[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by maikaru

You know what, Utada Hikaru has the right strategy I think. She releases every so often, and tours once in a millenium or so... but she doesn't over saturate herself. Avex of course wanted to cash in on Ayu being regarded as the best thing since Yoshinoya in Japan, so in her early years (Especially 2001), they had her EVERYWHERE, I mean you couldn't go anywhere without seeing her face... even in countryside, they had posters of Ayu in some shops.

Because Utada's marketing made it so that they only focused on her music, her face wasn't that important. On the contrary, in the beginning, many people would make fun of her eyebrows or her nose, and of course most people regarded Ayu as MUCH more beautiful than Utada. But Utada's schedule was perfect in that there wasn't a chance for her listeners to get tired of her, and they didn't see her face everywhere...

But Utada's popularity with singles has also taken a major dive. In just one year, her single sales dropped more than 500,000 units. (Flavor of Life vs. Heart Station/Prisoner of Love). But her albums continue to sell more than Ayumi Hamasaki, due to a kind of hit and run tactic with Utada Hikaru... She releases something, and then kind of goes back into hiding.

Anyways, Utada is Utada, and Ayu is Ayu, and what works for Utada will not work for Ayu, and vice versa... but I think we are forgetting that in an era where only Johnny's can get over 200,000 single sales, 90,000 or 100,000 is not at all a bad number to be staring down. Ayu's solid, and yeah her sales are fluctuating a bit, but she is still one of the strongest artists out there, and consistent. The era of female idols is over, and I think the era for male idols will soon come to an end, with the exception of Arashi. People don't just like one artist anymore, or they don't even like the artist, just the song. "I like this song, but this song is bad, so I won't buy it," kind of thing. The era where one female idol's face is seen everyone is probably also over... for a while.

Yeap, ayu sales are doing great considering everything.... Magazines and companies still are interested on her, her singles are far from selling bad, so are her albums and her tours are getting bigger instead of getting smaller...

Even if the image thing affect her on a bad way, that TV special about her lives, the lower tickets sales on A-nation'08 cuz she didn't performed on most dates, that TV show where she talked with Gaga and her tours becoming bigger over the years are IMO signals that even if she is not the hottest thing in the world anymore, she still is seen as a strong pop performer to Japanese people... And I always say this: When I watch Koda or Namie concerts, there are mostly teenager girls and young female adults on the audience... While Ayu's audience is getting more and more diverse... There always is younger and older people of both genders (well, on DVDs and photos people post over here)...

Imo Utada created for herself a musician image, while Ayu created for herself a performer image... And both women are making tons of money on their own way