[orbitalaspect]

... The vast majority of these artists are uninspiring. It's like they could all sing each other's songs and not seem out of place.

NM is my favorite of the bunch, but Save me and Arigatou Forever... were a little too plain compared to 7 WONDERS. I hope her next single is less generic.

lol sounds great. I like the K-Pop feel they have. But they still suffer from the same generic electronic pop sound.

What made Ayu, Namie, Hikki and Koda different was they each had a certain mix they did well. Ayu was very elaborate, ethereal, big sounds, big melodies. Namie was R&B/Hip Hop dance and simple ballads. Utada was otherworldly, emotional, experimental pop -- she worked with a lot of different song styles. And Koda was slutty pop, you know, the kind of ass-shaking, throw off your clothes and have sex with yourself kind of pop... and a few ballads similar to Ayu's stuff here and there.

Apart from their own styles, they each released things differently too. Koda released a ton of new music every year. Namie was sparse in her releases, but toured most of the year. And Ayu was about equal studio and touring time. Hikki is the artist that releases a few singles then an album that outsells everyone else then disappears again for a few years.

But overall, all four of the big names were different from very early in their career. You couldn't mix up a Koda track and Ayu track, or a Namie track and Hikki track. You could easily tell what made a Koda tour a Koda tour and not an Ayu tour. And, for the most part, those things are still true today.

None of these artists, barring Leo Ieiri and Kana Nishino, are different enough from each other to make me think any of them have a shot at moving forward. I did think Itano Tomomi had a good shot, but every release of hers is something different from the last one, enough so that I can't really tell what her music is. Her voice is at least distinctive. So, maybe the next big things are a little ways off. It did take 20 years before the 80s idols were swept away by Utada, Ayu, Koda, and Namie. We may not see the next big female artists for another 4 or 5 years.

Edit: It's also worth noting that none of these artists are releasing material frequently enough to gain traction. With as much as 12 months between singles, and having debuted just a couple years ago, there's no way these artists are going to get enough attention to grow a fanbase.