Ayu: Anything Goes [XXVII]

[chocopockymaster]

Originally Posted by hud

excited for the new concerts uploads! I hope STADIUM TOUR is in HD.
_____

a little throwback now, who remembers this one?

https://streamable.com/t38dxj
Because of You @ 2004 MTV VMA JAPAN

ugh LOVE. I wanted the pink dress she walked the red carpet in so badly, I tried to see if someone could make it for my prom dress (no dice tho)

[pedronekoi]

Found this Voyage live on YouTube and a fun fact that they mentioned and I didn't knew before: Real Me was the first Ayu song which had a sentence in english. Before that she never had used english sentences but because she was focusing on getting known in other countries, she decided to add english lyrics to the songs in RAINBOW.

[truehappiness]

Yeah, she went over that a lot in the RAINBOW interviews. Due to traveling around Asia in 2001~ she really wanted to increase the 'accessibility' of her songs.

By the way, starting with this album, you're using English lyrics, what was the thought behind that?
A: I went and did alot of things in Asia this year, and I think it was a big influence in the decision. I felt like the "language barrier" was a big deal at the time. It's meaningless if they can't understand me, and I wanted them to be able to know who I was. As such, I thought that studying English would be necessary, since the language the world uses to communicate to each other = English. For example, if you say "I love you" in English, everyone's more likely to understand than than if you say "(facing a lover) aishiteru."

That seems to be good for interviewers understanding you, but doesn't it make you uncomfortable to sing lyrics in English?
A: Very uncomfortable. How should I explain this... It's like, my "tone" is there, right? But I don't really know (bitter smile), what kind of accent have I been singing with all this time...? Now it's like I've been saying useless things all monotone (laughs). If I say things in Japanese and then suddenly change them to English, the emotions are left behind somewhere else because I don't understand anymore, right? It's kinda like that. When that happened, I thought, is it maybe a mistake to do lyrics in English? and I felt very blue about it, I felt really defeated (bitter smile).


How was it to write the lyrics? And was the singing afterwards difficult?
A: Now that I think about it, I did it pretty quickly. For example, in Japanese 1 kanji symbol for 1 word can take three syllables to say, like "watashi," and if I don't have that much room, that's no good, but in english the same word can be one syllable, "I," and that might be possible to say. And, if I only have two syllables available, I can still say "konya" for "tonight" if that's all I have room for in the phrase "let's be together tonight" or something.

http://ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=95849

[Evolution7/4]

Originally Posted by pedronekoi

This manicure

[Toniayu123]

Was watching MIJ tour, and her vocals in Flower are better than the album recording. The song itself is awesome but her vocals kinda ruined it (Still love it tho)

[ExodusUK]

Can anyone check if the camera cuts/edit of the Just The Beginning CDL M performance here is the same as the TV and rebroadcast version?



Maybe Avex is sat on a home release version?

[hud]

Originally Posted by ExodusUK

Can anyone check if the camera cuts/edit of the Just The Beginning CDL M performance here is the same as the TV and rebroadcast version?



Maybe Avex is sat on a home release version?

they definitely are. just checked with the rebroadcast version and it's completely different. this edit is definitely for a home release version. more focus on her face, audio is better.

[ExodusUK]

Originally Posted by hud

they definitely are. just checked with the rebroadcast version and it's completely different. this edit is definitely for a home release version. more focus on her face, audio is better.

yay thanks

I doubt they would go to the effort of recutting it just one performance for a compilation (when they could just reuse the existing tv version) so I imagine they've got a whole version of the show that they decided not to release? Maybe it was going to be released with a single or release that never came?

My partner's one take away from watching Ayu concerts by proxy when I've been watching them for the last month "why is she so obsessed with clowns..clowns fucking everywhere!". He hates clowns so we will never seen Ayu show in person because of that reason alone.

[Kacku]

Originally Posted by ExodusUK

My partner's one take away from watching Ayu concerts by proxy when I've been watching them for the last month "why is she so obsessed with clowns..clowns fucking everywhere!". He hates clowns so we will never seen Ayu show in person because of that reason alone.

Delirium-Zer0 wrote a bit of analysis about Ayu's use of clowns as a symbol over her career back in 2015 in her song-a-day entry on WONDERLAND. To quote:

Ayu's use of clowns over the years seems to have changed to match her attitude regarding her career and the music industry over the years - they were friendly and helpful during concert tour 2000; an all-seeing, all-knowing background presence during the A museum ~30th single collection live~ tour in 2003; terrifying liars turning unsuspecting dreamers into Stepford Wives in the "alterna" PV in 2005; ringmasters who sold Ayu as though she were a prostitute in the "1 LOVE" PV in 2006; and in later years she seems to have cast clowns as something ridiculous and entertaining and non-threatening.

Source

[DavidChaiLatte]

Had a pretty random thought today - what if there were more explicit curse words in Japanese (akin to fk, shit)? Would Ayu have a parental advisory album by now?

[pedronekoi]

There are plenty of explicit curse words in Japanese. Even saying ecchi (sex) or kuso (shit) can be seem as a explicit word. Most of japanese don't curse that much tho...

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Yeah, she went over that a lot in the RAINBOW interviews. Due to traveling around Asia in 2001~ she really wanted to increase the 'accessibility' of her songs.

http://ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=95849

That explains a lot about her Britney-vibes looks from this era then.

Edit:
STADIUM TOUR is on and so is the "Jesus Died For You" iconic t-shirt moment lol

[chocopockymaster]

omg I love Stadium Tour TT__TT

[jiarongisme]

The Free & Easy - HANABI section of that tour shall remain one of the most iconic sections in all of her touring history. And also probably the best performance of M.

But MAN, the editing for AT02 and ST02 were horrible.

[SunshineSlayer]

Originally Posted by DavidChaiLatte

Had a pretty random thought today - what if there were more explicit curse words in Japanese (akin to fk, shit)? Would Ayu have a parental advisory album by now?

As mentioned, there are curse words. So no, none of her albums would get one.

[hud]

Originally Posted by jiarongisme

But MAN, the editing for AT02 and ST02 were horrible.

yup. personally, I'm not a fan of behind the scenes footage in the middle/during songs.

[ExodusUK]

That period is bizarre..like cutting out the SEASONS performance from the flow of the concert and adding it as a bonus feature, wtf?

Also something I thought was a bug/issue with my DVD copy of stadium tour seems to be an error in the final render of the concert? Anyone else notice the small skip of frames during the first verse of Depend on You on the copy Avex just uploaded? I always assumed my DVD was scratched lolll

[Norrel]

Omg Stadium Tour is finally uploaded! I’ve never watched this concert in full before, but wow her star power is UNDENIABLE here. That opening three songs Unite!/Fly High/Evolution is such an adrenaline rush.

I also love this one of her only tours that was presented almost documentary style. It really gives a good look into who she was at that time off-stage, and just interesting overall to see her behind the scenes.

[chocopockymaster]

Originally Posted by Norrel

Omg Stadium Tour is finally uploaded! I’ve never watched this concert in full before, but wow her star power is UNDENIABLE here. That opening three songs Unite!/Fly High/Evolution is such an adrenaline rush.

I also love this one of her only tours that was presented almost documentary style. It really gives a good look into who she was at that time off-stage, and just interesting overall to see her behind the scenes.

Agreed re: her star power. This concert was just such a fucking moment in time, you know? And to think it was right off the back of AT02...she never stopped moving and was just on top of the world.

I sometimes feel like I wish the documentary bits were separate because if they would I would watch this concert more. But it still stands out as one of my faves. lbr it’s worth it for the Riverdance section alone

[voltron]

Originally Posted by ExodusUK

That period is bizarre..like cutting out the SEASONS performance from the flow of the concert and adding it as a bonus feature, wtf?

I always assumed this wasn't performed the day of the main filming, but at one of the other shows.

[chocopockymaster]

Originally Posted by voltron

I always assumed this wasn't performed the day of the main filming, but at one of the other shows.

monochrome says it was performed at all the concerts and it was performed at the Open Air Live (held in June before the Stadium Tour happened in July) as well...we may never know why they cut it :/

While we’re on the subject, they cut the performances from AT02 in a similar way and included those as bonus tracks but who the F knows why? Daybreak and the acoustic songs?? That whole section with that fabulous white shirt should have come after A Song for xx in the main setlist.

Man, avex were trippin’ back in the day.