[Article] "Why Japanese pop matters" Featuring Ayumi Hamasaki

This article written by an English writer from Guardian.co.uk, an online UK News and Ayu mentioned as one of the Japanese pop act who has given influences to the western as well.

Why Japanese pop matters
Eclectic, wide-ranging and unpredictable, some female stars of the orient's hippest country deserve to be seen and heard in the west

Ayumi Hamasaki

She may be declining in popularity, relevance and quality, but Ayumi Hamasaki is still the undisputed Queen of J-Pop, and it will be a long while before anyone can surpass her. She is as famous in Japan as Madonna is in the west – her face is plastered all over Tokyo. She's a chameleonic style icon whose innocent pop-princess image has never taken a turn for the oversexed, though she's often used cosmetic surgery. Musically, she has married accessible, mainstream hits with over-the-top costumes and high-concept videos long before Lady Gaga did. And most of the time her music is very good.

Hamasaki's lyrics and delivery – she has an earnest, unpolished singing voice – project a vulnerability that makes her songs strangely endearing and her ballads occasionally touching. My favourite song of Ayumi's is Ladies Night, a hymn to girl power. The lyrics encourage a friend to leave an abusive relationship – not a common pop theme. That willingness to address unusual subject matter makes her noteworthy. I hope she doesn't change.

Credit: Embleu @ AHS
Original source: Guardian.co.uk
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