[Charts & Rankings] Official Oricon Thread ~50th Single L~

[waterballoon]

Originally Posted by kagami

I think nowadays people are more interested in listening to slick and catchy music, with some cool dance moves, more than anything else. Not just in Japan, but everywhere. That's what I've been noticing the past couple of years.

that's the sad thing... ah well. But you're right; everywhere in the world, music is coming to the point where it would only sell if the song is catchy, hot, cool and all that jazz... albeit I'm a victim of such music too but yeah~

[g~sus~]

Originally Posted by brener

I'm just not used to this nowadays ayu's sales...

Neither do i...=X it's kinda sad

[TeddyGrahams]

Avex is basically doing a mini-maxi with ayu since Next Level. It's basically the least amount of work for the greatest amount of profits. Of course, ayu says its because she doesn't have time... but really Avex is the one pushing her to do concerts around Japan.

If you want ayu to have the sales of Arashi and other boy bands, Avex have to invest way more money to get better tie ins (it's avex job to help promote it, and no DBZ evolution and tinkerbell crap) and Ayu will be releasing songs like days 2.0, sunrise 2.0 etc etc. Do you guys really want more days and sunrises (digital hits)?

Otherwise, I'm happy with the sales. If anything, it should be praised for consistency.

[love in music]

^^ no need to feel sad, ayu is still making a shiiitload of yen every year.

[Max_ZZZ]

honestly as much as I think ayu has left a bigger mark,
I think utada has been consistently more popular.
marketing blah blah w/e but the numbers stand, people want them some hikaru

but i do hope ayu's next best album blows it out of the water!

[Kingdom]

after hearing Utada's new song, I'm pretty sure Japan would much prefer Ayu over that

[adantatu2]

I'm wondering if ayu could do something catchy and hot in the future. Something like Namie Amuro??
Last Angel is a different song, but is too pop yet and there is not a lot of promo from avex.

[waterballoon]

Originally Posted by TeddyGrahams

Avex is basically doing a mini-maxi with ayu since Next Level. It's basically the least amount of work for the greatest amount of profits. Of course, ayu says its because she doesn't have time... but really Avex is the one pushing her to do concerts around Japan.

If you want ayu to have the sales of Arashi and other boy bands, Avex have to invest way more money to get better tie ins (it's avex job to help promote it, and no DBZ evolution and tinkerbell crap) and Ayu will be releasing songs like days 2.0, sunrise 2.0 etc etc. Do you guys really want more days and sunrises (digital hits)?

Otherwise, I'm happy with the sales. If anything, it should be praised for consistency.

Well, no need for avex to try to get tie-ins, we're already standard Japanese songs from Ayu... the 47th-50th singles have nothing "special" or different except Last angel; the lead songs are all typical J-Pop ballads, so we're still getting the standard songs from Ayu.

I mean at the end of the day, we've to realize where Ayu stands in this industry today. No point whining that her sales suck compared to her past when it obviously isn't her prime or era now.

[Andrenekoi]

@ero-kakkoii Well, every Hikaru album oversold Ayu's released on the same year... Even Ayu's best selling album was oversold by Utada... So, I'm pretty sure u don't really now how much power the woman has xD

@TeddyGrahams You are just saying that cuz people over her praise Ayu for everything they like and blame Avex for everything they dislike... Bad news for you: She makes more money touring than selling albums and singles... and even worst: more money from concerts goes to her pocket than money from albums/singles...

@waterballoonThis would be a valid argument if 90% of her biggest hits weren't among her most generic tracks... Actually, besides M and Evolution, all of her big hits are pretty much generic jpop...


People over here should stop talking like she was an Avex doll o.O She is always releasing the kind of music japanese people don't like (her rock tracks), she is always recording pvs japanese people don't like (all the pvs people over here love) and she seens to be very damn happy with her tours! She is not a ****ing doll, she is not Avex puppet, and she is pretty much doing whatever she wants! People over here is complaing she is not selling like Arashi, well, thanks God she is not trying, or we would have a new version of her post 2001 albums every year ~~'



Let her do her thing... her singles are selling good, she is in fact overselling people who peaked after her! Her tours have more dates every year unlike other former top acts that needed to take dates out and tour on small venues like BoA... So, why so much complain! She is not searching for food on trashcans or something, she is pretty much among the top earning female stars every year since her peak! When she is not THE top earning of the year x_____________________________x

[SURREAL__RAINBOW]

Originally Posted by ero-kakkoii

after hearing Utada's new song, I'm pretty sure Japan would much prefer Ayu over that

utada is already all over tokyo with her pepsi commercials and stuff... is a bit annoying lol she looks gorgeous though

i even saw a big video of her with pepsi in shibuya


so somehow i feel people are getting spoon-fed with her image.

[kagami]

Utada has always had really smart promotion. She always seems to get the massive tie-ins for her songs etc.

I don't think Ayu has really cared about that kind of thing in YEARS. It doesn't seem to bother her that all of Japan doesn't worship her lol
And hey, if I were in her position I'd rather have fans that genuinely liked and respected the music I make (and myself as a person), than have a lot of off-and-on fans.
Ayu seems way happier recently than she ever was when she was at her peak.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by kagami

Utada has always had really smart promotion. She always seems to get the massive tie-ins for her songs etc.

I don't think Ayu has really cared about that kind of thing in YEARS. It doesn't seem to bother her that all of Japan doesn't worship her lol
And hey, if I were in her position I'd rather have fans that genuinely liked and respected the music I make (and myself as a person), than have a lot of off-and-on fans.
Ayu seems way happier recently than she ever was when she was at her peak.

Thank you!
xD

[Kingdom]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

@ero-kakkoii Well, every Hikaru album oversold Ayu's released on the same year... Even Ayu's best selling album was oversold by Utada... So, I'm pretty sure u don't really now how much power the woman has xD

power she has? or the power that great marketing and sales tactics is made of?

not saying ayumi isn't heavily marketed or whatever, but utada's new song isn't groundbreaking or anything compared to ayu's new music IMO, and to hear it's being "spoonfed" to people... hmmm.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by ero-kakkoii

power she has? or the power that great marketing and sales tactics is made of?

not saying ayumi isn't heavily marketed or whatever, but utada's new song isn't groundbreaking or anything compared to ayu's new music IMO, and to hear it's being "spoonfed" to people... hmmm.

She could be releasing a track made totally from farts... Considering this Single Collection is almost totally made of strong singles, IMO it will sell very well
Only 2 of it's 13 songs didn't sell over 1 million on digital charts, and one of those 2 was very close to it... 3 songs sold + than 2 million, and one, more than 7 million digital copies...

[waterballoon]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

@waterballoonThis would be a valid argument if 90% of her biggest hits weren't among her most generic tracks... Actually, besides M and Evolution, all of her big hits are pretty much generic jpop...

Yeah ikr, her most famous songs like Days, BLUE BIRD, SEASONS, Sunrise are all your standard J-Pop fare, which is why I don't think it's like she stopped making "amazing" music just because she doesn't have good tie-ins.

Btw, you're right that Ayu goes against the trend by releasing whatever she wants and all that, but if we've noticed, her recent singles have all been 'safe' songs...

- Days/GREEN
- Sunrise/Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~
- You were.../BALLAD
- MOON/blossom
- crossroad
- L

Almost all the songs in there are ballads/pop songs, so it's like yeah she's going on the safe route; maybe to ensure a #1 weekly for her streak, maybe to keep the public moderately interested in her, I dunno either lol.

Her "unique" stuff are mostly always album tracks or at most B-Sides... alterna, ourselves, Don't look back are the 3 songs off the top of my mind that are either B-Sides, not the main song in a maxi single or an album track. Even for Last angel on L, which could arguably be the "different" song, also isn't the main song on L. Heck it didn't have a PV.

Also, her last single with a rock song was... Mirrorcle World? But that's a 10th Anniversary special single, so if we disregard that, it would be talkin' 2 myself, which was like 3 years ago lol.

Nothing wrong with her going down the safe route, but I think everyone should at least understand why she's releasing singles in this way and genre lol

[ストロボ・EdGE]

^Uhh.... ourselves was the lead A-side of &...

And also Rule was a rock song paired with an Sparkle, which is arguably very "unsafe", and that came out just last year in 09.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by waterballoon

Yeah ikr, her most famous songs like Days, BLUE BIRD, SEASONS, Sunrise are all your standard J-Pop fare, which is why I don't think it's like she stopped making "amazing" music just because she doesn't have good tie-ins.

Btw, you're right that Ayu goes against the trend by releasing whatever she wants and all that, but if we've noticed, her recent singles have all been 'safe' songs...

- Days/GREEN
- Sunrise/Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~
- You were.../BALLAD
- MOON/blossom
- crossroad
- L

Almost all the songs in there are ballads/pop songs, so it's like yeah she's going on the safe route; maybe to ensure a #1 weekly for her streak, maybe to keep the public moderately interested in her, I dunno either lol.

Her "unique" stuff are mostly always album tracks or at most B-Sides... alterna, ourselves, Don't look back are the 3 songs off the top of my mind that are either B-Sides, not the main song in a maxi single or an album track. Even for Last angel on L, which could arguably be the "different" song, also isn't the main song on L. Heck it didn't have a PV.

Also, her last single with a rock song was... Mirrorcle World? But that's a 10th Anniversary special single, so if we disregard that, it would be talkin' 2 myself, which was like 3 years ago lol.

Nothing wrong with her going down the safe route, but I think everyone should at least understand why she's releasing singles in this way and genre lol

Well, I agree her post Next Level era singles are pretty much very safe (considering that on NL we had a lesbic PV, a rock track and a electro pop track, besides the bondage video), still, her album tracks with pvs weren't safe at all, and RnRC had some of her most risky videos on the same album... And the album tracks are showed on TV, so, it's not like only who bought the album listened to them

This era has Moon/Blossom as a very safe single, but I don't know If I would consider the other tracks all that safe, considering they lyrical themes and that they have little to no teen-appeal, something she always had on her summer and winter singles...

Ayu's marketing strategy right now seens to be close to Namie's, actually... a more commercial single, followed by an album with more creative tracks and tour as main promotion

[waterballoon]

Originally Posted by ストロボ・EdGE

^Uhh.... ourselves was the lead A-side of &...

And also Rule was a rock song paired with an Sparkle, which is arguably very "unsafe", and that came out just last year in 09.

oh **** I mixed & and H up ><" sorry about that and omg I forgot about Rule too! Ah I'm so sorry... well my previous post was invalid then; Ayu's a brave woman

[ストロボ・EdGE]

^No, I think your argument is very valid; I just wanted to point that out though.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by waterballoon

oh **** I mixed & and H up ><" sorry about that and omg I forgot about Rule too! Ah I'm so sorry... well my previous post was invalid then; Ayu's a brave woman

Never forget that!
Actually, she is just mixing her heavy stuff with comercial stuff, so, the message goes to her listeners without she being bashed to death and ignored by the public...
Japanese people hates their pop divas to have a brain

Originally Posted by kagami

I think nowadays people are more interested in listening to slick and catchy music, with some cool dance moves, more than anything else. Not just in Japan, but everywhere. That's what I've been noticing the past couple of years.

This is natural after big crisis... People were and are worried about it and when they get the chance to listen to some music or watch a movie, they wanna forget the problems and relax