ARENA TOUR 2012 A ~HOTEL Love songs~ information thread

[kimmeh]

I think ayu has had enough of typical japanese music and what her fans wants.. She's in a period of her life were she doesn't care for album sales, for critiques, for charts and for anything else thats just a number.

She wants to explore and I totally see where she's coming from. She is constantly traveling to the UK and US. As a lot of people here on the forum are tired of their own countries and wish to travel and live another lifestyle, she wants too. However, she cannot abandon her life as artist and decides to change her lifestyle through music.

She's only a human being, she will tire from ballads and summer songs too.

[MissElin_]

Originally Posted by Aderianu

Didn't the press have a better picture to use? Lik when her eyes are fully opend? Lol. Couldn't they have used the pic of AyuxCakexArena instead since the headline is all about the suprice 14th anniversary cake? xD Even her dancers looks crazy in that pic. Haha.

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by HilaryDuffFanboy

She's an artist. She does not produce music that has to meet service level agreements each financial year or anything like that. If you don't like what you see or hear, move on. If you are upset she doesn't produce quality music that resembles her older work, go listen to her older albums.

My thoughts exactly.

[PoetGirl]

As much as I think its childish to be 'whatever' on critiques I would think of her as fame ***** if she would release only what general public wants.

[ExodusUK]

She's an artist yes but she even says so herself that she is an important product in her company and it's necessary for her to be thought of as such.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by ExodusUK

She's an artist yes but she even says so herself that she is an important product in her company and it's necessary for her to be thought of as such.

I don't think anything she released ever take too far away from the "product" label... Ayu has very few (if any) song that is not radio-friendly... Her music is far more accessible than Hikki's, for example.

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

I don't think anything she released ever take too far away from the "product" label... Ayu has very few (if any) song that is not radio-friendly... Her music is far more accessible than Hikki's, for example.

That's far from the truth. Imo 95% of Hikki's songs are way more easier to relate to and are more radio friendly. Songs like GAME, talkin' 2 myself, alterna, is this LOVE? and many others aren't what I'd call your everyday's pop music that gets thousands of airplay on radios.

[PoetGirl]

I hope Andrenekoi is being sarcastic LOL

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by njanjayrp

That's far from the truth. Imo 95% of Hikki's songs are way more easier to relate to and are more radio friendly. Songs like GAME, talkin' 2 myself, alterna, is this LOVE? and many others aren't what I'd call your everyday's pop music that gets thousands of airplay on radios.

I wouldn't say they aren't radio friendly just because they are a bit heavier on guitar and stuff like that... It's not like rock isn't a mainstream genre by itself for at least 50 years now, or even that rock is not a common genre in japan, cuz it is. Hikki releases singles that are a little more experiemental in genre, and her lyrics tend to be more complex too. Not saying one is better than the other because of that, cuz this is far from being the case, but is a well known fact that Hikki tends to get a little wilder musical-wise since Deep River than most jpop top selling acts... and this actually one of the things that made her known. This also doesn't mean Ayu actually gets wilder than your everyday jpop act, cuz she does, still, she never released anything that wasn't pop in nature (and neither did Hikki, in Japan at least)

Still, both of them are pop musicians in the end of the day, so I'm not saying that Hikki is some underground genious either, just that she releases some stuff that takesa little more time to digest sound-wise (Hymne à l'amour fastly coming to mind as a recent example)

[PoetGirl]

obviously Im the only one who thinks her stuff is pretty generic (comparing her to usa scene). its bland copy.

now Im waiting to be attacked LOL

[ExodusUK]

Last few years of Hikki's career I feel she did pander a lot to the Japanese "taste"...Prisoner of Love being a big example, was made to be a teenage girl's ringtone.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by ExodusUK

Last few years of Hikki's career I feel she did pander a lot to the Japanese "taste"...Prisoner of Love being a big example, was made to be a teenage girl's ringtone.

Well, both Prisioner of Love and Flavor of Life were among her usual generic ballads... Still, most of HS wasn't generic, neither were 4 of the 5 new tracks on SC2

[zellyx]

Originally Posted by PoetGirl

obviously Im the only one who thinks her stuff is pretty generic (comparing her to usa scene). its bland copy.

now Im waiting to be attacked LOL

Copy of what? Please give me some examples, because I can't really see that
I don't think it's generic, but rather she has her own sound... that's hard to place...

The "usa scene" bland music to me is the kind I hear all..of the time... it's "clubbing" type music- think Rihanna, David Guetta's collabs, Usher, T-pain, recently black eyed peas, recently Britney Spears, etc... driving beats, pop meets r&b, sexual lyrics.. all very predictable!

[PoetGirl]

Originally Posted by zellyx

Copy of what? Please give me some examples, because I can't really see that
I don't think it's generic, but rather she has her own sound... that's hard to place...

The "usa scene" bland music to me is the kind I hear all..of the time... it's "clubbing" type music- think Rihanna, David Guetta's collabs, Usher, T-pain, recently black eyed peas, recently Britney Spears, etc... driving beats, pop meets r&b, sexual lyrics.. all very predictable!

I like hikki, but I dont see her as next bjork her fans are trying to see lol.

for example I cant listen to prisoner of love without thinking of torn of natalie imbruglia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV1XWJN3nJo

and Im not thinking about david guetta usa scene lol, just poprnb music I grew up with, that means 90s-2000-so on

[Andrenekoi]

^I never said she is the new Bjork

[PoetGirl]

Im not talking about you, just hikki fans in general.

(same can be said about ayu fans hahah)

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by PoetGirl

Im not talking about you, just hikki fans in general.

(same can be said about ayu fans hahah)

Jpop fans... believing their multi-million selling idols are underground indie artists since 1998

[Heavenly]

Originally Posted by PoetGirl

and Im not thinking about david guetta usa scene lol, just poprnb music I grew up with, that means 90s-2000-so on

Especially because David Guetta is French

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

I wouldn't say they aren't radio friendly just because they are a bit heavier on guitar and stuff like that... It's not like rock isn't a mainstream genre by itself for at least 50 years now, or even that rock is not a common genre in japan, cuz it is. Hikki releases singles that are a little more experiemental in genre, and her lyrics tend to be more complex too. Not saying one is better than the other because of that, cuz this is far from being the case, but is a well known fact that Hikki tends to get a little wilder musical-wise since Deep River than most jpop top selling acts... and this actually one of the things that made her known. This also doesn't mean Ayu actually gets wilder than your everyday jpop act, cuz she does, still, she never released anything that wasn't pop in nature (and neither did Hikki, in Japan at least)

I wasn't exactly talking about the genres, but knowing the Japanese taste some of Ayu's singles are surely far from what I think the Japanese casual listeners want to hear both musically and lyrically. When it comes to singles Hikki is playing it a lot safer than Ayu and being a fan of both I think that Ayu goes out of her own thing more often than Hikki, though Ayu has released way more tracks. I am not sure what's so experimental about HS - with ULTRA BLUE she re-invented her style and imo HS was practically a copy/paste of tracks like BLUE, Keep Trying, This Is Love etc. Not saying I disliked any of the tracks because I think the majority are purely awesome, but nevertheless not really THAT experimental nor particularly new to her, as she's done it before.

[Andrenekoi]

Originally Posted by njanjayrp

I wasn't exactly talking about the genres, but knowing the Japanese taste some of Ayu's singles are surely far from what I think the Japanese casual listeners want to hear both musically and lyrically. When it comes to singles Hikki is playing it a lot safer than Ayu and being a fan of both I think that Ayu goes out of her own thing more often than Hikki, though Ayu has released way more tracks. I am not sure what's so experimental about HS - with ULTRA BLUE she re-invented her style and imo HS was practically a copy/paste of tracks like BLUE, Keep Trying, This Is Love etc. Not saying I disliked any of the tracks because I think the majority are purely awesome, but nevertheless not really THAT experimental nor particularly new to her, as she's done it before.

I agree 100% that Ayu touches riskier subjects on her lyrics, but it's not like she started doing so recently too... Anybody who listened to most of her golden age discography will her she singing about mainly the same things, with a less mature and sometimes angrier point of view... Still, most of her lyrics are pretty much straight foward and her sound can hardly be considered "strange" for most of the time... This is just my opinion, but I always saw Ayu as the one bold with her themes, and Hikki the one bold with her sound (bold in a pop context, both)