[A] Ayu: Anything Goes [XXII] - Page 7

tokyoxjapanxfan · #**121** 10th January 2018, 01:40 PM

Guess I gotta watch season 4 xD

The pic from her insta is beautiful. I love her hair and makeup

Uknow! · #**122** 10th January 2018, 05:00 PM

Dogs in Metalhead were so scary for me but now... lol

ayumi_croatia · #**123** 10th January 2018, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nalini-dahlia

I don't get this reference, but when I first looked at #6, I thought the flame was a naked person from behind. >.<

I'm totally seeing things.

That's what I saw too!

Xianghua · #**124** 12th January 2018, 01:28 AM

Man, SIGNAL is such a bop. It deserves more love!

truehappiness · #**125** 12th January 2018, 01:47 AM

A lot of her older songs only really need some arrangement tune ups. They are great songs!

Xianghua · #**126** 12th January 2018, 01:57 AM

I would love if she sang new arrangements/mixes of her older songs. Not in an A BEST way but more like A BALLADS. That's my biggest hope really, Ayu-wise.

EndOfTheWorld · #**127** 12th January 2018, 03:33 AM

I love the A Song For xx album so much. Such an important release. It's too bad it gets criticised and sometimes ignored for it's 90's pop/rock sound. I wouldn't change anything about it. The acoustic orchestra version of the album found on ayu-mi-x fixes the dated sound and helps the songs really shine.

Katsuyuki012 · #**128** 12th January 2018, 04:08 AM

I've always loooved SIGNAL! It has such a "modern-retro" style to me xD I enjoy it tremendously and frequently play it. I preffer to listen to the AT09 live version though since I preffer a) live versios b) her more "recent" voice.

xLuna&1LOVE · #**129** 12th January 2018, 06:18 AM

Hey bit of a long shot, but I was planning to do it by heart. I have got to do this in two hours:

For a school assignment I have to chat max. 11 minutes about my fascination. Of course I choose Ayu. I wanted to chat about Ayu seeing herself as a product (especially around A BEST), her hearing loss (or better to say: determination) and in short how fast she changes in style. I want to show the clip alterna at the end.

What is the thing I really shouldn't forget telling people about Ayu?
Note: it is a bit of a sales-talk. I am getting a teacher's degree, so I must warm up/excite my audience to a new idea/artist/etc.

attractive nausea · #**130** 12th January 2018, 08:29 AM

^ Hmmm i would insist on how many CDs she has sold and how many records she has in the music industry, just to impress people lol

But well it's been two hours so you propably won't read it...

I have done a presensation about Ayu in my english class in high school 5 years ago (the topic was to make a short presentation about the person you look up to the most), it was a really fun thing to do! Every school year since then i hope the teacher will ask us a presentation where i can talk about Ayu again lol, but unfortunately it hasn't happened since then, always crap topics i don't care about.

xLuna&1LOVE · #**131** 12th January 2018, 10:19 AM

^ Sadly, I did not read it. My presentation went well. My professor asked some hard questions. He found Ayu so Western, and wondered what was so authentic about her music then (I did not come further than her voice, because it is like describing Ayu, or any big female popstar like Madonna, who doesn't have 'one' sound in particular) . Also, in relation with the theme "girlpower", a lecture I gave yestersay about the age of female pop authors... he questioned Ayu's strong girl power, because in alterna she is attached to strings and even trown away at the end... (I responded with that she find her strength in lyricwriting, because she dares to (emotionally) express herself in a way which is not common under the Japanese folks... but I am not sure I really nailed that answer)

I am curious how you guys would have responded.

Zeke. · #**132** 12th January 2018, 10:38 AM

Sounds like a really fun opportunity but did you just learn about the assignment two hours beforehand or did you put it off until then? Lol. Sounds like a missed opportunity to really dig deep if it was the latter.

xLuna&1LOVE · #**133** 12th January 2018, 10:49 AM

No, I knew beforehand. It was basically about choosing something that stands close to you and from own interpretation, fascination and why exactly this artist/work speak to you. I actually did have a clear story which ended great, just not too sure how to answer his 'high art crictical' questions.

Besides... I actually told about Ayu's sound. He claimed it was very Western and why Ayu is then so authentic/different (he suggested that she had adopted a Western sound)

I did prepare myself, but was kinda lost in words at the time he asked me those two questions. I did not answer that bluntly like I just wrote. I handled it much better, because the show must go on

Zeke I am actually curious to read what you would have responded.

Zeke. · #**134** 12th January 2018, 11:34 AM

I would say her voice is a big part of it. One way I’ve begun to describe her sound is that she always sings as if someone is wringing her heart - twisting it in their hands. That high pitch that she has always gives me that sort of impression. It’s very emotional, and you can really feel that in her songs. It’s almost whiney in a way, but that in my opinion is what makes it so powerful. She feels emotions VERY deep, and her singing style conveys that. It also helps to convey the relentless fighting spirit, almost stubbornness, she has to never yield to the pain - to never give up or give in. She writes and sings her way through it, and you can hear and feel her plea. It’s “punchy” and the arrangement and composition/melodies of her greatest tracks are also heavily so.

Her decision and post she made about continuing to sing until the very end, until she’s physically cannot sing anymore, is also evident of her having such a perseverant mentality. I would have spoken about that and perhaps recited her post/confession about it, because to me that’s really moving and an embodiment of her character.

Since you mentioned the assignment was about why the artist and his or her work speaks to you, that’s the angle I would have taken because I love to feel emotion, and I love to express it authentically, whole-heartedly, deeply and honestly, and ayu does all that herself. I can’t sense the raw heart of other artists when they sing, but I’ve always been able to experience ayu’s through her songs effortlessly.

voltron · #**135** 12th January 2018, 01:45 PM

With regards to authenticity, I think you could've gone in a few different directions:
1 - Time and again, Ayu states that if she wants to do something, she will. If she decided she no longer liked singing, she would quit, and commit herself to whatever she wanted to do next. I think the same goes for her music style - she releases the type of music she wants to make, regardless of what is in trend, or might be more well received by a general public.
2 - I would cite her starting to use English in her lyrics. In her early career that was really something she was known for - NOT using English at all. Then during Rainbow she started to. When I Am... was released, she started saying how she now understood her responsibility as a public persona and her songs were not just about her own pain anymore. With Rainbow she stated she started using English to better represent her thoughts and to resonate with her overseas fans more. The fact that she has such a thought process really says to me that it is authentic to her.
3 - In the end, I think Ayu's super fame earlier on was really due to the fact that she is a "bad Japanese." That is to say, she doesn't fit into the mold. She literally was the voice of the lost generation in Japan, and that's why she was so embraced and loved. She spoke candidly in her lyrics, in her interviews, and she never did what was expected of a Japanese woman or pop-star. The flip side of that is that I think culturally things in Japan have done a 180 to revert to more "traditional" values, and that's why she's been abandoned. But that's a whole other discussion.

attractive nausea · #**136** 12th January 2018, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xLuna&1LOVE

He found Ayu so Western, and wondered what was so authentic about her music then (I did not come further than her voice, because it is like describing Ayu, or any big female popstar like Madonna, who doesn't have 'one' sound in particular) .

I would have answered : She has released like 20 albums in her career with various genres going from rap (lol) to pop to rock to trance to edm etc, which is something western pop stars would almost never do, they might experiment a little but in the end they will always stick to a genre that is popular and safe, Ayu is different in that way, so you can't really judge her from one or two songs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xLuna&1LOVE

Also, in relation with the theme "girlpower", a lecture I gave yestersay about the age of female pop authors... he questioned Ayu's strong girl power, because in alterna she is attached to strings and even trown away at the end... (I responded with that she find her strength in lyricwriting, because she dares to (emotionally) express herself in a way which is not common under the Japanese folks... but I am not sure I really nailed that answer)

alterna is not about her being a women that is thrown away, it's about her being a popular singer (/product) of the music industry that is thrown away once a new singer is there to replace her, the fact that she's a woman doesn't matter.

I think i would have talked about my name's WOMEN to answer this, both the lyrics, the pv (+ live performances) is a huge kick in the ass to patriarchy imo. Also We are the QUEENS, Beautiful Fighters, Shake it! ♥, XOXO are songs that praise women. In her live performances she likes to oppose girls dancers and boy dancers and always make the girls win lmao + girls are a lot in a position of power over boys in her live performances.

Uknow! · #**137** 12th January 2018, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by attractive nausea

+ girls are a lot in a position of power over boys in her live performances.

Never forget

Spoiler:

voltron · #**138** 12th January 2018, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by attractive nausea

alterna is not about her being a women that is thrown away, it's about her being a popular singer (/product) of the music industry that is thrown away once a new singer is there to replace her, the fact that she's a woman doesn't matter.

And past this, there's actually a bit juxtaposition between the lyrics and the video. The lyrics are quite empowering, along the lines of - be yourself, because you'll be judged no matter what you do. Stand up, be strong and go forward, or step aside.

At the time it came out, Avex had just signed Ami Suzuki, who was sort of a peer around the time of Ayu's debut, and there was a mini-competition between them during debut (mostly media/fabricated, but you get the idea). So it was looked at like oh, Avex is trying to stick it to Ayu and replace her. And the news was always about the "next Ayu" at that time. This video was very much so a response to that in a rather bold way, that is actually quite empowering.

EndOfTheWorld · #**139** 13th January 2018, 12:11 AM

I love when discussions of strong substance appear on AHS.

I'm not sure if I can even add anything. So many thoughtful contributions.

I might agree that alterna really isn't a feminists song or video. But maybe a little bit. Jpop has been dominated by females since the late 90s because of debuts like Namie, Utada, Ayu. Female artists in Jpop tend to have short careers and are easily replaced by a new, younger, prettier girl, and the female artists that came before them are tossed aside by the mainstream and the media. Destined to become "irrelevant" and criticized for many reasons. While male artists tend to become legends and gain much respect the longer their career is. The alterna video basically tells the story of Ayu's past, present, and future as a female pop star.
Things like alterna are one of the examples of something I really love and connect to Ayu with and that is her self awareness. Something unique about Ayu as an artist is that she knew from a young age and early in her career what her fate was as a female gaining popularity in Jpop. She learned quickly that her lyrics, music, fashion, and just about anything she created would have a strong effect on those that connect to her. This becomes most obvious with I am... ,where Ayu sort of embraces her identity as Ayumi Hamasaki and what messages she wants to convey to the world and her listeners. Ayu was smart enough to know how the world works and that reality can be so cold and cruel and unfair. Connecting back to what Zeke was saying about her persevering quality, I love that Ayu never lets anything stop her or defeat her, despite knowing the harsh realities of our world.
So I would have focused on how Ayu fans tend to connect very strongly to her, more so than many other artists. I think the bond between Ayu and people are one of a kind.

Party_King · #**140** 13th January 2018, 06:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xianghua

Man, SIGNAL is such a bop. It deserves more love!

Oh Darling, if I wasn't gay, I would make you a proposal... ❤️
This bop is in my TOP10 favorite ayu Songs...

Even though SIGNAL gained some attention due to the PCDL and AT09, i think it's still really underrated - sadly...