Why I think Ayumi's sales have fallen...

[Cherry Dynamite]

Originally Posted by ShiSeido

You guys are talking like business mens!! It really makes me wanna disappear xDD So embarrassing. Talking about music, but only speaking about sales, the look of a person, genres etc. I could spit out my meal from yesterday.

I wanna see how much of a fan you guys still are, when all pop stars get bald heads, no makeup and chubby stomaches. What shallow ppl are calling "music" nowadays makes me blushing.

Let's be HONEST: The kind Ayu is acting on TV shows since years, its EMBARRASSING. She's trying so hard to be cute as a little girl while shes already over 30 etc. She's a woman, not a 7-years old. Also the tons of fakelashes, extensions, makeup and over-photoshopped photos etc. I mean, I'm allways havin a hard time, to keep sticking to Ayu's music, but what you guys are writing here, makes me angry ò.0

Because it gives me the impression, that most people are talking about her successes, plastic body accessoires and artificial image S*(HI''T. Lets get back to the MUSIC, just ignoring the other details, which don't really have to do with music, like the F''U&CKIN))G SALES which are actually important for no one else but AVEXXXXXXXXXXXX!!!!!!!!

I DON'T CARE IF NAMI AMURO IS MORE FAMOUS BECAUSE OF HER SILLY FASHION AND HER AWESOME SALES! SHOW ME HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LIKING THAT PIECE OF A WOMAN IF SHE WEARS MAN JEANS AND A SIMPLE T-SHIRT.

Thank you.

What's your problem really?
If you want people to only talk about her "music" make your own forum and ban people who talks about "other" stuff.

[rainydayumi]

Originally Posted by ShiSeido

You guys are talking like business mens!! It really makes me wanna disappear xDD So embarrassing. Talking about music, but only speaking about sales, the look of a person, genres etc. I could spit out my meal from yesterday.

I wanna see how much of a fan you guys still are, when all pop stars get bald heads, no makeup and chubby stomaches. What shallow ppl are calling "music" nowadays makes me blushing.

Let's be HONEST: The kind Ayu is acting on TV shows since years, its EMBARRASSING. She's trying so hard to be cute as a little girl while shes already over 30 etc. She's a woman, not a 7-years old. Also the tons of fakelashes, extensions, makeup and over-photoshopped photos etc. I mean, I'm allways havin a hard time, to keep sticking to Ayu's music, but what you guys are writing here, makes me angry ò.0

Because it gives me the impression, that most people are talking about her successes, plastic body accessoires and artificial image S*(HI''T. Lets get back to the MUSIC, just ignoring the other details, which don't really have to do with music, like the F''U&CKIN))G SALES which are actually important for no one else but AVEXXXXXXXXXXXX!!!!!!!!

I DON'T CARE IF NAMI AMURO IS MORE FAMOUS BECAUSE OF HER SILLY FASHION AND HER AWESOME SALES! SHOW ME HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LIKING THAT PIECE OF A WOMAN IF SHE WEARS MAN JEANS AND A SIMPLE T-SHIRT.

Thank you.

lol.. what a useless post.. and you dont understand why nobody takes you seriously...

[channy]

Originally Posted by PaPaRatZi

lol.. what a useless post.. and you dont understand why nobody takes you seriously...

How can you speak for everyone?

You are the first person to tell me this. But nevertheless, I'd be OK with that, because I am not here to be a serious person, anyway. And if you read the posts in this thread carefully, who would you take serious instead? I just read weird and off-topic comments. And I am even not saying, mine was any better. Lets be honest with that.

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Yeah.

But Ayu has almost always been quite Western starting with LOVEppears...

-hides-

Yeah. This whole "westernized", "not westernized" thing is kind of moot. All Jpop and Jrock are inherently westernized. Actual Japanese music sounds nothing like Ayu, Koda, Namie etc etc.

Originally Posted by microphone

There is some exception like part of me, Moments, BALLAD, GREEN, Don't Look Back, etc. They don't sound western.

Even those songs, at their core are westernized music. Basically anything post WWII has the western stamp on it unless it is music that comes from Japanese groups/individuals that specifically play actual Japanese music only. But of course the westernization of Japanese music is what made me love it to start with.

Originally Posted by KuuXAyu-fan

In all honesty boy bands are taking over. Sales of almost all females have gone down quite a bit. I mean TRICK was the #1 female studio of 2009 yet only sold about 400k. I just hope the females can get back in the spotlight and dominate the market again.

Actually Superfly had the best selling female album of 2009.

[Mai82Go]

Probably the Beatles are to blame.

[hpg23]

^Hahahahaha

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Well, for me, I was talking about her LOOK being very Western.

But her look has always been very western, and anyway, you mean western because of the blonde hair? Apart from that, no J-Pop singer runs around in a kimono all the time. And practically no Japanese person from the XXI century which are under 70 years old.

And I love you too

Originally Posted by jbrat2219

It's not so hard.

Everyone wants to over analyze everything all the time when it is as simple as pop produced by Japanese in Japanese and 300K people buying an album instead of 3 million lol.

Agree with this, it's like trying to find five legs to a cat all the time.

Originally Posted by KuuXAyu-fan

In all honesty boy bands are taking over. Sales of almost all females have gone down quite a bit. I mean TRICK was the #1 female studio of 2009 yet only sold about 400k. I just hope the females can get back in the spotlight and dominate the market again.

I'm sure they will. Everything goes in cycles, specially trends. One day, the boyband era will be over and who knows what else will be in. And then there'll be a new era where girlbands are the in thing and then female solist will rock the world again... it's just a matter of time. And it's not only the boyband power, but their marketing tecniques:

Originally Posted by Bigtop

Why are boy bands more popular? And why do Johnny's Entertainment groups (and its related subsidiaries) DO NOT put their music on iTunes or some sort, leading to "astronomical" sales numbers that usually girls like Ayu could reach in the past but cannot reach today!?

They don't sell their stuff online and practically the only way to get their music is to buy physical albums.

Originally Posted by ShiSeido

[...] I wanna see how much of a fan you guys still are, when all pop stars get bald heads, no makeup and chubby stomaches. What shallow ppl are calling "music" nowadays makes me blushing. [...]

Because it gives me the impression, that most people are talking about her successes, plastic body accessoires and artificial image S*(HI''T. Lets get back to the MUSIC, just ignoring the other details, which don't really have to do with music, like the F''U&CKIN))G SALES which are actually important for no one else but AVEXXXXXXXXXXXX!!!!!!!!

I DON'T CARE IF NAMIE AMURO IS MORE FAMOUS BECAUSE OF HER SILLY FASHION AND HER AWESOME SALES! SHOW ME HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LIKING THAT WOMAN IF SHE WEARS MAN JEANS AND A SIMPLE T-SHIRT.

Thank you.

I would still support them as long as the music is good, but hey, image is important when selling a product, but not something that you can't miss. KOKIA is nothing amazing physically and still has tons of fans, and if we want to talk about mega star, Utada has never been flashy or specially pretty by industry standards, and say hello the best selling album of all time.

Although your opinion is worth of respect, that overdose of uppercase caps, curse words and repeated letters just makes it look extremely childish.

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by hpg23

I'm sure they will. Everything goes in cycles, specially trends. One day, the boyband era will be over and who knows what else will be in. And then there'll be a new era where girlbands are the in thing and then female solist will rock the world again... it's just a matter of time. And it's not only the boyband power, but their marketing tecniques:

Boybands have been the "in" things in Japan since basically the 60s. It's not a trend that will be ending anytime soon. Its just that in the past, there were more female and group acts doing well that it seemed a bit more balanced - so the problem isn't the boybands, because they have always been in the position they are in; its that the women are giving them even less competition than they used to.

[Nackar_91]

In all honesty boy bands are taking over. Sales of almost all females have gone down quite a bit. I mean TRICK was the #1 female studio of 2009 yet only sold about 400k. I just hope the females can get back in the spotlight and dominate the market again.

Ehr, why? Why should one group dominate the market? I'd like to see some diversity. I'm especially sad how rock groups have very little chance at fame in Japan these days. Aside from the old, OLD, established names (L'Arc~en~Ciel, B'z, Glay and ESPECIALLY Mr. Children) there is very little fresh blood doing well. Oh well, can't change a whole country.

[ville]

well yes, i think also that Namie's and Ayu's songs are "americanized", but Namie's songs are good ones and Ayu's... well just boring.
and they are both over 30 years old, but Namie acts like her age, not giggling and trying not to look like a Barbie-doll with huge eye's and eyelashes.
Namie looks really pretty and natural but Ayu like plastic freak. she is so unreal yuck.

[Izzette]

Thank you finally someone else sees the issues.

I don't understand the Namie thing either Because that is namies thing! She is American-R&B.

Anyway. The reason Ayumi is declining is cause Ayumi isn't Ayumi anymore. She was famous for making people listen, she was famous for "INSPIRE"ing, she always seemed to know what song to sing for which eras and they always sold.

Though in these times people are for lack of better word real low lifes they claim to be "real fans" but I guarantee they were first in line to pirate it the second R'n'R Circus leaked. Those people make me sick. If you have to have it digitally, buy it digitally, don't break the law. I don't care who you are stealing is stealing.

And how do you think Ayumi would feel if she knew people that were supposedly her real fans were pirating her material? Granted she hasn't done anything worth buying lately, especially in RNRC. Still to a point she must assume shes done something with this disaster. I hope it flops.

Ayumi I think has a wish to be American-Pop but her sales is the price she will have to pay, can she afford to lose this insane #1 streak that no artist has ever experienced before? Is it worth it to her to be so American that she no longer has the same sales. I surely hope she didn't spend all her millions on pointless stuff because when the future rolls around she'll need that money to survive. I can't really picture Ayumi as a cashier at a random clothing store. You know?

I hope Ayumi wakes up soon before whats left of her history book career is over.

RnRC is filled with filler music, it's not big production material.

If Avex would take a risk and spend more on Ayumi's production as they once did, I think we would see Ayumi shine again.

Remember Jewels extremely expensive music video? It was so high quality, it wasn't that meaningful. But it was beautiful.

Or Endless Sorrow my personal favorite, I feel Endless Sorrow best represents fans like me right now, In Ayumi world if you share your honest opinion on how you feel about her music you get bad mouthed or silenced.

If Ayumi had never had meaningful songs like Seasons, Surreal and Heaven some people like me would never of become fans. I realize everybody has different tastes and that some people DO like her new material. But I ask Ayumi to please remember US you know? Don't just try to please one type of person in an album, She could have easily done a CD that featured stuff EVERYBODY liked. Epic ballads, Epic rock songs, Epic pop songs, Epic *laughs* American pop songs.

Oh well. I waste my breath things won't change unless Ayumi realizes whats going on, and she is stuck so far up her tiny behind that she has no clue what her fans are thinking right now. Except MAYBE she listens to TeamAyu people, but everyone else nope, she has no clue.

[Izzette]

Originally Posted by ShiSeido

You guys are talking like business mens!! It really makes me wanna disappear xDD So embarrassing. Talking about music, but only speaking about sales, the look of a person, genres etc. I could spit out my meal from yesterday.

I wanna see how much of a fan you guys still are, when all pop stars get bald heads, no makeup and chubby stomaches. What shallow ppl are calling "music" nowadays makes me blushing.

Let's be HONEST: The kind Ayu is acting on TV shows since years, its EMBARRASSING. She's trying so hard to be cute as a little girl while shes already over 30 etc. She's a woman, not a 7-years old. Also the tons of fakelashes, extensions, makeup and over-photoshopped photos etc. I mean, I'm allways havin a hard time, to keep sticking to Ayu's music, but what you guys are writing here, makes me angry ò.0

Because it gives me the impression, that most people are talking about her successes, plastic body accessoires and artificial image S*(HI''T. Lets get back to the MUSIC, just ignoring the other details, which don't really have to do with music, like the F''U&CKIN))G SALES which are actually important for no one else but AVEXXXXXXXXXXXX!!!!!!!!

I DON'T CARE IF NAMI AMURO IS MORE FAMOUS BECAUSE OF HER SILLY FASHION AND HER AWESOME SALES! SHOW ME HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE LIKING THAT WOMAN IF SHE WEARS MAN JEANS AND A SIMPLE T-SHIRT.

Thank you.

I so agree with you 95% except the sales thing, Ayumi has to make money somehow. Singing is her job.

Anyway..

I myself personally could care less how Ayumi looks, I have always felt that way, sure she has done some photoshoots that were pretty/stunning, but still I like to hear music. You know lately what i'm hearing isn't music. Avex is stressing her beauty and not her musical talent. Back then her CD covers weren't that fancy, now it's a constant game with other artists to see who can over airbrush the most.

What happened to flaws? Ayumi sang of her flaws in many songs that is what made her famous to a point. Those flaws people related to, if people can't relate to Ayumi Hamasaki anymore how can she remain famous??

Ayumi I think maybe she feels she was robbed of her child hood that is why she is trying to be a kid again, OR maybe the whole AKB48 era thats selling well right now, Avex may think it's what people want.

If it's because Ayumi feels she lost her child hood, she chose this road to became a star. You can't have your cake and eat it too. You know?
And if she feels she lost something in her past, MAYBE SHE SHOULD SING ABOUT IT. Isn't that what Ayumi always said she sang about how she was feeling at the moment. Surely she isn't REALLY feeling like Lady Dynamite.

Oh well. I love your point!

Someday Ayumi's skinny mini body will start to sag, I wonder what the world will think of her then. But most of the people that are her fans now will go through the same thing when she does. They will get old too. I wonder if they'll be as shallow as they are now.

[freedreamer]

this place is becoming a place for old fans to reminiscise about then Ayu...well well...
honestly, quite...stunned at some of the comments lol
well, i dont enjoy sarcasm but if thats how the writer is...then...

[*Petit*]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

Yeah. This whole "westernized", "not westernized" thing is kind of moot. All Jpop and Jrock are inherently westernized. Actual Japanese music sounds nothing like Ayu, Koda, Namie etc etc.

Even those songs, at their core are westernized music. Basically anything post WWII has the western stamp on it unless it is music that comes from Japanese groups/individuals that specifically play actual Japanese music only. But of course the westernization of Japanese music is what made me love it to start with.



Actually Superfly had the best selling female album of 2009.

SS good post and you're absolutely right on all points, but for this discussion, I think it would be much more fruitful to define japanese (pop) music by the traits that developed within the context of japanese music differing from those in other areas after WW2 and the (second, because technically the first one came with the meji restoration and resulted in what became known as enka) big reception of western culture and in this case particularly pop music. This is because the concept of "modern pop music" is a western concept originating in the US, like you already mention, consequently discussing how westernized it is in its origins is moot. Comparing apples to apples would be to try to point out the differences between the two the way the are at the same given time.

Using this as a basis, I think his post makes more sense, especially where it mentions track length and differences in style. Keep in mind that we're talking about main stream pop music meaning the music that's commercially most successful and enjoys a certain popularity and recognition among the general public at any given point usually following a more or less set release pattern.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

Yeah. This whole "westernized", "not westernized" thing is kind of moot. All Jpop and Jrock are inherently westernized. Actual Japanese music sounds nothing like Ayu, Koda, Namie etc etc.



Even those songs, at their core are westernized music. Basically anything post WWII has the western stamp on it unless it is music that comes from Japanese groups/individuals that specifically play actual Japanese music only. But of course the westernization of Japanese music is what made me love it to start with.



Actually Superfly had the best selling female album of 2009.

And Enka has tons of influence of western music too xD Like blues, tango and jazz... The fact is that is stupid trying to find a nationality for music... There is always influence from somewhere else^^

[Nackar_91]

Also, the term "Westernized" just sounds plain stupid to me. Is hip hop considered Western? Rap? Think about where their roots lie.

[Crystal_Ageha]

^ Thank you. That was my main point.
If you want to say that just because somebody sings, say, R&B, that means they do Western/American music, just because it originated there, then why do you not take into consideration that, in this example, R&B is made up of music from origins that aren't even considered Eastern OR Western?
Because all music is, at the core, made up of music from the earliest civilizations, which came from tribes in Africa and spread to places like the Indus valley, etc. THEY are the ones who created music. But since that was so freakin' long ago, and because all genres of all cultures take elements from both original music and new music created from the original, we need to distinguish in a different way.

Just because something has certain elements, or especially instruments, of another culture, that does not make it that culture's music.
For example, just because somebody does hip-hop in Japan, that does not necessarily make the music Western. In this day and age, there is American hip-hop, European hip-hop, Japanese hip-hop, Korean hip-hop, etc. And on a similar note, let's say, for example, Britney Spears comes out with a new pop song that uses a koto. Does that make that song J-Pop...? I'm willing to bet a lot of money that it will still be American pop, just with a Japanese instrument being used.

Yes, there is, obviously, still such thing as "traditional" music, but just because Ayu's new single isn't traditional Japanese music, that absolutely does not mean it's Western. That's what some people have to understand. There is traditional music, and then there is modern. Yes, pretty much all modern music takes elements from Western styles, but remember, those styles took from somebody else, too. It's another one of those cases where 'nothing is original anymore'. So, like I said, you must look at it in a different way, unless you want to group every single thing into the very original. Which would be silly, since even though there's a common origin for all music, it's evolved so much, and it will continue to evolve, so there's no point in doing that.

[voltron]

So I've been thinking a lot lately about "old" Ayu vs. "new" Ayu, and some of the differences. I think a lot of people have hit the nail on the head. Generally speaking, my personal opinion for her decreasing popularity is a combination of the following:

-- She's older. Honestly, it's a miracle that she has had such a successful career in Japan for so long, and that she isn't even less popular right now. Youth is valued in music stars. It just is.
-- Previously she had a "cool" image, but for a while now she has been pushing this uber-girly image. She's not leading trends the way she once did. Her target audience now is young girls, and she even addresses that musically (i.e. Beautiful Fighters, etc). I think she has fans that have been fans all along, and little girls. She doesn't have a ton of male fans, and she doesn't have the music buying demographic of teenaged kids.
-- Her vocals have seriously deteriorated. People will argue all sorts of timeframes that they enjoyed her the best, but I honestly think that technically her voice was the best around I Am.../Dome Tour era. Look at her live performances for Dearest (from when it was actually released)...she did not have a single bad performance. I was in the CM Song Differences thread the other day listening to commercials, and it hit me...she doesn't sing anymore. Even her ballads...when is the last time she has really belted it out?
-- She's been repeating herself. She's doing fun songs now. The lyrics start to repeat themselves. And they're not that great anymore, they lack the depth and realness of her earlier songs (in most cases). She's just not relateable anymore. At her peak people referred to her as the voice of the lost generation in Japan.

[truehappiness]

-- Her vocals have seriously deteriorated. People will argue all sorts of timeframes that they enjoyed her the best, but I honestly think that technically her voice was the best around I Am.../Dome Tour era. Look at her live performances for Dearest (from when it was actually released)...she did not have a single bad performance. I was in the CM Song Differences thread the other day listening to commercials, and it hit me...she doesn't sing anymore. Even her ballads...when is the last time she has really belted it out?
-- She's been repeating herself. She's doing fun songs now. The lyrics start to repeat themselves. And they're not that great anymore, they lack the depth and realness of her earlier songs (in most cases). She's just not relateable anymore. At her peak people referred to her as the voice of the lost generation in Japan.

I would have to disagree about the vocals on some points. I think technically her vocal best was during 2003-ish era (http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/ca...530463gNMKQpsF from AyuReady) where she performed some beautiful renditions of RAINBOW, ASFXX, Tokyo, and Haru yo, koi on MF21. I am.../DOME TOUR era had way too much of that nasal singing where it sounded like she was singing through a respirator or something, and it was just REALLY unattractive to me. I would say that nowadays, her vocals are "good" but not "great" and for the most part, I feel that with the right accompaniment and so on, she can sound beautiful! I feel like people associate her "best" vocals when they were most satisfied with her or something and that skews people's perceptions of her vocals then and now... -sigh-

About her own repetition, I think if you were a creative person, you would understand that it's somewhat difficult to push out material if you are a lyricist / musician, especially if you aren't feeling especially inspired at any given time and are expected to create a record. I would say that her lyrics have always been rather great, but the highest points would be ASFXX and from there, things sort of slowly got "worse" when they weren't really all that bad at all. She writes about things that she feels strongly about, and doesn't stray away from them. Her themes are similar, but they are approached in different ways with each album. I feel like people don't understand that Ayu wrote ASFXX as an album (and LOVEppears through I am... as well, I suppose.) at a point where she still had a lot to say that she couldn't express any other way. (Arguably, she still expresses her emotions through her songs, but it's a different sort of emotion imo) And after she'd said all that she had to say emotionally through her lyrics, what then? She had to find new areas to find inspiration (friends, etc.) but still have the lyrics be "her" and thus, we have lyrics that are very similar, talking about "wings" and "last loves" etc... and I've never really had a problem with this since there's an Ayu song for just about every occasion. I would much rather Ayu write lyrics that she feels a connection to with slightly repetitive elements than something shallow that says nothing at all like many of Namie's lyrics that aren't even penned by her (but I'm not trying to say anything bad about Namie with this, it's just an example. Don't take offense.) or lyrics that talk about "putting lipstick on" for a "night out with your boy"... or something. (RAMBLING RAMBLING.) Okay, now that I'm beginning to see that I'm going in all sorts of directions, I'm going to stop now, haha. (Oh, to add, the sheer number of lyrical works she has is crazy. ONE HUNDRED FIFTY EIGHT SONGS. You're bound to repeat something after that many songs... -falls over-)

It has crossed the border line, and disappointment and hope are fighting with each other / We can never return again to the place we used to be

"I feel like I've returned to the basics even with my lyrics. As I was writing the lyrics for Rock'n'Roll Circus' album track, I felt closer to what I envision myself to be. It's not like "If I write this, then I'll be like that" but to declare that "This is what I think about this". The lyrics are sort of like screams from my inner self and somehow, it seems I've come full circle.
--ViVi May 2010, credit to Misa-chan

You see? If it's true / That everyone remembers the most brilliant period of his life / It's too sad / Don't look back

[MidnightGirl]

You exposed your opinion, and now I do the same.
Well, I TOTALLY disagree about what you said about GUILTY...:
"It was plagued by 4 interludes, lots of songs without or with really short intros, and too simple lyrics." I think GUILTY's lyrics great, and A Song for XX simple. Look for talkin'2 myself, or Marionette, or Mirror. *_*

But about Americanized songs, I agree. NEXT LEVEL is an example of Japanese songs being influenced by americans. But this is not necessary BAD. Sparkle is popular between the fans and is good song, at least for me.
I agree when people say "She lost her touch in songs", since I hate Rock 'n' Roll Circus. I want back LOVEppears, Duty or (miss) understood songs, because I can see originality there.
And about her vocals, I'm happy. Because in 1998 the songs would be better if Ayu had the voice of GUILTY era. Sometimes, her past voice is very annoying and how can I say...thin? thin voice? wow. I'm not good in english.
My fav voice era: 2006/2008

[Lady~Deviance]

Originally Posted by Izzette

I so agree with you 95% except the sales thing, Ayumi has to make money somehow. Singing is her job.

Anyway..

I myself personally could care less how Ayumi looks, I have always felt that way, sure she has done some photoshoots that were pretty/stunning, but still I like to hear music. You know lately what i'm hearing isn't music. Avex is stressing her beauty and not her musical talent. Back then her CD covers weren't that fancy, now it's a constant game with other artists to see who can over airbrush the most.

What happened to flaws? Ayumi sang of her flaws in many songs that is what made her famous to a point. Those flaws people related to, if people can't relate to Ayumi Hamasaki anymore how can she remain famous??

Ayumi I think maybe she feels she was robbed of her child hood that is why she is trying to be a kid again, OR maybe the whole AKB48 era thats selling well right now, Avex may think it's what people want.

If it's because Ayumi feels she lost her child hood, she chose this road to became a star. You can't have your cake and eat it too. You know?
And if she feels she lost something in her past, MAYBE SHE SHOULD SING ABOUT IT. Isn't that what Ayumi always said she sang about how she was feeling at the moment. Surely she isn't REALLY feeling like Lady Dynamite.

Oh well. I love your point!

Someday Ayumi's skinny mini body will start to sag, I wonder what the world will think of her then. But most of the people that are her fans now will go through the same thing when she does. They will get old too. I wonder if they'll be as shallow as they are now.

I agree with you on so many levels hun. One of my closest friends (a female) has been a truly devoted Ayumi fan since she debuted but now she no longer feels the sense of sincerity in Ayu's image and songs. She even went on to say that Ayu is merely a shell of her former self. When she told me that I was totally shocked that a die hard fan would say such a thing but then again my friend is not a naive nor shallow Ayumi fan. I have to be brutally honest and admit I was more fond of Ayu's songs before her (miss)understood days as well. It now seems Ayu's career is mainly focused on superficial beauty (as in wearing tons of make-up), and trying desperately to jump into the fountain of youth but I still enjoy her music. Many international celebs practice this as well so I'm not singling her out. I still enjoy her deep and thoughtful lyrics but at the same her current songs just don't grab me. It may be the composition who knows, but I just don't get that 'it' factor anymore.