Ayumi Hamasaki
Next to Utada Hikaru, I’d say Ayumi Hamasaki is second although many would beg to differ that Ayumi is first and so on. But let’s not getting into a pissing contest, let’s get into details of this talented singer.
Ayumi Hamasaki is a Japanese pop singer. She is one of the most prolific and influential Japanese pop singers in Japanese music history, and is dubbed “the Empress of J-Pop”.
Since her debut in 1998 with her first single “poker face”, she has sold more than 46 million copies, with the releases of her eight full-length studio albums, one mini-album, two compilation albums, 40 singles, and several non-studio albums, being the top selling solo and female artist and the fourth top selling Japanese artist in the history of Japan.[1] With the release of her 40th single “Blue Bird”, Hamasaki’s single sales have passed the 20 million mark, making her the first solo and female singer to do so.[2]
With the release of her 39th single “Startin’ / Born To Be…” in 2006, Hamasaki became the first female singer to have 27 #1 singles (the most #1 singles a Japanese female artist has ever achieved) and 38 singles in the Top 10 of the Japanese Oricon charts. She has 15 consecutive #1 singles to date (starting from “Free & Easy”). Hamasaki is also the first Japanese artist to have her first original eight studio albums top the charts.
Ayumi has also won the Grand Prix at the Japan Record Taishou (the Japanese equivalent of the Grammys) three times in a row, from 2001–2003. She refused to be nominated in 2004 due to the Avex-Matsuura incident (see My Story era in Ayumi’s wikipedia profile). Ayumi Hamasaki no longer accepts awards. Oh well. I guess she did what she thought is right.
Anyway let’s look at some of her video clips:
Videoclip for the song, Dearest
Videoclip for Fairyland
Videoclip for AngelSong
Frankly, I prefer Utada Hikaru to Ayumi anytime. I cannot appreciate her voice - it’s just too uhm…whiney. Oh don’t hate me Ayumi Fans :P
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February 11th, 2007 at 4:38 am
Hi there, I love this website and visit it often, so great job to all of you who run it.
Anyway, I am a fan, and I have to say it’s not easy to ignore Ayu’s success. I can easily see why she’s dubbed ‘The Empress of J-Pop’, with all she’s achieved. Although, I don’t think she fully recongises her international fanbase.
True, she’s starting to open up with her first ever Asia Tour this March and forward, but she has so many fans outside of Asia it’s truly impossible to measure the amount. I myself am from the UK, and belong to at least two internet forums with thousands of fans from outside Asia. It would be nice to see Avex let her experiment a little with her popularity, though she seems to do this in her ‘Bold and Delicious’ music video.
One thing I would also say is that her albums cost quite a sum of money, not just to export. Since her ‘Moments’ single she’s begun to relase both her singles and albums as CD+DVD sets. Other artists do this too, but not so much as Ayu. At the end of this month, Ayu is releasing a massive A BEST 2 album, with a black version and a white version, both CD + 2DVDs (limited editions). This will cost be around £45/$80, yikes!
I think it’s down to Avex’s marketing strategies. They want the customer to spend all this money, and I think they cost the average consumer quite a sum of money. You can still buy the normal CD versions, but you are often rewarded with a few little extras for buying the DVD versions (such as posters), so it’s as if Avex is saying “You don’t have to buy the full versions, but we’d really like you to anyway!”
Anyway, sorry for the long comment, a very good article, thank you for the read.
December 25th, 2007 at 3:41 am
I do like Utada better. I don’t think Ayumi’s music (like beats and stuff) is a good as Utada’s. I do like love-refrained, rainy day, heaven, and butterfly by Ayumi Hamasaki.