Ayu's Twitter/Weibo - Discussion #36

[Delirium-Zer0]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

Ayu has some pretty interesting happy songs herself: Voyage, Virgin Road, November to say some at the top of my head.

And it may come as no shock to you that Virgin Road is the only one of those that I like - because of its darker overtones (the chorus doesn't end on a tonic, which makes it sound unfinished - whether Ayu realizes it or not, she sounds very nervous and doubtful in this song, and like she WANTS to be happy, but isn't entirely confident she will be). I find Voyage cheesy and disingenuous, and I find November very nondescript although I like the rhythm of the chorus. I don't understand why anyone would hate OR adore November, it's competent and only okay to me. I find it contributes very little.

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

If to you happiness = escapism or entertaiment, I'm sorry for you, that must be hard.

While your patronizing comment is amusing, it's based on the faulty assumption that hearing a sad song means i'm wallowing in my misery (and you're not the only AHS member to make a similar comment so I now feel the need to address it).

In fact, it's inspirational and uplifting in a way that happy music can never be. When I hear a sad song that reminds me of an upsetting event, I'm not hearing sadness - I'm hearing the singer's willingness to be vulnerable, open up, and get on their feet for long enough to tell their story. I don't hear the pain, I hear the recovery, and that in turn helps me recover.

I don't NEED escape from happiness, so I don't need happy music. I would need escape from sadness - so I listen to sad music to help me heal, because it makes me feel less alone and reminds me that if someone can be sad in similar ways and yet still be successful, still get up & go to work in the morning, still have friends and family who love her... then I can too.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0

And it may come as no shock to you that Virgin Road is the only one of those that I like - because of its darker overtones (the chorus doesn't end on a tonic, which makes it sound unfinished - whether Ayu realizes it or not, she sounds very nervous and doubtful in this song, and like she WANTS to be happy, but isn't entirely confident she will be). I find Voyage cheesy and disingenuous, and I find November very nondescript although I like the rhythm of the chorus. I don't understand why anyone would hate OR adore November, it's competent and only okay to me. I find it contributes very little.


While your patronizing comment is amusing, it's based on the faulty assumption that hearing a sad song means i'm wallowing in my misery (and you're not the only AHS member to make a similar comment so I now feel the need to address it).

In fact, it's inspirational and uplifting in a way that happy music can never be. When I hear a sad song that reminds me of an upsetting event, I'm not hearing sadness - I'm hearing the singer's willingness to be vulnerable, open up, and get on their feet for long enough to tell their story. I don't hear the pain, I hear the recovery, and that in turn helps me recover.

I don't NEED escape from happiness, so I don't need happy music. I would need escape from sadness - so I listen to sad music to help me heal, because it makes me feel less alone and reminds me that if someone can be sad in similar ways and yet still be successful, still get up & go to work in the morning, still have friends and family who love her... then I can too.

I never said you used sad music to wallow on your miser, on the same way I love my sad music but don't listen to it in order to wallow on my own miser either... And I don't personally think there's anything bad on the way you consume your art, but I find it funny that you got bothered by my "patronizing" comment, considering how patronizing you tend to be towards me most of the time I just think that your personal taste in music and how/why you like what you isn't a global standart of artistic merit to anyone that isn't you, on the same way my personal tastes say very little about artistic merit ot anyone else but me.

Another one of Ayu's happy songs: Rainbow, and this is probably my favorite happy song from her.

Originally Posted by ayumisrael

But then they changed back for the good lol.

I think that ayu is pretty down admitting she has done many mistakes, in all the years of Love songs~LOVE again (excluding FIVE which was kinda taking off from the whole issues), she made major mistakes and admitted them later (up to and on A ONE), and the albums were talking about the mistakes themselves, but it was just after Maro/LOVE again where I think she stopped herself while she still could from making more major mistakes.

From a RP point of view, she did several mistakes... Other than that (and I won't enter on the discussion of the quality of her releases at the time), she was pretty much doing what she done her whole career at that point: capitalizing on pop music that talked about her personal issues. IMO it's less about she exposing herself (considering her career is basically her exposing herself over and over again) and more about people disliking her love life choices. Had her marriage with Mannie worked out or had the Maro relationship not ended on scandal, people wouldn't be as turned off by the "discovery" that Ayu isn't some pure virgin idol.

[Uemarasan]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

I never said you used sad music to wallow on your miser, on the same way I love my sad music but don't listen to it in order to wallow on my own miser either... And I don't personally think there's anything bad on the way you consume your art, but I find it funny that you got bothered by my "patronizing" comment, considering how patronizing you tend to be towards me most of the time I just think that your personal taste in music and how/why you like what you isn't a global standart of artistic merit to anyone that isn't you, on the same way my personal tastes say very little about artistic merit ot anyone else but me.

Another one of Ayu's happy songs: Rainbow, and this is probably my favorite happy song from her.

I'm going to have to agree with Andrenekoi here. I don't think positive emotions automatically mean a work is entertainment and negative emotions are much more inherent in art. In fact, I'd argue that joyful art requires even more skill to create. And I can think of many examples of art with dimensions of happiness: Shakespeare's comedies, Aristophanes, great children's literature (Alice in Wonderland, for example), musical and comedy films. If this is true in these art forms, then shouldn't these naturally extend toward music? The Barber of Seville, several pieces of classical music, several Beatles songs, several Ringo Shiina songs. I'd actually argue that it takes someone who has been to or knows the darkest of places to create truly joyful music, in the same way that the most unapologetic of atheists can create great religious art (Pasolini). All I'm saying is that I disagree that happy music cannot contain the nuance or depth that darker music affords. Nuance and depth lie in the skill of the artist, not in the mode of expression.

That said, I think that Ayu is strongest expressing herself in darker music, but I do wholeheartedly enjoy her happy music as well. I believe that Voyage has the same insight, depth, and nuance in its understanding of human love as her darker songs, and November is highly underrated. It is a song of complete, unabashed, and unmitigated joy, without irony or cynicism which can often times be tiresome and cliche in works of a lighthearted nature. I do believe that Ayu is more prone to depth and insight when she resorts to darker music, but that doesn't mean that her joyful pieces aren't capable of the same. Ayu is a more well-rounded artist than one who can only find the truth about human nature in darker places. Although, frankly, it's been a while since she has managed to capture the rawness and essential nature of human emotion in her music. Much of her recent stuff feels tired and phoned in.