Originally Posted by waterballoon
Okay like wow, I've read the comments on the past few pages and I'm gonna sum my thoughts up in this post.
So like Ayu now has to write songs that "relate" to people. I mean, what's so bad in terms of relating is (don't) Leave me alone and Mirrorcle World. She has written such angry songs to avex/HATERS ever since like alterna? What's wrong with angry lyrics? When I hear them while having a bad day or feeling pissed at certain people, I can RELATE and FEEL that wrath in those songs. THAT, is relating.
And I watched this performance and wow. I was really expecting something really bad, so bad that so many people are complaining about it... but no! I liked it, really. I mean, what's so horrendous about the way she's singing now? She sounded confident, strong, powerful and I like that vibe she's giving out.
You can even see it in SURREAL, and also to the pictures that walking.proud has posted, that she has not lost her popularity to such a bad extent as stated here. Even the HOSTS were waving their hands, and the female host was singing along too. SURREAL is a classic in J-Pop, just like a lot of the song she has done. 10 years down the road, if she were to sing SURREAL again, people are still gonna wave their arms and singing along. That's the POWER and INFLUENCE Ayu has in Japan/on us. That age-old and timeless music that she has ALWAYS been producing.
And, whoa, GUILTY and her newer music has been "generic pop" and "monotonous" and "boring" and "empty" and "not from the heart". Screw it. I think GUILTY was full of emotions from Mirror/Mirrorcle World to untitled ~for her~, EVERY SONG was filled with emotions. These emotions may be different from A Song For XX/LOVEppears/Duty but so what? It's not like she's singing about hooking gigglos in the pub and being a total *****. Even if she's always singing about tears/broken wings/whatever, at least they're heartfelt. At least they're real. That's how life is. There's only so much you can feel and express. I love how she writes the lyrics. I love the realism.
She broke up with her boyfriend of 7 years. She lost her best friend. She lost the hearing of her left year. That was 2007/2008. Compared to 10 years ago, what were her feelings? She didn't know if being a singer is what she wants. She feels upset about her father. That was 1998/1999. Duh. Difference. You can't expect a song from GUILTY to be talking about the same thing as A Song For XX. It's not like it's her fault for feeling different things. Or look at I am..., most of the lyrics were inspired by 9/11, and then again, it's a different theme in the album.
Next. I too felt that her lyrics/themes of the songs have changed. Um, duh? It's been 10 years, people. Just because you can relate to A Song For XX and can't for (don't) Leave me alone doesn't mean it's un-relate-able or anything. Reality check. Her songs don't revolve around you; they're not written for you. They're written for HERSELF. Every song in her discography is for herself and that's why I love them so much. They reveal a little of herself each time.
Now, it's about the tours, right? Okay, like I would so expect Ayu to be running around the stage and waving to fans while singing Together When.../HANABI or whatever. Yeah, get it? They are supposed to be sad songs. She's not supposed to be waving. And she hasn't stopped doing for the audience songs, like SURREAL/Boys & Girls/AUDIENCE/evolution/UNITE!/independent/Humming 7/4/flower garden/etc. She has always been relating to the audience, waving to them, blinking her eyes and all that.
And like, there's something wrong with the tours being grand? Sorry, I'm in a symphonic band and my conductor once said that music is not all about the listening, but also the watching. When we did concerts, we also did special gigs like lightings and all that. Duh, a concert isn't a concert if it's just Ayu standing and singing. Of course, you would say she would be running about waving her hands and all that. I know, in A Museum, she touched the fans' hands during poker face (or a song in that costume). But that was then, and this is now.
Now, the road she's taking is a concert of dancing and being glam. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Now, she's not that singer who would go around touching hands while her dancers are dancing. Now, she wants to dance. She wants to play an even bigger role in her performance. What's wrong with that? And, I say, nothing can beat being close to the audience than shouting "ARIGATOU GOZAIMASHI-TA" at the end of every concert.
For example, compare appears in A Museum, and then in AT 07. It's the same theme, of lovers dancing about. In A Museum, Ayu was just singing and rolling about her dancers. Do you know how cheesy is that? Like, I laughed while watching that because it's just so cheesy. I mean Ayu looks so awkward because she isn't dancing. Then, in AT 07, she's dancing with her dancers. That same routine. That same emotion.
All right, that's it for my stand. Sometimes, I really wish that I could give Ayu a big bear hug and tell her to always stay strong like how she is now.
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