…I wanted to be witty with the title, but I think the title of the upcoming single does that for me. ‘You were…/BALLAD’ will be released on December 16th, comes the official news. Since this is Ayumi, and news comes in battalions, the fan community also learned today of a new book being released on November 14th (‘Ayumi Hamasaki Photo & Episode 2005-2009′) and the television airdate of her Arena Tour 2009 ~NEXT LEVEL~ (November 29th, on TBS). We go for months talking about the fact that calendar previews have not yet leaked (amidst news of the calendar release actually being pushed back…) and finally a boatload of news comes, all at once. The Arena Tour telecast and the new book are interesting and all, but NEW SINGLE ZOMG.
Most interesting to me is the ‘C Side’, a song entitled ‘RED LINE ~for TA~’. We had already been told (I count myself among TA although I am not an official member, because god knows I would be an official member if I lived in Japan, and TA takes a few more hurdles than some other fan clubs, so even just having a friend in Nippon won’t get me in) that ‘NEXT LEVEL’ (the song, not the album) was written for us, so it just makes ‘RED LINE ~for TA~’ even more of a sweet gesture. From some other artists I might consider it a sappy bone being thrown to a dedicated fanbase that accounts for most of her sales, but I started to read Ayumi’s blog this year (thanks in no small part to Deli’s amazing translations over at gaijin-kanpai), and let me tell you: Ayumi Hamasaki is 100% hardcore. She seriously seems to have no other life beyond filling the role of “idol” above and beyond the call of duty. The sometimes long-winded, sometimes ridiculous, and sometimes almost-sad glimpses into her personal life are tempered by the knowledge that, of course, we are only being given a glimpse, but my cynicism has been tested by my favorite artists for years (most recently when Peter Hook acknowledged that he had forged and sold Ian Curtis’ autograph after the former Joy Division frontman’s suicide), and I can safely say that I don’t have a hint of cynicism when it comes to Ayumi. Therefore, I look forward to ‘RED LINE ~for TA~’, and I just hope that it’s as good as she would want it to be for us – that would, indeed, be the perfect single.
Obvious snark is snarky, as ‘BALLAD’ is not only a very unimaginative title but also was used by alan (another avex artist you should hear if you have not yet) earlier in 2009. Whatever. ‘You were…’ sounds like a classic Ayumi title and goes back to the ellipses nomenclature. Ayumi seems to abide by distinct WAYS of naming her songs, visually. This is useful because I’m assuming most of her fans do not actually speak English. The bold all-caps titles (‘GREEN’, ‘AUDIENCE’, ‘HANABI’, ‘NEVER EVER’, ‘WE WISH’, among many others) is set off by the all-lowercase titles (‘ourselves’, ‘ever free’, ‘teddy bear’, ‘glitter’, ‘fated’, ‘independent’, among many others). There is also the annoying, seemingly recent trend of ~let’s put stuff in tildes~ titles, as seen in newer offerings like ‘SUNRISE/SUNSET ~Love is All~’, ‘untitled ~for her~’, and this new ‘RED LINE ~for TA~’, but which actually predates Memorial address with ‘Love ~Destiny~’.
The ellipses, however, have always been in Ayumi’s visual nomenclature. From A Song for XX there were two ellipses titles (‘For my Dear…’ and ‘As If…’), from LOVEppears there was ‘Who…’, I am… was an ellipses ALBUM, and Secret gave us the most recent ellipsical offerings. I’m glad to see them return. For me, there has always been a mysterious, “lyrical question mark” effect with these titles, especially considering that for the prominent part of Ayumi’s catalog, the English-language titles have little to do with the song…or DO they? It isn’t until you immerse yourself in different translations and interpretations that some of the titles become soulfully resonant, such as with ‘Liar’, ‘SCAR’, ‘About you’, and ‘NEVER EVER’. Therefore, for songs like ‘Who…’ and ‘until that Day…’, an extra weight of responsibility seems to be thrust upon the audience to pay attention to the lyrics and solve the bit of a puzzle being thrown our way. At least, that’s how I’ve always seen it.
This is considering only that you actually care about and honor an artist’s visual nomenclature, which seems to be an especially popular gimmick in Japan. My mind goes immediately to Tomoko Kawase (Tommy, heavenly6 and february6, also of the brilliant green fame), whose songs have such colorfully impossible-to-retype-without-copypasta titles as ‘+Gothic Pink+’ and ‘ThE RoSe fraGranCe’. Yes, you could just call the song ‘The Rose Fragrance’, because that’s how we say it when we’re chatting about music, but considering that most of us have been weaned as J-Pop appreciators on the internet, who doesn’t imagine titles like ‘THE Manpower!!!’ with those three important exclamation marks? Would the new AKB48 single, ‘RIVER’, be as effective in lowercase? I actually posit that the song’s entire meaning would be distorted, all thanks to visual nomenclature. You listen to ‘RIVER’ and you hear a bold, declarative, all-caps statement. If the title had been ‘river’, it may have been a little confusing, even puzzling, to figure out why.
'Memorial address' back cover
Obtuse, maybe, but I do feel like this topic is relevant and that Ayumi has helped shape the face with her almost exclusively English language titling (the sole exceptions being ‘kanariya’ and ’sotsugyou shashin’ – even ‘HANABI’ and ‘HANABI ~episode II~’, as you can see by the inset scan, gets the romanji treatment, and how can any appreciator not understand that the capslock was an intentional and important part of the song’s very essence?
I put a lot of effort into getting my visual nomenclature right, especially where Ayumi Hamasaki and Hello!Project have been concerned, since they have made up the bulk of my blogging subject matter. If a song’s title is supposed to be all-lowercase, I actually feel a stab of split-second anger when I see someone misrepresent it elsewhere. Concession can be made for those that have no way of knowing until they’ve become more familiar with an artist’s work, but when the “artistic credibility” of J-Pop artists is brought as much into question as it already is, I feel it’s only in good taste to honor the morsels of creative effort we see. A song is and always has been the sum of its parts, and visual presentiation is just as important a part of the canon as lyrics, arrangement, and instrumentation. When a song invades my consciousness, at least, it does so on every sensory level that is possible. I may not be able to touch a song, taste it, or smell it, but memories will make their way into my brain and associate themselves, where those senses are concerned. As far as “seeing” a song, though, there is no doubt that I do have a flash of title whenever a song comes on, whether it be a complex string of kanji that I only know from years upon years of sight, not from actual understanding, or whether it be a simple English title with three little bread crumbs following it, the title itself pregnant with suspense as the song begins.
I love it. I’m glad to see it back.
God knows I’ll probably be crazy for it, because I am a bit love-blind when it comes to Ayumi Hamasaki. For instance: in the coming months I’ll be putting out my ‘Top Ten of J-Pop 2009′ and I will therein attempt to explain what makes ‘SUNRISE ~Love is All~’ such a great song to me while at the same time trying to understand what makes it so bad to its detractors. Ayumi Hamasaki’s fandom is one of the few I’ve been a (silent, at least where community is concerned) part of wherein even if you’re a fan, you’re expected to be a hater. This year’s summer single was ripped apart by fans, and I’m still trying to piece together why. I’ll do my best. That said, though, I hope that even if it isn’t all that great, ‘You were…’ will at least give us something to think about more than make snap judgments about.
For those wondering (and mostly because I wanted to document it), Ayumi’s Winter singles (known for being ‘wintery ballads’) arguably goes back to ‘M’, which was released in December of 2000 and is far and away one of her best selling singles of all time. The “modern era” of Winter singles are far more obvious: ‘Carols’, ‘Jewel’, ‘Together When…’ and ‘DAYS’ amongst them.
