Is it just me...?
 

First off, I admit that I have been a fan of Ayu since she started out with the song for xx album. Nowadays, I feel like it's just been going a little bit downhill. Among that, her PV's have changed quite a bit....it seems a little bit racier than it used to be. I understand that sex sells and all but then again, I miss the way the PVs used to be like in the days of evolution and Hanabi ep II. I guess what I am trying to say is that I am really not that big of a fan of her newer videos. Anybody else feel the same?:thud :no

ive felt the saem since "ourselves" :shakehead

and i havent bothered watching an Ayu video since that HORRIBLE HORRIBLE kill bill copy she did, I forget the name of it, but it had her holding a gold drill.

that realy just made me sick *gags*

this happents to everyone sooner or later! hahaha is just like her album sales! the stay number 1 for a week and then the go blaahh on the charts! lol.

but you have to keep in mind some things...

1. She can.t stay like in a song for xx for ever! then she would become boooooring!
2. if you have not seen koda kumi in one of her lives or britney spears.. or kyie minogue (to mention some) then you dun know the meaning of "sex sells" at all! lol
3. just hang in there! she will do something else soon she always does and that.s what intrigues me n_n

that.s what I think.. n_n

i dun agree on that coz ayumi had been singing for like 8-9yrs now right.. her image and style have to keep up with the market.. cant expect her to remains the same 8-9yrs ago.. she will definitely lose out tis way.. nowadays its all abt the package and the new breakthrough u can create..

Sex sells? Yeah but its not in ayumi's case (her pvs are nt into a hot,sexy and wild theme yet unlike some artistes which i dunwan name out)..i dun tink ayumi needs to sell sex too..

Just some of my thoughts.. :D

ohhh and I forgot! she.s almost 30!!! she.s not a kid anymore!!! she.s more than a woman!! not a kid trying to be sexy like "some others" (mentioned on my post)

n_n

^ you're right... even though I haven't been with her since a song for xx I can understand what angelwitch and -Link- mean

I think they're better than her being infront of a tree with TV's for leafs.

I understand the fact about the whole "sexy" image and everything, but I feel the same. Her album (miss)understood really turned me off. The singles were GREAT, but when the album came out? :shakehead Secret was okay, but I've definetly seen better.

Maybe it's because of the absence of "new" things (except part of Me). Maybe when she comes out with something new (after her Asia Tour), things'll get better. :shrug

All we can do is sit and wait.

i think Momentum, jewel and part of Me not sells her sexy image...

they may not have been sexy, but they were good MEANINGFUL songs...
part of Me...I love that song..and the pv is amazing.

Yeah, seriously.

Well for me the sexy image just doesn't suit ayu, I am not saying she is not good at it, but after awhile of see someone having to same kind of image for a while and seeing it work for them and they just go and change it seems weird to me. People keep saying that sexy sales but I don't see people with a sexy image being able to sale the way ayu did with her old one.

For her latest pv's except for part of Me, I can see someone else doing the same thing. They seem predictable. They just don't have that "ayu" factor anymore.

Also, (miss)understood and secret weren't that bad. (miss)understood just didn't see like any ayu album. It at first felt like a cover album, and secret felt rushed.

I really think that ayu should take a break after the tour and let people sweet it out a little and come back with another A,H or & with the same cute image she had before but with her more mature image, with a mix of her old tecno/pop stuff. I think people will eat it up. I would like the old ayu back.

I think JEWEL and 1 LOVE were very "Ayu"..

But the Ishii-headed PVs were very typical. He needs a dosage of whatever Kouki Tange's on.. :D

Well, personally I think all her PVs are kinda... blah? Hahaha

I agree...plus momentum and part of me....but startin, born to be, blue bird and beautiful fighters...those pvs I can see someone else doing it.

To me Ayu is just like any other artist...she has her ups and downs, esp. in terms of years. I personally still love listening to Secret all the time...it easily entered my top 3 Ayu albums. But albums like MY STORY and RAINBOW got old real fast for me. As for her PVs, they've always been hit or miss. IMO she has as many boring PVs now as she did five years ago.

And...it's kind of hard for Ayu NOT to be selling a "sexy" image, since well, she's sexy! And honestly, I don't really see a too strong of a sexy image coming from her. She's actually quite conservative, esp. compared to other artists around her even in Japan.

And I'm so glad she didn't stick with her ASFXX stuff. I doubt I would've ever become a fan.

Ayu is ayu. Whatever she does is whatever she does. All we can do is support her. If she chooses to do this, then so be it. If she chooses to do that, then so be it.

I think that everything, nowadays at leats, released, she wanted to release. If there was something she really felt she didnt want to do, then she could always do something about it, she is Ayu.

Like I said earlier, ayu is ayu, whatever she chooses to show us, is apart of herself, and because of that, I will support her 100%.

However, you can't expect everyone to do this all the time. Sometimes, people show different sides of themselves, which ayu has consistently done. Some people might not like all sides. So what? It's no big deal. There is no perfect person.

If I were to go into music, I'd be somewhere between Ayu and Kuu and Utada...even though i love all parts of me, some people may not like the kuu part, or maybe the hikki part, or maybe the ayu part. That's okay, you can't please everyone all of the time. Artists change, people change, times change. It's all inevitable.

not me, probably coz im quite a late fan

and...change is the only constant. Humans do change. At least, this prove something right?

She's a human.

I wonder if there are any like me...I've been a fan since 02 and go "ugggh ayu what's wrong with you!" over things like the similarity in her work (bluebird with fairyland, all the rock songs with fake synthy music), or maybe even get mad because arrangements in her songs are so repetitive and there's no "wow" like with SURREAL, or M buuuttt...

at the end of they day, I'm still the same big fan, and eventually come to love every track on their own, and finally she treats me with something like "kiss o kill" or whatever lol.

Yes. She is SUCH a **** now. I couldn't stand Momentum and how she was all sexed up in front of that mediterranean grandpa! She's so Britney Spears now, like wut da heckerz?! Oh, don't even get me started in Part of Me - with all em' scantily clad dudes and that perverted praying mantis... UGH!!! And what a revealing kimono!

I'm okay with Ayu's PV but I was hooked on to her 2001 till 2005 decade those PV's were great!! Still people change and Ayu's change is okay

Startin'? is that it?
OMG you make me laugh so hard. :laugh :laugh :laugh

how the heck did you come up with that?

Well.. I prefer her newer songs and Videos.
And... I don't think, she wanna sell her songs with sex or someting like that. Jewel or Momentum or Part of me is not very "Sexy"... just nice videos, with no sex in it.. I like them!

Jesus.. she just wants something new and.. more mature maybe. She can`t stay all girly girly like before. I like her new vids and old ones also, and I have to admit her first ones were BORING! Yes, I know it was the begining so it`s ok.. But she just put some cooler stuff in her PVs and so.. If you are talking about "sex", look at Kumi for Gods sake

Ayu doesn't seem to be as racy as most artists out there, even in Japan. I think her videos are quite tame. Even in 1 LOVE, the outfit she's wearing is quite modest compared to what it could be.

LOL sexy image? The sexiest Ayu's been is my name's WOMEN, and even that was mroe of her back up dancers being sexy. As far as diva's go, Ayu has the least sexed up image.

teh video poker face mentally scarred me for MONTHS.

I was just like ... so confused. I couldn't figure out teh logic behind the TV's ... or howteh hell they could possible stay attached to the trees.

Anyway, I like her new videos.

My favorite videos by her are ...
fairyland
beautiful fighters
alterna
inspire
game
blur bird
1love
momentum
part of Me
ourselves
greatful days
daybreak
angels song
the trilogy
rainbow
bold and delicious
appears


I dont really like most of thestuff before I am ... only the trilogy and appears.
everything else is boring to me

I think the least sexed up of the "Wow wow" female artists that rely heavily on image in Japan is probably Ai.

She's indirectly sexy, and really perverted, but she's never done the things Ayu's done.. or that other person..

Yeah, Ai is very un sexed up. She is funny and cute, but the CHU-LIP cm ... omg .. so many perverted subliiminal messages o__o

I think ayu really isnt that sexed up/

I think some of the raciest things she's ever done was early in her career... Duty/LOVEppears covers, anyone?

She's getting soaking wet in the 'Boys & Girls' video for no apparent reason, and in 'appears' she's outside on top of building with her extremely hard nipples showing through her blouse. The videos have no plot on top of that, it's fan-service.

And it's LMAO that people want to say Startin' was not a parody, whether it was a good parody or not.

I love all her pv's excepts for her extrmely **** one's made in 1998-99.

Okay, 2006 was a blah year for PV, but you know, she's human, and there's bound to be repetition of some sort.

And with the sexy image, she's nearing her thirties. She's a grown woman whose allowed to be sexy. And I really only see the sexiness in the way she dress really, and that's a matter of personal judgment of sexiness.

With stuff that are distinctively "Ayu", then it would be the run out of the mill generic ballad that everyone would complain about. Just because they're not "Ayu" does not mean they're not necessarily bad.

But then again, I'm still a relatively new fan.

I love Ayumi going towards the sex sells, haha she is a very attractive woman :luv2

I hope she does continue on the path but in Ayu's case she'll do it in an elegant and slow way if you haven't noticed she isn't like going overboard on anything. She puts her own twists onto the sex sells thing. 1LOVE video was just amazing though lmfao, so wow. Pole dancing Ayu :lech

Yeah, her first PVs were :o :rolleyes

Now she does whatever the director and her thinks fits the song best. And sexy? She hasen't ever been very sexy, only a couple of times. Not since startin' anyways.

I disagree with the sexiness in her PV's... Off course, in some PV's she wears sexy outfits, but she does not use sex appeal the way Koda Kumi or Namie Amuro do... And i..e part of me isnt exactly a sexy video..

same here. i have liked ayu a lot less since she has gone hard rock. i miss her I AM and RAINBOW days.

i think the typical ayu PV after 2003
are

MOMENTS
GAME
CAROLS
is this LOVE
alterna
HEAVEN
1 LOVE
JEWEL
momentum
part of Me

most of her summers PV like INSPIRE / fairyland / BLUE BIRD are so dud !

her bestest PV i will say

Dearest
RAINBOW = so cooL ~
NWTS
free & easy
MOMENTS
HEAVEN ~

What's so bad with being sexy? She's got the body and the attitude so why not show it off?

lmao good one there.