Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Can't Idol Singers Have Lives Of Their Own?
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
omiya
 Posts: 1825 Location: Adelaide, South Australia |
|
|||||||||||||
Idols seem to have a fairly restrictive image, but for singers in Japan generally, depending on the singer and their management, they decide what image to project and that it works out best when the image is more honest. It's still amazing to watch someone like Minori Chihara at the end of an Animelo Summer Live bring the audience to complete silence so that she can be heard without amplification in a 27,000 seat venue. It takes a fair amount of respect from fans for that to happen. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
2chan
Posts: 2 |
|
|||||||||||||
There is a big difference between wotas (idol fans) and fans of singers and actresses. Idols sell their personality, which is why they gain fans who have affection on their character traits. The idol fans admire the idol itself. On the other hand, artists sell their talent, so they gain fans because people admire their talent or skill on their respective craft, be it acting, singing, dancing, playing musical instruments, etc. The fans of artists admire the talent, not the celebrity itself. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
|
|||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
Sparvid
Posts: 240 |
|
|||||||||||||
There's also Namie Amuro who's not only a mother, but also divorced, yet still extremely popular. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
NormanS
 Posts: 167 |
|
|||||||||||||
|
I wasn't aware that Minami Kuribayashi is an "idol" singer. I thought she was just a singer with some anime roles. Personally i dont find her music great, although i do love her work in Kimi ga nozomu eien (Rumbling hearts).
Wasn't the AKB group the earliest example of producing the "idol" or ideal girlfriend on a pedestal? |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
enurtsol
 Posts: 14761 |
|
|||||||||||||
|
Idolism is work and shouldn't be a person's whole life. Nobody owns somebody else's life.
Customers should realize it's a performance, and how much they are owed stops there. So long as they're not setting a bad example, performers shouldn't be made to owe customers beyond that. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
NormanS
Posts: 167 |
|
|||||||||||||
Except i dont think a number of them are selling their performances but rather their image is what being marketed, and thats what i think the main problem lies. How does one draw the line between public image and private life, if it weren't for the paparazzi's all-watching-eye and the lightning speed of the internet? Example being AKB48 member Minami Minegishi having caught outside her boyfriend's place, the event probably wouldn't have happened if it werent for the paparazzi (probably) camping outside the house for the shot, though the AKB48 does have a "contractual agreement" on the whole no dating aspect which is sort of a different thing also. in a sense this can probably also extends to famous people being positive "role models" of society. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Polycell
 Posts: 4623 |
|
|||||||||||||
|
There are quite a few jobs that have morality clauses in their contracts(eg, teachers), but they're not nearly as confining since they're for a completely different purpose most of the time. Most actual image clauses trace back more to corporate image than the person's, so sometimes younger performers will deliberately violate them just to get out of the contract.
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5824 Location: Virginia, United States |
|
|||||||||||||
They are being paid to live as an Idol. It is their whole life. If they don't want to do that, they can simply quit. There are always people waiting in line for their fifteen minutes of fame. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
enurtsol
Posts: 14761 |
|
|||||||||||||
I believe it's the public that should quit. They should say: no, we won't feed an entertainment system anymore that intrudes too much into someone's life; we're taking our money elsewhere. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
|
|||||||||||||
|
Now that makes me wonder: Do Japanese idol fans see American pop singers and think we treat them much like Japanese idol singers? Surely all of this sensation paparazzi must eventually trickle to Japanese ears about how X and Y are dating or how Z was caught eating W, and it must sound horrifying to them.
I also can't stand the artificial behavior in public that Japanese idols have. Shows like Entertainment Weekly may annoy me, but at least American celebrities feel human (and I mean both continents' celebrities). I would love for Japanese idols, when they come to western events, to just behave more like normal people, but I know their fans will follow them overseas and get upset over that.
It doesn't even have to be Japanese or pop culture. If it's niche, non-essential, and has a bunch of obsessive fans, that's the business strategy. Heck, it doesn't even have to be niche. Just look at Beatles fans buying Beatles stuff. That being said, that Japanese fans feel a need to buy everything and attend every event that concerns the thing they like must be a dream come true for these people selling them. Companies in other countries must envy these Japanese media producers.
It's the dream of being a star and going to events filled to the brim with fans of YOU. It looks like these companies hide their drawbacks pretty well, and they're also good at cultivating the image of an idol being at the top of life. Hence, oftentimes, these people won't realize they're signing their lives away. They think they can dress pretty, travel around, sing to their fans, and make a lot of money, and that's all there is to it. Notice how many high-profile anime there are about the wonderful lives of idols, for instance, versus the high-profile anime about the suffocating lives of idols. There's also how some of them become idols at a very early age. I forget her name, but the singer of one of the stages in the Japanese version of Rhythm Heaven was 5 years old and was already a pop idol. Someone like her would have no idea going in how stressful it all can be.
Isn't that how it is for all big businesses though? There's no personal connection between the people in charge and the rank-and-file workers. Heck, it's more often than not true for small businesses too: As long as you can help the business make money, they'll hold on to you, but they'll let you go if you're not making for them as much as you used to or someone else is discovered to make more. The alternative is keeping people employed out of compassion. Sometimes it works, but if shows like Kitchen Nightmares is any indication, it also sometimes snuffs out the whole business.
I disagree quite strongly with Bill Watterson's anti-commercialism, but I still think Calvin and Hobbes was one of the best comic strips to ever have been printed. I can like the art but dislike the artist. The artist's personality has nothing to do with the quality of his or her art. It's only if I learn that the artist has done something criminal and clearly in the wrong that I would choose to stop supporting them. Even then, if their contribution is sufficiently useful, I'd still use them. One of the inventors of the transistor became delusional and paranoid and wanted people to sexually sterilize themselves, for instance, but that doesn't mean people should switch back to vacuum tubes.
I would bet that some parents would sign their children into idol programs, knowing the pressure involved, because they want to be the parents of someone famous and are sure their kids can take that pressure. That is, they want their share of their children's glory.
I'd still say the closest thing would be Disney Channel actors, as they have a similar pure-and-innocent image cultivated around them and have to keep that iamge 24/7. That being said, there's a key difference: Both Disney Channel actors and modern boy bands have target audiences in their tweens and not much older than that. They're young. When the fans get older, they get smart and realize they're observing idealized people, not real people. Japanese idol fans go way older than that, and they seem to know their idols don't really act the way they do naturally, but they'd prefer not to believe it. That's what I find disturbing.
Not going to happen any time soon, for better or for worse. This intrusiveness seems to be what the fans want. Of course, celebrity culture in other countries works the same way, so hey, what can you do? The way people like to hear about American celebrities going about their daily lives and personal conflicts they have, you'd think this was 21st-century mythology. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
enurtsol
Posts: 14761 |
|
|||||||||||||
Same thing; if the American public would stop feeding the paparazzi culture, then there wouldn't be a need for intruding on others' lives. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
|
|||||||||||||
|
But they want the scandals! They want to know Bill Cosby spent all his free time sexually harassing women! They want to know that Hulk Hogan is a racist for saying one thing! (Considering the careers of these people, and Paula Deen, and somesuch get ruined by these acts, perhaps there isn't as much of a disconnect between the art and the artist. The public did forgive Mel Gibson though.)
Really though, it's hard to fight what the public really wants. Do it poorly, and you become like that "Leave Britney Spears alone!" guy. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
Polycell
Posts: 4623 |
|
|||||||||||||
|
The Paula Deen thing definitely illustrates Americans can be just as ridiculous: as I recall, most of the controversy came from her confessing to comments made decades earlier.
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
ptj_tsubasa
 Posts: 129 |
|
|||||||||||||
|
As has been mentioned previously, Kuribayashi is not a cutesy young idol, and this case has pretty much nothing to do with idol culture.
Instead, the issue is that she has an illegitimate child. That's a big taboo in Japan. Lots of singers like Kuribayashi have announced that they're getting married and are expecting a child, and people are cool with it. But Kuribayashi has never done that. Yes, Mamoru Miyano got hate from his fans when he announced that he's getting married and that his bride is pregnant. But imagine the reaction if he hadn't gotten married, and at some point it would've leaked to the press that he had an illegitimate child. If you want to argue about how Japanese culture is so much inferior to your own, argue about the Japanese way of thinking about marriage. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group