Japanese Media Addresses Ayu's Voice

[truehappiness]

Oh, those are what Rachael Ray has... but Ayu's talking voice is pretty similar to the way it's been for ages. Hm.

[zyoeru]

Aren't singing voices and talking voices slightly different though? Julie Andrews wasn't able to sing, but she can sure talk and it hasn't made such an impact on her speaking voice.

[Crystal_Ageha]

^ Yeah, if you are really singing, your voice will be at least slightly different compared to when just speaking, because of you using more air. However, nodules tend to affect your voice in general, and not just either the "singing voice" or "speaking voice".


About the nodules... It certainly IS possible, since it's not always obvious whenever one has them... However, I really don't think this is Ayumi's case. Her voice seems fine, except for very evident breathing problems, and not those that would come from the nodules.

[SunshineSlayer]

^ Honestly I'm kind of confused about your opinion of her voice. Sometimes you say its gotten worse and she needs to work on it and then other times you say its fine.

As for the nodules thing, hopefully that's not the case. They can be removed with surgery, but many people who have had the surgery never sound the same again after.

[zyoeru]

^ It would be terrible if Ayu's voice actually were to get worse after surgery.

[Crystal_Ageha]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

^ Honestly I'm kind of confused about your opinion of her voice. Sometimes you say its gotten worse and she needs to work on it and then other times you say its fine.

As for the nodules thing, hopefully that's not the case. They can be removed with surgery, but many people who have had the surgery never sound the same again after.

I just meant that I think her voice is fine when talking about things like nodules. I still think her singing currently needs a lot of work, specifically breath training and becoming much more familiar with notes (so that she doesn't have to completely rely on hearing them to sing well with pitch, it will come naturally). But I don't think her actual voice has changed in any unnatural way or such, and I actually like her voice (just voice in general, not how she sings) much more the past few years than in the earlier days...
And yeah, removing nodules are very risky, due to the fact that your voice can be completely changed.

[Raiu-Ayu]

Bill from TOKIO HOTEL had his removed and he sounds just the same as he always did. Its just a roll the dice thing. But I'd rather have ayu's voice change than ayu have no voice at all

[hsienko]

Originally Posted by Raiu-Ayu

Bill from TOKIO HOTEL had his removed and he sounds just the same as he always did. Its just a roll the dice thing. But I'd rather have ayu's voice change than ayu have no voice at all

No I believe he had several cysts removed from his vocal chords which is different than the nodule thing. Because I remember when it discovered he had the "cysts" as the called them (he had 3), they were saying there was like a 30-40% chance he would never be able to sing again after the operation. Tokio hotel had finished a pretty long year of touring and recording and were about to start another tour one when the "cysts" were discovered.

Shirley Manson, the lead singer of the band Garbage, had developed cysts on her vocal chords in 2003, after about 7 years of doing back to back extensive world tours and recording sessions and she also had to get them removed. Her singing voice was notibly different than before, it was more nasally.

I had considered Ayu might have the same problem, but neither of the two above singers' singing voices had changed when their cysts were discovered and I would have figured if she did, Ayu would have known by now. Isn't she known to be a bit of a health nut? Her singing voice does fit the profile though:

Originally Posted by wikipedia

Vocal fold cysts are collections of fluid in sac-like formations on the vocal folds.

Cysts can deteriorate the quality of human speech production, causing diplophonia, a condition where the vocal cords produce multiple tones at the same time, or dysphonia, an impaired quality of voice typically involving hoarseness or a breathy sound.Females are more likely than males to develop vocal fold cysts

There are two types of vocal fold cysts: mucus retention and epithermoid.

-Mucus retention cysts occur when a glandular duct becomes blocked and is unable to secrete. This can occur after an upper respiratory infection combined with vocal overuse.
-Epidermoid cysts result from either developmental problems before birth or from an injury to the mucous membrane. A ruptured cyst may result in a scar.

Initial treatment of the cysts involves vocal training and speech therapy along with medical interventions to decrease irritation of the cyst. In many cases, these will alleviate problems from the cyst. In some cases, the cyst grows larger necessitating surgery to remove the cyst. Vocal professionals may also require surgery as the minimal steps do not improve the voice quality enough to allow continued performance with the voice.

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by ownsarai

Go ahead...really. If it's towards me, whatever.

No, it wasn't towards you ^^

[SunshineSlayer]

^ Yes, I believe you meant me when in actuality my post about the sources was correct.

[Andrenekoi]

Still think that the major (and maybe only) problem with her singing is related to her deafness, u need to hear urself properly in order to control ur voice well and adjust it to the instrumental... she has 50% of her hearing now, or even less

And I don't care about japanese general public, she owned it with Rule on Kouhaku, and if she kept singing like she did on the begining of her career, she would hurt her voice too... The way she sang from 1998 to 2001, 2002 wasn't correct tecnical-wise, and the problem of ignoring singing technique is that this can hurt ur vocal chords...

[truehappiness]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

^ Yes, I believe you meant me when in actuality my post about the sources was correct.

I still think that the Techinsight.jp writer's article was rather lacking in credibility. J-CAST is fine and dandy to me, but... as for Techinsight, some of the articles that this MAKI writes are rather TMZ-like, reporting that misono might be considering breast augmentation, one of the guys from Downtown is obsessed with sex according to a palm reader on a TV special, and so on in her "Entertainment is a vitamin! ♪" column. Maybe you can enlighten me a little bit since I don't really read Japanese if she's more credible... but from what I can see via Google translations (sketchy, I know.), it doesn't seem that way.

It's interesting to note that the link on the second page to the Ayu story does not work anymore and is blank when clicked: http://japan.techinsight.jp/2009/12/...091231194.html However, it was available a little more than a week ago, so... hm. I wonder why that'd happen since many older stories from the "Entertainment is a vitamin! ♪" column are still up. Smells a little fishy.

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer

^ Yes, I believe you meant me when in actuality my post about the sources was correct.

You know me to well Well it would be mean if I actually did put the blame on you, while I can't really say if they are credible or not myself

[SunshineSlayer]

^Yes, I saw right through that post, hehe.

Originally Posted by truehappiness

I still think that the Techinsight.jp writer's article was rather lacking in credibility. J-CAST is fine and dandy to me, but... as for Techinsight, some of the articles that this MAKI writes are rather TMZ-like, reporting that misono might be considering breast augmentation,

But its basically like Maikeru said - this is from livedoor and livedoor does not report on BS tabloid rumor stuff. They print what is the popular subject among common thought at the time when it comes to entertainment related things. So while techinsight might have some dubious articles, livedoor generally does not and were simply picking an article to post to reflect the current thought in Japan at the time.

Also like njanjayrp said, credibility really isn't that important in this case as its not like they are reporting on facts about something - its an opinion piece.

[truehappiness]

Also like njanjayrp said, credibility really isn't that important in this case as its not like they are reporting on facts about something - its an opinion piece.

True, but I guess as an article it just bothers me a bit, haha. MAKI seems to tend to report on things that were said on television that are somewhat scandalous, so I guess it seems a little suspect to me. It was also posted very soon after Kouhaku, around 10-11PM, but it appears she didn't just single Ayu out. (Mentioned the Koda sisters and their performance together for some reason) It's still rather odd to me, I guess.

Also, kind of unrelated, but it's a bit strange that the original article no longer exists (at least on my end...) on Techinsight. Is it a blank page for you too?

[maikaru]

It seems Techinsight blog writer is like the America one? Uh, Peres Hilton? He is the one who got into a fight with Black Eyed Peas?

Anyways the writer is like that one, and of course I already mentioned how these are not CNN status type news, but they are still relevent, and would not appear upon Livedoor if they weren't. Livedoor is accessed by most young Japanese everyday, and can see many newses while checking their blogs... I dont know how else to describe.. ahaha.

I think now, we talked and talked about it, but it just created to more fights about Ayumi Hamasaki, and I think only she knows the true answer...
I wish we could know, but now I just wish she could get better soon, cause I was watching today the 1 LOVE performance from cdtv maybe 3 years ago? And it was soooo good..
Countdown Live one was good, but the CDTV live was sooo much better!!...
I wanna hear all my favorite songs ago, without screaming... and without her have to lower keys or so...
I wish one day she could sing A Song for XX in original key again...

[Larien]

Originally Posted by oneheart

THIS.

We can live without a tour. We can't live without Ayu.
Take a year off after the new album, Go and retrain your voice and the tour chould start in 2011. Or late 2010.

I do agree. Still, they're quite ruthless? "...which made us think that the era of Hamasaki Ayumi is finally and truly over"? Never!
Perhaps the bad press/reactions will spark a change.

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by maikaru

I wish one day she could sing A Song for XX in original key again...

ha ha that would seem so weird now xD I would be happy if she could do the A BALLADS version someday and sing it the same way she used to.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by Larien

I do agree. Still, they're quite ruthless? "...which made us think that the era of Hamasaki Ayumi is finally and truly over"? Never!
Perhaps the bad press/reactions will spark a change.

About this... Really, they release articles saying stuff like that every year... now it's her voice, some years ago was cuz r&b and hip hop were hot and she wasn't going in that direction, etc...

Ignoring her voice, and focusing on this aspect of the articles... This kind of statement is very common...

[SunshineSlayer]

^ yeah that statement is common. (or variations of it) However, in legitimate press in Japan you actually don't see too much negative about Ayumi - these articles are one of the first times, at least from what I know. This has definitely gotten around (probably more than just these two articles) because when I asked one of my friends over there (that doesn't follow Ayu's career or news) to go to CDL to buy me concert goods this year he said something along the lines of "I heard her voice is very bad now." I asked where he heard that and he just said he had read it somewhere.