Currently, Asian idols maintain a well-established image. The girls and boys have multiple projects and their music full of pop sounds, protests and a disruptive image captivate West and generate devotion in the East. Given this apparent universality, perhaps it is time to pay more attention to this phenomenon. In this article we will tell you about its origins so that you understand its current popularity.
girl groups who are shown as a perfect catalog of women with fair skin, thin and with features that were not previously accepted as beautiful by the hegemon —because they were oriental—, begin to emerge as the aspiration of universal beauty. For his part, boys generate new perspectives on the ways of socializing and seeing masculinity. The behaviors of both promote the development of an ambiguous concept of gender and sexuality.
Notably, idols are many things, but they cannot be understood only by themselves, because they are sustained thanks to the intense bond they have with their fandom, which is its structure.
Idols: the beginnings of the fandom
The origin of idols in Japan goes back, in principle, to sumo, especially to funded tournaments, that functioned around a cohesive cultural pattern: event-public-protagonists of it.
Subsequently, in the early 17th century, still in the Edo period, kabuki —the Japanese theater—implemented another characteristic to the events: the exorbitant detail. It must be remembered that, in principle, the staging accepted men and women equally, however, it was restricted to men over time.
The remarkable thing about kabuki is the extremely well-cared scene, in which music, clothing and stage accessories intervene, to mention a few items. However, surely all this reminds them of the special and destructuring of idol shows.
Sumo opened up the landscape to a formally funded stage at an entertainment event, while kabuki explored the many ways to create one in a spectacular and unforgettable way.
The restructuring of the 90s
After this, enter 1960 and 1970, Japan had a program on the air in which emerging groups advertised their music in a show in which the population voted for a song to be broadcast on the radio as the opening song for three months.
After that, due to the great success, “support the idols” emerged which consisted of supporting a girl group by buying their products, in exchange, you could spend some time with them when they signed the album, among other things. It is worth mentioning that this gave rise to the creation of the shin-eitai “bodyguards”: the vocaloids.
Boy/girl bands also emerged at this time, and a new phase came in force with AKB48 —a group made up of several teams—, which began to promote the power of the fans and inaugurated the characterization of the bands —with elements such as having a leader. The jump to television was even more representative, the fandom began to have more power. They were able to vote for the CDs to make them winners in contests, this was decided by how long the audience applauded.
In this way, more services began to emerge that idols could offer in exchange for the “support” of their fandom.
Why do idols need help?
In principle, the idols began to be recruited very young, with programs that accepted them from the age of twelve. This implies that they start a career being “immature”, from the perspective of his youth. This, in turn, provides fans with some responsibility as they seek to help them on their path to maturity and overall growth. Of course, they start seeing them small and the commitment and bond that is acquired is precisely for this reason.. A bond of “care” and “accompaniment”.
This implies, on the one hand, that they have a certain right over them, economically and emotionally.
The idols evoke the subculture of the kawaii and aspirationism. They also wink at childhoods and the possession of them. Yes, we mean lolis.
What is an idol?
The word idol comes from the Latin idōlum, and this from the Greek εἴδωλον eídōlon, which means image of a deity that is the object of worship and person loved or admired with exaltation, respectively.
This is why Japanese idols, both male and female, do it all. Although their job requires them to know how to dance, sing, and act, it is common for them to excel in only one of these categories or perform average in all three. . This has been accepted, and has even increased, due to the predominance of her beauty over her talent (for better and worse for the idol).
In general they are artists who can sing, dance and act, but they do not do it exceptionally. This is that, as indicated by the shojo and shonen manga, they have a path of improvement to go through, which, however, they will be able to achieve through effort, despite the fact that they are not “talented”.
What is special about an idol?: An idol could be a reflection of us
Idols are born to walk an arduous path every day, allowing society to accompany them and hope that their own efforts will be rewarded at some point. Also because of this, idols can be clumsy, and this does not imply rejection or criticism. They have an above average physical image, but they are not that impressive.
Thanks to this, idols manage to generate a non-hierarchical bond of intimacy with their community. Idols are real, spontaneous, clumsy —in a calculated way, enough to arouse tenderness, but without wearing down their image—, transparent, they are imperfect, but positive. They are the hope of the population who must believe that with effort they will be able to advance in every way.
Idols “don’t hide anything”, and they can laugh at themselves. And this turns out, kawaii. In addition, sincerity is one of the most important pillars of his image, which is why when something turns dark or there is a “secret”, admirers feel betrayed.
The idols begin a working career from the age of twelve, this allows them to solidify the understanding of them as asexual and kawaii, they are the clearest example of the eternal shonen, so important to Japanese society.
Idols are expected to improve in all aspects, proving that success comes from effort —which Japanese society conceives as the key to triumph after the environment in which the pressure of the limitations of the Second World War plunged them.
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Towards a broader perspective of the idol industry
Idols are, for many reasons, respectable, although careful. The ideological frameworks that gave birth to them and whose structure seems to be increasingly violent, allow us to see their increasingly defined nuances. They are a structure that gives rise to a greater, with all the capitalist implications that the Japanese state needs, coupled with the patriarchal morality that permeates Asia with density, amplified by the sensation of the stress of production that leaves the Japanese with little time to spend. live in real life.
Idols arise responding to the need and provide a kind hug at their own expense.
At the same time, are a complex phenomenon, involving the notions of subcultures such as cosplay —from the performance and the integration of the community—, and the moe and the kawaii as methods to face the world. In addition to relate to other peripheral communities such as the hikikomori —to those who also give them hope.
Idols maintain inextricable connections to the spectrum of subcultures in Japan. who seem to come from the same place with different protests about morality, sexuality and capitalism.
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