[2009] What actually causes ayu's sales to drop?

[lilmissgrusome]

well im no expert but shes been in the media a lot so people might be getting bored of her over there.
and also (read this on wiki) it might be because shes partally deaf, it said on wiki that there was a decline of sales when she announced it T^T

[ccsharumun]

There are any number of reasons factoring into the drop of sales, some of which are out of her control entirely (such as piracy). I agree, too, that while her music nowadays isn't bad, it's hardly what is used to be. (Save for the lyrics--ever brilliant, I'd go so far as to say it doesn't seem to have quite the passion of previous stuff, whether composed by CREA or not).

Still, I think it's important to remember that a decline in sales doesn't mean low sales. She still sells quite a bit next to other big names in the Japanese market.

[TITANIC]

I guess she doesnt have a HIT song like M, SEASONS, Evoluton, Boys&Girls. her music just so so and nothing gonna change so fans are getting bored with her and turn to other artists. beside that, this is era digital release which is cheaper and people like to buy it.

[Max_ZZZ]

Originally Posted by riozz

I guess she doesnt have a HIT song like M, SEASONS, Evoluton, Boys&Girls. her music just so so and nothing gonna change so fans are getting bored with her and turn to other artists. beside that, this is era digital release which is cheaper and people like to buy it.

I agree!! It's true about sales and whatnot... but I really feel like once she released that ONE unbelievably catchy (successful drama-tie in LOL) song everyone will be eating it up

[foxhana]

Ayumi's poopularity is declning in japan because there are soooo many (not to mention JE boys) up and coming stars, and the invasion of Korean and Taiwan artistes. Her songs are horrible on NEXT LEVEL album when I first bought it, I listened to it once and i left it in my drawer. But I love them now, and starte dliking "Startin" and her well hated songs of previous albums as well. All these declining popularity i think is because she is walking a couple of years ahead of many people, and the songs are still hard to accept now.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by foxhana

Ayumi's poopularity is declning in japan because there are soooo many (not to mention JE boys) up and coming stars, and the invasion of Korean and Taiwan artistes. Her songs are horrible on NEXT LEVEL album when I first bought it, I listened to it once and i left it in my drawer. But I love them now, and starte dliking "Startin" and her well hated songs of previous albums as well. All these declining popularity i think is because she is walking a couple of years ahead of many people, and the songs are still hard to accept now.

Well... this actually happens quite a lot with pop music... but I don't really think that ayu is that much ahead.. I would say that for the most of her career she was like... 1 year ahead... But some of her older songs were more years ahead....

This week I was listening to Utada's Exodus and thinking about how little people would find it strange it it was released now... And IMO she is failing with TITO cuz it was also released too early too...

[Not~Yet]

Tbh honest I think it's the image/musical style and pretty much everything she does atm, or has done for a while. Like we know, she changes her style and music and everything all the time, and I think many of the people think she's changed like, totally and eternally or something and she ain't the "old Ayu" we used to know. I thought like that when NL was released, thinking something like "No way, Ayu, why are you suddenly going with the flow (the electropop genre which I don't really like, but NL changed that in the end eventually ), and you seem so materialistic! " but then I realized that even just couple years from now there will be again much more from her and NL will be a great, different album to look back to as will GUILTY. I think she is now in a comfort zone with her fanbase and doesn't think much about general public, and wants to experiment and not think about her career too deeply, just do what she feels nice doing, and she's really free to do that now that she's not in the spotlight.

LOL I'm not good at explaining but if someone gets what I'm talking about, cool.

[foxhana]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

Well... this actually happens quite a lot with pop music... but I don't really think that ayu is that much ahead.. I would say that for the most of her career she was like... 1 year ahead... But some of her older songs were more years ahead....

This week I was listening to Utada's Exodus and thinking about how little people would find it strange it it was released now... And IMO she is failing with TITO cuz it was also released too early too...

yes yes!! It is like, not going with teh flow, but trying to be first, but too fast!!

and i agree that her older songs were more years ahead, because i only liked her when it was a few years after her first album with acex. then her albums usually have half the songs i hated, but loved a year later. but like.. NEXT LEVEL is kinda like that too.... i had some strong hate LOL now is okay. probably like it more after a month. ^^

[SunshineSlayer]

I agree that her music was much more ahead in the past. I remember when I first heard evolution and my first thought was "OMG what is this?!? I don't know what it is but I love it!" It was ahead, but at the same time managed to capture the public. I don't get that same kind of feeling from her more recent releases.

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

I agree that her music was much more ahead in the past. I remember when I first heard evolution and my first thought was "OMG what is this?!? I don't know what it is but I love it!" It was ahead, but at the same time managed to capture the public. I don't get that same kind of feeling from her more recent releases.

I'd kinda agree with this, but everyone has limits when it comes to creativity. I personally like her newer stuff a lot, but I honestly think her older lyrics had something that the newer ones lack. She still occasionally hits us with something I'd call creative like Mirrorcle World or Sparkle, but it feels different, more polished and less raw. I don't really care that much about her capturing the general public anymore though.

[Kazeyomi]

^
yep it is true.
Some of her lyrics lately are less interesting/deep/poetic than before, but her newer stuff is pretty good imo.

I just think that it's even a marketing and self-image thing.
For example, Namie Amuro returned to a her peak especially after Vidal Sasson commercials and a new and glamorous look. If Ayu will be chosen for a similar thing her sales will be high again.. I guess.

[Crystal_Ageha]

I don't think her music has been ahead of her time for a few years now (not in Japan, at least). It's starting to become mainstream, and yeah, the lyrics aren't as good as her earlier works. (But I don't hate on her for that, considering the amount of songs she has. Everybody runs out of ideas at some point.)
I don't think Ayu's lost her edge yet, though. When I heard NEXT LEVEL I still thought, "hey, this is catchy, and it totally has that Ayumi feel to it! <3"

She does need to change it up a bit, though. Her image, I mean (she already has good variety in her music). Like, the blonde needs to go, at least for a while. Right now, lol. I think almost everybody agrees on that... And she needs to get back into her old fashion sense again. We no longer have the fashion queen that she was even a few years ago, and that was part of her signature image. Not liking her current makeup right now, at all, either.

[KarenPang]

^ unfortunately but true

it has been quite a while since I really like a photoshoot from her this year man ;_____;

ok at least the Sept issue of SCawaii ! was pretty good & that goes for the May issue of ViVi but after that ._____.

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by Crystal_Ageha

I don't think her music has been ahead of her time for a few years now (not in Japan, at least). It's starting to become mainstream, and yeah, the lyrics aren't as good as her earlier works. (But I don't hate on her for that, considering the amount of songs she has. Everybody runs out of ideas at some point.)
I don't think Ayu's lost her edge yet, though. When I heard NEXT LEVEL I still thought, "hey, this is catchy, and it totally has that Ayumi feel to it! <3"

She does need to change it up a bit, though. Her image, I mean (she already has good variety in her music). Like, the blonde needs to go, at least for a while. Right now, lol. I think almost everybody agrees on that... And she needs to get back into her old fashion sense again. We no longer have the fashion queen that she was even a few years ago, and that was part of her signature image. Not liking her current makeup right now, at all, either.

That's exactly what I thought and I was really looking forward to that song ^_^

[Raleigh]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

I agree that her music was much more ahead in the past. I remember when I first heard evolution and my first thought was "OMG what is this?!? I don't know what it is but I love it!" It was ahead, but at the same time managed to capture the public. I don't get that same kind of feeling from her more recent releases.

Yes her music style before was more experimental and she took risks. Although at that era she was at her peak and her fans loved anything she released. Lately though I can only think of a few songs like Sparkle and alterna which do attract the attention and shock the listener.

[Mai82Go]

I think it's hard to have an consistant level of quality if you release as much material as Ayu does. So you tend to repeat yourself. And maybe the casual listener thinks "Mmh I've heard this before. And since I already have an Ayu record, I won't buy this one." For me I actually only buy Albums of Ayu. But as a Fan I've bought all of them and I probably will buy the new ones she puts out anyway, no matter if I like the singles or not. I prefer most Album tracks over singles. I don't think it's that bad that her sales are dropping. It happens. I don't really care. She's earned enough money and is at a stage in her career where she can do it only for the fans.

[Not~Yet]

I think, like I said, she's now in the comfort zone and doesn't think much of what is expected from her. I'd imagine that NL wasn't carefully planned to attract general audience or for her to totally change into mainstream or anything, but more like she heard some electropop songs and liked the genre and thought it would be nice to make an album which contains such songs and put a not-so-serious message in them.

So, in short, I think people think too much that she has changed, has lost all her musical skills or w/e, while I'd most likely think that she just did NL out of a feeling, not thinking it should/would be groundbreaking and didn't think much of the fact that people have expectations from her. So who knows, maybe we'll get albums in which she's lightyears ahead again in no time. I guess people should think of these albums as an extra or something, not that something more groundbreaking would have replaced them if she didn't make them.

[waterballoon]

Basically, once again, I think that people are just losing interest in her. She was the inspiration to girls back then, but now girls have a lot more options, like the new&improved Namie Amuro, Kuu, alan, Crystal Kay, misono, Superfly, Utada Hikaru, Ai Otsuka, maybe even more.

I'm not say these singers ARE the inspiration, but there really are a lot more female singers now to "look up to" than say in 2001.

Also, with more singers, more songs would be made, and many of the songs have a more EPIC-vibe than Ayu's newer songs. Ai Otsuka had Sakuranbo and Planetarium on 2003 and 2005 respectively, Kuu had CUTIE HONEY & Butterfly on 2005, Namie Amuro had the VS tie-in, 60s70s80s, PLAY in 2007-2009, Utada had Flavor of Life in 2008, alan had um well never mind about her, Theyma Alma (what's her name again) had soba ni iru in 2007 (2006? I don't really know lol)...

What I want to say is, these 'hot" and 'wow" songs are in the second half of the 21st century. And what has Ayu offered in terms of BOOMZ for her songs from 2005? HEAVEN, Days... that's all I can really think of now.

Moreover, Ayu has a very "TA is MY ALL" thing going now... RED LINE ~for TA~... um? How does a new fan actually RELATE to Ayu like this?

I don't think Ai/Namie/Kuu/whoever blogs about their fanclubs all day... Ayu might not be realizing it, but by focusing SO MUCH on her TA, she's distancing herself from the rest of Japan/casual listeners. It's like she has created "AYULAND" for herself, her dancers/staff/band and TA... and no one else can get in cos they can't relate to ANYTHING about this "AYULAND"!

My advice: Ayu, rename RED LINE ~for TA~ to RED LINE or RED LINE ~ties~/whatever, and maybe the new single would have another 500 more copies sold. ^^

[Andrenekoi]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure songs like Mirrorcle World, Bold & Delicious, Step you, kiss o' kill, born to be, etc... Are VERY common and mainstream by jpop standarts! I mean... even Leah Dizon has a song that sounds like Bold & Delicious!
:B

A friend of mine that lived there told me once that in his opinion, the problem was the oposite: her sound was less mainstream (from Rainbow to Guilty)...

She just got old... There is no artist that is able to keep high sales without any drop for 11 years...

[njanjayrp]

Yeah I'd say that Ayu's post RAINBOW works with the exceptions of a few summer songs, were mostly less mainstream.

On another hand Callandra@jpm made a really good point in one of her posts:

You know, I've been feeling the same way about that myself. If you look at hits of yesteryears, Japanese people can still sing along with songs that are 10+ years old (Namie Amuro's CAN YOU CELEBRATE?, Mr.Children's Tomorrow Never Knows, GLAY's However, etc) but will anyone remember many of these songs in the top 20 this year in a few years? Probably not. I think single sales are really just fuled by hardcore fans and maybe a casual listener here and there who has really been taken with the song.

In the past few years, the market has really changed. Let's go back to 2003, everyone in Japan knows SMAP's "Sekai ni hitotsu dake no hana" and can still sing it and do the dance/hand movements. Will anyone remember last year's number one (Arashi's Truth/Kaze no Mukou e)? Doubt it, I actually barely remember what they sounded like and I watched all the episodes of the drama Truth was the theme for. Most of the songs now don't really stick with people -- even early 00 hits like SAS's Tsunami, Ayu's SEASONS, etc are still imbedded in Japanese people. But yeah, even Arashi, I would say everyone knows "A-Ra-Shi" but despite their huge sales now, non-fans probably wouldn't know much. It's really just their fanbase that's blown up, casual listeners wouldn't know their songs unlike so many years ago when everyone would at least know the big hit song regardless if they were a fan or not.

Heck, I live in Japan and I don't even know some of the songs in the top 50.

It's not just Ayu ^_^