NEXT LEVEL stopped charting.

^That's ok... it still have chances of popping up once or twice, and had a good chart life^^

Indeed, even though she was present on the Japanese music scene, you could hardly say she was relevant during those years.

Anyways, NEXT LEVEL, RIP - you did well.

I think it almost never happen for album after Memorial Address..
when its gone from chart it means gone forever

I do believe this was the end for NEXT LEVEL, then.... :cry Good job, and better luck next time, Ayu! ;_;'

I'm still OMGing ._______.' but ok.... it stayed strong for a long time, congrats ayu!

oh well... it had a good run

That's like saying no one cares about Seiko Matsuda now because her sales are low. You don't just suddenly stop being considered legendary and then start again. :) As Ayumi's sales continue to lower, I doubt you would say that she has ceased to be legendary at that point. :) It's also inaccurate to say that Hikaru and Ayumi were "bigger" stars. When Namie was at her peak in the 90s, its hard to find any star that reached that level of success in Japan, ever. (I was living there at the time she started to hit it big) She was at least on par with Hikaru and Ayumi when they were at the height of there's. Namie's drop from the spotlight really didn't have much to do with other people anyways, but with personal matters and scandals.

And don't kill me but, I think I'd much rather have my career be a rollercoaster like Namie's than a rollercoaster that is constantly going downhill....We should all be hoping that Ayu's career becomes like Namie's rollercoaster. :yes

Awww. It's too bad NEXT LEVEL is out of the charts.... D:

A Complete came back when Next Level was released... And depending on the number of releases this week, even that could push NL sales down...

I'm not saying that it will for sure chart again, but that there are chances of it happening (if her next single is sucessful, on the next tour dates, on Christmas, etc)

-

And Sunshine Slayer is right... Ayu sales are only going down, even if Namie's bad years were worst than Ayu's, she is on the top atm... While Ayu was only at the top once...

If the next few Ayu albums would have bad sales, and then to have a compilation in the future that can break a million, I really wouldn't mind.

Sometimes it's more exciting when you see your idol rise from the ashes and break his/her own record, than to see stagnant quality, or worse, falling-everything.

^ That's basically what I mean, yeah.

Thank you Sunshineslayer for the earlier reccomendation of Superfly. =D


For the discussed matter.

Namie also went downhill since her peak back on the 90s and she started to pick up just three years ago.
ayu still is on the way and close to, (probably next year or in two years) but she still didn't reach the "slump" namie arrived in order to pick up from there.
Unlike namie that also had a downward from the hill until Baby Don't Cry ayu's popularity since 2001 have been decreasing moderately and not hugely. The reasons between both are incomparable but still ayu's decreases between the years were small and that's a great thing. namie's biggest "slump" was with STYLE (which is too sad since it's my favorite album of Namie) and her singles around that album where she sold like 221,874 for that album and around the 40,000-50,000 - +with the singles. ayu is going into that slump but hasn't yet arrived. She still sell a million + a year since she can afford at least average +- numbers.
(Though probably next year it will be less).

In general, namie went downhill to certain point and ayu still didn't arrive there and then Namie picked up with Baby Don't Cry-PLAY-60s70s80s-BEST FICTION.
ayu might arrive to that "slump" or a worst one and then pick up again -when- and -if- she will release a hit or a few again and will be treated with promotion and marketing accordingly, like with namie's great hit single 60s70s80s and the beginning of her Vidal Sassoon campaign. It's not like ayu dropped by millions through the single years and it's not like she barely sell anything anymore.

Again she might not pick up and the whole point of what I'm trying to say is that we still can't know if she will be able to pick up, maybe like namie maybe more maybe less.
It's too early to say. It looks like a 50/50 situation at the moment.

^ Exactly. *nod* (I also liked Style. Too bad it didn't sell well. >_<')

ayumisrael: Finally a post where we more or less agree, haha. :) The only thing I would add to it, is that a big part of the reason Namie's popularity slumped so drastically, so quickly, has more to do with social factors in Japan and not so much the music or her image or anything like that. At the time that she announced she was pregnant and getting married, Japan was still very much in the mindset that if she did that, she has to retire. (it's still like that today for most women in Japan, but starting to get less so) For her to continue on regardless of that social norm was considered quite taboo and even some of her own fans did not want to support it. Then she did the even more taboo thing of getting a divorce. I think these things hit her sales a lot. Especially considering that she didn't go full out hip pop style until 2003 yet still her singles from 2000-2002 didn't fare that well either even though music and image wise she hadn't changed a whole lot. She had the odd success here and there though in those years, especially with Never End selling very well.

If it hadn't been for those factors, I think her popularity likely would have taken a similar trajectory to Ayu's - a more gradual slide downwards.

^
Agree with you .... in the future ayu will need better promotions like she had years ago...

Yes Ayu's sales never reached Namie's low lows so that's good. At the end of the day, even with the popularity of "Baby don't cry" Namie didn't truly hit it big again until the Vidal Sasson contract started ie it was her hair that saved her. So I guess Ayumi needs to harness what her best attribute is, her eyes. Maybe Ayu should get a contract with a company that makes car headlights or something. With a couple million cars with Ayu eyes on the streets on Japan, everyone will soon be hypnotized and she will reign queen again.
Ayu, your October concert strategy failed unfortunately.

Yes, we should totally throw a party =D

And yes there is nothing more to add on that matter we have said it all.
I'm also sure namie would go there gradually if it wouldn't be for social matters.

Hopefully though ayu will pick up someday both on popularity and music that can satisfy most and not just the minority. ^^
But yeah as been said at this point it's impossible to know for sure if it will happen or not.

Ayu hasn't even come close to Namie's low point yet either.
I really hope Ayu's sales will rise again, or level out. I mean, her singles hasn't really had as much of a drop act as her last two albums.

^ Well, Namie's sales took a drastic turn for the reasons I stated above, instead of going gradually down like Ayu's. In a way though, the drastic nose dive might have been a blessing in disguise - she hit her low point very quickly, so she was able to start from scratch right away and get the ball rolling with a completely different style - it took the audience a few years to catch up, but they eventually did. Ayumi I think needs something similar otherwise, her lowest low point may not come for another couple of years and its always harder to start over in the Japanese music industry the older that you get. Basically she would need to start her "comeback" NOW I think.