namie's FUTURE vs ayu's NEXT LEVEL

[dreamland2.0]

hmmm I like the direction Namie is going. Ayu will always impress me so I always look forward to what she puts out. I haven't been a fan of Namie for as long and I like her current music style so I'm looking forward to what she does next.

[SURREAL__RAINBOW]

I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT AN ALBUM VERSUS POLL.


If some people is voting for their fav album they are WRONG.

[NintendoHTF1242]

PAST<FUTURE is a LOT LOT better than NEXT LEVEL

[bluegie]

Originally Posted by SURREAL__RAINBOW

I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT AN ALBUM VERSUS POLL.


If some people is voting for their fav album they are WRONG.

Thanks for reminding me that before I jump to vote. Cuz if we're voting which album is better, I dun think I will vote on either.

I dun think I will count myself as a namie fan. I didn't really focus on her music that much until probly PLAY came out. I only liked a few songs before that. But I gotta say she did make herself a really good transition. The music choice she's doing rite now, and the fashion she's doing rite now are pretty attractive to the general public. I dunno if she's changed her music direction as I didn't follow her much. But rite now she should be the most successful female artist in Japan rite now.

Well.. for ayu... I've been her fan since 1999. I think I will say... her music stage has been stuck at the same place since er... 2006? Even tho I appreciate that she's trying something fresh in NL (actually it's not that fresh.. it's just a revisit of LOVEppears), I still think she needs to evolve a bit more. I know she doesn't wanna change her direction as much as she did before (yeah she was pretty dynamic back in the old days), still she should try something fresher.


So.. at this moment, I'll pick Namie (even tho I love ayu MUCH MORE).

[Crystal_Ageha]

Originally Posted by SURREAL__RAINBOW

I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT AN ALBUM VERSUS POLL.


If some people is voting for their fav album they are WRONG.

Oops... I didn't vote completely based on that, but luckily....I still feel the same for what I voted, hah.
I feel they both took a pretty big step into something new for THEM, but for music in general, it's both surprisingly mainstream. :\ But because Ayumi still has that Ayu-feel to it, and because she didn't sell herself out, I still stand by my vote for NEXT LEVEL.

[Handjan]

Namie

[Baernash]

Namie. She's really good since beginning of her career and she's evoluate all the time to make better, more mature music. Ayu stuck with one style and she's repeating over and over the same old melodies. All her changes are to "worse" and that's the point why she's loosing fans since "MY STORY". Ayu's my fave j-pop singer and I have big sentiment to her, but honestly there are better singers making better music than she's doing now.

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by Crystal_Ageha

I also don't like that she has officially gone off into another direction of music style, simply because her hip-hop doesn't sell and she wants her popularity back. :\

How do you know that's the reason? Namie's style has never remained stagnant in her career ever - she has always changed with every album either drastically or by gradually adding on to what she did in the previous album. Plus she was never completely Hip HOP to begin with, but the more accurate self-proclaimed term Hip POP. And while that style may not have sold astronomically when it was first released, Best Fiction sold over a million copies and Play and Queen of Hip Pop certainly were no slouches either. That style certainly was indeed, selling. If she really wanted to play it safe and cash in, she could have stuck with that style, but she chose to change again. Couldn't a lot of what you described be applied to Next Level as well? Why isn't it acceptable that they both want to have their music change and grow? I would hate it if Namie just kept releasing Style over and over again, just like I would hate it if Ayu had never moved past Loveappears.

[emi♡]

I trust namie more.

Ayu isn't doing anything new...We even just got our standard winter single lol

Ayu's schedule seems to do more with the schedule she's always had and avex's fiscal year and the type of songs she's creating isnt really changing...even if she changed the instruments she's utilizing.

Not that I'm not happy she's discovered there's more instruments than just drums, guitar, and keys...


But uh, I'm quite disappointed with the both of them tbh. Both of the albums were underwhelming...and their futures in music looks uninteresting.

[Minttulatte]

I voted Namie but I have gotten used to Nekku so much I like that now actually pretty much. I have to confess that it wasn't a easy decision. And I won't say anything else of this fact because I'm lazy.

And by the way I thought Ayu was winning this poll but she wasn't. wow. o.o

[Corvina]

Namie.
Ayu's music isn't the same like some years ago, that's true, but I'm much more disappointed with her "new" music (NEXT LEVEL mostly). And now we're back to the "usual" winter ballad.

Namie on the other hand did something very new to her (electro influenced music, much more layered and diversed music etc.) and it turned out great! I got so easily boredwith most of her older music, cause it's so repetetive most of the time. I still don't like 2/3 of her discography. But I love her new album ( minus the repetetive songs again). I truly think Namie will stay the highest selling and most popluar female singer the next years.

[Not~Yet]

Hmm, I'll vote for Ayumi. Her music is still emotional and deep, whereas Namie's music is pretty much just the basic feel-good stuff and sexy lyrics, and a huge part to me personally in music are exactly the emotions and lyrics..

In terms of music, PAST < FUTURE surprised me as it grew on me after just few listens (at the few first I totally hated it lol) and I rarely really like the r'n'b-electro-dance music. But I have to agree with who said the arrangements on that album are not really original, but I enjoyed (most of) them nonetheless because they still managed to bring the Namie sound to them. But, I don't see myself listening to this album much in the future, maybe that's just like I said that I need something deeper.

NEXT LEVEL, then. I hated it at first too lol. But then one day it just clicked, and now I love it. What I like more about this album is that it has so much diversity and isn't just same elements recycled from song to song while still keeping the big picture. For me, NL is somehow so simple but so awesomely complicated at the same time: if you overall think about the songs they are very simple but if you really listen to them with your heart they get so deep and distinctive. Oh and the album makes me feel insanely good. Also You were.../BALLAD is great imo.

Ayu's (imo) amazing tour also brings points to her, but it's hard to compare since Namie hasn't yet had done a tour since P<F... It's kinda hard to compare their "next levels" otherwise than just the albums because Namie's album was just out. :/

[TeddyGrahams]

I will judge from their past albums.

Guilty ~> NL is much more smoother. The lyrics became easier to understand, she's speaking directly instead of being ambiguous. The direction in moods of the albums is definitely a plus. The difference in albums is really apparent although the structure of the albums is alike since Secret.

Play ~> P<F is such a huge disappointment. Both albums had nice dance beats and weird engrish. The only difference was P<F had more of an electric vibe, not that Play didn't have those. >.> Hint, look between Hide and Seek and Fast Car. @_@ I think the main change isn't music, it's more fashion oriented like from S&M bondage of Play to Cute skirts/hip fashion of P<F.

[nemesisyume]

I love namies style in PAST<FUTURE
all her songs in 2009 have been awesome + win + lamborghini + zonda.
but ayus style in NEXT LEVEL failed hard
sure I like it that ayu doesn't get stuck making RAINBOW 50 times
but I can barely listen to way too many songs from 2009.

[sanzo2011]

Namie ! i'm too dissapointed with NL ~~!

[C+R+E+AYUMI]

oh god, i'm in doubt. I trust Ayu maybe a lil more

[Crystal_Ageha]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

How do you know that's the reason? Namie's style has never remained stagnant in her career ever - she has always changed with every album either drastically or by gradually adding on to what she did in the previous album. Plus she was never completely Hip HOP to begin with, but the more accurate self-proclaimed term Hip POP. And while that style may not have sold astronomically when it was first released, Best Fiction sold over a million copies and Play and Queen of Hip Pop certainly were no slouches either. That style certainly was indeed, selling. If she really wanted to play it safe and cash in, she could have stuck with that style, but she chose to change again. Couldn't a lot of what you described be applied to Next Level as well? Why isn't it acceptable that they both want to have their music change and grow? I would hate it if Namie just kept releasing Style over and over again, just like I would hate it if Ayu had never moved past Loveappears.

But it's different for Ayumi, because she's always stuck to a very strict core genre, even if she experimented a lot. And that's how it usually should be (with a few exceptions, but Namie's case is definitely not one of them). You don't go from Japanese techno-pop to Western hip-hop (two completely~ different things) and then back again, at least not whenever you claim that the previous style is who you really are and you switch right when your new genre becomes popular. Ayumi has never claimed to be anything she's not; so even if she did switch genres, unless every time (like Namie) she switched to what was popular, I'd just say she was confused and was experimenting.
I'm sorry, because you're obviously a huge Namie fan, but to me she's a sellout, because, no, she wasn't originally hip-hop, and no, her hip-hop projects didn't do very well. And now she's doing electro/techno pop stuff, which is what's big now. So for that, I can't see her any other way. The most hip-hop or even R&B she had until after Hikaru Utada came out was a few ballades with R&B BEATS. Having an R&B or hip-hop beat doesn't make you that genre. (Think Kumi Koda--just because she almost always has a heavy beat, that certainly doesn't mean all her songs are hip-hop. She's fake hip-hop a lot of the time, and Namie has many songs just like that - it's much more mainstream pop than hip-hop.) Play did sell pretty well, but not the other two, especially for a "Queen." Hell, even Play should have sold more, between the promotion it had and for all the titles both she and her fans claim her to be.
And I love how in her most recent interview she tries to claim that she's not doing hip-hop anymore, simply because she can't get into it right now. She made a HUGE deal for almost ten years about how she was full blown Western hip-hop--the QUEEN of hip-hop (or hip-pop--whatever, it doesn't matter)--yet now...she just doesn't care at the moment..? Coincidentally, right whenever she realises that this "reinvention" of her style will sell better? I'm sorry, but it's just too much of a coincidence for me to blow off, considering she wasn't exactly original in her style at the start of her career, either, and so I can't respect her as an artist, for that and a few other reasons. In my mind, she's a complete joke (especially this new thing she has, with moving forward to her greater future - beyond the hip-hop stuff, I guess :\). She's been extremely lucky throughout her entire career, and she's had everything handed to her. I thought Ayumi had the luckiest break, but no, I've recently found out that, again, it's Namie.

[blackmage]

Originally Posted by non3ko

Namie's coming out with fresh, new, different stuff that actually makes me want to listen to more than once. (repeat) There was only one maybe two songs I didn't like. (The Meaning Of Us)

With Ayu's NEXT LEVEL, I was like... its "fresh" sounding for Ayu, but it was an okay album. I only really like, "Sparkle" "rollin'" "Load of the SHUGYO" and "Days". I haven't listened to her album as much as I have Namie's and I've had NEXT LEVEL for much longer.

With Namie I think she'll continue to give us great music. Everything from Play has been buy worthy and in my top favorites. WILD has been out for months now and I still like it. And the video for WILD pwned Janet's Feedback. The spacemen bursting out of the walls to get down was awesome! It made me want to jump on screen and join in on the space-dance-orgy.

We'll see what Ayu has to offer in the future, because her recent stuff this year just didn't do it for me. I mean her latest single... BALLAD was mediocre compared to her past winter releases. "You were..." saved this single IMO.

For me:
Ayu : PAST>FUTURE
Namie : PAST<FUTURE

^It disappoints me to say that seeing as Ayu is (slowly becoming was) one of my favorite artists.

I completely agree with your post. Namie like I've said in her thread has been releasing consistantly GOOD albums. They're all addictive and I listen to it OVER and OVER and I don't get sick of it. Not that I get sick of Ayumi's music, that's never happened.. NEXT LEVEL I really liked but I haven't listened to it nearly as much as Ayu's older albums, and with Namie's FUTURE I can see listening to this album a lot for months and months to come its completely entertaining and exactly what I've been needing musically.

Last week as I was listening to Ayu which I haven't listened to in quite some time, I noticed that too, Ayu is slowly becoming my favorite artist now. =\

[Yumsushi]

Ayumi by a landslide.
I don't really see a huge shift in Namie's style with this album, its like a mix of old and new which isn't bad at all but Ayu has always experimented with music and continues to surprise me.

[maze]

I enjoy more NEXT LEVEL.

namie's music bores me to death XD