Although this is highly debatable and subjective... to me Ayu is always a J-Pop singer, and her songs have always been pop-based. I mean there's a reason why she's under J-Pop and not J-Rock right? lol

Rock isn't a song that sounds harsh with loud guitars and drums. Rock is something like Liz Phair (at least in her first 3 albums)... In other words, pop is the most mainstream music; the genre that can take on the shape of many other genres, and still sound catchy and mainstream. That's pop.

Maybe you would disagree with me, but at least that's how I feel lol. And I never said she was generic, I just said I don't think it's appropriate to expect her to "experiment" or whatever because at the end of the day, she is still a pop singer lol.

But you know what, maybe you weren't directing that to me at all. :thud

7th Day
Position: #4
Sales:1269
Total Sales:102532

I agree with those who say that she plays it too safe with her singles and experiments a lot more on her album tracks. I think that's what made Green/Days out of place on NEXT LEVEL as just not fitting the theme of the album. And I'm afraid it'll happen with her next album as well. Its hard knowing what you want for an album right from the moment you release your first single, but I think Ayu needs to think about what sound she wants leading up to her album. I feel like she just pens songs for the moment without thinking ahead to making a consistent album - and in the end, the singles do come out sometimes sounding the same. I mean, You were... and BALLAD are great tracks but she's done similar sounding ballads before. Then there are all these fantastic album tracks that are never discovered.

Out of the NEXT LEVEL singles, Sparkle was the song she should have promoted the most, because it represented the sound of the album. But it was drowned out by Rule.

I just hope with the next single, she promotes the right song, the song that represents the album.

Thank you. ^^
Then now it looks like that.

1st+2nd Double Week
Position: #1
1st Week Estimated Sales: 89,739
2nd Week Estimated Sales: 12,793
1st+2nd Week Estimated Total Sales: 102,532
Official Total Sales:

ayu officially got another #1 for her streak!
2 more to go to be with seiko and 3 to have the most #1 singles streak of female solo artist. :D

Hopefully the official total sales will be higher. ^^

hah...
i'm so relieved it's #1!
the 2 weeks rule really doubted me so crazy!

Ah, I hope you don't think it was directly at you. I think you're right in a way, but I also disagree with parts, but I guess that's what makes this world interesting, right? :D xD

This is good! Keep it up, Ayumi. XD

Yep though we knew that already when the first week ended hehe.

The weekly chart will be like that
#1 ayu (with 102,532 estimated total)
#2 fukuyama masaharu (with 34,101 estimated total)
#3 Gackt (with 31,579 estimated total)

Oh great #1! They dun include the online sales do they?

Yeah they don't include digital/online sales in Oricon. ^^

[QUOTE=zyoeru;2210310]Ah, I hope you don't think it was directly at you. I think you're right in a way, but I also disagree with parts, but I guess that's what makes this world interesting, right? :D xD/QUOTE]

My thoughts exactly! :laugh

Congratulations Ayu!

Aa... I guess I understand about the whole "only on paper" thing, but... I guess, I just don't understand not caring at all, now that she's so dang close. >_< Eh.

This. :o Like I've said before, Ayumi is one of the most experimental artists I've ever come across. Anybody who thinks that she hasn't gone out of the "safe zone" since MY STORY is either oblivious or making **** up, just so he/she can complain. (miss)understood is not only, by far, one of the most versatile albums she's had, but it is also very experimental in general (alterna, Will, Criminal; plus, making up new arrangements for the sweetbox covers). GUILTY, like Brat said, has Mirror and Marionette, and I also agree GUILTY is experimental. NEXT LEVEL has Sparkle, rollin' and GREEN. And now we have BALLAD. (You could also consider it experimenting with Sunrise/Sunset - the actual concept, of course, not the songs themselves.)

So, is this really staying firmly in the "safe zone"...? Um, no. Obviously not. What, do you expect Ayu to churn out a hit suited for Tupac or something?? For cryin' out loud, she's done nearly every thing she can do without selling out or sounding ridiculous--What more do you want? :shakehead


Also.....
YAY FOR ANOTHER NUMBER ONE!! :D

GREEN says that BALLAD isn't experimenting, it's following a new pattern. We have NO experimentation with these singles, which means god knows what the album's gonna sound like.

I kinda love the suspense <3

Ayu is really on the top 100k vs 35k ...

Tbh I don't see why everyone thinks GREEN and BALLAD are that much the same, they both have strings and traditonal asian elements here and there and she sings in the same key or whatever is the correct term but that's pretty much it for me really. Well, first of all GREEN is faster and has way more going on, and I personally don't qualify it as a ballad genre while BALLAD clearly is a ballad. Then, the mood and feeling is totally different. GREEN's arrangement is more aggressive and melancholic while BALLAD's is soft and wistful.

In my opinion though there are not two original songs in her discography that I think sound the same. (I definitely can't think of any at the moment. Hmm..) Lol I could probably write an essay about differences in songs that might seem similiar if someone asked me to though. :laugh It's amazing, but maybe it's just me who thinks that. There are only a couple of other artist that I think the same of, and none of them are generally qualified as "pop-artists".

Just my 2 cents! :P

^ People relate them simply because they both have East Asian influence. Which, I do think of them as similar, but only the Asian instrument/composition part. Like you said, they're different tempos, even, and have very different themes. They're similar, but not enough that I would ever confuse them or anything.

I see your point, but on the other hand... So, what you're saying is, just because there's more than one type of song, and within sooner than a few years time, that automatically negates both songs from being experimental..? I have to disagree. Yes, they're both taking the same path, but that path is an experimental one, ya? ;)

Actually, online sales from retailers ARE counted on Oricon. That's why CDJapan and YesAsia along with a bunch of Japanese online retailers are able to say that when you buy from them, the sales go towards Oricon.

^ i think they meant digital as in downloading .. ;p

Many might disagree with this but I have to say, MY STORY is one of Ayu's most generic albums around. The best tracks were the ones that were on A BEST 2 and the rest is just boring pop music. I don't see how anyone could find that an experimental album let alone her last experimental album. I didn't even bother purchasing it.

TOTALLY WRONG

LOL I kind of expected that response.

I thought MY STORY was a rather good album, but because of the large amount of new tracks and the sheer length of it all, it's hard to listen to as an album. (It's her longest original album and had her most new album tracks ever, I think.) It did spawn the amazing AT05, so for people that didn't like the album, at least something good came out of it. MY STORY and RAINBOW are among some of her most underappreciated works from the first 6 years of her career. And as for a generic album, ASFXX's arrangements were straight out of the mid-90s and most people seem to dislike it because of how dated it sounds. I desire a rearrangement of that album so that it can get the credit that it deserves.