[Utada Hikaru] Show Me Love in Hikki's 38th Thread!

[Picaflor 7/4]

this single collection has a lot to follow. from wikipedia.

It sold over 1.4 million copies in its debut week, and became the #1 selling album of the year in Japan (her fourth consecutive time accomplishing this particular milestone, a record in Japan's music history.). This is Utada's longest charting release on any Oricon chart, with a 2 year trajectory and still growing. Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 1 is the 35th highest selling album in Japan of all time

Let's hope this clip collection vol. 2 will do just as well even though that's quite a stretch. But this is hikki after all, her albums never sell less than a million. I'm sure it'll do just fine.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by emiko

And it is true, any artist should care about their fans, because, without fans, without other people, your art doesn't mean anything.

Well, I hope she learns all that while she's away.

But if u care about ur fans too much and focus on releasing what u think they want, u stop growing as an artist, start recycling ur own stuff and limit ur creation to an already known format...

U can see this everytime here on AHS... people never say "I want this singer to release something new", it's always "I want this singer to release something like that song/album I liked"

And after they got what they wanted, the complains about lack of creativity start... So, nops... IMO artists should not release what they think will please their fans the most, they should release what they feel like to, in the end of the day, that's what made people interested on the first place... when the singer wasn't famous, their artistic inspirations was the only thing their had to know what kind of piece to release...

[Purple Neko]

This news has me so sad. but i love Hikaru so i wish her the best on her break. I hope she will keep us updated.

[primavera♥]

@Picaflor: it has no reason not to sell that well and if it doesn't then the world is getting waaaaay too strange.
Its the most perfect thing she couldve come up with. And she will not be a victim of the crap economy with one I assume.

But I've already reiterated why like a thousand times. Unless like arashi does the same thing and says they're going away then it would have a threat (barely)

[FuNsTyLe]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

But if u care about ur fans too much and focus on releasing what u think they want, u stop growing as an artist, start recycling ur own stuff and limit ur creation to an already known format...

Alot of artists do that *No names mantioned* but Ayu comes to mind..lol

[Andrenekoi]

^At least Ayu keeps some space for innovation... RnRC has some of her most inventive tracks, but also some of her most generic xD there are people releasing only safe material

[hsienko]

If you ask me I seriously doubt she's gonna take another 5 years in addition to the 2 she's already taken. I just think she just doesn't know when exactly she's gonna feel like getting back in the game, and that's why she decided to put up the announcement, just as a sort of "don't expect anything anytime soon cuz it's not happenin'."

OR...

Spoiler:

Maybe she had a secret child 2 years ago and she's waiting another 5 years until it's 7 years old and in school and what not before she goes back to work.

[Andrenekoi]

Btw... She released 8 studio albums since 1998 (counting Precious), 8 albums in 12 years. This is more than Britney (6 albums) and if u count her career post 2003, she released more than Beyoncé too (5 Utada albums against 3 from Beyonce)... 96 songs in total (without considering alternative versions of the same song), and considering she write the lyrics, composes the melodies, make arrangments and produces, that's a lot...

[primavera♥]

If only all of those albums were of great quality.

I hope these next songs will be. And not average or low quality

And @adrenekoi: I don't see why to compare to western artists who release very differently. Like releasing an album and releasing singles later..like beyonce with I am sasha fierce. And britneys just not a good example lol knowing her issues.
Of course hikki released a decent amount of songs (including precious I guess)...but comparing her to those artists isn't a good comparison.

[Andrenekoi]

^I'm just comparing quantity... I don't think there's anything wrong with that, considering both of them are constant on media nowadays... They didn't released as much as Utada, still, I can see some people saying they should take a break (as I already saw). I just wanted to show that for western music, she is releasing at a very good pace

If we can't compare to those, we can't compare Hikki releases to Ayu's. Seiko's or Koda's too, considering that even to japanese standarts they release too much material...

But ok, Utada released almost as much as Namie (don't know who released more), still, nobody calls Namie lazy Namie goes on touring every year, but she almost never composes, while Utada does compose/produces/arranges...

[Ranma Matsuri]

^I have to agree with Strawbari, maybe Beyonce and some other current western artists but Britney isn't a very good example if you're talking about quantity. Earlier in her career, she was releasing at a pace comparable to Asian artists (Baby thru Britney were all released a year after one another then ITZ only two years) and if it weren't for her "issues" and other circumstances (i.e. The Original Doll fallout) she probably would have 7 or 8 albums by now, there's a lot of demos and unreleased material floating around. But I do get the point you're making.

[primavera♥]

@Ranma: yeah basically.

@andrenekoi: I think her doing all her composing and arranging and etc is not an excuse for her lack of touring. Its really unfortunate that she doesn't do it as I always think live singing is the best way to send an artists message across. Even when she does tour it doesn't seem like she would have to take the time to do a thousand rehearsals and such. And if she does then touring must be complete hell for other artists.
...Also about comparisons. She does release mainly in japan and well if those artists are on top like her then u might as well compare.
I don't think it really takes hikki THAT long to produce her work. I'm sure she has time in between.

I'm not saying hikki is lazy$ its respectable she produces her work and all. That's not an excuse to just do anything else. Since she takes so long anyway she could add things like touring even if she has to take longer to release I suppose.
She's a doll and I love her though

[Polyrhythm]

Originally Posted by Picaflor 7/4

this single collection has a lot to follow. from wikipedia.



Let's hope this clip collection vol. 2 will do just as well even though that's quite a stretch. But this is hikki after all, her albums never sell less than a million. I'm sure it'll do just fine.

ULTRA BLUE missed one million by a 90k or so.

[amorphose]

^That's only Japan sales though. Worldwide it sold something like 1.2~1.4 million if I remember correctly. Plus it got the RIAJ certification for one million copies shipped in Japan.

[edit]
I was looking through her discography on Wiki and...

Others — various artists
Japanese
Beautiful Drivin' Classic — Wish (November 6, 2003)
One Night Magic - Yamada Masashi (December 2006) (Ultra Blue)
English
Blow My Whistle (featuring Foxy Brown) — Def Jam's Rush Hour 2 soundtrack (July 31, 2001)
By Your Side (featuring Kiley Dean) — Unity: Official Athens 2004 Olympic Games (July 27, 2004)

What's the bolded song? It's from the Honda Wish album... but I've never heard anyone mention it. Does anyone have it or has anyone heard it?

[Polyrhythm]

Um does the Single Collection have a release date yet? Just wondering cause I was looking at the jpopstop article and someone changed the release date to Sept. 8

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by StrawbariSnowAyumi

@Ranma: yeah basically.

@andrenekoi: I think her doing all her composing and arranging and etc is not an excuse for her lack of touring. Its really unfortunate that she doesn't do it as I always think live singing is the best way to send an artists message across. Even when she does tour it doesn't seem like she would have to take the time to do a thousand rehearsals and such. And if she does then touring must be complete hell for other artists.
...Also about comparisons. She does release mainly in japan and well if those artists are on top like her then u might as well compare.
I don't think it really takes hikki THAT long to produce her work. I'm sure she has time in between.

I'm not saying hikki is lazy$ its respectable she produces her work and all. That's not an excuse to just do anything else. Since she takes so long anyway she could add things like touring even if she has to take longer to release I suppose.
She's a doll and I love her though

Well... about touring, she just dislike touring... She said more than once that she doesn't see herself as a performer, so, I think it's better for her to focus on what she likes doing than force herself into touring just to make fans happy... I don't think she needs to tour if she doesn't like to, if she doesn't enjoy it... Still, even when she tours, most of the effort seens to go to arrangments and instruments than to performance... Usually her lives have some of her best arrangments but are visually lacking (United is visually stunning, but this has more to do with Kaz than with Hikki) and she really lacks stage presence... *ready to get stoned*

Also, sometimes she commented the time she took to compose some of her songs, and some of them took months or even more than an year, so I really doubt she would make an entire album on 3 months like ayu does...

[Zeke.]

Originally Posted by Pieces_of_SEVEN

A singles collection is an album.

Yeah, I was expecting more when she said "the vision/direction of the next album has been decided" than "The vision/direction is throwing together singles and adding 4 new songs" Lol.

[Picaflor 7/4]

Originally Posted by amorphose

^That's only Japan sales though. Worldwide it sold something like 1.2~1.4 million if I remember correctly. Plus it got the RIAJ certification for one million copies shipped in Japan.

[edit]
I was looking through her discography on Wiki and...



What's the bolded song? It's from the Honda Wish album... but I've never heard anyone mention it. Does anyone have it or has anyone heard it?

I have. I thought it was the godson mix of colors and I spent forever (years ago) looking for it, once I finally got a hold of it, I found out it was just an orchestra version. It sound just like that "Jpop meets harmony classics for slow life" album. Instrumental orchestra, and it's slow and boring, they really do mean slow life. :/

[primavera♥]

@Andrenekoi: I don't feel like elaborating on this much more (not in the thread at least). My finger hurt using my phone like this~ here

A year to COMPOSE one song. Goodness I see why she's so slow. Even artists not trained in music theory and the complexities compose faster. I wonder how long it takes for the rest of the process. I don't see why she can't just finish it in a short time. Composing a song. I'm sure she still has time in between then
I wonder how long she's been working on these 5 tracks

And oh its so unfortunate she doesn't like touring. I didn't know that. There goes my dreams of ever seeing her live
I've learned to connect with her songs more live. Some of them are already enough like ultra blue and deep river tracks. Others not so much
I dunno. Somehow many fans connect to her. I can't really deeply because of this barrier she has (its same with my crazy Lady gaga)
Anyhow I don't know if hikki actually works hard. She does all the work herself yet I don't know if she works really hard to do it. Like what u say about taking over a year for some songs.

Oh well~ hikki is hikki. I operate the same way in school. People think I'm a super hard worker cuz I do all this stuff and put myself in super nerd program. But all I really do is procrastinate and not study. However the outside image looks good on me somehow and people believe it
I feel like its like that for hikki. Except for her instead of smarts its her talent that makes the finished product awesome (sometimes)
Even if she takes a long or short time to do something it doesn't really affect the finished product. It can still be bad
I'm still looking forward to these new songs. Hoping she wasn't wasting her time.

@amorphose: I have also never heard of this song. I would like to here it

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by StrawbariSnowAyumi

@Andrenekoi: I don't feel like elaborating on this much more (not in the thread at least). My finger hurt using my phone like this~ here

A year to COMPOSE one song. Goodness I see why she's so slow. Even artists not trained in music theory and the complexities compose faster. I wonder how long it takes for the rest of the process. I don't see why she can't just finish it in a short time. Composing a song. I'm sure she still has time in between then
I wonder how long she's been working on these 5 tracks

And oh its so unfortunate she doesn't like touring. I didn't know that. There goes my dreams of ever seeing her live
I've learned to connect with her songs more live. Some of them are already enough like ultra blue and deep river tracks. Others not so much
I dunno. Somehow many fans connect to her. I can't really deeply because of this barrier she has (its same with my crazy Lady gaga)
Anyhow I don't know if hikki actually works hard. She does all the work herself yet I don't know if she works really hard to do it. Like what u say about taking over a year for some songs.

Oh well~ hikki is hikki. I operate the same way in school. People think I'm a super hard worker cuz I do all this stuff and put myself in super nerd program. But all I really do is procrastinate and not study. However the outside image looks good on me somehow and people believe it
I feel like its like that for hikki. Except for her instead of smarts its her talent that makes the finished product awesome (sometimes)
Even if she takes a long or short time to do something it doesn't really affect the finished product. It can still be bad
I'm still looking forward to these new songs. Hoping she wasn't wasting her time.

@amorphose: I have also never heard of this song. I would like to here it

Different people have different time... She also finished some songs really fast if I'm not wrong, If i remember well, she said the problem with her songs that took most time is that she got stucked, so, she left them aside and worked on other songs...

I don't think I could ever think she is not hard working... in the end of the day she wrote a lot of songs, made a lot of arrangments, wrote a lot of lyrics and had two big tours, a small one and a serie of concerts on Budokan, promoted some of her singles A LOT (almost every single on UB and HS eras)...

I would say she isn't hard working if she just milked the First Love success to the end and vanished after that, but the fact is: the girl is a hit machine, she oversold every "jpop queen" she ever was put against, Ayu, Namie, Otsuka, Nakashima, Koda... her biggest hits are always bigger than theirs... I really doubt she only rellies on luck and talent to get this... First Love sucess maybe was pure luck, every thing after that, I would say it's the payment for a hard intelectual work...