what if....

[M_aria]

If J-pop stars switched lives, would they still have the same popularity?

For example: If Hikaru Utada switched lives with Ayumi Hamasaki would it mean that Hikaru would be the more popular one right now?

Another example using Ayu:what if she had switched lives with Namie Amuro ? That would of meant that Ayu would of started witht he Super Monkeys and then released her debut solo single "body feels Exit" and Namie would of started out a bit later with her debut single "Poker Face"

I guess what I'm really trying to ask is whether you think that its the songs or the voice that makes or brakes some j-pop stars...

[~K+]

I think with Hikki it was the whole US and english thing, plus composing and writing music at her age...

Ayu was for her lyrics to begin with, followed by fashion in the LOVEppears era

And Namie for her image and fashion which sort of brought new stuff to J-pop, dancing too~

[LX DAI]

If they switched spots it will be what it is now except this would be a Namie Amuro forum. And people will be buying Namie Amuro CDs.

It's the song and the voice that makes the artist grow. If Namie were to sing her songs as she does in oh... say... No More Tears then yeah, she'd be huge. But for some reason she has a strange variety of vocals she uses through different songs.

Lyrics to a song also makes the artist flourish. Think about Linkin Park. One really good reason people like them is because their lyrics are true and they can relate so much to what they sing.

All you need then is a catchy tune and a semi decent singing voice. The rest computers will handle until you are big enough to perform live, where you will undergo vocal lessons and training to strain your voice.

[Unimatrix Prime™]

It'd be quite weird for me to hear Namie with a much "younger" voice and having extreme outfits (think "WestEast" magazine), while Ayu would be dancing in her PVs and showing some "style" ! But it'd be interesting to wonder about that, since most of them have certain parts where they excel at (like Ayu's many singles/albums getting released somewhat regularly), and parts where they may falter (like Ayu's dance moves), but at least hearing Namie sing the english part of Forgiveness would be somewhat easier to understand ^^

[kournikova]

well... maybe they will have different popularity

[jiayulam]

Confused.......So if Mika Nakashima has Ayu's voice then I doubt she would be able to sing Yuki no Hana........ It is the voice that counts...... If you have an angelic voice, you can make any song sound good.

[ayumi1121]

I think when an artist gets popular it's because of them as a whole. Anything changed would change the whole artist, therefore they may be popular, but in a different way.