Pessimistic Songs?

[zeroshin888]

Have Ayu written any lyrics that are pessimistic? It's for an English project on poetry. My theme is pessimism, so I need pessimistic lyrics...

[immel]

If you're in for digging the exact things you might want for yourself you can always check the lyrics at http://ayumi.primenova.com.

I'm not sure if she's written anything that could be related too much to the word pessimistic, unless being sad or angry could be related to that word.

[Delirium-Zer0]

She's almost always optimistic, which is a good mark of her lyrics. Even the sad songs have some degree of hope to them, except maybe for "Far away" and "is this LOVE?"... *shrug*

[Aga-chan]

^I personally don't really feel "Far away" and "is this LOVE?" to be that pessimistic.
ayus most pessimistic song might be "POWDER SNOW". It's quite desperate and there's not really a thread of hope in it...

[truehappiness]

no more words imo is her most pessimistic song.. :B

ENGLISH:
no more words
Lyrics: Ayumi Hamasaki
Composer: CREA + DAI
Arranger: Naoto Suzuki

Surely, surely as we
live we know more.
And, and as we live
we forget.

Things that begin
always have an end.
If you can live on,
think always of that.

If this world were split into
winners and losers,
I'd rather be a loser.
I always want to be a loser.

Surely, surely we are
more beautiful when we're sad.
That's why, that's why we are
dirtier when we're sad.

To protect us and ours,
we must sacrifice something yet again.
Those who can live on
think always of that.

If this world were split into
winners and losers,
I'd rather be a loser.
I always want to be a loser.

What can I tell you?
I'm just a small, helpless person.
That's all I'll say for now
because sometimes words
are completely powerless.

[kinix]

Does A Song for XX counts?

[immel]

^The later parts, I think, contains some pessimism. Most of the beginning is just being generally sad, honest or modest, I think.

Originally Posted by asfXX

You will someday be betrayed by your trust in people.
I thought it was the same as being rejected.
At the time I didn't have that kind of strength.
I definitely knew too much.

They always said I was a strong child.
They praised me, saying "you must be strong not to cry."
The more people said things like that,
the more even laughing became agony.

I was born alone. I'll go on living alone.
I thought that surely that kind of life is appropriate.

I suppose it's a "glass is half-full/half-empty" sort of deal, but I've always known Ayu to have a lot of songs that can be read as pessimistic. Very many of them are dark, desperate, lonely, or apprehensive; and the happier lyrics usually have some tinge of bittersweetness or doubt.

Moments is a song filled with beautiful imagery as a reassurance of her dedication to someone. But she says that she is dedicated so much to this person, that she would even make herself disappear and be alone, if it meant that the person would be happy.

A Song for xx is very, very pessimistic. She talks about how she is lost and confused and scared and, the entire time, very much alone. She says how she even got so used to feeling this way, that she assumed it was just normal to be so sad and alone.

Far away is quite pessimistic, as well. The final chorus sums up the entire song by saying that onlookers thought the couple's love was going to be everlasting, but in fact, it had a definite end. The final line is: "Summer is coming soon, one without you," which doesn't seem to hold much promise.

appears is the story of how a couple seems happy, but the two of them know that that is not the case.

I am... is a song of pleading with someone to give her something she knows she won't get. She says that, even if it is all a lie, she doesn't mind being lied to if she never has to live outside the lie.

In M, she says that everybody is in pain, and she even prays to Mary that she never falls in love again, so she doesn't have to feel the pain she is now feeling.

In Because of You, she blames her problems on the fact that she is in a hopeless love with someone she wishes she never met.

GAME talks about how she is so hung up on someone who she has parted from, and she can't stop things from going wrong.

HAPPY ENDING and HOPE or PAIN are very pessimistic, too; the first talks about how she doesn't deserve to talk about the meaning of happiness, and the latter is about how she expects rejection by a lover.

End of the World is says that sometimes you just can't help but notice how pitiful you are, and you crash into a wall. The whole song is mostly quite pessimistic, even the seemingly positive theme that someone finally made an attempt to understand Ayu (when she puts a lot of stress on how there has only been one such person in her life, and he/she wasn't necessarily successful).

is this LOVE? brings about rejection by a lover, and she makes the realization that this [painful betrayal] is what love must really be.

Several seemingly upbeat songs, including too late, bring down the mood by talking about how she is hurrying through life and missing out on enjoying it.

still alone talks about how she had finally found love, and then the lover left her to follow a dream, and she was still, after all, as alone as she always expected herself to be. She is left alone holding on to a promise that no longer matters.

vogue makes commentary on how one day something is loved and adored and revered, and the next it must just silently wilt and blow away like a dead flower.

Endless sorrow is a another song of love and dedication, but it is filled with lines that say how hard things are and will continue to be.

[immel]

I don't think that actual pessimism has very much to do with simply being unhappy, heartbroken, ruined, etc. It's more when you are, and try to make yourself a martyr. I don't know.

pessimism

1. the tendency to see, anticipate, or emphasize only bad or undesirable outcomes, results, conditions, problems, etc.
2. the doctrine that the existing world is the worst of all possible worlds, or that all things naturally tend to evil.
3. the belief that the evil and pain in the world are not compensated for by goodness and happiness.

For example, Moments, while it certainly is about being unhappy, she isn't really talking about it in a pessimistic way.

[Aga-chan]

Originally Posted by immel

I don't think that actual pessimism has very much to do with simply being unhappy, heartbroken, ruined, etc. It's more when you are, and try to make yourself a martyr. I don't know.

pessimism

1. the tendency to see, anticipate, or emphasize only bad or undesirable outcomes, results, conditions, problems, etc.
2. the doctrine that the existing world is the worst of all possible worlds, or that all things naturally tend to evil.
3. the belief that the evil and pain in the world are not compensated for by goodness and happiness.

For example, Moments, while it certainly is about being unhappy, she isn't really talking about it in a pessimistic way.

Very good point and I agree with you. (I don't know about the martyr-part, but I think that being pessimistic can lead to think that you can make things on your own and don't need anyone or anything, so this may be the martyr-part.)

I still think that "POWDER SNOW" is ayus most pessimistic song. I'd even go so far to say that it's the only pessimistic song by her. The reasons would be the bolded part above.
Though ayu has many sad, "dark" songs, she doesn't give in to the despair, sadness, loneliness presented by her. But she seems to be at a complete loss in "POWDER SNOW".

Originally Posted by immel

I don't think that actual pessimism has very much to do with simply being unhappy, heartbroken, ruined, etc. It's more when you are, and try to make yourself a martyr. I don't know.

I usually understand pessimism/optimism in music to be an attitude presented by the lyrics of a song; for example, if it shows hope or if it shows despair. It usually always does go hand-in-hand with sadness (for pessimism) or joy (for optimism), but you are right that they are certainly two different things.

Like I said, a lot of it has to do with how you personally interpret the lyrics. I tend to see a lot of raw despair and weakness in many of Ayu's songs, and a lot of acceptance of sorrow. For example, in A Song for xx, the key pessimistic points would (in my opinion) be:

(1) Hito wo shinjiru koto tte itsu ka ura kirare
Hanetsukerareru koto to onaji to omotte ita yo
I thought that trusting people was the same
As being stabbed in the back and rejected.

(2) Hitori kiri de umarete hitori kiri de ikite iku
Kitto sonna mainichi ga atarimae to omotte'ta
I was born alone and I will go on living alone.
I always figured that was just how life went.

The final chorus of M displays both pessimism and optimism. They way Ayu says she sees things is that everyone is unhappy (Pes.), but that she wants to be happy (Opt.). In other words, she is pessimistic, but wants to be optimistic. She also prays that this was is her last love, so that she doesn't have to feel this way again. I think that's a boldly pessimistic request.

Because of You is mostly just an agonizingly heartbroken song, but the one final line makes it pessimistic to me: "It must be [because of] you." There is also one line that is repeated at the end of each chorus (albeit with different verb inflections), which expresses how Ayu almost wishes she had never met the person. The emotion the statement is founded in is sorrow, but the statement itself is pessimism.

In addition to POWDER SNOW, I think the best examples are still HAPPY ENDING and HOPE or PAIN. The irony in HE is pessimistic enough, although the final line is really what brings it about:

Sou ne watashi ni wa koufuku na ketsumatsu nado
Niawanai koto mo dare yori wakatte iru
Yes, I know better than anyone else
That a happy ending doesn't suit me.

Originally Posted by Aga-chan

Though ayu has many sad, "dark" songs, she doesn't give in to the despair, sadness, loneliness presented by her. But she seems to be at a complete loss in "POWDER SNOW".

There have been lots of times when Ayu has admitted defeat, though, particularly between Duty and MY STORY. She shows a lot of weakness and despair, and feelings of expecting the worst from things. There are sad songs that have hopeful twists (Endless sorrow, NEVER EVER, Daybreak, SEASONS...), and there are songs that are just plain sad without being negative or pessimistic (HANABI, Over...). But there are also a fair shair of songs that don't have much of a silver lining to speak of.

[truehappiness]

evolusean, where can I start a shrine to you?

:falls over

[AyUmIXx]

i just know that ayu has some pessimistic songs~

[alt.total-loser]

HAPPY ENDING. <3

[Aga-chan]

Originally Posted by evolusean

Like I said, a lot of it has to do with how you personally interpret the lyrics. I tend to see a lot of raw despair and weakness in many of Ayu's songs, and a lot of acceptance of sorrow.

This is true and I agree. And I think that it also depends on what people see as pessimism.
I personally never thought of "A Song for XX" or "HAPPY ENDING" to be pessimistic (though it may aply to the later). They're sad and desperate, but I don't feel that ayu can't find a way out of it. "A Song for XX", for example, is written in past tense. (As stupid as this may sound...)

I was born alone and would live alone
I thought it was certainly natural for me to live in such a way

Basically this would mean that she has been thinking in such a way, but that she already found a way out of this "darkness" when she wrote the lyrics.

[terra]

I think POWDER SNOW fits very well, sometimes when I felt that everything should end or maybe I should be 'dead'-->don't even try to think of this

powder snow really fits the feeling.