I got two wonderful responses for my last Idol Thoughts post, so let’s get right to them!

First comes from Skoban of Ice Cream & My Jiggly (I appreciate the v-u-den reference, by the way!) “There’s also another perspective you might be missing out on – that as idol observers, we’ve evolved as well.
For example, there are times when I listen to an idol’s back catalogue, and a song I dismissed as lame initially sounds amazing to me now. And that’s a perspective change from my point of view – the song itself hasn’t changed.
Just like an idol group can’t get rid of their past, neither can we discard the experiences that shape the us of now. All we can do is embrace what has passed.

Also, I think it’s okay to stop liking a group, to admit that the idols you like have changed and that you may not agree with the direction they’re going through.
There is the trap of being locked in nostalgia, to limit oneself to only old releases (e.g. 4-nin S/mileage forever!), but that’s a very limiting stance in my opinion.
Happily, we’re now in a period where we’re spoilt for choice, and if someone doesn’t like the direction one group is heading in, there’s probably some other group out there more to their liking.

First off, thank you SO much for bringing this up. This is something really important that I just happened to forget about. Sometimes people change, which makes your perspective change. I’m sure this has happened to pretty much everyone. Sometimes you might want to hold onto old favorites; the idol fandom isn’t necessarily the best about embracing oshihenning, for example. But as people change, so do their experiences, and that impacts how they view and interact with art/music.

I also very much agree with the last statement. Back in late 2008 and early 2009, when I was still a new idol fan, there was Hello!Project and AKB, but neither were all that big. There wasn’t much else if you didn’t care much for either. Today, there are so many idol groups, that if one doesn’t make you happy there is another to interest you. Once I stopped paying as much attention to MomoClo, I found Team Syachihoko and Dempagumi.inc. We are in a period where there is a huge abundance of idol groups, and we should enjoy that.

Thank you for your insightful comment, Skoban! I appreciate it!

The last comment comes from BeForJess from Happy! Go! Lucky!: One thing that I will say about Momoclo is that while their indie stuff like Momoiro Punch and Mirai e Susume is miles away from stuff like Neo Stargate and GOUNN, at the same time I feel like their major debut stuff, like Ikuze and Pinky Jones do have ties to some of their latest stuff. The insanity of Ikuze was there in Moretsu and Otome Sensou, and the weird cultural themes and music that were in Pinky Jones are in GOUNN (not the same ones, but you know). But there’s no denying that they have certainly grown in different directions than they seemed to be going in the beginning.

I’m a little half and half because I really do miss that good old fashioned idol-cute-fun-happy vibe from stuff like Hashire and Orange Note, but at the same time I love being blown away by the new and different things they experiment with in their new stuff. If we could just get a mix of the two it would be perfect for me.

Personally, while I would agree that there are connections between Ikuze/Pinky Jones and the current stuff, I do think there’s a difference. Perhaps it’s mostly just me, but the energy level between Ikuze and GOUNN has changed a lot. The cultural themes between Pinky and GOUNN does draw an interesting comparison, though.

I personally appreciate some of the things they’re doing, but they don’t grab me the way they used to. I agree, though; if there was a mix of the older stuff and the newer stuff, I would be a lot happier.

Thank you for your comment as well!