Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai - View Single Post - If ayu was American...
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Old 14th March 2013, 08:10 AM
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Delirium-Zer0 Delirium-Zer0 is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2002
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If she was releasing albums like a western musician, we'd probably only hear about 15-20 songs for every 30 or so she recorded... only the most polished & most personal material would end up on the albums, and some other tracks would end up as single b-sides.

So honestly there'd probably be half as many albums up there on top of the tracks being rearranged.

And let's not forget the shift in titling conventions, too. Where ayu has ellipses, we'd just put nothing, and where she has XX, we'd put ellipses. And oh yay, traditional title capitalization! lol


------------ERA ONE-------------

A Song For... (Late 1999)
01. A Song For...
02. Depend On You
03. End Roll
04. You
05. Trust
06. Boys & Girls
07. Flower
08. Wishing
09. Powder Snow
10. Signal
11. Trauma
12. Appears
13. To Be
14. Love (Destiny)
15. Who

Singles:
1. Depend On You
2. Boys & Girls
3. End Roll
4. Appears
5. Love (Destiny)
6. A Song For... <-- most artists don't get to 6, but it can happen depending on the success of past singles & how long the label has to wait for new material.

B-Sides:
-Monochrome (on "Depend On You")
-Two of Us (on "End Roll")
-For My Dear (on "Love (Destiny)")

"And Then" and "P.S. II" would probably get carried over into era 2 since they continue the stories of A Song for XX and POWDER SNOW.
"WHATEVER" and "kanariya" would probably get released as non-album, club-specific remix-rich singles under the name AYU, ushering in her second "career" as a club queen.

------------ERA TWO-------------

Duty (Early 2002)
01. Evolution
02. Powder Snow II
03. Dearest
04. Duty
05. Vogue
06. Far Away
07. Seasons
08. Surreal
09. Naturally
10. M
11. Endless Sorrow
12. Teddy Bear
Hidden Track: flower garden

Singles:
01. Vogue
02. Dearest
03. Naturally
04. Evolution
05. Seasons

B-Sides:
And Then (on "Vogue")
Key (on "Dearest")
Never Ever (on "Evolution")

"Connected" would be released as a club-exclusive single as well. "a song is born" would have been a standalone single that didn't appear on the album, being for charity. Ayu's solo version may end up as a b-side or a best-of compilation track much later in her career.

"I am..." and "Daybreak" would have stuck out like sore thumbs by virtue of their more raw sound and would have been carried over to the next era to be released later.

------------ERA THREE-------------

"RAINBOW"/"A BALLADS"/"Memorial address" is a hard era to deal with because of the range of sounds, but I chose to take her in a darker direction given that she'd be mourning the passing of the subject of M.a. by the time it came out. More polished pop/dance and wintry ballads from this era would be saved until later.

Memorial Address (Early 2004)
01. Rainbow
02. I Am...
03. Moments
04. Fireworks
05. Independent
06. July 1st
07. Because Of You
08. Free & Easy <-- this would have the string intro removed to avoid litigation
09. Heartplace
10. Daybreak
11. Everywhere Nowhere
12. Fireworks (episode II)
13. Memorial address
Hidden Track: A Song For... (studio live version)

Singles:
01. Rainbow
02. Independent
03. Moments

This is the period in which Ayu's label no longer knows how to market her because she's getting too personal. Critics love the album and call it Ayu's most artistically relevant work to date. The album sells reasonably well - not as well as previous efforts, and old fans feel like Ayu has betrayed them for this self-indulgent stuff, but well enough & it has brought Ayu a whole new audience. The label is getting desperate for a radio-friendly ballad rather than this mopey BS, which leads to the next era:

------------ERA THREE POINT FIVE-------------

Untitled Christmas Album (Late 2004)
01. Forgiveness
02. No Way To Say
03. Carols
04. Dolls
05. Close To You
06. Voyage
07. White Christmas
08. Silent Night
09. Itsuka No Merry Christmas
10. M (Winter Parade Remix)
11. Appears (Holiday Remix)
12. Dearest (Acoustic Version)
13. M (Acoustic Version)

Singles:
01. Voyage
02. Carols

------------ERA FOUR-------------

Ayu takes a break to travel overseas. The result is a very multicultural and "aware of her audience" album, full of world sounds but all very radio-friendly. Ayu adds a creepy intro as a nod to the nagging she's gotten from her label recently. This era contains carryovers from the last one, plus MY STORY, (miss)understood, and Secret.

My Story (Late 2006)
01. Wonderland (Intro)
02. Inspire
03. Blue Bird
04. Walking Proud
05. Will
06. Ourselves
07. Step You
08. Secret
09. Bold & Delicious
10. Fairyland
11. Heaven
12. Happy Ending
13. Real Me
14. Honey
15. Jewel

Singles:
01. Blue Bird
02. Walking Proud
03. Secret
04. Heaven

B-Sides:
01. We Wish
02. Graduation Photograph
03. My Name's Women


Aaaaaaaaaannnnnnnd so it goes. A bunch of the darker and rockier songs from MY STORY through GUILTY would end up on the next one. But it's 1 AM and I've already put WAY more work into this than is necessary.

I'm also basing alot of this on how the industry was up until about 2002, I pretty much stopped following western music at that point. I miss how things worked in the 90s so that's sorta what I did here.

Last edited by Delirium-Zer0; 14th March 2013 at 08:13 AM.
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