Hey all! Long time no see! I was busy with a personal project, but I’ll let you know about that in this week’s new Idol Thoughts post.

We’ve got comments from Steve Summers (writing at Selective Hearing) and Skoban! Comments from these guys are in bold italics, my responses are in plain text. First comment is from Steve:

The main point I wanted to bring up here is just in regards to your last 2 paragraphs. You seem to speak with the assumption that idols are something new and have been “working themselves into the mainstream culture” lately. Thing is, idols have been around since the 60s, and for most period of history within those almost 60 years, idols HAVE BEEN pretty mainstream and accepted outside of wota, with a few exceptions like the early 90s and mid 2000s. It isn’t something new that idols are being marketed to the mainstream and accepted by it to some extent.

I understand where you’re coming from. I mean, I really like Matsuda Seiko, and the 80s in particular had a lot of that back and forth between Matsuda Seiko and Nakamori Akina in sales. Idols have been in the mainstream since their introduction. However, that’s not always been the case. I doubt that people are going to go “oh, I like Matsuda Seiko’s music, so I ought to give MomoClo a try.” The idol industry has changed a lot over the years, and if your experience with idols is liking Candies and Yamaguchi Momoe, you might need an introduction into current idol culture.

Also, I think time really makes things look different in retrospect. Take western music; The Beatles could be considered a boy band, but I doubt Beatles fans care much about One Direction. Even if you don’t consider The Beatles a boy band (and I don’t blame you if you don’t), then even The Monkees have gotten a lot more respect in retrospect, and I doubt people who liked them would swoon over the boys of One Direction. Even if the genres and celebrity styles are similar, it doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily compatible.

Even though the main chunk of the idol’s activities are targeted at wota, they can change their image and activities at a whim to appeal to other audiences whenever they want, and they often do. Like when idols do TV commercials or advertisements for computers or food or something else that has nothing to do with their regular activities, they’re just adapting to the situation and using their general image as “attractive, youthful people” to sell the products they’ve been commissioned to sell. These kinds of things are most of the exposure that idols really get with the mainstream most of the time.

They’re really just marketing tools who are molded and changed on a whim when they get commissioned to do a different kind of job or appeal to a different kind of market, so I think this magazine in particular was highlighting some of the aspects of the idols that more specifically appealed to the audience that is the magazine’s target readers.

That’s true; I know that the groups they focused in particular on were groups they decided were appealing to women. Which makes sense. The thing I found interesting was that there were sections that focused on education, saying “these are major aspects of idol culture.” It wasn’t just the articles about C-ute, 9nine, Tokyo Girls’ Style and the other idol acts deemed popular enough with women, but introductions to very indie groups, glossaries, a map of idol groups and where they fit in with each other, etc. It got fairly in depth for what could have been puff pieces which had interviews with the girls about fashion or something and had them model. It was specifically “these are important aspects of idols” and I thought that was fairly admirable.

With those two things in mind, I think you make it out to be a little bigger of a deal about it than it really is in regards to the industry or culture. Not saying you shouldn’t be excited about the magazine, as you can be excited about whatever you want, but I just don’t think it means anything major for the industry or culture. Interesting to hear your thoughts, though~

I don’t know if the magazine itself is 100% going to change anything. I just think that it’s kind of a way of showing that the times are changing, and that, years into the current idol boom, a popular magazine shows a spotlight on idols that aren’t AKB or MomoClo. I think your points are really valid, but I do think that the female idol fan demographic has been growing, and this indicates that it’s a significant enough interest for a women’s fashion magazine to dedicate an issue.

With that, here’s Skoban’s comment!

Haha, I have the same magazine cluttering my desk XD

I agree with you – it does seem like recently, the tides are turning from hardcore, predominantly male idol wota towards increased acceptance by the mainstream. Anecdotal evidence suggests that female attendance for Morning Musume and C-ute events seem to be steadily rising, and this new female audience seem to be composed of more relatively ordinary girls rather than hardcore female wota.

Oh yeah, it really does seem that way. I mean, it’s all anecdotal, but watching older Morning Musume concerts, when they called out “female fans” it used to be a lot quieter than it is now. I watch Team Syachihoko events more than anything, and the female fanbase is really sizable; not just one or two in a crowd. Even at smaller fan events there’s usually a decent number of ladies there. And then you have the Onna Matsuri events for Momoiro Clover Z, where they filled the Budokan with female fans. (I remember the concert where they first announced the first Onna Matsuri; some of the female fans were flipping out).

There seems to be more acceptance for working as an idol as well. It’s not uncommon for a newcomer to the idol scene to mention a senior idol as their inspiration to enter the industry. Contrast this to the motivations of some pretty established idols:
When they made a guest appearance on an Arashi show, all of MomoClo Z mentioned that they had joined their agency with the hopes of becoming actresses or singers. The agency just happened to put them into a sort of experimental dance group thing, which then blew up to where they are now.
Also, some members of early generation AKB48 joined with the intention of gathering experience in order to become actresses, variety talents, and the such.
There’s also Kusumi Koharu, who created quite an uproar when she mentioned that she considered Morning Musume as a stepping stone on the way to becoming a model.

This is something I have thought about a lot, actually. Even if this current idol boom starts fading, there are a lot of girls who are dreaming of becoming idols, rather than becoming something else. I mean, I’m not sure if that necessarily makes better groups, but I seriously doubt there will be a shortage of idols or girls who want to become idols. It’s already starting; a lot of the younger groups have girls who admire AKB or MomoClo. Yuzuki from Team Syachihoko admired Reni from MomoClo so much that she wanted to become an idol. It’s kind of cool, really.

All in all, I’m in agreement that this kind of increased coverage is something good. It shows that idols aren’t just being supported by wota, but are also being backed by the mainstream audience. And as a plus, it also supports new entrants into the idol scene. More lolis for us!’

And I got another comment from Skoban:

Just so you know, I dashed off this translation of page 14, where the idol feature begins. It does state at the end that they are trying to move beyond AKB and MomoClo

{Huge pink letters} Researching idols in secret {/pink}
Now, you can’t talk about entertainment, the economy, or fashion without mentioning idols.
“Japan’s idols are on the move!”, one really feels.
Therefore in this anan, an idol feature of women, by women, for women.
From the ability to produce themselves; we get feminine power, expressive power, willpower,etc.,
We’ve been studying from these idols, and there really is a lot.
Now, study with all your might the things you want to keep an eye on in the idol scene beyond AKB48 and Momoclo. (Emphasis mine)

As a bonus, top left on the cover: Currently surging, girls hooked on female idols!

Thanks for the translation! I think this is a really interesting statement, especially the whole “feminine power” part. It’s great to see that this was a concerted effort to go past AKB and MomoClo. Thanks!