The world would be meaningless xD; lol

This may be a bit off topic, I apologize in advance...

But what songs are Utada Hikaru's best lyrically? Cause to be honest, her lyrics are far from impressive in the songs I heard... maybe my standards are too high cause of Ayu, Gackt, PIERROT etc.

I hope A COMPLETE doesn't suffer a dip.

I kinda hope that it ends up going up after an MS / CDTV performance!

And as for that Hikki thing.. ask in the Hikki thread. You'll get more help there.

Perhaps you need to look at her concerts then. She might not fly in the air, shoot guys, have monkeys, dance or wuteva ayu does in her concerts but Hikki's concerts are fun and great to sing-a-long too.....and she does jump around and stuff like that. I recommend UU06 for you since your a Hikki noob. =/ UU06 = :heart

Hikki's not really a ballad person like ayu etc. She's rarely released singles as ballads or even has that many ballads as ayu. I would say First Love, Colors, Eternally, Deep River, Stay Gold, and Final Distance are her "deepest" songs.

Don't start the tie-in crap. =/ You know as well as I do that all artists mostly depend on tie-ins to help the single or album's sell.

As for Hikki's popularity, unlike ayu, Hikki didn't take the "pop only" route. Simply because her original and unique style of music along with her lyrics, FL sold well. Before FL (the song) hit the radio, FL was already selling well without the Majo no Joken tie-in. That tie-in only helped the re-cut's sells. =/

As for Ayu popularity, I would say with the help of endorsements (now wouldn't that mean that's a tie-in too...) along with her style of lyrics and music, she started to get noticed. It wasn't until DUTY, that that album really set the bar for her...although I am... was much better album (lyrically and musically) than DUTY.

Ayu is quite superior in the lyrics department, to be sure. Altogether, though, I think that the bulk of ayu's revenue is coming from her tours. Truthfully, that's the way for artists to make money these days--not by selling albums and singles, it's by going on TOUR. The tickets cost enough, and despite the cost of her staging/costumes/staff, the majority of her profits come from her tours I would presume since she's expanding further into Asia and is selling out across the board.

Tours do bring in quite the revenue. Ayumi's CDs may not sell enough, but if I read correctly, her tours have expanded in location and popularity.

As for Utada Hikaru, her popularity started with First Love and never really stopped. Her lyrics aren't as deep as other artists, but she's very involved in the production of the music itself. The ultimate fact of the matter is that she makes pretty darn good music, all opinions aside.

You could stop trying to be all defensive, you know.

And if YOU haven't noticed, Hikki has had some of the largest tie-ins that any artist could ever get in the past and present.

I guess in the grand scheme of things, a tour is the best way to bring in money... When I think of tours I think of all the expenses... I guess I never considered how much revenue they get for it D:

If Ayu does not release an album this year, which is pretty much looking that way, do you think her tour in 2009 will be A COMPLETE related?

I think it's possible for her to release an album this year.

After all she "apparently" recorded two new songs (GREEN and some other number that we have no idea about) so.. it's possible this is a JEWEL / 1 LOVE situation going on.

And instead of Startin' / Born To Be... and BLUE BIRD, we have Mirrorcle World and A COMPLETE as the "prior releases".

It'll be interesting to see how Ayu handles her 10th original album during her 10th anniversary if she even decides to do it.

^ I think it would be intersting to release an ablum on April 8th, 2009 to mark the end of her 10th anni and the start of a new chapter/era in her music....

Truehappiness, I'm not being defensive but everytime I read your post about Hikki's success, you seem to love to bring up the fact she has or had tie-ins that contributed to her success. =/ It's not Hikki who ask the producers of dramas to feature her songs on it. They just really like her music and see that it can relate to the drama. If AVEX would actually try to get Ayu some decent tie-ins other than panasonic (:dead2) than maybe she'll have bigger success with her single/album sells nowadays. =/

GUILTY prolly could have sold a lot better than what it did..if they they didn't just so quickly give up on. That album had drama tie-in worthy songs on there...but no, AVEX just sorta like stopped all the promotion of GUILTY and wnet on to promote the much forgotten Gold and Silver album. =/ I would have at least thought that AVEX would have rereleased GUILTY since there was enough hype for AC. AVEX can be complicated sometimes when it comes to her.

I dunno about that.. another anniversary release would mean that the tour would have to be delayed or simply made into A MUSEUM v.2..

Ugh, the possibilities!

BECAUSE SHE DID. Jesus. If Ayu had a huge movie tie-in that helped a single sell a million (the closest she's had is SEASONS with that weird drama tie-in or w/e) I'd mention it like crazy! But Hikki's had a TON of mega tie-ins. You cannot deny that.

Ayu's tie-ins are to movies usually right? Like Shinobi and Kai... Kaiden... Kaidan xD;

I was kinda disappointed in the sales because more people said they were intereested in buying the album (higher than BEST FICTION) and then the sales weren't as high as hers (I know I can't say that yet but first week wise). But I am certainly very glad she took the top spot with a high 500k, I hope she will break the million and be in the top 5 for the best selling albums of the year since it is her 10th anniversary LOL!

I would love to see her album as the highest selling album of the year (haha sorry Namie) :luv2

^ She's well on her way to ending up near Namie's sales (Not necessarily a million, but close I would assume). I'm optimistic about it, I mean it's not over yet ;)

Ayu's had the following tie-ups with dramas/movies:
SEASONS - random drama I don't remember
forgiveness - some drama I don't remember
Voyage - My Little Chef
Who... - some movie? I don't recall, but I swear this was mentioned somewhere..
HEAVEN - SHINOBI
fated - Kaidan
Secret - Confession of Pain
no more words - Inuyasha movie 2[?] Might've been Namie's Four Seasons or something but eh..

And a VERY loose tie in to the Takeshi Kitano(?) movie Dolls, since that movie inspired the song.

didn't Secret have a tie-in..though it was sung by someone else? right?

I don't and didn't deny that. =/ Like I said earlier, most artists depend on tie-ins (whether it's weak or strong) to help with their sales.....not just Hikki. We can go on and on about this but I rather not.

As for Ayu releasing an album, I don't think she'll do that until next spring or the summer. She's only released a single this year and i don't think that'll be enough to convince people to buy a new album from her. I heard the lil previews or wuteva of Green and that song doesn't really sound promising.

I know this wasn't directed toward me, but I wanted to respond. I actually find Hikkis concerts insanely boring, and this is coming from someone who has liked her longer than I've liked Ayu even. United was definitely the best, but I still don't think she has enough going on to keep me interested the entire time. Budokan was just a giant bore in my opinion.

I thought Duty was much better than I am..., but to each his/her own. And as he already mentioned, th is bringing up Hikki's tie-ins because they are there and do contribute immensely to her sales. FoL would have been successful regardless of its tie-in to HyD2, but not even close to as popular as it became by being featured in that drama. Obviously she isn't the only one who's had success from tie-ins (although it's probably not success exclusive to tie-ins), but it is something that has benefited her career immensely. Even early on: First Love and Automatic were both tie-ins.

I have to say that I have a friend who loves UU06, and it's not really because of Hikki.. it's more because of the amazing direction that her ex-husband did with the entire stage with the screen on the floor and lighting and all that.. it was just like the perfect stage and etc.. and.. Hikki.. uh...

And as for the tie-ins, I'm bringing them up because she has such huge ones that aren't exactly "random hits". (Evangelion, First Love, Last Friends, Kingdom Hearts even though the 2nd one was a frop frop..) Very much unlike how Taiyou no Uta just exploded for no real reason.

Dearest was in Inuyasha also, right? I think tie-ins with animes really help people know you around the world, but as far as Japan is concerned, I think Ayu has plenty of other songs that would be great tie-ins with dramas etc. But I guess she and Avex chose not to for a reason. Maybe they're not trying to start another war with Utada Hikaru for drama tie-ins or something. At any rate, Ayu is well advertised anyway. Maybe she just doesn't need tie-ins... although her sales may say otherwise (not saying they're bad or anything, just saying they could help).