How important is it to you that Ayu writes her songs and is in control of her career?

[Jawdarna]

If she didn't write her own lyrics, I wouldn't listen to her.

So yeah, pretty important! xD
I think she is in control of her career, I think it's more a question of how she herself is controlling her career.
At the moment, it's a bit all over the place.

[Surreal17]

When I first found about her I just couldn't stand her..like she was everywhere..on every japanese music site she was being mentioned;and she seemed to me like an artificial person even though I hadn't gave her music the chance to demonstrate me the opposite.So when I found out that she writes her own lyrics I thought:Let's give her a chance! and I realised how wrong I was,how true and unique her music is.She's like a chameleon with her music,she always changes her style and although the music itself is beautiful and varied,when she write lyrics for a certain song,she gives it an identity,a small piece of her soul taking it to a personal level - I think we all resonate with many of her lyrics.

[paper_doll]

Originally Posted by pommy48

It's not all that important to me now. I probably respected her a lot more when I became a fan, but nowadays...I just want good music. I don't care much for her lyrics now.

Same.

Her lyrics seem pretty recycled at this point anyways. And since it's in another language, I can't even understand them unless I have a translation. There's so many artists and bands I listen to that I don't look for translations/can't find any and the lyrics could be terrible, but I don't care either way because it's not like I know.

[koumori]

Originally Posted by pommy48

It's not all that important to me now. I probably respected her a lot more when I became a fan, but nowadays...I just want good music. I don't care much for her lyrics now.

Pretty much how I feel.

[Leaf King]

It used to be really important, but that was when Ayu was my favourite artist. Nowadays, I consider it the norm. I suppose I take it for granted.

[miru2590]

I love her lyrics I know Jesus who is still alive is proud.

[Jason]

It's important to me in general with every artist. I automatically lose respect for an "artist" when I find out they essentially just add their voice to other people's work. The fact ayu writes her own lyrics is part of what draws me to her.

I just wish she'd revive CREA. That's bugged me for years.

[waterballoon]

lyrics were what garnered her attention at her start. lyricss were mainly why she has so many international fans. lyrics were why i was a fan. lyrics were why people cried, laughed, smiled or something.

especially now when most of her songs are pretty meh... the lyrics play even a bigger part, so at least i don't hate the whole song.

[Rae Noir]

As a writer myself, it matters greatly to me that Ayumi writes her own lyrics. It doesn't matter if they're in Japanese or any other language, they're still evidence that her music is personal to her and therefore is bringing more depth to her songs. They're never throwaway in the sense that the songs were written by some anonymous group of hired songwriters and could have been given to any old pop star to sing. Admittedly Ayumi appears to have written rather sluggish and samey lyrics with her most recent album, but even they are personal to her I'm sure.

It's like that film, Music And Lyrics, lol, where Drew Barrymore's character explains that the music of a song is like the physical attraction you feel when you first meet a potential partner, but the lyrics are the real person behind the sexy body, you take in the lyrics, and you get to know who that person really is and what they're all about.

[microphone]

It's not that important to me. I can appreciate when a singer writes or composes their own music but I find nothing wrong with hiring someone else to do so. It's just a bonus that she is a phenomenal lyricist and has proven to be a notch-above-decent composer as well.

[mi|kshake]

^ Agreed!

mi|kshake~

[Snowfox]

It is extremely important to me.
There are artists I like who don't write/compose much of their discography, but I can never like them enough to list them as a "favorite." Music is an art and I want to know that the musician presenting it to me did a fair chunk of the creative process themselves.

[No_Doubt]

Kind of irrelevant for me to be honest. I respect her for it, but honestly even if she were just a puppet I wouldn't care as long as I enjoyed the final product.

[SolarAngel]

Ayu writing her own songs was what drew me in as a fan in the first place. Music is undoubtedly important as I listened to a few songs (M and End Roll) before finding it so gorgeous I googled the lyrics. When I found out the singer herself writes the lyrics, that made me a fan right away.

I'm not sure how much control Ayu has over her career but I get the impression it's more than your normal Japanese artiste. That's not so important though, the quality of the end product is what counts ha..

[marty]

There's artist and artist.
For me the most important thing is to be true to yourself, even if the stuff is not made by yourself it needs to reflect you in some way. That's why I listen to singers like Rihanna, but I'm not a fan, not because she doesn't write/produce/whatever, but because, in my point of view, her music doesn't tell me anything about her, they're just pretty songs. She doesn't have a trademark, she's just random for me.
For Ayu, writing lyrics is fundamental, that's just how she is. That's her way of being a singer, and any other way wouldn't work. Same for Kuu and Namie, they have their way of being jpop singers, and it works so good because it's their personal way of doing stuff and put themselves in the jpop market.
It's not about being included in the production, but putting something of you in what you're giving your face to. At least for me.

[mon chan]

Without writing her own lyrics, Ayu's not herself anymore, absolutely. That's the reason I stick so much with her music. To control career is important too, I mean the more she puts her face (her personality) into it, the more it's worth seeing and worth discussing, if not then Ayu'd be nothing more special than any other idol and I would no longer follow her activities and her life as well.