Because I Like You!
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. www. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who.Because What. Why. Who. I What. like Why. Who.you! What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. FANDOM. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who.COM What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. Who. What. Why. 1 2 3 1.Introduction ……………………………………………… 7 2.What are fans today? ………………………………………………10 2.1 Idol 2.2 Star 2.3 Fans 3.Are fans changing the aesthetic? ………………………………………………21 4.How “cewebrity” thinks of fans culture? ………………………………………………25 4.1 Interview 4.2 The mental need of artists and fans 5. Conclusion ………………………………………………30 5.1 The influence of flux economy on artists’ creative 5.2 Solution TABLE4 OF CONTENTS5 1. INTRODUCTION Weibo is the Chinese version of Twitter. “Wei” means “mini” and “bo” means “blog”. I registered in 2010 and used it as a diary without noticing the characteristic of Weibo has developed into a more complicated level recently; the website wasn’t personal anymore, it became a platform for marketing, an advertising community and more. On Weibo, the word “follower” is translated to “fans”. Now, as a producer of a music story series which has over ten million views on video website, brought me nearly 30,000 fans on Weibo in the past two years. I used to post about the creating process, daily life record and my emotion on it. I was encouraged by my fans’ expecting of my new works, and their concern about my feelings of depression sometimes. When I noticed they started to focus on the social news I was posting, I got a sense of accomplishment. 6 7 Last year, I was under stress of too many things to deal with, a fan praised one of my works (which I think has a defect) through a message on Weibo. I was not so satisfied by this message, so I screenshot her words and posted it telling people I was not happy about this kind of “love”. Suddenly strangers started to criticize me like “you won’t be my idol anymore since you don’t have a grateful heart” or “how can a person have so many drama”. Some people even found my address and tried to do something to me in real life. They insist “you are a public figure, so you need to take responsibility for your negative words.” As a creator, considering the taste and feelings of fans was Till September,2017, 376 million users were active every month and 165 never a part during my creative process. 30,000 fans is also not a useres were active every day on average. big number to me since I assume this number includes at least 15% phantom fans who are not real people. According to my observation, most affective accounts have more than 100,000 fans. I treat creative as a chip to find friends, and fame is a tool to influence this world and make it better. However, this incident showed me a reality, which entirely disobeyed my initial belief. After this incident, I was totally affected since I couldn’t stop thinking “how to make them understand” or “how to shut their mouths up” even though I don’t know who they are. The result is that I can’t focus on anything related to my creativity work, neither studying nor creating new things. So, this incident also made me start to re-locate the role of creators (artists) and fans, why artists are treated similar as entertainment stars, and how creative work changed because of fans. In this thesis, I have tried to divide what they call “public figures” into two main kinds and sum up different situations they are facing in The logo of Weibo. different countries. 8 9 Anyway , when I was a child, both “star” and “idol” were honorary titles. They are the best of their industries, who lead the mind developments and trends of beauty of the world. They all have absolute strength, personalities and charm. Especially in entertainment area, they are the bridges connecting art and real life; they deliver a sense of beauty to normal people. As they are in charge, fans are passive and small. I don’t know if I was too young or the world does change a lot, but the relationship between idols, stars and fans has changed. 2. WHAT ARE FANS TODAY ? 2.1 Idol: From charmers to costumed bottom occupation of entertainment industry What are stars? What are idols? What are fans? When I was in primary school, I understood the word “star” as “people who stand on stage and gain attention by their talent show.” They also attract fans’ attention by their personal lives off the stage because they are charming. Their behaviour will influence their fans. But actually, no Chinese call these people as “fans” as Western people do, we call these people who are obsessed in stars as Japanese newspaper reports Ririka’s shocking marriage announcement “star chasers”. I thought “star chasers” are fools because stars are 2017, June. Suto Ririka, a member of Japanese famous idol group arrogant. Star chasers are controlled by the stars. (contains more than 500 members) - AKB48, announced she will get The meaning of “Idol” is “people who deserve being respected married in AKB48 49th singles selection general election. The whole and worshiped” in China 15 years ago. He or she can be a family Asian entertainment industry was shocked by her announcement. member, or a specialist in one area, such as Einstein or Marilyn This event led people to have different minds of value to scold each Monroe. other. The reason that most AKB48 fans can’t accept is because the 10 11 gimmick of AKB48 is “Shiroto Kaihatsu”, which means girls in the trainees fight in a prescribed route. Korean fans are not that sensitive group are all ordinary people before they participate in AKB48. They about their idols having a relationship as Japanese fans, but each side need to prove their popularity to the company by attracting fans of the relationship is often attacked by fans from the other side. to spend money on them, so they can get more exposure and film/ Some fans think he or she doesn’t deserve to fall in love with their tv resources to become more famous. So, “love banned” becomes a idols. At the same time, these fans will criticize idols on tiny things, default rule in Japanese idol industry (also for male idols). It is also such as smoking or being too close with the staff. a service that idols provide to fans. That’s why what Ririka said is In these two countries, “Idol” has become a specific occupation considered as “betraying the terms of service.” Even idols who have in the past years. The word is used to refer the artists who are not transformed into actors or singers, they still can’t get rid of this so professional, emphasis on singing and dancing or a variety of negative influence. When Fukuyama Masaharu, a 50 years old famous shows. Some fans don’t like idols who have been already trained, artist, announced he was going to get married, he was also attacked they favour ordinary people. They like to see these “shiroto” growing by public opinion. The stock of his agency fell a lot. up from an ordinary person to a famous guy. They call it “guard her In Korea, there is a trainee system. Japanese entertainment growth”. managers don’t ask every “shiroto” idol to be the elite of singing and dancing but in Korea they do. Simply put, Japanese people enjoy watching shiroto fight in their own way,Korean people prefer to see PRODUCE 1O1 - A Popular talent show of Korea. There are girls version and boys version. It is about choosing 9-11 members to build a new idol team from 101 trainees comes from different companies. Fans need to "pick “Akushukai” -Handshake meeting with idols, a routine event in AKB48 to up" their favourite trainees and vote them. The ranke of each member is show your support and favour to idols totally depends on the weekly voting result. 12 13 A part of ranking result of AKB48's general election on 2013 Members of I.O.I - the team consists the winners of PRODUCE 1O1 14 15 2.2 Star: Outdated opinion leaders 2.3 From Ignorant chasers to arrogant investors and money machine without authority anymore In my memory, people know little things about how entertainment industry works. They don’t know how to shoot According to the standard of Korea and photos with good quality, how newspapers control public opinion Japan, there is no mature professional idol in and how agency companies train the artists. Fans did believe their China. People are not sensitive to the types of favourite stars were born to be special. So did I. artists either. “Star” may mean singers, actors However, since the idol concept and talent shows became and musicians, etc. Chinese fans are tolerant popular, people started to know the common procedure of to artists’ personal lives, which is totally “producing a star”.