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I would say that her old material is really good, with the exception of majority of the tracks on A Song for XX (Geez, many of those songs still gives me the shivers) and well, I would mark I am ... as the turning point. I am ... was an album that was SINGLE-intensive. It was just madness, singles after singles, month after month. And I think most, if not all of those singles claimed the #1 spot. And not to mention, all of them were HUGE hits. Moreover, her popularity was widespread!
After that, I think the reason why fans would say things like "Ayu's going downhill" is because after I am ... was released, came RAINBOW (which was categorised pretty much for it's ballads) which I think some fans were disappointed with (it's more on the entire album listening experience as opposed to the songs individually) and then the media starts to release reports of "OMG, Ayu's going downhill! Declining Popularity!"
That's only part of the problem. Ayu went forth with the rock genres, and they're always infused with some other elements like modern gothic (as present in About You), ballads (HANABI ~episode II~) etc. Pretty much it gained her new fans and made some old fans upset.
To add on, music downloading became rampant and as mentioned, pretty much after I am ... the entire J-pop music industry and madness over J-dramas subsided. (At least in Singapore, the start of this era was when Love 2000 was aired and SPEED was formerly introduced) Which again, accounts for a decreasing interest in J-pop.
And yes, to further add on, people do get kind of tired seeing the same face dominate the magazine covers all the time and well, pretty much everywhere! So it's one of the factors as well. That's why since I am ... I think a lot of people have been asking the question "Where and Who is the Next Ayumi Hamasaki?" because no one seems to be able to fit the bill.
New styles that left some fans unhappy, music downloading, public fatigue of an ever-dominant Ayu era led to a decrease in her popularity.
And now, the post-I am ... era, Ayu has much more control over her music. In the NTV 2004 Interview, Ayu did express her discontentment on how she was pretty much a robot and she wasn't happy with the material she had been releasing (since most of the time, other than the lyrics, song-wise, things hadn't always been in her favour to express herself) and when they asked her to release A BEST, it almost marked the end of her career.
Though I know of people out there who say, geez, Ayu's like BLEARGH with all her new releases, I think it's very much a time of experimentation and reinvention. She's done amazing for all her albums I think, especially now with (miss) understood. I love the new songs that she delivers and it shows that Ayumi Hamasaki is changing. I wouldn't even say that everything after I am ... sound pretty much the same, because they don't.
Not to mention her tours! A Museum, Arena Tour 2004 and 2005, CDL 2004-2005 were great concerts! I don't know why people cling onto the old era Ayu like there's no tomorrow, because there's no tomorrow to that.
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