CREA?!
 

I don't understand it. Who/what is CREA? If it's Ayumi, why is she calling herself CREA?

Pleasee :tired

It is her pen name for when she composes songs... Maybe someone can explain the background for the name??

One of her dogs is called CREA.

Didn't Ayu also chose CREA 'cause she thought the dog Crea was the one who looked the most like her? o-o

Wierd, many sites talk about CREA as another person. Well, it's nice that she's doing her own songs (Even if I don't like M >.<)

wasn't there a honda car called CREA? @_@

There might be many reasons. One I'm most familiar with: the dog is the basis behind the name. I've seen that thing and damn it does look like her a little...in doggy form at least. A reason she made herself seem like another person by using a pen name might be because she was not confident in her skills as a composer and didn't know how it would turn out. It was new territory to her so she didn't want to be known as the composer of the song. It works the other way too...she was trying to be modest about it, instead of having Ayumi Hamasaki under both "lyrics" and "composer". Everyone would obviously know her talents, but she's not the kind to flaunt anything, even though we know CREA and Ayu are one person. They just offer a contrast when looking at the credits...and appearances make a bigger impression than anything.

She named herself CREA after her dog, and she got the dogs name from the Honda motorbike thing she advertised for in the 1999's.

^ ah i thought so, i remember it was honda
so wait she named her dog CREA first, then she named herself CREA?

^Yes, acording to the TIME Asia article.

here's the CREA honda CM: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xoc...da-giorno_auto

lol i see~ and thanks for the commercial
so cute that she named herself after her dog...:roflmao what if she named herself "marron" :roflmao just imagine what you'll see on her lyrics booklets
singer: ayumi hamasaki
music: some dude
lyrics: marron

Aah, so she is looking at herself as a BIKE? xD

^She probably just liked the name...CREA...CREA-tive. And she is. ^^

I agree that it might have also been because of a lack of confidence in composing. It (speaking of "M") was her first composition and she's not an educated composer. ayu even said herself that only few of the staff knew that she's CREA.
And like others already mentioned she chose CREA as a pen name, because she thinks CREA looks the most like her. ^^

no, funny would be:

singer: ayu(yeah, pen-name, too xD)
music: CREA
lyrics: marron
xD

Some people went as far to accuse her of not being the composer of her CREA songs just because the name was different...

what? Thats crazy xD She IS CREA

Well...it is idiotic to say the least. Not just because the name was different I think. They actually thought she wasn't capable of making such masterpieces. I mean Ayu isn't going to go to extreme lengths just to prove she's CREA...but you can kind of notice in the songs themselves. CREA songs have something unique about them...it's like they have her signature on them. A good example would be the guitar solos in UNITE!, evolution, and M. They are really different.

^Yup, they all have key changes pretty much, and usually are a mix of dance, rock, metal, and trip hop. Usually ethereal sounding too.

i miss CREA!!

Do we know the composer for Sparkle?

... Ms. Hamasaki did say she submitted one of her songs...

And.. Sparkle seems.. amazing. :P

You and me both!

iirc, she helped with a song, I don't think she actually did a full song. At the very best, we're looking at a CREA&[insert-other-composer-name] song.

CREA needs to come back already, some of her most memorable songs were from the CREA era.

I was amazed when I read at time mag that ayu is CREA. And it was written there that CREA(pen name) was name after one of her beloved dogs.

I also miss CREA....

Yeah I think I read in an interview somewhere (can't remember where >.<) that Ayu said she used penname because it was her first time composing, and she didn't want to have to take the blame if it was ill-received, haha.

Luckily M was a huge hit (even in composition) so she didn't have to be ashamed. =P

Heh, yeah. I remember that too. I can't be bothered to look up that interview...it might have been in TIME Asia.

^ ME TOO ALTERNARIST!

I think it's a beautiful name too. "CREA". The way you would pronounce it and the way it's spelled...it's just so pretty.

Lol, I used to have a friend who would pronounce it with an "o" in it, and would ask, "Why would she name herself after another Asian country?! Is she actually Korean?"