What is Idolism?

This post focuses on Japanese popular music female artists and (almost) everything revolving around them.

This is a post mainly for my friends (non-Asian mainly, but Asians also) who knows a little bit about my fandom to Japanese bands but think I'm crazy because of the extent and efforts I make for my devotion. This is a merely a misunderstanding. If you don't completely understand another culture, you would find everything they do strange - just like white people find Asians using chopsticks werid and the reverse for knife and fork.

So, what is idolism?

Idolism is the Japanese version of Western celebrities and everything else revolving around them.

In the nation of Japan, piracy is still low, as are time spend on computers, if a family is lucky enough to get one (due to the small living residences). Mobile phones are still the main point of communication and internet usages there.Most computer usages are in cafes and at schools. Therefore, torrents and illegal downloads are used by only a limited amount of people. Buying original and official products, merchandise and goods are still the norm for anyone of any fandom, not only, but especially for idolism. Idolism is serious business and money maker.

What does this mean and why is this important?

1. Idolism is big spending

Because things actually sell in Japan, as opposed to the Western society where music and movies are illegally downloaded in a mundane manner, idols actually make money for almost every last sweat drop they produce in their work. With only a hand full of piracy and devout fans means every single item under the name of a beloved idol has some sort of value. Whether it be a music CD, a DVD, a photograph, a card, a shirt, a wristband, a book, a magazine, you name it, anything that have traces of idolism in it are bought by passionate fans. Having every single and album released is no longer considered hardcore, today, it's about getting every single version of each release, or even buy multiple copies of the same CD!!

Each release of a single comes in an average of 4 different versions.

Not enough for ya? How about buy more of the same one?

Yup, this guy bought 700 copies of the same CD.

Ok, maybe that is a little bit over the top, but this is just to show the amount of dedication fans have.

Besides CDs, another commonly collected product are photographs. This might sound silly, because we all save pictures from the net all the time, so why pay for something you can get for free. Mainly, for the physical attributes. My family used to develop a lot of photos (back in the days where film were still used). Today, everything is digital, we just save photos in a usb, on a cd. It's just not the same anymore... I like my photos tangible. I prefer to flip the pages of a real book, type a keyboard with keys rather than a touch screen, you get the idea. No? It's like pokemon cards, remember we all used to collect pokemon cards? Same reason.

Photos come in a variety of sizes, Large, 2 Large, postcard, polaroid, A4 sized pinup posters, B2 (another unit of paper measurement) sized posters, life-sided screens and every size and shape in between.

Let's use our friend here again, below is just a tiny part of his collection.

Just like photos we used to develop, idol photographs can be stored nicely designed albums, plastic sleeves and other means of nicely storing them, you just have to buy them!

Of course, other than CD's, DVD's, photos and posters, there are loads more these a devout fan can collect, which brings me to the next point.

2. Idolism is multi-talented

Besides singing, an idol is most likely given opportunities (or pretty much expected) to engage in other activies. The most common one being gravure.

What is gravure?

Gravure is modelling, but not your usual modelling. It often involves swimsuits or some sort of sexually attractive costume. This is technically in the 'photography' section above but it fits in 'books' more as the photos are published in magazines and 'photobooks' and are, like everything else, for sale. Photobooks are books that consists of... well... photos of one (or in some cases more) model. Gravure are usually released as a book and a DVD, it can be either too.

These are examples of gravure, surprisingly, not only guys, but girls are also interested in these kind of things. Don't ask me why though, I'm a guy. 

The word 'gravure' doesn't mean sexually attractive photographs, or implies that it (a gravure book) must contain pictures of the sort, although it seems like that is the case most of the times and stereotyped. Gravure is actually a type of printing process, the fastest of them all too.

The next level down would be TV shows, Drama/Movie roles, radio show hosts. Acting

is an important ability for idols, these activities give them chances to learn, if not improve their skills , not to mention earning money.They can be often be featured in shows where they learn about/attempt many and sometimes quite difficult traditional Japanese cultural activities. In this way, idols and fans alike, are learning more and more new things. Tests of endurance, sportsmanship, mental abilities and linguistic skills can also be seen on many shows as part of fan's learning process of each idol.

Other activities they can engage/be featured in can be anything from the media world really, magazines, advertising new products, stage plays, ipod applications, console games, posters and billboards...etc etc.... which brings to my next point.

3. Idolism is massive promotion

Sure, small time artists don't get as much as big time ones, but we're looking at the big picture here and all extremities. Besides appearing on talk shows and magazines, promotion of new music releases, tv shows, and ANYthing related to idolism can be found almost everywhere (in the metropolitan areas of course).

Advertising on trains and buses, I'm not talking about just outside the bus, there are ad's inside too! Stations - placed on the floor, on the wall, on escalators, on supporting pillars. Outside - everywhere you look, there is advertising.

Somewhere you don't expect advertising to be...

Trucks! As a kid, and I'm sure every boy had a phase where they thought trucks are the coolest thing ever. Now add trucks with advertisements of your favourite band and you get uber awesomeness!


Now, double the awesomeness with trucks that lights up and plays music as it drives past.

With the explosion of social network usages, many companies started using Youtube, myspace (I will get to twitter later) and the like to further promote artists by releasing official music videos and never seen before videos.

4. Idolism is hard work

Firstly, many of the big artists have live performances and concerts throughout the year, every year. Starting from March all the way to July. Over 20 lives are performed throughout Japan. On top of this, there are live performances on TV shows and other musical events, not forgetting Magazine/Photobook shoots, commercials promoting their products, special events (including fanclub events, handshake events, Christmas & New Years events, other holidays events, etc) and what ever other activities they engage in such as regular TV shows and radio programs, all while trying to record new music for the ever excited and anxious fans. Wait, but that's not it, like I've said above, with the masses using social media, idols have begun using Twitter as a means to directly send information to fans. Another method is the ever popular in Japan media, blogs. Blogs provide a richer source of idol information because firstly, there is no word limit (as opposed to Twitter's 140 word one). Pictures are readily viewable without the need to click on links as such, and most important thing of all, allowing fan's comments.

5. Idolism needs you

I hope now you will realise and understand fans of idolism and their seemingly strange values. Computer geeks spend a fortune on hardware and software, gamers spend hours and hours in front of the screen, we, as fans of idolism have our own set of norms to follow. Our fandom, like any others, are deeply devoted and passionate about what we like and enjoy.

Laters, over and out.