2021: Reflecting on Ayu's career
 

MOD EDIT:

ORIGINAL POST:

I think we should just accept the fact that Utada is still largely popular and ayu isn't. I meet a lot of Japanese in Vancouver and the fact are, the average modern Japanese people will say that they like Utada Hikaru but Ayu is a bit of a shameful thing to like.

My thoughts are, Utada style has always been a bit bland, safe and more accessible. Ayu went on a more controversial path, especially with her LGBT advocacy (a bit like Lady Gaga did, although, we all know that most Japanese are more conservative and introspected about their image). People associate her a lot with LGBT and the Gyaru trend. My roomate (from osaka) explained me that today, the perception of the stereotyped Ayu fans are party people and trouble makers. On the other hand, being a fan of Utada doesn't come with specific labels.

This is actually pretty cool tbh xD

Hikki has been a big LGBT advocate as well, on several occasions.

-Tweeted that she is not straight.

-she supported gay marriage at a concert. She threw balls to the fans that said "legalize gay marriage" over 10 years ago.

-she went on tv to explain that one of her songs "Tomodachi" is sung from the perspective of a gay person

- her famous bear is openly gay.

- her "gay" music video with Shina Ringo.

I didn't know that, I guess she just know how to do things right. I love ayu a lot, but she took weird decisions the past decade.

You can enumerate all of Hikki's achievements that doesn't change the fact that Ayu's latest PV is a beautiful and delicate piece of art while Hikki's latest PV is she singing unconvincingly... at the park

I remember someone saying once Hikki actually has a big following from lesbians.

Different purposes with different results. I like both of them, cause the feeling of intimacy and "amateurship" of "One Last Kiss" PV fits the song so well, while the solemn atmosphere of "Haru yo, Koi" is splendidly represented by Ayu's video.

We can say whatever we want, but ayu’s poor PR and failed publicity stunts have got her to where she is. Utada manages her brand brilliantly and more importantly professionally. Ayu has annoyed the hell out of people with her dancers and random 3rd party personas including her husbands (as far as I know both have 2 failed marriages only one hasn’t advertised them as much). Even though I seldom like Utada’s new stuff she simply does a better job of selling stuff that people want.

I agree. Sadly, Ayu's bad PR the last years didn't do much for her image. Promotion wise, Hikki on the contrary did everything right aka keeping her private life as private as possible. Also, I don't think Ayu promoting gay rights is the problem here, but her equating homosexuality = naked men in diapers.

I find she already worked on her image since the birth of her son she is really quite and private but it will still takes some time to be taken seriously again.
sometimes i wonder why she decided to expose herself like that from 2010 to 2014 it really gave a bad impression in people mind and hurted so much her legacy ... a decrease of her popularity was inevitable but an artist of her calibre should have keep a greater position in general public heart.

speaking of Utada, she is and will always be view as superior over Ayu because since day one they haven't been promoted the same way. Utada is branded as the musical prodige while Ayu her brand was her image (and her lyrics) but when the image is degraded we have this situation.

I honestly don’t understand how getting divorced twice, and moving abroad is considered bad reputation. Isn’t the same case for Hikki as well? Has Ayu done anything else (aside for dating a grass eater) so shameful? She is a lovely person, and specially with her fans, some western artists should learn from her... I don’t think it’s Ayu’s fault to overexpose herself, but media’s way of portraying it.
I love Ayu and Hikki a lot, but their careers took different routes. Not to talk about their music style which is completely different, as well as their image. For some reason Hikki still clicks with people (if that makes sense). I also think that in Utada’s case, the hiatus she took did a good favor to her image and popularity. She left while being on top, and the hype around her come back was insane.
Anyway, both are legends each in their own way. Also, (not the case with Utada but) popularity doesn’t equal quality. Sometimes really talented people don’t reach the top or fall really quickly, it’s a matter of luck in the end.

So it's not the fact that she's been divorced twice and probably not even that she's lived abroad as both of them married, foreigners, got divorced etc.

Ayu comes with a caveat of dancers, back vocals, husbands appearing in her PVs and interviews (sure Hikki's husband shot her MVs if I remember well), ayu literally announcing her marriage with a performance in a wedding gown on NHK, her husband being in so many videos, doing photo books, scandals with her boyfriend later on etc. and again her boyfriend appearing in her videos and being her dancer (which seems to be repeating even now). All of this annoys people and ultimately alienates them while with Utada all of this somehow was never the case. We all know avex has used both her personal life and even tragedies including her going deaf around the time GUILTY was released to get the attention of the medias. Whether that's what they really wanted is up for debate, but people see it that way it seems and sometimes explaining yourself is not enough.

On top of all of this as I mentioned Utada is very particular about her marketing and/or simply has an actual team that knows what they are doing while in the recent years ayu's been nowhere near where she used to be back in the day when avex was fighting for every copy sold (Mirrorcle World) where even the fan club membership has become virtually useless (and I am still paying for it).

Utada's image is way closer to what people consider to be the "good japanese woman", while Ayu was the opposite of it since the day 1. She was even advertised as a rebel on pretty much every interview regarding her pre-debut life.

Still, Ayu is a larger than life cultural icon and the way she can still tour after so many years after her peak is a proof of that. People like comparing her to Hikki and Namie as a way to show how she was the one that "failed" among them, but she pretty much reached the living legend status for a while now, and it shows all the time.

There isn't much jpop stars out there that would generate a best seller book and a hit drama out of 20 years old gossip, and this by itself shows her power.

Also, I know people loved having new stuff everytime, but her release pattern really aged her career and image really fast. Hikki, for example, feels way fresher, among other reasons, just because she did way less.

I think two things that attributed to Ayu's quick decline in the last decade were her deteriorating voice (the weird ババア-like technique she's been using since POM doesn't help either) and generic arrangements. There isn't that かっこいい factor in her music anymore thanks to the likes of Yuta Nakano and I think she would've benefited more from working with more innovative music producers.

Nothing to do with the arrangements though as nearly all the Utada albums after Deep River could have their tracks interchanged and you wouldn’t even notice (with some exceptions). One Last Kiss could have been on Ultra Blue or Heart Station. Fantome and Harsukoi feel like a 2CD release...

Michi could have literally been on any of them.

But hasn’t been like this from the very beginning? Weren’t her personal and relatable lyrics one of the (if not the main) reasons of her success? Ayu is a drama queen, and has been so since day one and we love it lol (just my opinion here tho.)

Completely true.

Hikki has a similar image to say... YUI?
She always represented (ironically, since she grew up in the states) an image that goes much more with the general public and the way japanese women view themselves. Her clothing style has always been leaning towrads the general trend, she never really dyed her hair blonde or portrayed a pop-star image and she is kinda quite but also quirky.

Ayu has always been a popstar and in her hey days that sticked with a big youthful fanbase and probably 20+, but somehow that image did not really grow with that fanbase. Its kinda like listening to Britney back in they day, which I still do but its a more distant view on her.
ayus efforts to sound mature somehow feel more staged and not really natural, even if it might is (step by step, how beautiful you are).


Thats said, it's unfair to compare stars because the reason someone is or became famous has many many different reasons that come together and create lucky or unlucky scenarios, shifting all the time.

I feel like Ayu had always appeared reachable throughout her uprise. She was a marvel and yet there was something so relatable about her. It was a mix of the relatability-factor and the desire-to-emulate factor. She appeared as if she could synthesize success and happiness out of turmoil. And she could do it well. Seemingly effortless.

Then her celebrity struggles started to manifest in her works. It also appeared significantly more chaotic, messy and less polished. The desire-to-emulate factor disappeared, as did most of her relatability-factor. She lost resonance.

Ayus works ALWAYS reflect her soul. She manifests her desires through them. Early on, what she wanted was what everyone wanted. Later on, her struggles changed, and likewise so did her desires - or at least, the context of them. Her life suddenly appeared shakey, as did her vision for herself. That’s not something anybody wants.

Additionally, and this is a big part, her actions appeared highly unexpected. I think people felt betrayed in a way. The girl that everyone wanted to emulate because she seemed to have figured so much out... wasn’t so? Now that the public felt they had a better handle on things than her. They felt they knew better for a change.

I was going to write a larger piece, but decided to go full tl;dr.

I think that Ayu is an artist that thrives under greater managerial input from her label. Fame gave her freedoms over her career that some popstars can only dream of, but without more critical label structures and forces in place (I.e. a PR team that strongly motioned against the presence of significant others in media promoting her music, a diverse comp./arr. team), her career stalled while her contemporaries flourished (Namie, in particular).

^Well, to be honest, both were just following trends. Namie was following the western pop music trends, while Ayu's mindset was on was being produced in Japan.

And as both are popstars, this isn't really an issue... A lot of the praised stuff from her earlier years were just what was trendy at the time through her lenses, no, not really that different from nowadays.

Namie, on the other hand, was pretty much just replicating the EDM sound that was big on the west without putting much of herself on it after Checkmate, what makes her work at the time extremelly safe.

I totally agree with you on that, I hate what she did with Timmy and now she is doing the same with Hikaru... Although, Kylie did a good job with men in a diaper in the ''All the lovers'' Videoclip. I think Ayu lacks subtility and relies on stereotypes and not the good ones.

It’s nothing compared to “one last kiss” but ayu is always going to be the best selling solo singer in Japan (overall). Forever. There’s no way anyone (solo) can beat her record.

I don't think it's "Ayu's bad PR" with all the normal life things that she included into her work. It's a society issue. It's about the way the media portrayed the things she experienced that most people experience. Japan is a place of suppressed feelings and lack of personal emotional freedom, where being a human is unthinkable for a normal person let alone a celebrity and unless you're a saint, you're screwed. I just think it's BS. Artists always mix their lives into their work, and there's really nothing wrong about it, it's the mentality of the society those artists live in that is an issue...Sometimes I think they all are just jealous of her having the guts to not give a fluff about societal "rules" and express herself in a way she wants to especially when it comes to work and personal life getting intertwined , cuz they can't do that. If more celebs did that and it became a regular thing, none would bat an eye ...

^^I mean, you're right but I also think we should stop comparing these releases, Ayu's cover it's kind of like an extra for A BALLADS 2, something fans have been asking since the first A BALLADS, tbh it doesn't feel like it's even targetered to "general public" since it mostly was promoted among her fan base, while Hikki's One Last Kiss comes with all the CRAZY world-wide hype thanks to Evangelion

She's doing amazing. Dreamed a Dream video has only 730k views after 6 months and it's not like avex is promoting the song or whatever.

I always find it funny how people want Ayu's work to feel personal and for her to not put personal stuff in that at the same time. And how easily people forget she is pretty much milking her own story since her first single.

Yep, that's what I always noticed too

A report talking about avex building selling said that the "creative minds" left avex in the past one by one. That may explain people's noting bad PR.

I don't think that's very fair and I don't think she's ever equated homosexuality in that way.

The homosexual elements in her music videos have surely had a leather-based theme but if you spend any amount of time on Japanese gay twitter you'll see that constantly.

Outside of the typical club-type videos I think the homosexuality promotion has been pretty understated. It wasn't too much in GREEN and it wasn't too much in Haru yo, Koi.

I think that like Madonna, she knows what gay males of her era like and is happy to give them what they want.

2021: Reflecting on Ayu's career
 

Ayumi's popularity has dropped because her songs aren't so good anymore and her voice is bad(for very well known reasons). She hasn’t had a single hit in the past 10 years. People don't like her doing plastic surgery, gaining weight and also some decisions from private life.

I'm way happier with her portraying femme gays the way she does, than portraying straight looking guys as a couple. But I'm not surprised by all the "you can be gay as long as you aren't flamboyant and act "like a man" being thrown in here.

I think the major reason that the general public don't like her anymore is because of her voice. People on this site including me are obsessed with her, and are therefore more forgiving of her vocal issues. But for an ordinary person, her vocal after 2012 is far from enjoyable, and is even less so after 2015.

She and her fans may argue that she sounds bad because she loves singing too much, because she dedicates her all to the stage. But at the same time, the general public will doubt: if you really love singing, why would you allow yourself to sound like that? If you love stage performance, why do you keep recycling old props? This gap of understanding between both sides keeps widening, and both sides refuse to understand the other.

Speaking of genuineness, I do believe the emotional genuineness of her songs, but her words do not always coincide with her deeds. For example, in Mad World, she criticizes how people destroy the environment. But at the same time, she flaunts her extravagant lifestyle which can hardly be deemed environmental friendly. This kind of ambivalence, together with the ambivalence about her love for her career, can be really confusing to the general public who eventually lose faith in her sincerity. Her sincerity, however, is what made her stand out in the first place.

I think I agree with you.

Everyone is different and behaves differently, but I don’t like it when gay men trash those they deem to be too camp or flamboyant. Especially since these are the ones who put their necks out to further the cause by forcing people to pay attention rather than quietly living life.

This is why I think personalities like Ayu are drawn. But it’s all a moot point I guess because I don’t know if anyone in Japan has criticised her for showing support for the gay community (I won’t say LGBT because she hasn’t really).

Her decline from popularity was well underway before she started letting her thoughts on it be known which is a shame. I feel like the way her career is now has given her freedom to do what she wants to do. Maybe she feels less pressure?

I don't think it's fair to say she mis-represents the gay community. The first point -and probably most important for me- is the one that was just made above: not every gay is flamboyant or covered in leather harnesses but not accepting that side of the community is a form of homophobia for me.

But also, she has ACTUALLY done so much for the community I can't believe people are stuck with Lady Dynamite and WARNING.

Wasn't hbya the first on-screen gay kiss in a Japanese MV ever? She gave a free concert during Tokyo Pride. She voiced her support on social media. She hired an openly trans dancer back in her troupe. The only think the lady hasn't done is date a girl at this point!

I never thought her ties to the gay community was the reason Japan had lost interest in her to be honest, but if it is, good on her!

No one was referring to Lady Dynamite, WARNING or gay men being flamboyant. My initial comment was about how she often (not always) made Timmy look like a freak by making him wearing diapers for example. I don't see how wearing diapers while being half naked has anything to do with being an effeminate gay man. Not to mention that I'm not a fan of in your face masculine men and don't expect anyone to act like heterosexual men (whatever that means anyway).
There were some tabloids as well as trashy news on the internet showing Timmy in some of his more ridiculous outfits (which he himself stated he didn't really like wearing). Therefore, that is what the general public will remember about Ayu "promoting" gay rights, they probably don't even know she had a a show at Tokyo Pride, let alone that anyone watched the PV of WARNING. And I honestly can't blame people for thinking "wtf" when seeing Timmy in diapers. I mean, how you can make a friend wear something like this and some other stuff, who himself stated he didn't like wearing it, and embarrasse him like that, is beyond me. What Ayu did here and what failed hard was trying to get some attention for promoting Timmy as the freaky gay gaijin. You have to keep in mind that Japanese people love to show their "gaijin friends" because it's "cool" and I myself was often paraded around like a circus animal by some people and it often seemed to me Ayu was doing the exact same thing with Timmy. If you ask me, parading your gay friend from London around is the opposit of promoting gay rights.

^Sorry if I gave the impression my post was aimed at your comment in particular, it was more of a general comment based on stuff that have been said in this thread and over the years!

I do agree that the stuff with Timmy has always been a bit off, and I felt that what was a very good concept for Hotel Love songs (the weird stage master / hotel director) should have stayed in this tour.

I suppose I can't talk for the general perception around what she does in Japan as I don't live there, and don't really speak with locals on the daily, but the point I was trying to make was that as a gay person she's done a lot over the years that made me feel good and represented in some way.

Again the main thing that surprises me as to how the LGBTQ discussion started in this thread was that I never really knew that was one of the reasons she wasn't popular. Can't it be argued she started being seen as 'has been' as early as (miss)understood or so? She didn't exactly have any kind of strong references until quite a lot later I think.

My “issue” with Timmy was similar in the sense that it felt like he was being used as a spectacle. We don’t know how much he wanted that, though. I mean he did his own makeup and it’s obviously something he was comfortable with (for at least some time.)

So it wasn’t my issue with him, just how he was used.

It felt... like a parody. I mean, Gomi also became a parody of himself (who is also gay), and Hikaru is now kind of going down that road lol. Still, it’s impossible to say Ayu is forcing any of this. I can’t imagine that if they expressed that they wanted to be used more “normally” that she’d oppose? In the end they’re in the world of entertainment and screen time and getting a name for yourself is surely part of that for some.

Timmy’s just felt closer to home because I’m also a foreigner and I’d hear the things people were saying about him. Kimoi, kimochiwarui, kowai... not very often that they were positive.

But I know that Ayu loves and values the gay community so I don’t really believe anything was ever done maliciously or forcefully.

(None of this is aimed at anyone, just offering my opinion.)

Personally I don’t think her embrace of the lgbtq community hurt her, considering is was done after her popularity had already started to wane. I think it’s just a case of over exposure and changing of trends. No one stays at the top forever.

My biggest annoyance now is just that I feel like for the past 10 years she failed to utilize the immense amount of talent that still exists in the music / entertainment industry. Instead, she just kept using the same team over and over again. (Minus a few instances of course.) For someone as big as Ayu, it just strikes me as odd that she seemingly just... stopped trying to progress.


This all comes from a place of love. I know it might sound too critical, but I don’t take it as seriously as it might sound haha.

^^no problem, thank you for clarifying!

I agree with HLS. It was an amazing tour and I still think Timmy's role fit perfectly there (even though it was clearly an idea taken from Britney's Onyx Hotel Tour, but I don't mind because even though I love Brit's tour, Ayu's was even better). But that persona Timmy put on there should have stayed there.

I think Ayu's overall image and "scandals", including the Timmy stuff, made her not only look like a has been to some of the public, but also as pretty ridiculous. This is a problem, because I think this makes it quite impossible for her to ever be the it thing again, like Namie was able to. It is normal that her popularity wouldn't be what it was in her hey day at some point, but she build an image during the last ten years I would say that makes it emberassing for people to confess that you like her. I usually refrain from telling Japanese people I don't know well that I like her, because they automatically think of you as a trashy person - because this is what they think of Ayu, being trashy. Which is sad, because it's ultinately not true, but it's no wonder given some stuff.

I’m not sure if her overall image was so trashy would she be able to sell tours like she does (or did really, it’s been more than a year already since the real concerts), unless it’s the same people going to every single show lol I don’t have many Japanese friends, but the ones I’ve talked to about my music tastes (on their early 20s) all said the same. “She is the utahime of the Heisei”. They perceive her as old, but that’s it.

^They respect her legacy from the 90s and early 00s (which is what people refer to when calling her utahime of the heisei era), but during the last ten years, she has been perceived as trashy by a lot of people. She has a very loyal fanbase, which is why she is able to hold her tours, but the general public is not interested in being associated with the Ayu from the last ten years. Her early career is what people like about her and what is still selling, but the current Ayu not so much.

This conversation seems to pop up every few years, so I'm just going to start by quoting myself.

I think she has tried to pull back her private life and be seen more as a "good Japanese woman" since around MADE IN JAPAN. And while it seems to have helped a bit, it's not a full rebrand. I also think Namie's retirement has helped her, because it's ended the cross-fandom hatred.

That said, I do think she has also stagnated a little bit by working with the same people so consistently. She herself has said that she doesn't really listen to music, and I don't think she has (or cares to have) her finger on the pulse of society and culture anymore - at least not musically. Her goal seems to be to continue to refine the dream that she wants to show us vs. create a new dream - that's why everything now feels so much more iterative than groundbreaking. And some people love this and eat it up, but the general public is looking for something more fresh. I think Ayu has it in her to do that - to pull a Namie and make super commercial music, but it's just not what she wants.

Of course the media exposure was a big factor against her image over the last decade, but I don't really think that she cares about it. I mean, as long as she can sells out arenas and halls, there isn't any reason for her to bother. She's the most successful solo act of all Oricon period and no one seems to be even close to her.

Her last "standard era" was Love Songs, which did pretty well on charts (3 #1 singles and the album was #1 as well). After that, avex promotions were weak, and then the gossips overcame her musical releases. I don't believe in the "lack of quality" or "bad voice" idea. The big issue is that Avex only cares about where the money is, and it's all about selling tickets.

I would say Ayu is a better LGBTQ+ Ally than your average popstar. She portrayed gay and lesbian relationships on her work over the years, have had openly lgbtq people on her body of work and I can't think of anyone else in the industry worldwide who actually had a openly trans dancer that got A LOT of spotlight over the years while still only playing roles her cis dancers did usually.

Considering Hikaru's instagram and Gomi's behind the scenes behavior, I believe they got those roles because it hit closer to home for them. Hikaru has being a femme high heels dancer on his own stuff since before working with her.

About Timmy, he was a drag performer back in UK, wasn't he? And his outfits are actually representation of some stuff done by a LGBTQ+ subculture if I'm not wrong, so even if it feel odd for us, she maybe is conveying something this subculture feels confortable with.

In the end of the day, a lot of Ayu work was meant to be shocking to some degree, even during her peak, and making people unconfortable with some stuff reflects that.

About her stopping progress, is something I somewhat agree, but I believe this was more of a comercial decision. From Love Songs to Colours she really tried to push boundaries both with her own sound, as with her visual work and public image, and as the public didn't react well to that, she tried to get safer again starting with A One.

I always like to repeat how some of her work where she tried the most to do new stuff were also the ones with the poorest reception.

Now here's the real tea. She is AYUMI HAMASAKI. She's not some small artist struggling to make it big. She has all the resources in the world to branch out but is just so comfortable in her little work family that it gets to the point where everything just starts to sound stale.

Like yes, she absolutely doesn't have to "prove" anything at this point in her career but that doesn't mean you just become... monotonous. And that's been my problem with Ayumi. Everything became boring. The songs she's been releasing aren't "bad"... but they also don't excite me anymore.

That said - I'm hopeful that she feels inspired again if her latest TA entry is accurate to how she is feeling and perhaps we'll get something interesting again.

There’s a difference between why she’s not popular in Japan anymore and why there’s disconnect with even overseas fans. I think boring is less of a factor for Japan - their idea of a good time is getting some much needed shut eye induced by a snoozer of a track, figuratively speaking. Her voice plays a bigger factor in regard to her fallout with Japan than the people she’s working with.

EXACTLY. She started intertwining her own experiences since the very beginning - HER LYRICS. I don't know why people think it's unthinkable for her to get other stuff there too! IT only feels natural to progress to that eventually, more or less.

_______

Honestly I get it. I also think a lot of her stuff sounds like leftovers from whatever she did before. And yes, there is a thing where artists work with the same people constantly and don't branch out. Which i do find strange, cuz even if those people you are comfortable with, as an artist it would get somewhat borring after a while? I don't know, maybe she sees it differently and it's the other way around - she found people who live on the same wavelength and you surelly wouldn't even think about replacing or letting them go. At the end of the day there might be more to this than just Ayu "getting comfortable" with her team.

Yep. This. All of this.

Some of her most disliked tracks by the overseas fandom actually are well Beloved in Japan (pun intended). But you can see a lot of complain about her voice in Youtube videos, for example.

I don't live in Japan, but I have always wondered if all people know who she is, ordinary Japanese people. If I told them her name, would I get a “who is that?” comment or they would know about Ayu?

^They definitely know her. She was too big not to know her. It's like everyone here knows who Madonna is, but especially younger people might not know her songs or might have just heard them at karaoke once or saw her perform on kouhaku or something and that's it. People around 30 or older will definitely recognise songs like evolution, Boys & Girls and SEASONS and even start singing the chorus if you mention her. They often seem to feel kind of nostalgic. But they also often assume she isn't active anymore, because during the last years she was most often over the news for her private life and not for her music. It's safe to assume they don't know any songs after BLUE BIRD.

^It makes me sad, I love her early days but most of my favourite songs are probably post Secret at this point!

For people having a better understanding of how she is perceived in Japan, do you think Haru yo Koi could have a significant impact on her image? Is it really that big a song or was it blown out of proportion in our circles by the 2003 performance?

^ It is one of Yuming's biggest songs, together with Sotsugyo Shashin.

That said, I don't think it's going to have a huge impact on how Ayu is perceived. It may subtly give a more positive image in some of the public's mind, that she's done something so mature and lovely - but for a lot of people I think it will just cement the idea that she is a hasbeen - she's covering a famous song vs. getting publicity for her own, and it's an old song at that.

I think the only thing that might make a difference is if Yuming made some public comments about the cover that were favorable, but I don't see that happen with artists in Japan so much - even when they have officially released tribute albums.

I don't really think Haru Yo, Koi was meant to be big, anyway. A Ballads 2 seens to be a test to decide where to go next.

Lol that is definitely not going to happen haha! Yuming is famous for making pithy and mean comments :mischief

Really???

I don’t know any specific comments but I can believe it. She’s a public supporter of former prime minister Shinzo Abe who is a huge nationalist.

I vaguely remembered that there was something like a talk show/radio show many years ago where people asked Yuming to comment on various famous people in Japan. And her comment for ayu was something along the lines of "her mascaras look like fly's legs" lol

Yes and sadly it didn’t help that during the last decade most of the time when she was on TV it was for singing her popular songs instead of her newer ones... to me she should’ve refrained herself to do that because this has cemented this image of diva of the past and considering her voice couldn’t handle these songs properly it only make it worse for the public. I don’t like to make comparaison with Namie Amuro but she was clever to stop going on tv shows because her vocal cords was destroyed (she said it herself).
its useless to try rewrite the story but when I think about it im always a bit sad how things tourned .

^^That's pretty funny, actually. xD

There's this interview one had with the other, I believe Ayu was the one being interviewed, and she was TOTALLY starstruck lol.

Yuming is a big name in the industry and she is around since the 70's. Her comercial peak still was way into her 40's. She can say pretty much whatever she wants lol

^yup

You know, for me, among the great Heisei Utahime (Koda, Utada, Nami, Ayu), I like Ayu and not the others because I like Ayu's music best.

Nothing against the other three. It makes me happy to see them succeed, especially now that they're getting older in an industry that refuses to let anyone, especially women, get old. But I don't like their music. I'm more into rock and Ayu does great rock-laced music. I heard "Pride," which blew me away, and became a fan. I wasn't aware of any of the drama until years later!

BUT. The more aware I am, the more I adore her. The general public is cruel to her, everyone from people on the street to tabloids that hold polls like "What about Ayu makes you wince?" They shame her for daring to be sexy--doesn't she know she's so gross and fat and old? They scream at her having relationships and then kids without being married--doesn't she know she's a whore?

And while they rage, she keeps making music. She stands on stage and writes lyrics and experiments with different kinds of music and communicates honestly with her fan club and lives her damn life.

I don't blame anyone who doesn't like how flashy she is or doesn't like certain music or doesn't like her PR style, as others have mentioned. She's made plenty of errors. But I will never, ever stop being proud of her. She is Ayu, and she is the most badass person I've ever stanned. I've never loved any one public figure so much beyond their art.

Amen to that!:luv2
totally same here - even if some of her late work doesn't do it for me as much as the old stuff, and she did lose me a bit for the last 2-3 years, I always go back and the fact that she is still going says a lot!

That said, I hope a new era is coming because, well, it's time!:D

Yup!!! Well said everyone. I was a real huge fan from 1999- 2009. It was a great time cos ayu was still at her peak. I didn’t really listen to her works after rock and roll circus. But i was back into ayu for the past 2 years. ��. Ayu is still my no.1 artist.

My friends all thinks that ayu is someone of the past. They knew her, but she’s just someone who’s big in 2000s... even if I intro they ayu stuff, I don’t think anyone seem to be of interest.

18years fan here. The bad press from 2008 onwards which caused the bad public perception has got to do what she did earlier in her career. If you look at her songs like "real me", "my name's WOMEN", you would realize that she is advocating gender equality, which is not something that the men in power look forward to, this is probably worse than promoting LGBT rights in their mind. There's are also other things that she did that is very "un-Japanese" like Max-Tom Avex CEO saga and some of her MV that outright diss her own company.
She was sitting on that powder keg for really long, and the deafness/voice is the spark that ignites it.

In the last decade, she is releasing way fewer songs and putting in less and less effort into it than ever for a simple reason: it's not going to make much money compared to holding concerts.