Quote:
Originally Posted by tokyoxjapanxfan
When Max was involved with her releases, I truly believe he had a huge influence on what she did and didn’t do. That and the team that he would have brought to the table.
I do think that when his finesse of her releases was pulled back is when her release pattern and quality really started to get... iffy.
That’s not to say that she -can’t- do it by herself, but it’s certainly more mentally draining.
|
I see it a little bit differently myself, though I do agree that I think Max was a stabilizing energy for her. If you watch her very early in her career she DID handle everything herself. She had very strong opinions and was actively involved in every part of her artistry. Check out the first NTV interview and you see her doing her own make-up, cutting up the pictures to make the Ayu-mi-x album art, etc. If anything, she was keenly aware of what she wanted the Ayumi Hamasaki brand to be.
It was later when she started handing off responsibility that things changed. She has said multiple times over the years that she got to a point that she was able to trust others who she deemed experts or skilled in an area, and let them guide things. This may have been a good thing at first, but it has also perhaps led to some stagnation at times because she tends to rely on the same people for everything instead of pushing boundaries.
I also think that, at her heart, Ayu is a rebel. So her changing release patterns, etc. is because she hates to do something just because it is expected of her. When she was no longer AVEX's main income source and had some more say in what she did, she pushed back hard.