Ayumi Hamasaki
 

Has any one here herd of Hamasaki Ayumi????

Yes, she can't sing.

yeah i think tons of people would have heard of her coz she is really popular. Personally i like her music but i dont love it, gets kinda boring after a while....she also remixes to much, some songs have been remixed as much as 26 times!:twitch: overkill!

Sure I've heard of her; she was much bigger news 2 or 3 years ago. Now she is so famous that you never hear about her anymore.

edit: what's the topic?

As for my opinion on Ayu, she sounds like a chipmunk. She can't really sing, and she puts out horrible singles. (Her last... well.. 7 have been utter crap and 2003 had no good songs for her whatsoever) However, when she does put out the occaisonal good song, it blows up, and it blows up BIG. Take Evolution. I can't think of anyone who I made listen to the song that didn't like it. Although her 'woah yeah' had to get some used to.

Her live performances are a hit and miss. If we have a decent sounding live, we're lucky. Lyric writing, yes, she writes, but the songs are simple. Utada Hikaru is a better lyricist than she is. But what do I expect? She's an idol. She's just supposed to stand there and look pretty. But Namie Amuro is prettier than she is. :P Although next PV I predict she does a 'Xtina' and goes all slut, just like Koda Kumi. After all, in her last PV she was a hooker-rocker in a song that was as pop as it could get.

Heh, as you can tell, I don't really like Ayu.

[edit] The topic is to get us to talk about Ayu so Akumaru can brag about how he is her 'cousin'. Don't pay any attention to him. I have a feeling I've seen him on other boards before....

Note: renamed the thread "Ayumi Hamasaki? Voice out your opinion" (was: Hamsaki Ayumi) to give it a real topic of discussion.

I love Her Songs ^-^..IMO She's Great =)...

Ayumi Hamasaki.... well.... i have mixed feelings. Her voice is decent, though it is nothing to brag about. Her apearance.... well let's just say i agree with Chiaki Nozomi. As for her songs, well, they are ok, but i wouldn't listen to them on my free time/ go out of my way to buy her cds. I'v seen the ocasional MV of Ayumi, and frankly speaking, never watched one till the end.

Don't get me wrong, i don't hate here, though i don't realy like her either. Though some of my friends' opinions are "WAGH, AYUMI AER TEH ROCKZ0R", i just can't really put my finger on what turns me off about her.

Ayumi is quite hot around Asia, maybe died down a little due to the Korean Craze running around. But, I'm still quite suprised to see so many negative comments about her. She may sound like a chipmunk, but doesn't SPEED and other girls sound similar? :p

Actually I'm quite neutral about her, some songs I like (mostly older ones), some songs I don't (mostly newer ones). As mentioned, her songs do get repetitive after some time and I never tried listening to her remixes as I believe they are not better. :heh:

One thing that's worth mentioning is her multiple image change where she never fails to suprise/scare me. One moment she can be a sultry leopard girl (Surreal) and another time she is the divine goddess (I am). In this, she is much like the Madonna western listeners are used to. I believe that is also one of the reason she became this big, in the eyes of Japanese fangirls, she's all style and fashion goddess.

Btw, nice to meet you Akumeru. I'm Nagase, your cousin-in-law. :heh:

Yeah shes good. I just downloaded like 300 songs of hers. I mean 3 songs, yay thats it. Personally my favorite is the mega european mix & company. That song is tight. And er, can't think of the name of the song right now but its a remix song (original remix) and the ending is really good.

i love ayumi's music, style, and mega-cute abilities..
i enjoy her new stuff more than her old stuff though, Ourselves and Real Me are two of my favorites.

Ayu trance (both volumes) are especially good, and regardless of what anyone says, i thought Rainbow was an excellent album ^^

Ayu... I don't quite like her. It took me a long while to finally enjoy listening to her songs. For one thing, she does sound like a chipmunk but that's not the thing that deters me from her songs. She just can't sing. At least not Hikki level. SPEED can't sing too! Was it 'Hey Hey Hey!' ? I forget... but they had Hiro singing one of Glay's slower songs... and it was terrible.

As for Korean craze... I think Ayu kept her own during the Korean craze two-three years ago, but now that many of the old groups faded out (H.O.T., Shinhwa, Sech Kies, S.E.S. to name a few)... there's not much of a Korean craze anymore. FttS, G.O.D., and Baby Vox are still good ... FinKL is alright... but really... it was H.O.T. that gave KPOP life. Kang Ta by himself can't rejuvenate SM Entertainment. In fact, JTL is doing better.

Then you have Boa... and hey... I like Boa's music much more than Ayu's! But her Chinese is mediocre.

I think she's pretty damn hot, but the only song by her that I really liked was "Fly High".

Actually I just know that the Japan entertainment industry was badly hit by the Korean craze these few years. Not sure who's involved as I watch a few Korean dramas and movies only. I'm not every much into their music, though I admit that the Korean guys sing very nice ballets. I do know however about H.O.T's breakup but shouldn't BoA be the main threat to Ayumi? :p

I like her songs, i have lots of em, far away is my most liked one...

But well, i think Utada Hikaru is better...
SES is very good too... but their song titels are mostly just too happy for my mood, lol

Yes,she's ok.

The only Ayu song I like would be Fly High euro mix. Hehe. Hikki should be Ayu's threat but she's been out for quite some while and it'll take a couple singles to give her enough momentum to become a craze. H.O.T. is the group that sparked the Korean craze. Because of them, we got Fly to the Sky and Shinhwa. Besides, it was their dancing that Boa took upon. If you didn't notice, look back at Boa's Id Peace b and you might see some resemblance. It only makes me think they used the same dance choreographer. Right now, Boa's not quite a threat. At least I don't think she is. Her songs are nice, but she hasn't matched up with S.E.S.' flexibility, and her Japanese is still so so. I don't think Ayu has to worry... as long as she keeps up her chipmunk voice and her pretty face, she won't have to worry. The remixes will always save her career. ^_^

I think she is somewhat talented. My favorite song would be the 3rd ending for Inu Yasha - "Dearest" the acoustic version.

I tend to not throw full-on adoration at jpop singers (barring a few exceptions like Mikuni Shimokawa :love: ) as it usually comes down to the music of the song and not the lyrics or the voice. Not understanding Japanese takes away the need to please me lyric wise, and a lot of jpop singers sound similar to me. So there are a lot of Ayu songs I like, but even more I don't like. Like I said it usually comes down to how catchy or cute the music seems to me.

I luv her music. shes 1 of my fav singers :D. i like most her songs, some melodies are a little weird but i like her overall style and her lyrics actually are meaningful. :D her style incorporates a little of everything and i like it.

Well, i pretty much like Ayumi Hamasaki's songs, although i don't know japanese apart from a few words here and there, so lyrics do not bother me. I have gone off her though recently as the songs do become repetitive such as evolution although there are still songs i enjoy although such as fly high and dearest. Looks wise, i didn't think she was that good looking in the place so thats not necessarily the attraction for me. Only got her albums and living in UK, never heard her sing live (no channels to watch her sing live either), so i can't comment on that.

Overall i quite like the stuff she does though

I've heard of her. She sings lots of inuyasha songs..not alot but to me, she does.. :) I think the best of her songs are Trust, Rainbow, and Immature. Ayumi's okay, but she's not so great. I still think she's good though.:hmm:

Ayu's popularity seems to have taken a nosedive as of late. She's still selling well, but not in the quantity she did 3 or 4 years ago. Her songs are getting repetitive, her last album sucked and for some reason, people like BoA are catching up with her. Maybe people are starting to despair with her nasal voice, hehe.

I liked some of Ayu's music, stuff like Dearest and Evolution were brilliant but like most of Jpop nowadays, she's boorrinng. Namie Amuro, Mika Nakashima, Koda Kumi? pfft. Come back Hikki, we need you.

Ayu's okay . . . but her over remixing-ness annoys me. A lot. I mean, I go and buy the Inu-Yasha Theme Song Collection CD (the first one that has everything through Owaranai Yume) and like, half of it is remixes of Dearest!!!! Granted, I don't mind the song (I sing it whenever I go karaokeing with my boyfriend) but it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many versions of one song! You can only listen to it so many times before the tune gets annoying! And in my opinion, BoA is better, even better than Utada Hikaru. Somehow, I don't really like her [Utada Hikaru's] voice. Amuro Namie's good, too; I'd probably rank her higher than Ayu as well. Although I don't think she's quite as good as Every Little Thing.

~ Kurama no Miko2003

P.S.: LiQuid|J, isn't Mikuni Shimokawa the one who sang the OP/ED for FMP and FMP Fumoffu?

Japan entertainment industry hit hard by the Korean craze? Where did u hear that? I've never heard of anything popular coming out of Korea. As far as I know and I've read the New York Times on this, the Japanese entertainment industry is the second most popular in the world.

Although I do know about a Korean horror movie called two sisters or something.

Speaking of which I know Ayumi Hamasaki and I don't like her either. Her number in the Inuyasha ending theme is pretty lame. I'm more into Do As Infinity and Porno Graffiti.

I like some of her songs, Evolution and Too Late are my fave but I agree that she doesn´t really have a great voice, it´s specially notorious in her live appearances. I will always think Hikki is way way better ^^

I don't know much of the details, but somehow it happened. More like Asia being hit with the Korean craze, including Japan. Legions of overseas fans just came out of nowhere to embrace their new found Korean idols.

Korean movies like Joint Security Area, Friends, My Sassy Girl; Korean albums from H.O.T, Shinhwa and of course BoA; Korean drama serial like Autumn in My Heart, All about Eve, Winter Sonata... the craze was everywhere. HongKong film So Close had one of Korea's A-list Actor as a supporting actor and there were joint venture movies between Japan and Korea like Go and 2009: Lost Memories. You know, the main market for Japanese entertainment is still Japan itself. Outside of Japan, J-anything was just not hip anymore.

Let's not foget that Korea co-hosted the 2002 World Cup and came in fourth in the tournament. While people are contesting whether they got that far because they were the host, it doesn't stop newly self-proclaimed female soccer fans from screaming over Ahn Jung-hwan, Korea's very own soccer Beckham (Yes, Ahn has a beautiful wife too). Hell, more people were visting Korea after the World Cup and after seeing the beautiful sceneries in shows particularly Winter Sonata.

All of the stuff you mentioned except for the soccer part eludes me. But I never meant to put Korea down in any way. If their entertainment industry is skyrocketing, I may not know much about it since I don't live in Asia. Although you know, outside of Asia, namely Europe, the Japanese soccer players are more reknowned. Ah, what am I bragging about. Maybe its coz I'm a bit of a Japanese culture freak. It's not like I'm Japanese though, I'm just studying Japanese.

I think to say that the Japanese entertainment is having a downturn is a little off. Last year, their total income was the highest ever and not far behind from the US entertainment industry. You can probably make the case that anything Korean is hip in Asia, but everything Japanese is still catching on around Globe.

I found this article from the Washington Post that confirms my beliefs:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Dec26.html

Also, lemme guess, your avatar is of a Korean actress? She's pretty cute.

Not sure about the reports, but what you say make sense then, the Korean wave might be having its little party in Asia but elsewhere they could be still obscured. Well I know the British were into Bollywood some time back with Curve it like Beckham and The Guru. Americans were more into Jap culture with recent movies like Last Samurai, Lost in Translations and of course the anime we are watching. :heh:

I live in Asia, that could be why I felt the direct heat from Korea. You could say that the craze has died off a little but IMO the Korean heatwave would be here to stay. For awhile, there were even no J-dorama showing on my local TV station. All of them were replaced with Korean drama. The fact is, its cheaper to acquire licenses for Korean shows and broadcasters were just happy to swim along with the wave.

Anyway, I watch some Korean drama/movies, admire some Korean actresses, like some Korean ballads. But hey that's all. Don't mistaken, I'm not a Korean culture geek. I was actually pretty sad when I couldn't see Jap drama on TV. Well things now are slightly better, but Japan will have to share the limelight with Korea from now on. :

Btw, my avatar is a Taiwanese actress and yeah I like her cause she's cute. :love:

I love her music. Ayu Trance and Rainbow both have some awesome songs on them. She might not be as good as Megumi or Natalie, to me. But she's still awesome.

ayumi hamasaki "ourselves"
 

Ayumi Hamasaki looks absolutely amazing in her video for the song "ourselves". I'm trying to find some high quality pics/wallpapers of her in the goth outfit. If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it ^_^

*drool* goth ayu.. :innocent:

A goth Ayu??? Intresting I must see this ^^ . I dont have any pics of her though. Hobobaggins pbly does though.

Woo I like that song! Goth Ayu wasnt all that bad either ^^. I could do without that black make up around her eyes though.

:D of course i do

:D

:dots: why wouldnt i?

:uhoh:

i think they know! run!

Hook me up and I'll be your best friend :P

http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/acute/hobo.jpg

i think they should have it.

:confused:

Who's they?

small frog/nanokiero.

This belongs in the Music forum.