ayu is still #1 and take it all in stride. I doubt the quality of her music will decline even if her ranking does. Look at Shimatani Hitomi---girlfriend barely charts high and she still has great music! I believe Ayu deserves higher rankings too, but like Norrel said, new times, new artists.

[Peger]

Originally Posted by tourniquet

the thing is... she didn't exactly dance. at least not under my definition. to swirl around with your arms and shaking your ass off while walking an imaginary catwalk is not exactly dancing, you know. imho she's just been lazy with that PV.

and she'll NEVER reach namie's abilities. the only PV which comes to my mind where she actually danced is INSPIRE and the choreography was awesome, that's why I absolutely love it. well, I don't know her pre-MY STORY PVs, but I guess she's just staring/walking all the time, trying to be cute, as usual.

Uh, have you ever actually seen Namie dance? She's usually pretty bad.

As for the sales, it's not suprising imo, this is an unusual single choice for Ayu and the tie-in's suck. This is basically 2007's version of B&D/Pride. I'm glad she released these songs though, they're her strongest in years.

[taskinillusion]

Originally Posted by HJeweL

hmm..disappointed with ayu fans in japan...t2m actually sell lower then glitter/fated..people are so hyped up with this single yet the sale figures reflected the opposite.

DBSK is a great threat to ayu's streak..we all know that ayu's recent singles excel at first week's sales but has short chart life...and in addition her sales may not maintain at around 8~14k every day for a week..while DBSK's sales may be more stable due to the boy band factor..thus im sure that there will be a stiff competition between DBSK and ayu in terms of single sales..hope that ayu will still be able to maintain her streak..which is very essential for her career.

this single is really one of her best .T

Well, the majority of the members of this Ayu forum are hyped up with this single, but that doesn't mean the majority of JAPAN is. There are several groups of people on this forum that represent different places in the world, not Japan as a whole. So just because we all freak out about it, doesn't mean all of Japan will. :/ Different culture, different tastes, etc.

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by ll moments ll

ohhh dear. that's not that great. :O

i hope it maintains longevity, but that's saying a lot.

Yeah, I'm hoping this single will have a longer shelf life than usual.

One big reason that it didn't have huge sales it's first day is that so far only one TV appearance has aired. Usually she has multiple performances right before the release. This time most of her appearances are spread out over the month after release. Kinda interesting. That along with the radio interviews show that Avex was going about a different way of promoting this single.

[jkm444]

thanks for da info!
I don't care about the sales anymore. I am happy as long as ayu get no.1 in the weekly chart.

[voltron]

It's not that awful, though a little disappointment.

But, really, Ayu's rock songs have never been that popular in Japan. So I really don't think this should come as any surprise to anyone.

[ayumisrael]

Originally Posted by voltron

It's not that awful, though a little disappointment.

But, really, Ayu's rock songs have never been that popular in Japan. So I really don't think this should come as any surprise to anyone.

M from the chorus had rock and look how popular it is (though ayu composed it herself) xD

[Chibi_Venus]

Originally Posted by Norrel

OHMYGAHwhyayugetSUCHLOWsales?

Because. Deal with it. New artists have come, and are in the spotlight now.
Don't make a big deal out of the sales, as long as you got the music, and you like it, its all that matters.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[mishidabo]

first of all, japan doesnt have bad taste, they arent fond with this so called """"Rock"""" style of ayu

2) i say this as a japanese music lover , and i know my way around alot of genres, this single aint THAT good. neither is ayaka's as a matter of fact, but i thought ayakas would sale more cuz the FF tie up.

3) if you were a real fan of ayumi, you wouldnt care about ayu's sales, as long as she makes music you like then i think its fine, otherwise you just want to feel important or cool having a top seller artist as your favorite; Get a life.

4) as many have said, japan sales have changed alot in the past couple of years, and its a fact that labels are aiming for online distribution instead of the physical CD; avex tries to hit both channels, but i think they need to innovate their products if they want to sale more physical CDs

5)k tnx bye

[ladytaboo]

I'm glad she released these songs though, they're her strongest in years.

ITA.

[Peger]

Originally Posted by ayumisrael

M from the chorus had rock and look how popular it is (though ayu composed it herself) xD

M was pop rock. T2M is her first pure rock single.

On a better note, Talkin 2' Myself was #5 on overall download charts for August, that's amazing given the single was just released.

[bluegie]

I totally agree with some of you defending the Japan nation. t2m may sound excellent to us, but how many people hear actually full understand Japanese? Yes, we think the lyrics are good based on TRANSLATIONS. We actually don't know how well it is written in Japanese. Maybe the writing is not that good? Or maybe the writings don't really go well with the music/arrangement? (e.g., hikki's Passion is a great example. Many Japanese feel awkward about a sad lyric blends with a energetic music.). I'm not saying ayu's lyrics are bad (cuz I dunno Japanese as well). Let's face it, how many of us saying t2m is excellent BEFORE the translation comes up?

And like what the others said. Japanese tastes ain't our tastes. We don't even have similar tastes since we come from different nations. How can you defend ayu's sales by saying Japanese having bad taste? This is quite naive. Also, if some ayu fan doesn't like one or two ayu songs, it doesn't mean they hate ayu. Freely commenting about ayu's work is objective, while putting efforts on defending ayu is subjective. Ayu is normal, she is not a super computer making every single piece of music like masterpiece. There could be some songs you dun like on her album.

Back to the topic, congrats ayu for another no. 1 . I dun really scared about DBSK if they are boybands. Boybands have high first day sales but they will fall like hell after the 2nd day.

[LacusClyne]

well, most of the time Japanese seem to prefer ballads songs, rock are more okay okay to them...maybe that's why the sales is low on the first day.

[zeroshin888]

I don't really know what to say but it seems that when members of AHS think that something Ayu releases is awesome, the sales don't reflect it. For example, when Ayu released Secret, I thought it was like one of her best albums, much better than (m)u but that album hasnt even reached 1mil yet.

I personally think that t2m is an absolute perfect single, much better than glitter/fated but the fact still remains that her first day sales for t2m is much less than the sales for her previous single.
Since the sales for #1 and 2 is so close, I'm afraid that DBSK will soon replace Ayu's 1st place this week. We must have faith in her! I'm sure the sales for t2m will go up when ppl in Japan finally comes to their senses!