Forum - View topicThe East Asian "Idol Culture"
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Aphtorshok
 Posts: 4 |
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Hi, all. First time posting. This is actually a cross-post from the NHRV forums so I could spread out the viewership . I hope this is relevant to this board.
I'd like to start out by explaining a bit of my background. I'm a Korean American born in New York City currently living in the suburbs of Metro Atlanta. Culturally, I was raised very "American," I really only related myself to Korean culture through the dated and often quaint viewpoints of my parents. Most of my friends growing up were very "American" in the typical sense, aside from a circle of Korean friends that will come up later. The point is that, growing up, I was very far removed from anything popular in Korea (or Japan, for that matter) and have remained as oblivious until relatively recently. I started really getting into anime around 2006 (beyond it being a cursory pastime since around 2004). It was around this time that boy groups and girl groups were really starting to get popular in Korea (not that they weren't popular before). Groups like Big Bang and Wonder Girls and Girls' Generation (SNSD) (consider them Korean versions of Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, except often female) started to pop up and began dominating the music sales charts. My Korean friends just ate this stuff up. Soon, (and I over-simplify) everyone had their favorite SNSD girl, everyone knew which member of Wonder Girls they thought deserved more screen time, everyone had a favorite group. I just could not understand what they were on about. Sure, the girls were attractive, the marketing was fancy, the music videos were well-edited. But there was no substance, nothing "there." These idols and their boob jobs and their pretty faces and expensive haircuts and fashionable outfits are simply vehicles to wow people into spending their money. They are ideal images that lend their voices and likenesses that are plastered over songs that are made by a technician on his MacBook. These people never talk about how difficult their bridge was to write. They never considered how different the chords were for this album compared to the last one. They are as involved in the creative process as McDonald's employees are in the cooking process. They stand there, follow instructions, and have someone else deliver the final product. They essentially, boiled-down, are devices, tools to arouse sexual tension and incite desire to buy albums, merchandise, and concert tickets. They are the result of a well-oiled corporate combine that has learned how to efficiently and quickly maximize profit. But they are human. They work insane hours, constantly are under tremendous stress to look good and act cute, and their actual cut of the massive revenue they generate is slim. And I feel awfully bad for them. Peoples' opinions and attitudes on these groups and individuals became more than just being fans. It began to turn into obsession, idolization. These people become human mad-libs, where fans can fill in their own expectations, craft their own impossibly perfect individual, and then wonder why they themselves can't be as perfect as them. They fashion their own little Gods out of their idols and put them on their own little pedestals and regard the celebrities as some sort of higher being, an artificial and unattainable ideal that that simultaneously sparks envy and awe. They want to have their favorite idol's legs, that other girl's pretty smile, that guy's biceps, his abs. That is, until the next coolest/cutest/prettiest/catchiest thing on the block shows up. These people are cast aside like used tissues. The other day, I was riding with my Korean friend in his car. I scrolled through his iPod which was connected to his car stereo and played a Wonder Girls song, knowing that he had, at one point, enjoyed it. His response: "Whaaat?! You still like this song? This song is like six months old already!" Six months? Six months? The expiration date for a good song is measured in months? Not years? Decades? Do good songs ever expire? I plugged in my iPhone and put on some Beatles, Pillows, Led Zeppelin, Michael Brecker, even some rap. "Man, these songs are so old!" "Want me to put on Wonder Girls on your iPod again?" "Nah, Wonder Girls are lame now. Now I like TIARA." Then it hit me. How warped (or perhaps just different?) some of these peoples' mind-frames of entertainment were. Anything and everything is just fodder for the next thing. Kids of my generation in Korea (and undoubtedly in the West as well) are growing up in a world where stagnation is death. The next thing must be better because it is newer. Where being old-fashioned is being the enemy. Cultural ADD. Appreciation for the past and a well-placed respect for good, proven, time-tested media is "lame," "uncool." Will people still listen to these idols' songs when the listeners turn 30? 40? Will these idols still be popular when they turn old and wrinkly? How can they be when their popularity was mostly sex appeal anyway? These idols, thesepeople, are used like gasoline in the great big internal combustion engine of the Korean/Japanese music industry. (This is exactly why Kogami Akira is so bitter on Lucky Star ). One spark, a magnificent, beautiful explosion, and then they're gone. Fizzle. That studio just waits for the next injection of gas, the next big thing. Spark. Poof. Gone. Is it really the industry's fault? Am I saying they sit around like the board members of the Yotsuba Corp from Death Note and then plan how to most efficiently victimize their next idol? No. The studios have been backed into an economic corner by the pervasive piracy in Korea and Japan (among other things) and simply have seized the most profitable and popular course of action. Am I saying that this is some kind of uncontrollable epidemic that's corrupting the minds of all the young ones in Korea and Japan? No. To say that would be reactionary and too reminiscent of Glen Beck. Am I saying that this may be an issue worth thinking about? Something that we should keep an eye out for? Yes. And consider the implications and similarities behind this trend to the moe craze in Japan, if you will. And that's that. Thanks for reading. I'd be extra thankful for your responses and ideas regarding this. General critiques to my style and writing are very welcome as well! Please expect and forgive typos and forgetting entire verbs . Thanks.  [/b]
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AshLikeSnow01
Posts: 6 |
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Its hard to respond to such a long post. It's too serious and to post a not so serious response kind feels lame / like its insulting you.
But yea, here's my input. I don't know so much about idols and the music industry. I myself am still listening to Jack Johnson and [EDIT: Meteroa Linkin Park, not metalica] on my car stereo. The boy bands and AKB48 / Wonder Girls. They are meant to be eye candy and die out and I'm pretty sure most people realize it. With these types of bands, you aren't there for the music, you are there for the music videos, the hot chicks, the cutsey. If you try watch (and I say watch not listen) these bands, its actually kinda good? Sidenote: From what I hear, boy bands in the UK are the same. However, the same thing is happening to the game industry. We are very rarely getting wonders with such replay hours as Starcraft and Warcraft III. Or Age of Empires III etc. Most games now are meant to be the rage for a few days before burning out. Starcraft clocked years. Left 4 dead clocked about a month before most people lost interest in it. The trend moves on. Call of duty Modern Warfare II? In the first month there were something like 30,000 players at any given moment PC. With 3 months, there were 3,000 players PC. (And I would consider modern warfare to be an exception to this trend. It lasted REALLY long. And yes it lasted longer on counsel or so i hear.) I consider the "Wii" to be the epitome of this. Wii is the best selling of all 3 counsels despite being a peice of shit. It's hardware is so bad, it can't handle split screen for any game more complicated than smash bros. Yet it sells in the same price range as the PS3 which comes with vastly superior graphics AND A Blueray player. Yet, the wii was able to ride the trend and sell far more than the PS3. Games for the Wii are also extremely low budget and poorly designed. Many of them have already been released for an older system and rehashed with a few extras before being released on the Wii. And if they are lucky and become the trendy thing. They sell like gold. People buy these games like mad, play a few weeks before shelving it. |
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