About Ayu's "cutesy" voice

[DavidChaiLatte]

We've all heard Ayu sing in a "cutesy" voice every now and then for the last 2 decades, and she's been doing so irregardless of the condition of her voice (I feel like 07-09 was when she did it the least). Do you think at this point Ayu just genuinely loves to sound that way (esp since the label can't really control her anymore)? We all know that our home girl loves to look cute at least

[Chris85]

I think she likes it and she can't help it. Also she used to sing in a very high-pitched manner, so using cutesy voice is sort of making her voice sound closer to those old times. I think she feels the pressure to perform her cute songs in a cutesy way as well.

[xLuna&1LOVE]

If this is about the recent birthday video... well, tbh, I think we would sing in a same cutesy way. I don't know anyone who is going full broadway or at least takes this song very seriously.

About other songs.. I can't imagine a song like for example HONEY to be sung in a serious tone. Neither STEP you.
It has this whole 'giggle giggle falling in love' aura about it, so singing it in a cutesy voice seems... a good fit?

As for a songs like Depend on you or poker face, I think I agree with Chris85 that she is trying to sound close to her sound in her earlier carreer. But then again, these two song sound also very upbeat. She doesn't sing YOU like that, so maybe it is just fitting the tone, or uplifting atmosphere, of the song.

[Andrenekoi]

It's a cultural thing, plain and simple. I mean, Seiko Matsuda is almost 60 and still wears doll-like outfits on stages that look like a play aimed to children.

There is some more complex stuff to it on why japanese people are obsessed with cutesy stuff, but I wouldn't read too much into popstars doing something that simply works on their own culture. It wasn't incommon for people overhere to be shocked that those stuff would do better among her japanese public than what a westener would consider to be cool, like her rockish tracks.

That cutesy aesthetic is also perceived very differently by her japanese and overseas audiences. While it's seen as juvenile and uncool by people who aren't in that culture, it's seen as somewhat sexy in a non threatning way over there... No wonder a lot of her cutesy performances are the usually the same ones she shows the most skin and wear outfits that tend to be recurrent in fetish inspired stuff like bunny girl, maid, cheerleader, schoolgirl...

From what I noticed over the years, the stuff we see as sexy would be more of an empowering vibe, while the cutesy performances we made to give the audience the hots...