Re: Ayumi Hamasaki Complete Discography
Tacito Fingerut
After a rough childhood, Hamasaki was discovered by current avex trax president Matsuura Max. Ever since, she has had numerous number 1 releases and is consistently reinventing her image. In 2007 and 2008, Hamasaki expanded outside of Japan by holding 2 concert tours with show locations throughout Asia
Hamasaki celebrated the release of her 50th single by leading up to the release in three parts. The three-single project began with "MOON / blossom", followed by "crossroad", and finally concluded with her 50th single, "L".
In August of 2010, the New York Daily News conducted a survey of the 20 richest female singers of all time-based on contracts, tours and inheritance based on lists from Forbes magazine. Hamasaki is the only Asian artist on the list, placing 7th and reportedly having made gains of $400 million (U.S.).
Hamasaki Ayumi was born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1978. Her father left her and her mother behind when Hamasaki was only three years old. One night, Hamasaki awoke in the night and witnessed her father packing up his things. When she asked where he was going, he said he was leaving on a business trip. After wishing her father a safe journey and going back to bed Hamasaki never saw him again.
Following her father's departure, she and her mother moved in with her grandmother. Hamasaki's mother worked most of the time, and thus the responsibility of caring for young Hamasaki fell on the shoulders of her grandmother. Hamasaki would later say that her grandmother felt more like a mother to her than her "Mommy" did. When she was seven years old, Hamasaki began working as a child model for local institutions to help contribute to the family.
At the age of 14, Hamasaki moved to Tokyo and signed with the talent agency SOS. Hamasaki worked as a model, doing many swimsuit photoshoots for magazines like BOMB, Young Teioh, Takarajima, and Up To Boy. She also starred in several movies and TV series, including Yami no Purple Eyes and Miseinen on TV, and movies such as Ladys Ladys!! Soucho Saigo no Hi, Like Grains of Sand, and Sumomomo Momomo. However, her career as a model did not last very long as she was deemed too short to be a model. She was transfered from SOS to the music agency, Sun Music.
Hamasaki signed very briefly with Nippon Columbia under the name AYUMI featuring DOHZI-T and DJ BASS and released one single and one mini-album, both titled "NOTHING FROM NOTHING". It sold dismally and Nippon Columbia dropped her. Hamasaki found little success as an idol and gave it up in favor of hanging out with friends.
As a junior high student back home, Hamasaki was a initially a dedicated student. However, her interest in the curriculum soon disintegrated and with it, her grades. Once in Tokyo and living with her mother, Hamasaki attempted to return to school and enrolled in Horikoshi Gakuen, a high school for the arts. She dropped out after the first year.
A jobless high school dropout, Hamasaki decided that her time was best to spent shopping in the Shibuya district of Tokyo and dancing at Velfarre, a club owned by Avex. One fateful night at Velfarre in 1997, Hamasaki was introduced to Matsuura Max (her future producer) by a friend. After hearing Hamasaki sing karaoke Matsuura told her she had a nice voice, but couldn't sing well. He wanted to send her to voice lessons and sign her to his label, avex trax. She found him to be shady and rejected the offer at first. However, Matsuura persisted and convinced Hamasaki to sign with the label in the following year.
Hamasaki was then sent to New York for voice lessons but rarely attended, having always had a problem with authority. She never told Matsuura that she ditched the lessons and went shopping in New York instead. While in New York she exchanged letters with Matsuura, oddly displaying a remarkable talent for expressing her feelings.
Finally she returned to Japan to record her debut single, "poker face". Up until the day of recording, Hamasaki had been dissatisfied with the lyrics. Matsuura, remembering Hamasaki's letters, suggested she try writing new ones. Her lyrics were the used in the final recording of the song. The day before that recording session, Hamasaki's grandmother was sick in the hospital. Hamasaki visited her briefly saying that she'd come again later, and that tomorrow she had to record her first single. The day of recording, Hamasaki received a fax saying that her grandmother had passed away.
"poker face" was released on April 8th, 1998. Soon afterwards, she released her second single "YOU". Neither release was a hit. However, Hamasaki's emotional lyrics resonated with the Japanese public and people began to take notice of her. Hamasaki's third single, "Trust", managed to chart within the Oricon Top 10, coming in at #9. Her next two singles both charted within the Oricon Top 10.
On January 1st, 1999 Hamasaki's debut album was released. Titled "A Song for ", the album reached number one on the Oricon album chart, selling over 1 million copies. Due to the success of the album, she received the Japan Gold Disc Award for Best New Artist.
In February of 1999, Hamasaki released her first single since her debut album. "WHATEVER", featuring two different versions of the song with neither labeled as the original, peaked at #5 on the Oricon charts.
Hamasaki's August 1999 single "A" was initially released in five different versions (distinguished by different colors). To commeorate sales of 1 million copies, a version of the single with a gold colored disc was released. When sales reached 1.5 million copies, a special edition gold disc was released. The single sold over 1.6 million copies total, and is to this date her best-selling single.
Fans noticed a change in Hamasaki's musical style with the release of this album, going from the rock-style of "A Song for " to a more dance-pop style. The single "appears" was released on the same day as the album and reached #2 on the Oricon charts.
The summer of 2000 saw Hamasaki's first concert tour, which was a huge success. It was later released on DVD, VHS, and VCD in two separate releases, "ayumi hamasaki concert tour 2000 A Daiichi Maku" and "ayumi hamasaki concert tour 2000 A Daini Maku".
In April of 2000, Hamasaki released "vogue", the first single in a special release project. "vogue", "Far away", and "SEASONS", were all released one month apart from each other and were marketed as a trilogy. The singles were very successful, with lyrics focusing on emotions on hopelessness, a reflection of Hamasaki's self disappointment with her past public image. Hamasaki described the lyrics as looking at her life from the front, the back, and the side respectively.
In September of 2000, Hamasaki's third album, "Duty" was released. With lyrics dealing with issues similar to those in the trilogy singles the album stirred emotions in many fans and became an instant success. "Duty" sold 2,603,550 copies in 2000, becoming the #2 album of the year and sold 2,904,420 copies in total. It is Hamasaki's best selling original studio album to date.
In 2001, Avex told Hamasaki that she was to release her best-of album after having released her previous studio albums. Hamasaki was not happy with this decision as she felt that her best album is something she wants to do perfectly and the way she wants. She was not ready yet as an artist to release a best album and was being forced to release a rushed release.
However, the friction with her label grew greater once the release date was chosen. At the time, the two most successful singers in Japanese pop were Hamasaki and Utada Hikaru. Utada was to follow up her massively successful debut album "First Love" with her sophomore album, "Distance". Avex strategically placed the release of Hamasaki's best album within the same week as Utada's album. As a result, the media reported a heated rivalry between the two young female stars. Both Hamasaki and Utada vehemently denied these claims stating that the rivalry was fabricated by their record labels. The album was promoted heavily and Hamasaki appeared on the covers of numerous magazines.
To promote "Duty" and "A BEST", Hamasaki toured the Domes of Japan, becoming one of the only artists to be able to fill the seats at Tokyo Dome. At the same time, she was being worn down physically and mentally. During the rehearsal of one of the shows she damaged her leg. Around this time, it was also discovered that the hearing in her left ear was deteriorating.
Although Avex's stock values rocketed with the success of "A BEST", Hamasaki was unsure about staying with the label. In the end, she decided to stay and began to take more control in the production of her music.
Prior to the release of A BEST, Hamasaki Ayumi released the single "M" in December of 2000. It was her first single since the release of her album "Duty" as well as a turning point in her career. This was the first song whose melody she composed herself and it showed a definite stylistic shift for the singer. Hamasaki wrote the song and its lyrics under the name, CREA. Since this time in her career, nearly every single she released has reached #1 on the Oricon weekly charts. Following the controversy with "A BEST", Hamasaki saught similar control over her career and threatened to leave Avex if she was not being treated "as a human being."
On September 27th, 2001 Hamasaki released her 24th single and one of her most iconic songs, "Dearest". The single was a huge success, selling a total of 750,420 copies and charting at #1 on the Oricon charts. It was also used as the 3rd ending theme to the popular anime, InuYasha. However, the lyrics and promotional videos were a direct depiction of Hamasaki's feelings towards the way she was treated during the "A BEST" controversy.
In December of 2001, Hamasaki participated in Komuro Tetsuya's charity drive, song nation. The song project, featuring other popular Avex artists such as Koda Kumi, BoA, and Amuro Namie, came together to help raise money for victims of the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Hamasaki collaborated with avex label-mate KEIKO on the single, "a song is born". The single reached number #1 on the Oricon charts (the only one of the song nation singles to do so).
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