How Ayumi can save Western Music

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I'm not sure how many or if any of you have seen this.
I found this article pretty fascinating.

By Lance Berry

She’s only 5’2” and weighs 88 pounds. She’s just 27 years old(turning 28 this year), yet in her short career she’s been an actress, model and spokeswoman for numerous products. She writes many of her own songs, tops the charts on a regular basis, and has some of the most innovative and hypnotic videos you’ll ever see. Her music was used during the 2006 Winter Olympics, she’s recorded tracks to raise money for victims of 9/11, and she’s won more music awards than Prince and U2 combined—yet back in 2004 decided she won’t accept any more—and yet you’ve probably never heard of her in your life.

Her name is Ayumi Hamasaki.

And her Japanese music(J-pop) could save the American music industry.

With her roots originally sprouting from Japanese rap, she quickly shifted gears once her first album bombed and she was dropped by her label. The man who discovered her, Masato Matsuura, sent her to vocal classes in both Japan and New York. Upon returning home, she released singles which eventually landed in Japan’s top10 on their music charts. Her first full album rapidly went platinum, a blessing for any relatively unknown artist. During the latter half of the 90’s, Ayumi(commonly called “Ayu” by fans) at one point released a full studio album and limited edition single on the same day. In that same week her concert DVD topped its charts, locking her down as the first artist in history to top three charts in the same week.

Her music is a chameleonic mixture of several styles: dance pop, hard core rock, moderate rap, love ballads, even some gospel thrown in. Yes, I can’t understand a damn word she’s saying unless she occasionally throws in an English phrase—such as in her dance song “Real Me”—yet one can feel the maturity within her phrasing and delivery of the lyrics. This is a young woman wise beyond her years, as evidenced by the convincing manner with which she presents herself in several of her more innovative videos, much more impressive and cutting edge than 95% of the American videos seen here. The video for “Real Me”, although done in 2003(set in the “dancing cyborg factory” of 2503) has a more contemporary feel and futuristic vision than most “cyberpunk” videos done by any group from any current genre in the U.S.

Ayumi’s video for “Ourselves”, in which look-alikes of her try several violent means to get at her while she is imprisoned in her car(later scenes have sinister doctors observing her while she’s chained to a wall, allegedly in an asylum) is disturbing on several subtle and subconscious levels, even while she tempts the viewer in a type of dark kabuki-style costume which might have suited Madonna in her early years. It is actually very telling in a way that given parts of Ayu’s early life(her father abandoned the family when she was only two, and she’s never seen him again) that more than one of her videos deals with isolation and despair, with the main character ending up in an asylum or being lain to rest(“Voyage”, “Free and Easy”). This is also no great surprise, coming from the culture in which she was raised. Having suffered the horror of atomic bombs being dropped on two of their cities, Japan has always been more intimately aware of their own history than most countries. Much of their artwork, cinematic and otherwise, deals with such despair, isolation, and feeling of helplessness in the face of impending doom. It is the reason why Godzilla, a monster spawned as the result of atomic experimentation, exists. That beloved giant stomping machine is one of the most immediate and visual links to the Japanese psyche for post WWII.

Still, much of Ayumi’s music unabashedly celebrates the raw power and freedom of youth(“Greatful Days”, “Humming 7-4”). And when was the last time you were so taken with the power of an artist that you were content to watch a music video where she does nothing but stand on a deserted road and sing to the camera?(“Daybreak”)

Only a few short months ago, Ayumi Hamasaki only had a bare handful of music videos posted on Youtube.com. Her popularity there has caught like wildfire, and she now has over 1,000 vid-clips available for viewing/download, with over 100 of them being straight music videos. Like many of the best things on the internet (superdickery.com, anyone?) I discovered Ayu completely by accident, and since then have been converted to the Eastern musicology she has presented. Her lyrics can be powerful (“Hanabi episode II”), playful(“Angel’s Song”) and always melodic(“No Way to Say”). Many of her best videos are directed by frequent collaborator Wataru Takeishi. Many foreign artists, Japanese and others, have tried crossing over to American radio/video with mixed blessings. However, Ayumi Hamasaki once stated in the midst of a power struggle between her manager and her own label, Avex Trax, that whatever her manager does, she would do too. This led to an end of the struggle as the label exec was forced to resign. With this type of clout in her own country(it’s been estimated that Ayu is responsible—singularly—for as much as 40% of Avex’s revenue), I honestly believe that if the triple threat of Ayu, Matsuura and Takeishi chose to make inroads to American music, they would be a nearly instant hit and a significant trendsetter in the future course of pop music and several other genres, which have become static and worn in the last few years, as evidenced by sagging disc sales which continue to diminish each year.

As we all know, American top 40 has become stagnant within the last decade. Radio stations play the same five songs over and over each day. The recent payola scandal, wherein music execs were forced to admit under Federal inquiry that yes, they do indeed present monetary and other types of bonuses to said stations to keep specific songs “in rotation”, has sent shockwaves through the music industry. I can personally attest to this


fact, having once worked as a music buyer for Tower Records in New York. There were many times when record reps would offer me free tickets to events, promo cuts of unreleased albums and other manner of incentive to hopefully influence what was played in the store and how many of certain titles I bought. It’s one reason why I was one of the first to be offered a recording of Prince’s “Black Album” when it was truly a bootleg(nearly a decade before the CD was legitimately released to the public).

There are very few artists left who refuse to allow the music industry to tell them what kind of music they have to create or even how to market it. Prince is one of the modern “underground” artists, releasing albums first via website only, then with one-album limited contracts with various record companies. U2 chose to give a free concert at Pier 17 one night, the event coming to light through word of mouth only…unheard of for any artist. Because these artists are radically different from their contemporaries, this is one of the main reasons they’re still around. They don’t wait for their fans or anyone else to tell them what to make; they tell others what to expect—the unexpected. You take it or leave it, they’re fine either way. Ayumi Hamasaki, with the continued support and guidance of her manager, could certainly become one of these artists on the American scene, as she has done so in her native Japan. She is the breath of fresh air music fans of all types—rock, soul, hip-hop and even classical—have been dying for, and didn’t know it. Check out Youtube. Try out her videos for “Alterna”, “Step You” and “Is This Love”. If you need further convincing of the raw energy charging through her music, try out “Ourselves”. You’ll be convinced, just as I was.

Ayumi Hamasaki. American music needs you. Come on over, baby.