Ayu not in Oricon's "Top 20 Favorite Artists"... losing popularity?
 

http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/music/60075/

Oricon does this survey every year to see the most liked artists; 20,000 people were asked who their favorite artists were and Ayu... wasn't there... Do you think she's losing popularity? Come to think of it, when was the last monster hit ayu had? You know, like REALLY REALLY popular? Wasn't it BLUE BIRD? What do you think of this? ...I'm a little sad and shocked.

If anyone is curious, here are the top positions:

1. utada hikaru
2. kobukuro
3. aiko
4. mr. children
5. dreams come true
6. southern all-stars
7. amuro namie (WOAH! didn't expect that one so high...)
8. b'z
9. spitz
10. arashi
11. fukuyama masaharu
12. shibasaki kou
13. exile
14. pornografitti
15. ayaka
16. yui
17. hirai ken
18. yuki
19. kuwata keisuke
20. yuzu

She's been losing popularity very very steadily since mid-2002.

I really wish ayu's fans didn't freak out like the sky is falling every time something like this happens.

Ayu's career is currently mostly driven by the die-hard fans - casual listeners are, for the most part, no longer interested. That's how it goes.

But I don't want it to be like that! She's going to be like that one old singer that ayumi surpassed at most consecutive number ones: a living legend, but a living legend with bad sales. I don't want that to happen.......

Her sales haven't reached the "bad" level yet. Anyways, plenty of artists on the list don't sell as well as she does, so it's arguable how popular or not popular she is.

I would say that Step You was her last really popular song, not Blue Bird.

um...i don't think she's at the point of having bad sales....sometimes i think fans worry more about her career than she does...

^ totally agree lol.

It's OK. Because Ayu still has us! Isn't it?

lol that's a really good point.

I'm a bit surprised not to see her there, but she hasn't really been doing much this year anyway.

wow, hikki is no. 1! I'm sad to see that ayu is not in the top 20. maybe it has to do with her left ear deafness :shrug and kuu's not even in the top 20.

I don't care about polls, they use it as a method to show whos "supposedly" important and who's not ;)

I think I agree with that too. She's already 30 and is running on her 11th year, and I think the new wave of young guns are coming to attack on her. There seems to be better choices. But there are really exceptions:
1. Kumi Koda isn't on the list either. Remember on February this year that she said something bad that made Avex to suspend him and cause popularity to decline? I think that is the case why she isn't on the list because of her earlier actions that I specifically talked about.
2. Ai Otsuka isn't on the list either, but I don't know why she's not on the list...maybe she's not really very much popular as Ayu do?

I think it's the lack of DAI(+CREA) compositions. :P

Even BoA, SMAP and KAT-TUN aren't on the list...

lol... everyone knows oricon members are all hikki/aiko lovers. If you look back on past years' rankings you can only find ayu at #18 in 2005.

nah you shouldn't be worried , all these polls that Oricon conducted are fake & attention hungry to a certain extent

you should look at the big picture instead to see whether or not is she doing well or not , you can't judge based on this poll alone

i dont remember hikki had released anything else beside her album and a single. what make her popularity so steady?

well this poll have been in the asian music section for a while, and people say it's because they can relate to hikki, as in a laid-back kind of person

Flavor of life was a very succesful single (and I agree, the ballad version is a pretty excellent song) and her HEART STATION album is close to reaching a million copies sold. Not too sure about Prisoner of love though.

To be honest, the best album released this year in JPOP that I listened to was without a doubt, HEART STATION. I feel that Hikki songs have a good radio playing feel too. I'd love it if I were to hear the song HEART STATION playing on a radio here.

I personally can't understand ayaqa's popularity that much though..she has some good singles, an amazing voice, but her albums suck tbh.

i think so


many new talents, bands, etc
plus all the heavy competition (utada, namie, koda, etc)

and also, she has changed a lot, shes far away from her most successful works (M, evolution, RAINBOW, etc)


PLUS, this year she didnt have anything new for a long time