ARENA TOUR 2012 A ~HOTEL Love songs~ information thread

[njanjayrp]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

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)

Hmm...this is also my personal opinion, but I think that Ayu is bolder when it comes to both lyrics and music, but Hikki tends to have less straight forward lyrics which I love. Imo Hikki's more depressive songs are really well written. I think that Ayu has lately became repetitive when it comes to the stuff she writes about, but occasionally she writes something like Love song or Last angel and blows me away xD not that those songs have extremely fresh lyrics, but are simply so well written that she amazes me.

[relmy]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

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

This is the eternal truth.

No other comment ever needs to be made on Jpop fandoms EVER.

This is so true, I wish I had said it.

[Chibi-Chan]

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)

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)

To be honest I don't find Hikki experiemental at all. For me 90% of her stuff sounds the same. And about her lyrics being complex... for me most of her lyrics are complete nonsense. I really don't get why Hikki is praised like a goddess, she has some great tracks, but in general I really can't see why people think she is experiemental or anything that comes near to that.

[emi♡]

idk it's hard for me not to consider a lot of hikki tracks "experimental" just in the idea that, she produces a very different sound and a lot of it IS harder to listen to because of how she mixes.

I would exclude most of her R&B stuff here...

I think people have a weird notion of what "experimental" means.

Just like they have a weird notion of what "mainstream" is.



Anyways, I agree overall with Andrenekoi. And I think Ayu's music is just a tad more radio friendly for Japan, only because she has a discography that is better suited for it. How much do we talk about all the summer songs and generic winter ballads she has?

And actually, I think we could apply the "sounds the same" comment to ayu as well. Since she uses a lot of the same formulas and arrangements...

how interesting! I just realised that lol Interesting how people are similar to each other.


oh, if hikki sounds so much like "other people", I'd really love a list of these other people, cause I'd love to check them out thanks~~

[truehappiness]

Originally Posted by Andrenekoi

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

Originally Posted by relmy

This is the eternal truth.

No other comment ever needs to be made on Jpop fandoms EVER.

This is so true, I wish I had said it.

Well, it is kind of true if you don't live in Japan (not necessarily the indie part but I have heard that avex is considered an 'independent' label by someone here) but in Japan, a lot of these acts are anything but underground, haha.

As for Utada, I think a lot of people treat her as a goddess because she basically handles everything when it comes to her music (lyrics, composition, arrangement) though I wonder if she would even be nearly as popular if she wasn't so involved with her music.

I feel like no one else is as versatile or takes as many risks as Ayu does when it comes to her music in the world of female soloists. However sometimes those risks don't necessarily pay off (people were turned off by a handful of tracks on Party Queen because of it, I think) but I respect how she does whatever she feels like doing without resorting to basically copy pasting tracks although you could say that her summer-y songs are all the same BUT I think that was more because of an arranger doing the same thing for every track than the songs actually being 'the same'.

[Evolution7/4]

Ok nice talk now back on topic people haha This could be a nice thread discussion on its own though!

[tokyoxjapanxfan]

I think a lot of utadas success also stems from her looking normal. Japan loves normality. Of course her videos have strange themes and images, she herself is very average in appearance. She's not a super dolled up made up created image.

And also, she kind of revolutionized the Japanese music scene in a sense with the success of her r&b music.

[daobaxiao]

new album is the most important

[FoxyPinkGirl]

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

her music is 10 times better than the "music" scene here in the US. if anything their (the US music scene/industry) music sounds like copies (and they do sound like crap).

[toniayu]

^agree!

[Jawdarna]

I like both artists, but I enjoy Ayu more lyrically.

[AyUmIXx]

any news about today concert?

[ayuuk]

http://avexnet.or.jp/ayu/hotelblog

It's updated with some Osaka pics!

[Earth_maiden]

cosplayers!!!!!!!!

What's the yellow flower/sunflower costume from?

[FinalFayth]

Oh my god, I'm in that pic of the goods stand, in the purple coat + backpack looking like a tard LOL

[jiarongisme]

Originally Posted by Earth_maiden

cosplayers!!!!!!!!

What's the yellow flower/sunflower costume from?

SEASONS @ Music Station 9 June 2000

Originally Posted by ayuuk

http://avexnet.or.jp/ayu/hotelblog

It's updated with some Osaka pics!

Ah...did I see Jorge?

[Larien]

^ I met and took a picture with them!! One sunflower girl and the Dream ON girl.

Also had my picture taken with two of the noncosplayers in the picture of the girl in the red dress and the girl in the outfit from WHATEVER, CDL 04-05.

[ayu_ready?]

I believe Hikki's music is more appealing to the Japanese.

[Earth_maiden]

Originally Posted by Kana×Shin

Ah...did I see Jorge?

or some other mature response..