ayu 'injects' feeling into her songs
 

I was talking to my fren about Sunset~LOVE is ALL~, when ayu reaches the "anata no..kae na ki wa naishi....", somehow I can refer to myself. Like as if she's really telling you her feelings, and the message of the song.
If I were to interpret that part for myself, it screams : "I really wanna show you my love, I love you, I really do". Something like that.

My fren told me it's a 'gift' that ayu has. Well she may not sing as good as kuu-chan or beyonce. But everytime she perform she has this aura I can't (hardly can) find in other artist.

Well, it's not only Sunset~LOVE is ALL~, I believe some of you has your own favourites. Care to share?

She's the only singer so far, that I can bawl my eyes out while listening to her songs. Some of the songs where I feel great emotion from her are

- fated
- Together When...
- untitled ~for her~
- Endless sorrow
- Days
- HEAVEN
- SEASONS
- Dearest
- Voyage
- Dolls

omg that's a lot but I'm sure there are more. She's an amazing singer honestly, it's hard to convey emotions as strongly as her.

I know what you mean about Ayu having a certain aura to her when she performs. That is why she is one of my favorite artists. Yea, her voice may not be spectacular at times, but she tries hard, works hard and does it all for her fans and love of music.

I always loved when she performed Dearest acoustic piano version. That particular performance is my favorite of all time, because she has so much emotion in her voice and the words are just brilliant and touching. It's like Ayu is singing directly to you, and that is what I love about her the most. The connection she has with her fans.

When her emotions are conveyed naturally, I love it. When they are obviously something being played (like in many of her ballad performances with Shuya), it just comes off as way too over the top for me.

ikr! Usually when people cry they go like T_T or ;_;, but for Ayu faking it, it's always >_<... at first I was like, "wow she's crying!!!", then now I just laugh whenever I see the fake-crying... XD

I call it "the Ayu feeling".

But I haven't really felt it as much from her in the past years...

but back in the day...omg...I used to tear up just hearing a song for xx lol

Occasionally happens now...but when I watch old stuff.

I don't care too much for the fake crying either, sometimes it's annoying but sometimes it's played very well. I just don't like when she over does it.

Omg...when i think of fake crying, i think of the HANABI screen for AT08

But yeah...I call it the Ayu feeling too

I used to get it a lot especially with ASFXX, Memorial address and some of her other ballads
But since the release of NEXT LEVEL, I haven't been able to experience that feeling except occasionally now with rainy day since it was my first Ayu song

her HEAVEN in AT06 look fake to me...which made me couldn't really enjoy it..but her untitled~for her~ is very natural....

ya..she has the aura and i understand what you feel...because can't find such thing in other singer too

i never understood how people can cry to ayu (or anyone) without actually fully understanding the songs... it's one thing to know what the song means such as a translation, but actually understanding ever detail and applying it to one's life and/or experiences, like one would with a native/fluent language, is a lot different. Even though I read translations, after reading it, I tend to just forget the meaning. I guess i'm the only one? haha...

I'm not doubting the people that cry, i'm just saying I don't necessarily understand where the tears come from. Especially since usually, people's favorite songs are the songs with, by japanese standards, the "less meaningful" lyrics, while Japanese people tend to like the songs that are overlooked by non-native/fluent speakers of Japanese. such as her entire Duty album--I've heard so many fans say it's such a boring album and not her best and don't understand why it's so popular, etc. (Then there are the fans that just hop on the bandwagon and say it's her best because Japanese people say so, which is a different story for a different time, haha.)

maybe it's just me. do i sense emotion from ayu? yes of course, I think she lets her guard down a lot when she sings. but crying is, i guess, different for me.

However, my favorite "emotionally injected" song is "teddy bear". :)

@tokyojapanfan: Well even without the translation, her voice itself already carries emotions, and the melodies play a role too I guess.

I cry at things I don't understand XD Sometimes it's not really the lyrics that makes me cry, but it's more of the "plot" of a PV or just the emotions being portrayed purely like during Memorial address @ AT03-04

I also cry sometimes when her concerts end... she doesn't sing anything does she? ;) And I remember once I was watching BEST of CDL 06-07 then at the credits they were playing Who...'s instrumental and I just started crying, :laugh

For me, it had a lot to do with the music itself.

I loved the flow of her songs, from note to note, lows to highs, and the power that she infused in her songs, that was only emphasized by the emotion that she put into it.

I'm like that with a lot of great music, or when it comes to great singers as well.

Andrea Bocelli can make me weep lol And there are some compositions that are just amazing...I think everyone knows the Adagio for Strings, which, I first heard covered by a Choir, and it was just one of the most gorgeous things I've ever heard.

this

I think this is the great beauty of music. My teachers used to tell us that, we can always play the notes as they are written, but you haven't made music out of it, until the audience can actually feel the emotion and the story behind it.

And there are no words in symphonic pieces, obviously. It's not something that's easy to do.

But that's a little aside from the "Ayu feeling" I guess.

But anyway, you don't need words to convey feeling or emotion.

Alot of ayu's older songs are done in such a way that you can tell a song is sad or happy or angry or frustrated, and whether it deals with life in general or love, from its arrangement, melody, and how ayu sings it. That's not so much the case anymore (and when you CAN tell a song is happy or sad, it seems so over the top and forced that you can't really "feel" it anymore). But back in the day - especially with albums like "Duty" (which I dunno WHY anyone would call it boring o_O!) and I am..., you could tell.

The first time I heard "Far away" I knew it was a sort of frustrated sadness that she was talking about. The first time I heard "teddy bear" I knew it was a mournful sort of song. The first time I heard "A Song for XX" I knew she was singing about some sort of apprehensive, angry determination to change something. The first time I heard "Fly high" I knew it was an inspirational, uplifting track - and all of this was without knowing the lyrics.

I haven't felt that in awhile. Songs like "fated" are too over the top with the fake crying type of voice in the bridge. Songs like "Sunrise" sound like she's trying to convince herself that she's happy, nevermind trying to convey the message to us.

"HEAVEN" just about had it right, but then the fake crying in the video nearly killed it for me. I just don't watch the video and I'm fine, lol :)

I love you Deli :shughug

I can never fully explain what happened to it...but I think you did beautifully.

A Song For XX, even when she performs it now, always gets me. Probably because even before I knew any Japanese that song just totally spoke to me. Sometimes I think the reason why sh ecan still perform it so well is because even she herself still feels it.

yeah, this is why i love her. i feel like it's rare when a song doesn't have her "feeling". a lot of artists just sing but don't put their heart into the song, or even bother to put themselves into their music, and that bugs me. ayu is always herself in her music and has a way to get her emotions across even when the listeners of her music don't know any japanese.

Ayu & Chihiro Onitsuka both really inject feelings into their song.
i can feel it~~~& this is why i love them

for me, some songs that have that really have that "aura" to them are HEAVEN, untitled ~for her~, criminal, Sunset, no more words, and most of all..Memorial address.

She's the only singer that can move me with her songs even if i don't know what she's saying. Because she doesn't just go on stage and sing a song. She sings it to eveyone with all her heart and feelings. If she were any other way, she would be just another singer.


When i do know what she's saying, whether it's a line from a song, or a line in her Diary messages, there's always something that i really needed to hear at that moment. i don't know how that always happens, but it does.

I do agree..I love her because her feelings are so close to my heart..her communicative way reaches so strongly my soul.

the songs that move move me more are:

Dearest
End Roll
fated
memorial address
HEAVEN
teddy bear

I think TO BE, Who..., untitled ~for her~, teddy bear, and A Song for XX move me the most. Ayu does have the knack of conveying emotion through her music that I seldom feel from other artists. This is the reason why she exploded in popularity in the first place (apart from her image) because people who listened to her music felt like she could understand them. :) Songs like A Song for XX and SEASONS resonate in people's hearts!

This is truly her talent. Whether the emotions are truly her own, or if she's emulating someone else's emotions into her own music, she does it so well that it comes alive. I think she takes advantage of this talent really well.

untitled ~for her~ really gave an impact for me.

Well... it's not like she is the only singer in the world (or even in jpop) that is able to do this... Actually, most HUGE stars everywhere in the world can, that's one of the reasons why they are huge in the first place o.õ

But yeah, she can do this pretty well^^

I have lots!
-Fated
(Miss)understood
Is this love?
Together when...
SURREAL

Ayu is the only artist that ever got me to cry while listening to her songs, so, at least for me, she's somewhat special in that manner. I remember two other songs getting my eyes slightly wet or getting me a little angry, but no song ever made me feel the song as strong as some of ayus songs(memorial address, teddy bear, a song for xx,untitled) do

Yeah, Ayumi is the only singer that has ever given me this "feeling" whenever I listen to her. For me, the actual lyrics and how she sings them adds the most to that feeling. And for me, in many of her songs, it's like she took my own personal feelings and created a beautiful song from them. A few of Ayu's songs even made me tear up. That has never happened with other songs before. She really does have a gift for conveying the emotions she sings about.

She's one of the artist that were she connected withe her audience to her song.

I can remember that I was crying while listening Over, and it was a huge impact for me.
I think the lyrics and the way she sings it was so brilliant.

(d)Lma, identity, LOVE 'n' HATE, and Naturally can make me "sarcastic" for a while to its strong lyrics and aggressive kind of tune.

Happy songs like Greatful days, HONEY, EnergizE, B&D, and glitter makes my day a-lot.


winding road and Replace are the songs that can move and inspire me though its message.

Totally agree.

i have felt the same. Sunrise, for some reason i cannot explain, feels somehow forced, plastic (if you know what i mean) and gives me the feeling of sadness being covered by a mask of happiness. Same goes for glitter, :yes though i like that song. In these past days i've been listening the mashup remix of all her summer songs (found in Sunrise/sunset) and somehow, i feel true happiness in the "greatful days" song. that song is special because she sounds so happy :luv2 and that feeling is contagious :D

Now that i think about it, may be that's why Next Level didn't work. At least half of the album sounds too forced also, with too many electropop tracks. :eviltongu there are virtually no dark songs in there. This is just an opinion of mine, but i think ayu is trying too hard to convince herself she's happy...

Songs like connected and I am... show so much pain, and that's why they're great. :luv2 they're totally authentic and natural... straight from the heart :luv2

Yep it is true.
I love how she sings some of her songs, I can feel her emotion through her voice.
Sure, her vocals aren't amazing as ayaka or the Superfly's singer (I can't remember her name lol sorry) that are the most amazing voices in jmusic atm (more than Hikki imo), but she's one of the few singers I've ever listen to that can express her own true emotions.

For example, when I listen to Memorial Address for the first time I wasn't read lyrics yet.
Her voice in Memorial Address is powerful but extremely sad at the same time. I was so sad too that I start to cry lol, even if I wasn't know what she saying.
I mean, even if you don't know japanese you can feel the song and what she want sayin' to you.

Lol I'm sorry for my bad english :laugh I need to learn english too :roflmao

I also love it when she puts feelings in her songs.. Yeah, sometimes it is acting like on Arena Tours with Shuya.. It was cool at first but it started to annoy me :/ The same fake thing all over again!
But when she sings her ballads and cries I so love to see that she gets all emotional..that I also cry (it's not too hard to make me cry lol). When she was singing untitled ~for her~, MY ALL etc, I doubt she was faking. It was nice to see her, sharing her feelings with everyone... Showing her weak side. Sometimes I don't know if she's crying from happiness or from sadness.
I love Ayu because she sings with her heart! She puts her emotions/feelings in her songs, both melody and lyrics!

EDIT: Yeah.. forgot one thing.. I think her vocals are great! Well, they've been better of course, but still good. She tries very hard and has skills. She really sings because she loves it! Not just "to sing a song and get over with it"

Ayu might not be the one of the best singers out there but she's one of the best when it comes to expressing her emotions through her singing when she's not trying to put on a act with shuya.

I agree...except its not over the top for me...just annoying. I blame Shuya for this...lol. I prefer her singing alone especially ballads.

I've been injected with her feelings upon hearing songs like A song for xx, teddy bear, and Memorial Address. They're songs I can relate to, and I was even shocked of how much it mirrored feelings I've felt.

Am I the only one who thinks songs like Sunrise~Lia~, glitter, NL etc are just purely "feelgood"-songs and not trying to convince anyone anything...? Just because they don't have anything "deeper" than just being happy and wishing for good things in the lyrics doesn't mean they're less meaningful. Most of you are probably gonna lol hard but I have actually cried while listening to glitter :rofl To me there's something bittersweet/mellow about that song, and it just happened to fit very well to my feelings atm. But yeah even in those songs I actually do feel the emotion in her voice.

^ no, but Sunrise feels forced, like fake happiness (Oh LOOOK im HAAAPPPPYYYYY! *turns away* *cries* why shuya, oh whyyyyyyyy?)

I think it's cause she is so popular she is a bit out of the commercial music system and do what she loves like songs and speak with her heart, no?

Yeah, NEXT LEVEL didn't feel forced at all, it felt genuine. As did "Greatful days," for example. And those are two of the few "happy" ayu songs that I really enjoy.

And ayu's certainly done a fantastic job in the past with mixing happy songs with a certain nostalgic/melancholic feeling (in fact, I'd argue that that's what she's best at). In those cases (like "fairyland") she makes no illusions about the fact that the song has a sad aspect to it. But with "Sunrise" it sounded like there was sadness behind the happy-mask, but she was trying very hard to pretend like there wasn't any. "glitter" didn't really feel like it had any emotion at all.

And "untitled ~for her~" for me has the same issue as "fated" where... it is a genuinely sad song, but when delivering the vocals, Ayu seemed to have it in her head "okay, this is a sad song, I need to sound sad when singing it. Think sad, ayu, think sad!" and then when she sang it, the sadness was too much and too put on. Both of those songs are really very moving and very sad, but she overdoes it with the vocals and it lessens the songs' power.

When ayu just DOES, doesn't think, just DOES, she ends up so much more honest and relatable.

Ayu is very special. I always hypnotise by her way of singing. She always put a lot of emotions and feelings. Maybe, it's her only way she can speak us...in singing

Yup, I 100% agree. It's just unfortunate that she seems to have less and less of those kinds of performances these days.

A Song for XX gives me the strength to continue when i feel that I am breaking.

no i think that too. ayu isn't sad all of the time *shock*
she can actually write/sing a song that doesn't have any sort of sadness in it, you know. it doesn't mean she's faking her happiness either, even if she does struggle with depression sometimes.

^ I agree, I think people need to think about the possibility that Ayumi probably does suffer with mental illness, and she's probably not happy all the time, but when she sings "happy" songs, maybe she isn't doing it for fans, but trying to convince herself and cheer herself up. :P

Her emotions in End roll are what made me fall in love with the song. Especially in the chorus when she goes: "Kimi wa...." There are more songs like that, but currently, I'm in love with this one^^

Her emotional content in her earlier works appeal to me more than her recent ones. For me, they peaked right around I am... That said, few of her recent songs (past three years or so) invoke that type of feeling into me.

the first time i heard ayu perform sotsugyou shashin in cdl07-08 (i think), i almost cried :weep so emotional for me <3

the emotions she puts in her music definitely makes up for her not being the best vocalist ever imo

For me her songs feel very honest because she writes the lyrics, not someone else, and she's said numerous times that she tries to be as honest as possible in her lyrics. So when I hear the lyrics (and understand them ;D) I can feel that honesty and I'm touched by it. That's harder for me to do if I know an artist just sings the lyrics that someone wrote for them.

For example 'A Song for XX'; the "I was born alone, I'll go on living alone, I thought such a life was normal"-part is so heartbreaking because you know she actually felt like that.

^ Oh gosh, that line in A Song for XX gets me every time. :cry