Is the "same old sound" the real reason of Ayu's declining sales?

[Cahz-]

Whenever there is a conversation of international jpopers / fans about Ayu declining sales, the "same old sound" factor is one of the most mentioned.
That she makes the same boring ballads, recycle sounds, every album is like the prior one, etc.
But all the japanese comments I've red all through the years about Ayu's sales, the following things are mentioned:

· She was cute on her prime and now not anymore
· She has turned into a joke
· She turned into a diva
· Her voice is not so high pitched like before (this one I read it when Love songs was released)
· She can't sing anymore

Not one single time I've red japanese comments about the sound of her albums.
So, what is the truth?

[Andrenekoi]

She got old and overexposed.

Popstars have a somewhat short shelf life and if your career is long enough you will get to a point gerational shock where younger generations, who actually dictate whats big on the music industry will see you as an act for older people, and it's natural for younger people to try to distance themselves from the past generation.

This happened to Namie, people just like to pretend it didn't and she is retiring at a point she would soon get to there again. This also happened to Madonna twice and I believe it happened to Yumi Matsutoya twice aswell. This just didn't happen to Utada because she was on hiatus during most of the time the gerational shock would happen.

Ayu also worked non stop during the years her selling curve would naturally go down, aging in front of the public. People never really got the chance to miss her, so she most likely feels a lot older than people who is actually around for longer than her but weren't such a constant presence.

As trend changes, Ayu became the perfect anthitesis of everything the consumer of jpop wanted during the 2010's. In a decade people wanted less extravancy, more natural beauty and manufaturated idols, she was going around in painted hair and contacts, giving circus like concerts, singing about feelings.

On the same way, when the decade changed Namie didn't stand much a chance on a scenario that wanted reflexive singer-songwritters with big production "symbolic" pvs like Ayu or Hikki or Shiina Ringo.

[voltron]

All of this has been discussed to death, and will continue to be until the end of time probably. And that won't stop me from repeating what I've said many times before.

I think there are both conscious and unconscious reasons for "abandoning" Ayu. Certainly the things you listed above are a factor for some people, especially the general public/casual fans. She's not the same Ayu as before, and she has gotten older.

Then there's the unconscious level. And this is maybe my own theory on things, but Ayu was the voice of the "lost generation" in Japan. People always connected to her on this really personal level for her lyrics, her attitude, etc. During her prime, Ayu was a "bad Japanese woman" because she broke out of the mold in so many ways, and that was exactly what the general public was feeling and wanting during that time. Now, those people have all grown and settled into the more "expected" roles they play in life, and the current younger generation in Japan is really much more insular than the previous. Now Ayu's actions and behaviors as a "bad Japanese woman" are something to insult her for, it's not something they want to see in a Japanese popstar. I also contribute this to Namie's success - despite the bumpy rode she faced earlier in her career, but scrubbing her private personality from things (like, literally having her tattoos removed), she became this aspirational image of a cute, beautiful, talented, hard-working Japanese woman. And all of those things are certainly true, but it's a very specific image that she's portraying, and exactly what the general public want.

As for overseas fans, that's a different story altogether. But I also honestly feel like if she was blowing things out of the water in Japan a lot of her foreign fans would fall in line too.

[Chibi-Chan]

The reasons you mentioned are the things you hear from the general public. The fans I know don't really care for her current music, because they find it boring, no one bought TROUBLE. They loved her for reinventing herself and her sound and of course for her lyrics, which used to be about more than love, love and love. Which is the reason why everyone I know really loved MADE IN JAPAN, especially tasky, FLOWER, Mad World and Survivor.

[Chris_Duvall]

It's simply a case of overexposure IMO.
To me, she will always be the empress of J-Pop, but she would have been better off taking a break once in a while.

EDIT:
It also needs to be taken into account that back then in her days of glory, she perfectly hit the nerve of time. Her lyrics adressed exactly what people felt back then.

[KarenPang]

To me it's a variety of factors be it music or non music wise

I've been an Ayu fan for more than 12 years but not as long as others on here so I've seen the numerous lows and ups of her career

In some way I feel that Ayu set a very high bar for her older works which's why her recent releases have not been up to standard (be it the quality of the songs and/or the PVs themselves)

People always keep hoping Ayu would go back to what she used to release but on the other hand if that happens , others will say she's rehashing what she has already put out before

Ayu herself should be the 1 that command the stage and not get over taken by the dancers that she worked together with

I have nothing against Ayu's dancers as some of them have work with her for a very long time inclusive of her backing musicians but if I go and see Ayu perform , I want to see her & not let other things distract me

Ayu still means a lot to me as she was the 1st JPop artiste I listen to but sometimes now from time to time I still want to see a bit of the old Ayu in her as she's now a pale shadow of her former self :s

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

She’s not a dancer. As long as dance music is trendy, she won’t be.

And the older she gets, the harder it’ll be to get sales back. (I’m not banking on any form of comeback anymore.)

She got popular at the decline of dance music, and ushered in the next stage of singer/song writers. This is why most dance oriented artists from the early 90s faded out by the mid 2000s. Hip hop/rap/RnB were popular, and certainly mainstream, but they weren’t the focus of sales and promotion from major companies.

The focus was solo female artists, many who were essentially copies of Ayu. Much like AKB’s popularity resulted in the flooding of the market with other indistinguishable groups.

Sure her quality has also greatly declined, she works with who she’s comfortable with, meaning we’ll continue getting safe, similar sounds.

Also, her passion seems to have shifted. I don’t think she cares much for recording music and videos anymore.

Honestly, atm Trouble feels more like justification for a tour more than anything else.


Not to mention, her brand/image is all over the place. It’s hard to really gauge her music anymore, and to be honest, predictability sells in Japan. Even at her peak, she was still predictable in sound. She shook things up with her look more so than music. Also, she had a normal release pattern. Had normal promotional structures. Did the tv, the magazines, etc.

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by Cahz-

Whenever there is a conversation of international jpopers / fans about Ayu declining sales, the "same old sound" factor is one of the most mentioned.
That she makes the same boring ballads, recycle sounds, every album is like the prior one, etc.
But all the japanese comments I've red all through the years about Ayu's sales, the following things are mentioned:

· She was cute on her prime and now not anymore
· She has turned into a joke
· She turned into a diva
· Her voice is not so high pitched like before (this one I read it when Love songs was released)
· She can't sing anymore

Not one single time I've red japanese comments about the sound of her albums.
So, what is the truth?

I think "the same old sound" is something that's causing her to lose more foreign fans than Japanese ones actually. For instance, I thought Colours was a step in the right direction; do something a bit different and have fun with it, but it didn't seem well-received by Japanese fans. So what do we get next? A ONE.

Originally Posted by voltron

Then there's the unconscious level. And this is maybe my own theory on things, but Ayu was the voice of the "lost generation" in Japan. People always connected to her on this really personal level for her lyrics, her attitude, etc. During her prime, Ayu was a "bad Japanese woman" because she broke out of the mold in so many ways, and that was exactly what the general public was feeling and wanting during that time. Now, those people have all grown and settled into the more "expected" roles they play in life, and the current younger generation in Japan is really much more insular than the previous. Now Ayu's actions and behaviors as a "bad Japanese woman" are something to insult her for, it's not something they want to see in a Japanese popstar. I also contribute this to Namie's success - despite the bumpy rode she faced earlier in her career, but scrubbing her private personality from things (like, literally having her tattoos removed), she became this aspirational image of a cute, beautiful, talented, hard-working Japanese woman. And all of those things are certainly true, but it's a very specific image that she's portraying, and exactly what the general public want.

Exactly this. Society shifted in Japan significantly from the generation of the 80s/90s and the current generation (and imo, regressed) and Ayu still embraces and embodies the prior generation's mindset and unlike many of the people in that generation, she never fell in line as she got older.

[pepper]

for me; its always about diversity

i always thought people love ayu because of how she menage to play pop, rock, dance, trance and give artsy alternative videoclips. Nowadays she focused on "well played" schemes - mostly on "melow pop songs" which se made too much of them. She still makes rock/dance tracks but when you look at the playlists there are no "wow factors" that made her unique since LOVEppears. Thats my opinion.

[pepper]

Plus she was VERY popular back then when word "viral" was just yet to born. What makes something popular? The fact people share videos on facebook/twitter/instagram/snapchat. SHE BARELY MAKES VIDEOS NOW XD So...

[truehappiness]

The sound probably doesn't have anything to do with it, and it's more that people just are growing apart from her on top of her being around for as long as she has without stopping. For a lot of people who did like her, I think they just lost interest at around 2006-2007 and that's also where she ended musically for the Japanese public. In recent years when she is newsworthy it's because of a scandal or something as opposed to her music which is her image nowadays.

[EndOfTheWorld]

Up until Party Queen I basically loved everything Ayu did. Her lives, her fashion, and most importantly the music. For me, the number one main issue is the music. Each album since Party Queen seems to have a small handful of memorable songs and the rest just blur together in my memory. I'll be watching a concert sometimes and it will take me a minute to try and remember what song she is singing.
So I don't want the the old Ayu back or the old sound back. But I wish Ayu's music would have the same quality as the older albums. The compositions, arrangements, and production of recent stuff just has nothing interesting going on. This is how the term "typical Ayu" came to be.
I can go back and listen to albums from the past and always enjoy them, I personally find that revisiting the old albums is rewarding. You can go back to those albums again and again. But after one listen of TROUBLE, I felt I had experienced everything it had to offer already. There really isn't a reason to go back to TROUBLE. I actually rarely listen to any albums after Party Queen. Usually just a few select songs from each album that standout and that's it.

[love in music]

I think she plays it safe too much and when she doesn't she goes all experimental in a musical area Japanese people either don't like, or just don't like her to go to for whatever reason. I feel she doesn't release as many songs that "wow" people on first listen (I've noticed more and more of her songs are growers than they used to be). I don't know if she just doesn't take as much time to go through different demos or she really likes bland sounding ballads because she releases way more than she used to (she releases some amazing ballads too, don't get me wrong). I think the "plastic/over photoshopped" image bothers people more now that she's older. I also just think a lot of ex-fans expected her to have this amazing discography where they will love every song on an album, that all of her ballads would be "M" quality or just life changing, and when they weren't they got frustrated and started to dislike her. People set their expectations of her high when she was releasing a lot of amazing music. She's human though, not some machine that can constantly keep creating mind blowing things 24/7, especially if she has other problems in her life going on clouding her mind, or is just surrounded by a group of people that don't know what would be best for her as an artist.

[Andrenekoi]

People tend to forget Ayu's safest tracks are the ones with the best reception among her japanese fandom.

[thomas]

There are some interesting charts on this blog on Ai Otsuka's declining sales: https://appears.wordpress.com/2014/0...oricon-charts/
It shows the decline of sales of once top-selling artists.

I don't think the decline in sales is anything Ayu can do something about. Japanese people seem to have a very short attention span when it comes to artists, as soon as they go on a few year hiatus (like Ai or Hitomi) the public doesn't seem to care anymore. Ai only sells a couple thousand copies nowadays and Hitomi's albums sell as few as 1000 copies. Even though I actually think Ai's albums are an extreme improvement over her best selling albums.

Once the novelty or cool factor of an artist wears out it's just hoping for the best. The same goes for Western artists. Female artists just don't sell as well as they once did.

[Bigtop]

^ Wow, thanks for sharing the article! Pretty interesting data that I didn't dig deep into until just now.

[Sky High]

Playing too safe too often and her private affairs.

[cosmicfirefly]

She shares a lot through social media and with her fans, and when someone is open about their lives, it becomes easier for other people to "pick it apart" especially if it's a celebrity. As a person living in the US, that seems normal to me, and honestly she doesn't share even half as much as other celebs, but I'm not sure how that's perceived in Japan. As a recent example, the whole issue about the dancer who was smoking - If she hadn't shared that photo, or asked fans to follow her new dancers, that issue might not have come up. I think I also read comments at one point saying she was posting photos that were too revealing or something as well? It seems like other artists (like Namie for instance, who I'm not sure even has an official twitter), are more private, so it becomes easier to avoid "scandals." I'm not saying either way is better, but maybe that influences how the public sees her? Personally, I'm glad she shares stuff about her life, fashion, etc. because it's like she wants to connect with fans which I think is great.

[Aga-chan]

I actually think that Ayu isn't good with social media. She's the person who had a relationship and marriage over twitter, but then asked to respect their privacy when the divorce happened.
In all honesty, she does at times seem like a sheltered princess. But I think that she learnt from her past mistakes, so I hope we'll never see BF-in-PV again.
Though I DO think she gets unfairly scrutinized for every tiny thing. Like when she posted about celebrating her 20th anniversary and getting drunk. It was her anniversary and it wasn't like she had a performance the next day, so let her celebrate. I have seen people write comments as if that was her daily routine.

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

People tend to forget Ayu's safest tracks are the ones with the best reception among her japanese fandom.

This.

[bluegie]

Originally Posted by EndOfTheWorld

Up until Party Queen I basically loved everything Ayu did. Her lives, her fashion, and most importantly the music. For me, the number one main issue is the music. Each album since Party Queen seems to have a small handful of memorable songs and the rest just blur together in my memory. I'll be watching a concert sometimes and it will take me a minute to try and remember what song she is singing.
So I don't want the the old Ayu back or the old sound back. But I wish Ayu's music would have the same quality as the older albums. The compositions, arrangements, and production of recent stuff just has nothing interesting going on. This is how the term "typical Ayu" came to be.
I can go back and listen to albums from the past and always enjoy them, I personally find that revisiting the old albums is rewarding. You can go back to those albums again and again. But after one listen of TROUBLE, I felt I had experienced everything it had to offer already. There really isn't a reason to go back to TROUBLE. I actually rarely listen to any albums after Party Queen. Usually just a few select songs from each album that standout and that's it.

I guess I'm on the same boat. Party Queen was exactly the moment I stopped buying her cds. Of course there were moments I wasn't too into ayu (I am... to RAINBOW era, which I felt she was overexposed, and also that her singles sounded similar to me; GUILTY, which I didn't really like her music that year), but she always had something to offer that I could come back to the fandom (I even bought a 2nd-hand I am... a few years after, cuz it was actually a good album). Gotta be honest, to me Party Queen was exactly the moment she started messing up her music with her private lives. Of course she always talked about her feelings (in her real life) in old albums, but those were subtle (at least compared to her albums after PQ). Also, like you said, many of her songs sound same to me. I tried listen to TROUBLE and I couldn't tell the difference between a few tracks (of course the lyrics are different, but I dunno Japanese).

It's sad because I still listen to her music often. After all, I followed her music career from 1999 (the day when LOVEppear/appears released) till spring time 2012. Her music has been with me for my entire 20s. Technically no one can replacahsforum.com0hikki) in my heart.

Originally Posted by tokyoxjapanxfan

And the older she gets, the harder it’ll be to get sales back. (I’m not banking on any form of comeback anymore.)

The focus was solo female artists, many who were essentially copies of Ayu. Much like AKB’s popularity resulted in the flooding of the market with other indistinguishable groups.

Not to mention, her brand/image is all over the place. It’s hard to really gauge her music anymore, and to be honest, predictability sells in Japan. Even at her peak, she was still predictable in sound. She shook things up with her look more so than music. Also, she had a normal release pattern. Had normal promotional structures. Dahsforum.comagazines, etc.

I stopped wishing for a 2nd peak for her a few years ago. Judging from what she has been doing for the past few years, I doubt we'll ever see a comeback. This is sad, cuz I've been wishing for another peak since 2008 (literally a peak like A BEST era), when it's obvious that her sales start declining faster than average. Namie could get one with BEST FICTION, hikki could do it after she returned from hiatus. But like you said, I don't see her passion towards image/songs anymore.

I really missed the solo female artists era. Hikki, ayu, ai-chan, Kuu... only hikki survives in general public. (I wasn't really into Namie until PLAY, so didn't count her here ).