OLIVIA - GREATEST HITS ; The 5th thread

[visionfactory]

I know she said she had dark times and stuff... but she made awesome music

When she was happier with NANA she did pretty generic stuff

[Chibi-Chan]

^well I think the "happier", more generic stuff with NANA was because unlike her other music, she did not compose it and it was ment to be more compatible with the general public.

[visionfactory]

I didn't know that it wasn't composed by her.. it makes sense now

[visionfactory]

I think maybe she is too busy with her family and don't give space for creating music

[Chibi-Chan]

To be honest I think her label simply just dropped her. She had her peak when she released the singles for Reira from Trapnest from the Nana anime. The releases before never made it into the top 20, always ranging from the top 25 to top 40. The singles "Sea me" and "Into the Stars", which were released in 2001 and 2002, barely made it into the top 100. If I remember correctly, her mini albums didn't even had a regular release and were released solely by Tower Records and only sold at Tower Records. "The Lost Lolli" , which was a regular release, didn't even made it into the top 100 and sold less than her singles.
For some reason, after not releasing anything for two years, she was chosen to sing the songs for Reira in the Nana anime, which weren't written by her and way more radio friendly. Both singles, "a little pain" as well as "Wish/Starless Night", made it into the top 10.
"The Cloudy Dreamer" made it in the top 20, but "Trinka Trinka", which wasn't a dark release at all, again didn't reach the top 50.
In summary: her label simply came to the conclusion to let go of an artist after ten years who the general public never had an interest in. The only time people bought her releases were because the Nana anime was popular as hell back then.
I don't think this has anything to do with Olivia not being able to write songs about happy things. She did so quite often and I'm actually a big fan of her happy stuff, "Trinka Trinka", the song, is brilliant in my opinion.
Olivia was under avex trax and one of the female solo pop/rock stars avex tried to make popular in the late 90's like hitomi. But sadly no one ever cared for her.

[mi|kshake]

Yes, I love Trinka Trinka! I always wondered if Avex had dropped her...

[KarenPang]

Not to be offensive but end of the day , I feel that those who're mixed races will always find it a lot more tougher to make it big in Japan , especially for females who have to work even more harder for them to have acceptance in the industry

I'm sure avex tried their best to market OLIVIA cos before she had her commercial music success peak with NANA , she was already not selling that well even though during that period of time , she released some really great intriguing dark provoking material

And other mixed races female musicians that I know/support , after each of them have their music peak after a certain period of time , they're now either doing OK and/or struggling to make their presence felt once more

End of the day if OLIVIA do decides to make a comeback in the industry , I will welcome her back with open arms again . Just that now I don't see it happening anytime soon

[Zahara]

I thought Olivia wrote the trapnest music for Nana since she's credited for them?

[Chibi-Chan]

^she only wrote the lyrics, compositons and arrangements weren't done by her.

Originally Posted by KarenPang

Not to be offensive but end of the day , I feel that those who're mixed races will always find it a lot more tougher to make it big in Japan , especially for females who have to work even more harder for them to have acceptance in the industry

I'm sure avex tried their best to market OLIVIA cos before she had her commercial music success peak with NANA , she was already not selling that well even though during that period of time , she released some really great intriguing dark provoking material

And other mixed races female musicians that I know/support , after each of them have their music peak after a certain period of time , they're now either doing OK and/or struggling to make their presence felt once more

End of the day if OLIVIA do decides to make a comeback in the industry , I will welcome her back with open arms again . Just that now I don't see it happening anytime soon

I think that's actually a good point.
The only half japanese popstar I can think of who made it would be Tsuchiya Anna.

[KarenPang]

^ Aside from Anna , Aoyama Thelma , BENI , Crystal Kay & Ito Yuna also have varying level of success in the music business as well

Kuroki Meisa too even though music is only a side thing for her

Non music wise , Becky & Rola

[Zahara]

Originally Posted by Chibi-Chan

^she only wrote the lyrics, compositons and arrangements weren't done by her.




I think that's actually a good point.
The only half japanese popstar I can think of who made it would be Tsuchiya Anna.

Sorry I misunderstood what you said. I read your comment as that she didn't write the songs, but you were including music in that definition.

[CatGirl]

I wonder if OLIVIA is going to try to move to another label then? I'm really curious as to what music she's been writing/recording the past few years. I really love OLIVIA, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if she was dropped. I was always confused as to why she was part of avex - her music is very experimental and they probably didn't know how to market her properly. Although I definitely do prefer the music she makes during her depressed periods, I'd just love to hear anything from her at this point because it's been so long

[Corvina]

Originally Posted by CatGirl

I wonder if OLIVIA is going to try to move to another label then? I'm really curious as to what music she's been writing/recording the past few years. I really love OLIVIA, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if she was dropped. I was always confused as to why she was part of avex - her music is very experimental and they probably didn't know how to market her properly. Although I definitely do prefer the music she makes during her depressed periods, I'd just love to hear anything from her at this point because it's been so long

She is - or was - not directly under avex, but under cutting edge. It's a sublaabel for mainly electronic and foreign music.

[CatGirl]

Originally Posted by Corvina

She is - or was - not directly under avex, but under cutting edge. It's a sublaabel for mainly electronic and foreign music.

Yeah, I know she was under cutting edge. But I still feel like they didn't know what to do with her because she had just come out of D&D and started with some sort of poppy songs before delving deeper into more experimental stuff.

[Chibi-Chan]

Originally Posted by Corvina

She is - or was - not directly under avex, but under cutting edge. It's a sublaabel for mainly electronic and foreign music.

In the beginning she was directly under avex and then switched to cutting edge in 2001 iirc.

Btw, has someone the D&D album?

[visionfactory]

Originally Posted by CatGirl

I wonder if OLIVIA is going to try to move to another label then? I'm really curious as to what music she's been writing/recording the past few years. I really love OLIVIA, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if she was dropped. I was always confused as to why she was part of avex - her music is very experimental and they probably didn't know how to market her properly. Although I definitely do prefer the music she makes during her depressed periods, I'd just love to hear anything from her at this point because it's been so long

Avex didn't fail at marketing her properly because there was no market for her in the first place. If she's not doing pop this place wasn't meant for her. Moreover Japan's music consumers never appreciated singer-composers.

[dreamalley]

When she entered her hiatus I really thought she was going independent. Like releasing her songs online and selling them directly to fans.

I love her darker songs but I also liked her lighter/happier ones. Trinka Trinka, Sailing Free, ...





(can Love Love Love be considered a lighter song? I think so)