Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai - View Single Post - Lets vent about ayu?/why did your fandom decrease
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Old 5th May 2014, 11:20 AM
maneayu's Avatar
maneayu maneayu is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 384
maybe after all that has been already said, we could make a list of all of it, since there are a lot of stuff that gets repeated along the thread.

So...
So far from what I've read, results are the following.

"My fandom decreased because:"

VOCALS / INTERPRETATION
- ayu's vocals don't have the same quality/emotive power it did in her peak years.
- ayu sings like she doesn't feel too much anymore.
- Her vocalization was more natural and smooth a couple years ago, now she sound like she's kinda forcing it out. Even nasally at times. She just sounded a lot cooler on her older era.
- she wants to sing with her high pitch, screechy, ear bleeding vocals, when obviously, she can't anymore, and have to push/force her voice and then destroy it.
- The amount of lip syncing during her recent CDL is excessive
- a lot of her live performances have been just plain terrible lately.

IMAGE
- The only thing I see [in her Dearest performances] is a inconsistent singer with a runny nose dressed on a birthday cake while singing a generic ballad...
- ayu drops in self indulgence
- I've lost more and more interest in J-Pop as a whole.
- fans have lost a feeling of "connection" with Ayu
- her persona from years ago was simply more likeable... but it wasn't her. We didn't really know anything about her. Now she can be herself and do what she wants, and she's... kind of boring. Champagne, sunshine, pools and millionaire friends are only interesting for a short while. So, I guess, her life now kind of breaks the illusion in a way. It makes you realise how crafted everything has been all along.
- When I look at her pictures in magazines and on album/single covers, all I see is a Diva. When I listen to alot of her new songs, all I can think of is how uninspiring her music has become.
- Maybe the fact that I changed and she changed and we're no longer as compatible as before (in terms of personal feelings and taste)

PROMOTIONAL VIDEOS
- I miss the Ayu with a meaningful yet low-budget PV
- The music videos have been lacking a bit
- "Feel the love" PV shocked me

MATERIAL
- ayu's material hasn't been great recently
- I want unique merchandise

LYRICS
- her rich lifestyle makes her write bad lyrics
- Her lyrics aren't as lyrical as before
- Like a TON of high schoolers who became fans of Ayu between 1999 and 2000, Ayu resonated with me for her honesty. Even not understanding her lyrics, you could tell she was baring her soul - the arrangements and melodies and her vocal performance had true honest emotions behind them. To this day, my favorite ayu songs are the ones that make me feel whatever she's feeling. So when she sings about being happily in love, dancing, and superficial romantic pain just like every other pop star... it does nothing for me.

PRODUCTION
- ayu was more creative before
- she isn't that active anymore
- Before, she gave me the image of someone strong, who cared, and was giving her best, now I just feel lazyness from her
- ayu have same dancers, doing the same old choreography, crying over the same songs, making the same fake phony sad faces, singing the same damn set list that she has sang at almost every concert for the last 10 years.
- Ayu's current stuff sounds like a cheap rendition of her own stuff from 10 years ago.
- She also tends to recycle stuff in her concerts way too much for my liking.
- releases are no longer accompanied by decent promotional efforts by ayu herself, well thought-out and planned, with a well defined concept, extensive preparation, well prepared schedule and thought process behind the whole thing, as it used to be before. Standards are sinking throughout time.

MUSIC
- Her music just doesn't resonate with us anymore. Probably because of her age and her values.
- ayu's old music was technically better. Better composed, better arranged
- ayu's music is too generic and unoriginal. There is no innovation or originality. It's copy cat off of her old styles and what everyone else is doing
- 2 things: LOVE again and Love Songs. I hope she never release albums like that again
- Party Queen


OTHERS
- To be honest, one of the biggest disappointments in the Ayu fandom is how some of the fans treat each other. I'll never underestimate the value of the fans I've befriended who aren't assholes.
- She's 35 years old
- I've been too focused on other artists
- I've been too busy
- I lost my iPod! Even my 32GB iPhone 5 won't fit everything because I also sync photos to it...


I hope I could convey everybody's feelings here

Last edited by maneayu; 6th May 2014 at 08:59 AM. Reason: Does it look like I have a lot of time? LOL
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