Ayumi Hamasaki Totally Explained

Everything about Ayumi Hamasaki totally explained

, born October 2, 1978, is a Japanese singer-songwriter and former actress. Also known as "Ayu" to her fans, Hamasaki has been dubbed the "Empress of pop" or "the Empress of J-Pop" due to her popularity and widespread influence in Japan. Born and raised in Fukuoka, Hamasaki moved to Tokyo at the age of fourteen to pursue a career in entertainment. In 1998, Hamasaki, under the tutelage of Avex CEO Max Matsuura, released a string of modestly performing singles that concluded with her 1999 debut album A Song for XX. The album debuted atop the Oricon charts (Japan's primary music charts, similar to the Billboard charts) and held that position for four weeks in a row, establishing Hamasaki's popularity in Japan. She is also the first Japanese artist to have her first original eight studio albums top the Oricon charts, as well as the Japanese female artist with the most number-one singles, most Top 10 singles, highest singles sales, and most million-seller singles (this record for most million-seller singles is shared with band Pink Lady and fellow J-pop singers Namie Amuro and Hikaru Utada.)

Life and music career

Childhood and early endeavors

Hamasaki was born in Fukuoka Prefecture and raised by her mother and grandmother, as her father had left the family when she was three and never came into contact with her since. As her mother was always working, Hamasaki's grandmother became her primary caretaker.
Hamasaki began her modeling career at the age of seven, modeling locally for institutions such as banks to earn money for the family. At the age of fourteen, she moved from Fukuoka to Tokyo to take various modeling stints as well as acting jobs in such productions as doramas like Miseinen and b-movies like Gakko II and Ladys Ladys!! Soucho Saigo no Hi. She didn't meet with much success in these endeavors: she was deemed by her talent agency as too short to be a model, and the projects she acted in were not well-received by the general public. Shortly afterwards, Hamasaki left high school. A high school dropout with no job, she spent much of her time shopping at Shibuya boutiques and dancing at Velfarre, an Avex-owned disco club. However, A Song for XX held the top position of the Oricon charts for five weeks straight and eventually went on to sell over a million copies. The accomplishments of A Song for XX established Hamasaki's popularity in Japan.
With the release of ayu-mi-x (1999), the first of a set of remix albums, Hamasaki began moving beyond the pop-rock styles that had defined A Song for XX and began to incorporate various styles into her music, including trance, dance, and orchestra. Most of the singles released later that year contained dance tunes; it proved to be a sagacious decision, as Hamasaki earned her first number-one single and her first million-selling single. Owing to the success of its singles, Loveppears (1999), Hamasaki's second studio album, became even more of a commercial success than its predecessor: it held the top position on the Oricon charts and went on to sell nearly 3 million copies.

2000–2002: Commercial peak

In sharp contrast with Loveppears, Duty (2000), Hamasaki's third studio album, only contained one upbeat dance track—"Audience."
The following year, Avex forced Hamasaki to release her first compilation album, A Best, on March 28, putting the album in direct competition with "rival" singer Hikaru Utada's sophomore studio album, Distance. The "competition" between the two singers (which both Hamasaki and Utada claimed was merely a creation of their record companies and the media) was supposedly the reason for the success of the albums, with A Best and Distance becoming the two best-selling albums of the year. Hamasaki's personal life underwent changes as well: she and Tomoya Nagase, her boyfriend since her acting days, went public with their relationship in the fall. (In fact, of the singles that I am... spawned—"M," "evolution," "Never Ever," "Endless Sorrow," "Unite!," "Dearest," "Daybreak," and "a song is born"—all save for "a song is born" were composed by Hamasaki herself.) I am... was also an evolution in Hamasaki's lyrical style: the album was a retreat from the themes of "loneliness and confusion" which had characterized some of her earlier songs. Following the September 11 attacks, Hamasaki, affected by the events, revised her vision of I am..., focusing on issues such as faith and world peace in her lyrics. "A song is born," in particular, was directly influenced by the events; Hamasaki also revised the album cover, dropping the planned cover and opting instead to be portrayed as a "peace muse," explaining, and a short movie, Tsuki ni Shizumu, was used as the music video for "Voyage." Finally, Avex launched a promotional campaign for Rainbow in which those who bought the album online could access a password-protected website that featured a part of the instrumental version of the title track "Rainbow", which didn't appear on the album.

2003–2006: Decline in sales

In April, Hamasaki, under the moniker "Ayu", released her first European single, "Connected", a trance song composed by DJ Ferry Corsten that had previously appeared on Hamasaki's album I am.... The single was released in Germany under the Drizzly label and in Belgium under the label Lightning Records; in both countries "Connected" was released on 12" vinyl EPs. Succeeding "Connected", Hamasaki continued to release singles (all of which were remixes of previously released songs) in Germany under Drizzly until 2005. Memorial Address, like its predecessors, reached the top spot on the Oricon chart and became an RIAJ-certified million-seller. The sales of Hamasaki's singles began to wane, however: "&" was Hamasaki's last single to sell over 500,000 copies.
   In August of 2004, a feud between Max Matsuura and Avex's then-chairman Tom Yoda, regarding Avex's business practices, created division that caused Matsuura and Ryuhei Chiba (president of talent-agency subsidiary Axev) to temporarily resign. However, when Hamasaki along with other Avex performers, including Koda Kumi and Exile, expressed their support for Matsuura, saying that they'd follow Matsuura, fears arose that Avex would lose its top performers, fears that led to the sixteen-percent decline in Avex's stock prices by the end of August 2. Avex then immediately held a meeting with Matsuura and Chiba, and by August 3, Avex released a statement saying that Matsuura and Chiba had decided to withdraw their resignations. On the same day, Avex disclosed that Yoda had stepped down from his position as CEO.
   By the end of her Arena Tour 2003-2004, Hamasaki had become dissatisfied with her position in Avex: she felt that the company was treating her as a product instead of a person. Consequently, she began to perceive herself as an “alien” or a “robot.” That, along with her dissatisfaction with her previous two studio albums (feeling that they'd been rushed jobs), led her to begin work on My Story (2004) early. In contrast with Hamasaki's previous albums, My Story had no set theme to it, nor did Hamasaki attempt to write “something good” or even “something that would give people hope”; rather, she “simply wrote honestly.” However, songs of other styles appeared on the album as well; “Honey” was, according to Hamasaki, a “silly song,” while "Carols,” a single, was a piano-driven ballad. My Story and its singles, “Moments,” “Inspire,” and “Carols,” all topped the weekly Oricon charts; moreover, My Story became another RIAJ-certified million-seller. From January to April of the following year, Hamasaki held the nation-wide Ayumi Hamasaki Arena Tour 2005 ~MY STORY~, her first tour based on an album. additionally, Hamasaki rewrote most of the lyrics. While My Story had been dominated by rock songs, (miss)understood yielded a spectrum of musical styles that encompassed pop, R&B, and rock. "Bold & Delicious," the last single from the album, was a funk-infused dance track that utilized a gospel chorus; the preceding single, "Heaven" was an "ethereal" ballad that made prominent use of the piano; and "Criminal" was a "dark rock song." (miss)understood also set various records for Hamasaki: "Bold & Delicious" became Hamasaki's twenty-fifth number-one single, thus tying her with Seiko Matsuda for the record of most number-one singles by a solo female artist; (miss)understood's first-day sales of 650,000 placed the album not only on the top position of the Oricon but also the United World Chart, a first for Hamasaki. However, (miss)understood became Hamasaki's first studio album that failed to sell at least a million copies. Following the release of (miss)understood, Hamasaki embarked on the Ayumi Hamasaki Arena Tour 2006 ~(miss)understood~ in March, which spanned three months with its thirty concerts, the first in Saitama on March 11, 2006 and its last at Yoyogi on June 11, 2006.
   "Secrets" was, appropriately, the theme of Hamasaki's eighth studio album, Secret (2006). In addition to secrets, the album also explored the topic of strong female figures and "painted pictures of love." The title track "Secret", the song "until that Day", and the ballad "Jewel" all depicted the artist's struggles, while "Beautiful Fighters" along with "1 LOVE" were "cheer songs for girls"; additionally, "1 LOVE" and "Jewel" were songs about love. Although the album was originally intended to be a mini-album, one day, during production, Hamasaki "began brimming with things to say" and wrote five additional songs. Hamasaki was enthusiastic over the result and declared it her "best album ever." The album also reached the number-one spot on the Oricon weekly charts, making Hamasaki the only artist to have her first eight studio albums top the Oricon weekly charts. Hamasaki's sales, however, continued to flag: Secret became Hamasaki's first original studio album to fail to become an RIAJ-certified million-seller.

2007–2008: Foray into Asia

On February 28, 2007, Hamasaki released a series of compilation albums titled A Best 2, which contained songs from her albums I am... to (miss)understood and came in two versions, -Black- and -White-. On their first week of release, the two A Best 2 albums held the number-one and number-two positions on the Oricon and the United World Chart, making Hamasaki not only the first female artist in thirty-six years to hold the top two positions on the Oricon album charts, but also the only artist ever to hold the top two positions on the United World Charts with her albums. By the end of 2007, A Best 2 -White- and A Best 2 -Black- became Japan's fifth and seventh best-selling albums of the year, respectively.
   Following the release of A Best 2, Hamasaki held the four-month-long Tour of Secret from March to the end of June, and performed not only in Japan but also in Taiwan, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, making Tour of Secret her first tour held outside Japan. As a result, the concerts became highly anticipated, and tickets for the Taiwan concert sold out in less than two hours; tickets for her Hong Kong concert sold out in less than three hours.
   By July 2007, rumors of a possibility of marriage for Hamasaki and Nagase began circulating through the Japanese media, nearly six years after the couple had gone public with their relationship. On July 13, 2007, however, Hamasaki announced that she and Nagase broke up, ending their seven-year-long relationship. Hamasaki announced the split on her website, saying that she'd "broken off with my lover." Shortly after the break-up was announced, Hamasaki revealed that she and Nagase were no longer living together. The split, which came as a surprise, as reporters had speculated that Hamasaki and Nagase would wed, prompted various rumors among Japanese media speculating the cause of the split. Hamasaki, however, has yet to confirm a reason. Most of the tracks on Guilty were dark; the album had a notable rock tinge, as had many of Hamasaki's antecedent albums. The album contained a number of ballads, such as "Marionette" and "untitled ~for her~", though these also had rock overtones. However, a number of Hamasaki's trademark "upbeat dance" tracks, such as "glitter", appeared toward the end of the album. With first-week sales of around 432,000 copies, Guilty peaked at the number-two position on the weekly Oricon charts, making it Hamasaki's first studio album to fail to obtain the top position. The singles the album yielded, however—two physical singles ("glitter/fated" and "talkin' 2 myself") and Hamasaki's first digital-only single, "Together When..."—all achieved the top position of their respective weekly charts; with over 1,000,000 downloads sold, "Together When..." also climbed to the top of the monthly download charts, a first for Hamasaki. A short film, 距愛～Distance Love～ was used as the music video for "glitter" and "fated." The film, shot in Hong Kong, co-starred Hong Kong actor Shawn Yue as Hamasaki's romantic interest. Finally, Guilty was later re-released as a digital album in twenty-six countries outside Japan, nineteen of which were western nations. That, along with Hamasaki's decision to employ western DJs such as Armand van Helden for her 2008 remix albums ayu-mi-x 6 -GOLD- and ayu-mi-x 6 -SILVER-, has been interpreted as Hamasaki's first step into a global market.
   In a January 8, 2008 entry on her TeamAyu blog, Hamasaki revealed that she'd become completely deaf in her left ear, and that the condition is inoperable. Hamasaki revealed in a statement that she'd been diagnosed with deafness in 2006, and that the problem (possibly tinnitus or Meniere's Disease) dated back to 2000. After news of her hearing loss broke, Avex experienced a thirteen-yen decrease in its stock price. Despite the setbacks, Hamasaki stated that she wished to continue singing, saying that she'd "not give up" on her fans and that "as a professional", she'd like to "deliver the best performance for everyone." Hamasaki's latest single, "Mirrorcle World", was released on April 8, 2008. To commemorate Hamasaki's tenth anniversary in the music industry, the single was released in two versions, one containing "You" as its second B-side and the other containing "Depend on You" as its second B-side; both versions, however, contain "Life" as a b-side. "Mirrorcle World" became yet another number-one single for Hamasaki, making her the only Japanese female solo artist to have a number-one single every year for ten consecutive years.

Image and artistry

The influence of Hamasaki's music, sometimes considered one of the major forces in shaping Japan's current music trends, Hamasaki has a "sizable [following] across Asia" and is one of the few Japanese singers whose albums have sold over 10,000 copies in Singapore. Additionally, her album A Best 2 -White- became the best-selling Japanese or Korean album of the year in Taiwan. Because of the widespread influence of her music, Hamasaki has often been compared to Madonna, whom Hamasaki cites as one of her influences,
As Hamasaki isn't a professional composer, she frequently employs others to compose her songs. As she explained, "I'm not a professional; I lack even basic knowledge about writing music." However, when she was writing her song "M", she felt that none of the melodies composed by her staff appealed to her, and she decided to compose the melody herself.
Hamasaki's lyrics, all of which are written solely by herself, have resonated among her fans, who praise the "honest and profound nature" of her lyrics. Hamasaki, who explained that she's trouble voicing her thoughts, found an outlet in writing, stating that she drew from "[her] own and [her] friends' experiences" as well as her own emotions, the latter which she tries to express honestly in words. In an interview with TIME, she explained that "in the beginning" she "was searching for [herself] in [her] music", adding,

Other activities

In addition to serving as background music for television advertisements, some of Hamasaki's songs have been used as themes for video games and film productions such as television shows and motion pictures. "Depend on You" and its b-side "Two of Us" were used as the opening and ending theme, respectively, of the video game Thousand Arms, while the video game used "Startin'" and "Rainy Day" as its opening and ending theme, respectively. The dorama My Little Chef featured "Voyage" as its theme, while the anime InuYasha featured "Dearest." Finally, Hamasaki's songs "Heaven", "Secret", and "fated" have been used as the themes for the movies, Confession of Pain, and Kaidan, respectively.
On October 12, 2002, Fuji Television began airing "Ayuready?", a half-hour-long talk show hosted by Hamasaki. The weekly show, airing on Saturday nights from 11:30 P.M. to 12:00 A.M., often featured Hamasaki performing songs with the guests, among whom were Goto Maki, PUFFY, and Akina Nakamori. After less than two years on the air, "Ayu Ready?" ended, its last episode airing in March 2004. Also in 2002, Hamasaki began releasing Ayupan, a line of merchandise (mainly figurines) featuring stylized versions of herself. In 2007, Hamasaki and Sanrio collaborated, creating a line of merchandise called Ayumi HamasakixHello Kitty; the products, featuring Ayupan and Hello Kitty together, were sold at Hamasaki's 2007 tour ayumi hamasaki ASIA TOUR 2007 ~Tour of Secret~ and also online at mu-mo.net. The merchandise consisted of cell phone straps and Lumix cameras adorned with a depiction of Hello Kitty peeking out from behind Hamasaki's "A" insignia; the former product was a result of a collaboration with Sanrio and Japanese fashion brand Ash & Diamonds, while the latter was a collaboration with Sanrio and Panasonic.

Selected discography

Original studio albums

1995: Nothing from Nothing
1999: A Song for XX
1999: Loveppears
2000: Duty
2002: I am...
2002: Rainbow
2003: Memorial address (Mini-Album)
2004: My Story
2006: (miss)understood
2006: Secret
2008: Guilty

Compilation albums

2001: A Best

2002: A Ballads

2007: A Best 2 -Black-

2007: A Best 2 -White-

DVDs

1999: A Film for ××

2000: A clips

2002: A clips vol.2

2002: tsuki ni shizumu

2002: ayumi hamasaki COMPLETE LIVE BOX A

2002: COMPLETE CLIP BOX

2007: Distance Love

Concerts

Year	Title	Format
2000	ayumi hamasaki concert tour 2000 A 第1幕	VHS, DVD, VCD
2000	ayumi hamasaki concert tour 2000 A 第2幕	VHS, DVD, VCD
2000-2001	ayumi hamasaki COUNTDOWN LIVE 2000-2001 A	VHS, DVD, VCD
2001	ayumi hamasaki DOME TOUR 2001 A	VHS, DVD, VCD
2001-2002	ayumi hamasaki COUNTDOWN LIVE 2001-2002 A	VHS, DVD, VCD
2002	ayumi hamasaki ARENA TOUR 2002 A	VHS, DVD, VCD
2002	ayumi hamasaki STADIUM TOUR 2002 A	VHS, DVD, VCD
2002-2003	ayumi hamasaki COUNTDOWN LIVE 2002-2003 A	DVD, VCD
2003-2004	ayumi hamasaki ARENA TOUR 2003-2004 A	DVD, VCD
2004	ayumi hamasaki A museum ～30th single collection live～	DVD, VCD
2004-2005	ayumi hamasaki COUNTDOWN LIVE 2004-2005 A	DVD, VCD
2005	ayumi hamasaki ARENA TOUR 2005 A ～MY STORY～	DVD, VCD
2005-2006	ayumi hamasaki COUNTDOWN LIVE 2005-2006 A	DVD, VCD
2006	ayumi hamasaki ARENA TOUR 2006 A ～(miss)understood～	DVD, VCD
2006-2007	ayumi hamasaki COUNTDOWN LIVE 2006-2007 A	DVD, VCD
2007	ayumi hamasaki ASIA TOUR 2007 A ～Tour of Secret～ "LIVE + DOCUMENTARY"	DVD

Filmography

Twins Teacher (1993)

Battle spirits ryûko no ken (1993)

Sumomo mo momo (1995)

Miseinen (1995)

Like Grains of Sand (1995)

Gakko II (1996)

Footnotes

a. "Connected", a single composed by Ferry Corsten, isn't considered by Avex as part of Hamasaki's official discography, as the single was released under Drizzly Records. However, "Connected" appeared on I am...

b. The official title of this movie is 月に沈む (written in kanji and hiragana.) However, the title is sometimes written in its romanized form, Tsuki ni Shizumu.

c. Two of Hamasaki's songs released prior to Rainbow, "Love ~since 1999~" and "Audience" incorporated English lyrics. However, the lyrics of "Love ~since 1999~" were not written by Hamasaki, and the only English that "Audience" comprises is the sporadic use of "Yes"; therefore, these songs are usually not counted among Hamasaki's songs which incorporate English.

d. It is disputed whether (miss)understood or My Story should be considered Hamasaki's last million-selling album, as the RIAJ lists (miss)understood as a million-seller, while the Oricon claims that (miss)understood sold just under 900,000 copies. However, it should be noted that the RIAJ's certification is based on the number of albums shipped to stores, while the Oricon gathers its tallies from the retailers themselves.

e. Hamasaki's first-week sales were the highest for that week (the first week of January.) However, Oricon's year only has fifty-one weeks—the first and second week of the year are combined. Kobukuro's sales for the combined two weeks were slightly higher than Hamasaki's, giving them the number-one position.

f. For a comprehensive list of Hamasaki's Avex-sanctioned remixes released in Japan, see Hamasaki's discography at mu-mo.net

g. This is according to MSN. If the claims of the tabloid The Sun are to be trusted, the production costs of the video for George Michael's "Freeek" were around one million pounds (nearly two million U.S. dollars), making Hamasaki the second non-American with such a distinction.

h. The symbol in question is this one: . It is pronounced "A" and is used either as a substitute for the letter a or to represent Hamasaki's name. In fact, the titles of five albums, Rainbow, A Best, A Ballads, A Best 2 -White-, and A Best 2 -Black- utilize this symbol; the proper titles of these albums are RINBOW, Best, Ballads, Best 2 -White-, and Best 2 -Black-, respectively.

i. All records and charting positions in this article apply only to Japan or Japan's Oricon charts unless otherwise stated.