Duty is the third studio album by Japanese recording artist Ayumi Hamasaki. It was released on September 27, 2000, by Avex Trax. Duty is Hamasaki's first studio album inside the 2000s decade, and her third consecutive studio album to be fully produced by Japanese musician and businessman Max Matsuura. The album's composing and arrangement was handled by several music collaborators, such as Ken Harada, Kazuhito Kikuchi, Dai Nagao, HΛL, among many others. Hamasaki contributed to the album as the primary and background vocalist, and songwriter to every song. Three different formats were released to promote the album: a standalone CD, a limited edition Playbutton, and a digital download. The cover sleeve has Hamasaki wearing a leopard-print cat suit.
"evergreen" is Hitomi Takahashi's 2nd single under the Sony Records label. The single was released on August 10, 2005, in one format. This is the second retail single to be released from her first album sympathy.
"Heaven" is the thirty-seventh single released by Ayumi Hamasaki, released on September 14, 2005. "Heaven" ended up selling over 325,000 copies, making it Hamasaki's second highest-selling single of 2005 as well as her last single to date that has sold over 300,000 physical copies. "Heaven" was used as the theme of the Japanese film Shinobi Heart Under Blade, while "Will" was used in a television commercial for Panasonic.
"Step You"/"Is This Love?" is the 35th single released by Ayumi Hamasaki. It was a double a-side single released on April 20, 2005. "Step You"/"Is This Love?" was the first single released by Ayumi Hamasaki in 2005. "Step you"/"is this Love?" was the best-selling solo single of 2005 by a female artist until September 2005, when Mika Nakashima's "Glamorous Sky" outsold it. The DVD featured 3 PVs, including one for "Step You", "Is This Love?", and also for "My Name's Women" from Hamasaki's 2004 album, My Story. Chiharu and Etsu from TRF were featured alongside Ayu in the PV. The "My Name's Women" PV is currently the second most expensive music video by a Japanese artist, behind Hamasaki's "Fairyland" PV. To date, the single has sold over 345,000 copies, making it her best-selling single of 2005.
Inspire is the thirty-third single released by Ayumi Hamasaki. It came out on July 28, 2004. The single was the number-one single on the Oricon charts for that week. To date, Inspire has sold over 330,000 copies, making it Hamasaki's highest selling single of 2004. The PV for Inspire was filmed in Los Angeles, California.
"Delightful" is the first physical single released by Ami Suzuki under the label Avex Trax. It is commonly known as Suzuki's "comeback single", after 5 years of her previous major work.
"Blue Bird" is the 40th single released by Ayumi Hamasaki. It was released on June 21, 2006. "Blue Bird" was Hamasaki's 15th consecutive single to top the Oricon and 27th #1 single in total. Initially planned to be a triple A-side single, it features two new songs, "Blue Bird" and "Beautiful Fighters". "Blue Bird" was the CM song for Zespri Gold Kiwifruit while "Beautiful Fighters" is featured on a Panasonic D-snap and D-dock commercial. A rearrangement of "Ladies Night", featured in her (Miss)understood album, called "Ladies Night " is also featured on this single. A trance remix to "Blue Bird" is also on the single. On her official website, she describes "Blue Bird" as being a summer song, and "Beautiful Fighters" as being a song praising women.
4 Hot Wave is the 32nd single by Japanese singer Koda Kumi, released through Rhythm Zone on July 26, 2006. The singles contains the quadruple A-side tracks "Ningyo-Hime", "I'll Be There", "Juicy", and "With Your Smile". All four songs were included on Kumi's fifth studio album Black Cherry, released in December 2006.
"Stuck on You" is Yuna Ito's fourth single since her debut. This is her first single since her largely successful May 2006 single "Precious" and her first single in which the main track is not a ballad.
"Losin'" is Yuna Ito's 5th single. This is her second single in her series of hot and cool singles, limited to 70 000 copies. Losin is the Japanese ending theme to Lost Season 2 that airs on AXN.
"Glamorous Sky" is Mika Nakashima's 16th single overall, her 1st under the name Nana starring Mika Nakashima, and the second most successful single in her career after "Stars". It is her first rock song and it was used as one of the image songs for the film Nana. Hyde of L'Arc-en-Ciel composed "Glamorous Sky". The second and third B-sides, "Blood" and "Isolation" were used as CM songs for Kate cosmetics. Mika Nakashima graces the cover of the single as Nana Osaki. The song is featured as a cover by a jrock band, Girugamesh, in the Konami music games, BEMANI for Drummania V3 and Guitarfreaks V3, as well as the iNiS rhythm game Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2.
Secret is the eighth studio album by Japanese singer-songwriter Ayumi Hamasaki, released November 29, 2006 by Avex Trax. As with all of her previous works, Hamasaki wrote all of the lyrics on Secret. The album's composition was handled largely by Dai Nagao and Tetsuya Yukumi, both of whom were frequent collaborators with Hamasaki. Generally a rock-pop influenced album, Hamasaki said that the meaning of the album was itself a secret, and that it incorporated secrets she was keeping about herself that the public did not know.
"Truth" is Yuna Ito's 6th single and last of 2006. This is her second single to be a part of the Nana franchise, the first being "Endless Story".
"Winter Love" is BoA's 21st Japanese single. It was released on November 1, 2006. It hit #2 on the Oricon Charts with sales of 42,481, making it the highest charting BoA single since "Do the Motion", which was released in March 2005. Formats are 「CD+DVD」 and 「CD only」.The single was released just before her twentieth birthday.
"Flavor of Life" is Hikaru Utada's 18th Japanese single. The physical single was officially released on February 28, 2007.
"Glitter"/"Fated" is the forty-first single by Japanese pop singer Ayumi Hamasaki, released on July 18, 2007. "Glitter"/"Fated" was Hamasaki's first single of 2007 and first single in over a year, since the release of "Blue Bird" in June 2006.
"Talkin' 2 Myself" is J-Pop singer-songwriter Ayumi Hamasaki's 42nd single, which was released on September 19, 2007. The single contains two rock tracks, one acoustic orchestra remix of her previously released "Fated", and the instrumentals of the main tracks. It is her 29th #1 single, breaking her own record for the most #1 singles by a solo female artist. The drums in both Talkin' 2 Myself and Decision are played by Andy Selway from the band KMFDM.
"Colors" is Hikaru Utada's 12th Japanese-language single, and is the only single they released in 2003. It was released on January 29, 2003, and debuted at number one on the Oricon charts with 437,903 copies sold in the first week, and became their fifth single to achieve two consecutive weeks at the number one slot, a comparatively rare feat. Two versions were released, CD and DVD.
Count Down TV is a Japanese late-night music television program, broadcast on TBS since 1993. The program is shown weekly, and features a Japanese music video hit chart countdown, live performances from musicians and music information. It is presented by three CGI-animated hosts.
"Fairyland" is the 36th single released by Ayumi Hamasaki. It was released on August 3, 2005. It instantly shot to #1 on the Oricon charts where it stayed for the entire week. After one week of sales, "Fairyland" sold over 172,000 copies, the most any of Hamasaki's singles sold in one week in 2005. "Fairyland" is also Hamasaki's first single that featured different covers for both the CD and the CD+DVD.
