Quote:
Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer
Me and several other people around here have said a bunch of times that you can actually be hard pressed to find someone in Japan that actually likes Ayu and has something good to say about her. (Unless you are at an Ayumi concert of course ^_^) Or more often than not, you will find people that say they liked her early stuff, but don't really care for her now. In general, she is just not someone that is universally well liked over there anymore.
What's been saving her with the number 1s is very selective release dates (I don't think anyone can argue with that) and her having a large enough core fanbase to still give her decent enough sales.
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I really disagree with that statement about it is hard to find someone who will say something good about her.
For example if I talk with my friends who dont like Ayumi as I do, of course they will not know that the latest single is Sunrise, or Mirrorcle World was 10th anniversary single, but they still will say "Ayu is Japan's Utahime. If she is not there, there is something wrong."
And this year at my University, Waseda and Keio students have come to be exchange oversea students, and when we talk about music and this kind of thing, we will always comment about how cool or cute Ayumi is, even though they will not know latest release, or so on. If we go to karaoke together, we sing half other artists, and half Ayumi.
Of course, there are a few people who hate her too from these two groups, and say She has surgery, and looks too fake, and this and that. But I have to say that those people on the internet who say Ayu is over, etc etc are not the real perception of Ayumi Hamasaki in general Japanese audience. Of course, it is also regional, so I found that people in Tokyo and Kanto region will like her better than Osaka and Kansai regions.
When you say to people that you like Ayumi, they will most likely say "She's so cute, right?" not "This old witch, she needs to go die" like 2 chanel will say.
But I do have to say, of course we will not follow her releases anymore, because she does not release anything "new." But I dont think "New" is really what the problem is. She puts out "new" releases, like GREEN, or Sunrise, which are 2 very new songs for her (from my perspectives), but old sounding songs like Days and JEWEL and BLUE BIRD were very popular with japanese people, and of course her concerts are always the most expected from many people because she plays the old songs a lot too. So is "new" really what is missing? I dont think so.
And since reggae is becoming very popular, those popsounding artists are suffering greatly, and It is hard to be a female artist right now in Japan, because the industry is focused mainly on the boys right now.
It's true that Japan is not paying attention to her, just like they did not pay attention to Amuro for a few years. In a few years, Ayumi's popularity will be renewed like Amuro, I am sure about that. But if we say that Japan general audience "hates her," or will say bad things about her it's 100% a lie.
I think it's like Madonna or Mariah Carey. People don't really follow their new releases much these days, but if they are not there, there is a weird kind of feeling I think for America~.