[TA news] AYU will give her performance at NHK "SONGS"!

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by Coelacanth

I can't even believe people are defending this setlist, especially after there are legitimate meltdowns here when she performs the same songs on her tours (which I find a lot more understandable than this situation). For Christ's sake tho, she NEVER does TV performances. When I became a fan, this was the one thing everybody looked forward to! Her being on TV performing new songs! Not her going on TV to perform 15 year old winter ballads in the middle of summertime!

I hope everyone here knows that I fucking LOVE this woman to death and I'm always giving her the benefit of the doubt, but if this setlist is indeed true then... and it breaks my heart to say this... I think it really is a turning point in my fandom. There seems to not be a shred of spontaneity left in her. Ayumi Hamasaki is streamlined, rehearsed, navel-gazing, pandering, "kid-tested, mother-approved," overly apologetic, self-loathing, self-pitying, and gives entirely too much of a shit about what EVERYONE thinks of her.

I'd take the Colours-era Ayu that was supposedly "running away" over this shit any day.

Ayu goes to a TV special dedicated to artists celebrating their own legacy. Ayu sings only new music, or music only people who bought her albums released after 2002 or so actually know. The random viewer that doesn't care about Ayu aside her hit songs changes channel. The promotion fails.

And this is exactly what would happen, the viewer that doesn't care about Ayu (AKA, most of japanese people right now) wouldn't bother sitting through a show staring a has been washed up grandma (to use the adjectives people apply to her) on a "desperate attempt of being cool and relevant". She is first reminding the public that she why they loved her to, after that, remind them that she still is alive.

There's a pretty clear logic Ayu uses to decide her setlists:

Tours: Tracks from the current album + biggest hits
Because the idea here is presenting and promoting the album to the audience. The public ranges from casual listeners with nothing better to do to hardcore fans.

Countdown: Fan favorites + obscure tracks
CDL is aimed at her fanbase, and because of that she has more freedom on picking tracks that she doesn't perform often or that didn't really get big.

A-Nation : Biggest summer hits + whatever she is promoting at the moment.
It's a festival and there are people there who didn't really went to the event to watch her, so she must be sure to sing stuff people who doesn't really gives two shits about her existence can recognize.

To what context this TV special from the public tv station is more similar? It's not a hard concept to get.

If the general public hyped this release (and there's no marketing strategy that can do that right now), if the general public was even a little bit curious to know how Sixxxxx sounds, that would be a whole different story... But the people who are actually curious about this release already saw previews of it on the tour.

[rainbow_smile]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

Ayu goes to a TV special dedicated to artists celebrating their own legacy. Ayu sings only new music, or music only people who bought her albums released after 2002 or so actually know. The random viewer that doesn't care about Ayu aside her hit songs changes channel. The promotion fails.

And this is exactly what would happen, the viewer that doesn't care about Ayu (AKA, most of japanese people right now) wouldn't bother sitting through a show staring a has been washed up grandma (to use the adjectives people apply to her) on a "desperate attempt of being cool and relevant". She is first reminding the public that she why they loved her to, after that, remind them that she still is alive.

There's a pretty clear logic Ayu uses to decide her setlists:

Tours: Tracks from the current album + biggest hits
Because the idea here is presenting and promoting the album to the audience. The public ranges from casual listeners with nothing better to do to hardcore fans.

Countdown: Fan favorites + obscure tracks
CDL is aimed at her fanbase, and because of that she has more freedom on picking tracks that she doesn't perform often or that didn't really get big.

A-Nation : Biggest summer hits + whatever she is promoting at the moment.
It's a festival and there are people there who didn't really went to the event to watch her, so she must be sure to sing stuff people who doesn't really gives two shits about her existence can recognize.

To what context this TV special from the public tv station is more similar? It's not a hard concept to get.

If the general public hyped this release (and there's no marketing strategy that can do that right now), if the general public was even a little bit curious to know how Sixxxxx sounds, that would be a whole different story... But the people who are actually curious about this release already saw previews of it on the tour.

I couldn't agree more. I also want to add to the bolded part: this is why I also think those people who say that Ayu is not the only one who has a say in what she's going to perform on TV are right. TV stations don't want this scenario to happen, too. They want more viewers, so obviously they'll want to control what Ayu sings to a certain extent. Unfortunately Ayu's not in the position where she's popular and everyone will do what she/her team wants any more. In regards to her own career: yes, very likely, but when more parties are involved... Probably not so much any more.