IN-teresting...
Source from which I am copy-pasting completely, so you don't really need to click this
Q: Why were JE groups back in the days (Hikaru Genji, Shibugakitai) breaking up after less than 10 years of being together but groups nowadays since Smap (like V6, Tokio) have been going well beyond their 10th anniversary? Is it because the industry's rules have changed or is it mainly the member's own preferences?
A:
The Changing Male Idol Market
The old male idol model and its decline
The “orthodox” 80s male idol was someone who was first and foremost physically attractive and a good singer and dancer to boot. The primary stage for the 80s idol was on The Top Ten and the Best Ten: the two main music tv show of that era. The format of both shows was essentially the same: singles were ranked each week as to how many records were sold and the top ten artists would perform their corresponding single each week. If you didn’t make it into the top 10, you didn’t perform. Conversely, if you create a monster hit that keeps on topping the charts, your face would be in everyone’s living rooms for as long as you moved records. Since performances were the main emphasis of these shows, idols didn’t have much time to talk with the show hosts. A witty sense of humor or adeptness at making conversation weren’t really necessary in the idol formula.
However, towards the end of the 80s, this model began to fall apart. Top Ten ended in ‘86 and The Best Ten in ‘89, and so ended the ‘ranking’ style music show. People were tired of seeing the same idols week after week, and these shows stopped getting enough ratings to keep them competitive with all the other shows out there. Without a platform for idols to endear themselves to the public at large, the “golden age” of idols ends.
The changing face of the male idol
From the ashes of the ranking music show came the “variety music show.” Less emphasis was place on singing and dancing; now idols had to be funny! ad lib! be full of witty banter! Now an idol was first and foremost a TV star who spent more time chatting with Tamori than actually singing and dancing. JE caught this new trend at the very start and created a new type of variety tv show concentrated male idol group. SMAP is the first of this “new type” idol group, and the effects of JE switching over to this TV centric unit shows in the longevity of these groups.
The greatest “tragedy” within Johnnys were the groups that debuted in the midst of this industry change. Hikaru Genji, Otokogumi and Ninja all debuted in the mid 80s to early 90s on the old model of concentrating on making musical hits. Needless to say, operating on this old model in a variety TV show market ensured an untimely death for all three of the groups. Perhaps Hikaru Genji’s story is the most interesting because they were, at least in the beginning, hugely successful in selling singles. Their hit singles topped the yearly rankings and sold into the millions. They rose to the top quickly, but they also fell from the top just as quickly. Their resounding success as “old type” male idols made it difficult for them to switch gears into a variety show idol, and thus, their chances at staying together as a successful group.
Group “Homogeneity”
For this new type of idol groups, no longer could you just have a gathering of “good looking guys.” Every group has at least one “un-idol-like idol,” (SMAP’s Nakai, TOKIO’s Joshima, V6’s Inohara). This is where you started getting members in groups that were just “plain” in the looks department, who couldn’t sing or dance very well. Yet, this was all calculated in making these groups maximumly “interesting” in a variety setting. At the same time, groups were also packaged as individual members that went off and did their own solo works in movies and tv shows. When an individual member went out and made a hit drama, that popularity would in turn be carried back to the group once newly minted fans watched their newfound idol interact with the other members of the group.
What’s the biggest indication of the success of the new idol group method? The proof is in their longevity. It was understood back in the 80s that idol = youth. Now you have idol groups collectively aging their way into middle age without losing their status as male idols.
tl;dr sometime in the late 80s, male idol groups shifted from emphasizing hit songs to emphasizing constant exposure on TV. That’s why older groups rarely lasted that long in comparison to modern groups who never seem to break up. "
And at some point, as we all know, Seo Taiji ripped this formula off, which allowed Kpop to skip any growing pains and jump straight into a tried-and-true industry framework where PERSONALITY IS IMPORTANT and stuff. Yet, somewhere along the line musical talent came back into the picture and became a main marketing point again, to where groups like Sistar and 2NE1 can market themselves as "music first, personality bonus" groups.
On the other hand, the original question was about why groups a long time ago had so much shorter lifespans, and the answer was that they were caught int the flux between "music first" and "personality first." Considering the 5-year curse in Kpop, and that groups like Big Bang, Suju, and SNSD look to join BEG in breaking that curse, and that these groups are also personality powerhouses, does that mean Kpop is in a flux between standards/priorities right now? What does that imply for the music-focussed groups?
And what are the implications of this concerning the exodus to Japan, and how especially Kpop might finally break the stranglehold JE has over boybands in Japan?(EXILE is the exception that proves the rule, especially since w-inds has long lost any momentum) Is it that Kpop groups have enough perceived personality to fit the market, or will they actually manage to overturn the return of the idol as pioneered by AKB48 and restore some "music first" attitudes, or is this all just one giant fad and any dreams of "music first" are just delusions harbored by the fans who think that Kpop, *snort*, is actually putting music first? If Kpop does indeed succeed at raising the idol group performance standard, will Avex's girlgroups FINALLY gain traction?
Plus, it is the exodus of Kpop groups to Japan that has sidestepped the "People were tired of seeing the same idols week after week, and these shows stopped getting enough ratings to keep them competitive with all the other shows out there." issue at home, as the new groups have been allowed to grow and flourish because the big names aren't stealing their thunder all of the time. Yet the influx of new artists is still mostly idol groups, to where I'm sure some people are now weary of the weekly music shows. But they already have a variety circuit, and idol groups are already also trained for variety prowess, so where do they go from here? Previously, after the HOT/GOD/SES/Finkl/Shinhwa era died, soloists became the main focus in music, as was also the case in Japan as MM declined. (although for Jpop, it's waves of girlgroups, as JE keeps the boyband side forever going strong) But now we have the internet and international fanbases that could prevent the idol fad from dying out long after the fervor goes away in the homeland. Hah, looks like Kpop will be doomed to stagnate in the way that they criticize Jpop for doing.
Or does Pon Pon Pon prove that Japan IS putting music first? XD Come to think of it, a lot of my defense of Jpop consists of "It comes in a pretty questionable package, but damn that song is good." Oh yeah, "music" and "talent" are not synonymous.
Q: Why were JE groups back in the days (Hikaru Genji, Shibugakitai) breaking up after less than 10 years of being together but groups nowadays since Smap (like V6, Tokio) have been going well beyond their 10th anniversary? Is it because the industry's rules have changed or is it mainly the member's own preferences?
A:
The Changing Male Idol Market
The old male idol model and its decline
The “orthodox” 80s male idol was someone who was first and foremost physically attractive and a good singer and dancer to boot. The primary stage for the 80s idol was on The Top Ten and the Best Ten: the two main music tv show of that era. The format of both shows was essentially the same: singles were ranked each week as to how many records were sold and the top ten artists would perform their corresponding single each week. If you didn’t make it into the top 10, you didn’t perform. Conversely, if you create a monster hit that keeps on topping the charts, your face would be in everyone’s living rooms for as long as you moved records. Since performances were the main emphasis of these shows, idols didn’t have much time to talk with the show hosts. A witty sense of humor or adeptness at making conversation weren’t really necessary in the idol formula.
However, towards the end of the 80s, this model began to fall apart. Top Ten ended in ‘86 and The Best Ten in ‘89, and so ended the ‘ranking’ style music show. People were tired of seeing the same idols week after week, and these shows stopped getting enough ratings to keep them competitive with all the other shows out there. Without a platform for idols to endear themselves to the public at large, the “golden age” of idols ends.
The changing face of the male idol
From the ashes of the ranking music show came the “variety music show.” Less emphasis was place on singing and dancing; now idols had to be funny! ad lib! be full of witty banter! Now an idol was first and foremost a TV star who spent more time chatting with Tamori than actually singing and dancing. JE caught this new trend at the very start and created a new type of variety tv show concentrated male idol group. SMAP is the first of this “new type” idol group, and the effects of JE switching over to this TV centric unit shows in the longevity of these groups.
The greatest “tragedy” within Johnnys were the groups that debuted in the midst of this industry change. Hikaru Genji, Otokogumi and Ninja all debuted in the mid 80s to early 90s on the old model of concentrating on making musical hits. Needless to say, operating on this old model in a variety TV show market ensured an untimely death for all three of the groups. Perhaps Hikaru Genji’s story is the most interesting because they were, at least in the beginning, hugely successful in selling singles. Their hit singles topped the yearly rankings and sold into the millions. They rose to the top quickly, but they also fell from the top just as quickly. Their resounding success as “old type” male idols made it difficult for them to switch gears into a variety show idol, and thus, their chances at staying together as a successful group.
Group “Homogeneity”
For this new type of idol groups, no longer could you just have a gathering of “good looking guys.” Every group has at least one “un-idol-like idol,” (SMAP’s Nakai, TOKIO’s Joshima, V6’s Inohara). This is where you started getting members in groups that were just “plain” in the looks department, who couldn’t sing or dance very well. Yet, this was all calculated in making these groups maximumly “interesting” in a variety setting. At the same time, groups were also packaged as individual members that went off and did their own solo works in movies and tv shows. When an individual member went out and made a hit drama, that popularity would in turn be carried back to the group once newly minted fans watched their newfound idol interact with the other members of the group.
What’s the biggest indication of the success of the new idol group method? The proof is in their longevity. It was understood back in the 80s that idol = youth. Now you have idol groups collectively aging their way into middle age without losing their status as male idols.
tl;dr sometime in the late 80s, male idol groups shifted from emphasizing hit songs to emphasizing constant exposure on TV. That’s why older groups rarely lasted that long in comparison to modern groups who never seem to break up. "
And at some point, as we all know, Seo Taiji ripped this formula off, which allowed Kpop to skip any growing pains and jump straight into a tried-and-true industry framework where PERSONALITY IS IMPORTANT and stuff. Yet, somewhere along the line musical talent came back into the picture and became a main marketing point again, to where groups like Sistar and 2NE1 can market themselves as "music first, personality bonus" groups.
On the other hand, the original question was about why groups a long time ago had so much shorter lifespans, and the answer was that they were caught int the flux between "music first" and "personality first." Considering the 5-year curse in Kpop, and that groups like Big Bang, Suju, and SNSD look to join BEG in breaking that curse, and that these groups are also personality powerhouses, does that mean Kpop is in a flux between standards/priorities right now? What does that imply for the music-focussed groups?
And what are the implications of this concerning the exodus to Japan, and how especially Kpop might finally break the stranglehold JE has over boybands in Japan?(EXILE is the exception that proves the rule, especially since w-inds has long lost any momentum) Is it that Kpop groups have enough perceived personality to fit the market, or will they actually manage to overturn the return of the idol as pioneered by AKB48 and restore some "music first" attitudes, or is this all just one giant fad and any dreams of "music first" are just delusions harbored by the fans who think that Kpop, *snort*, is actually putting music first? If Kpop does indeed succeed at raising the idol group performance standard, will Avex's girlgroups FINALLY gain traction?
Plus, it is the exodus of Kpop groups to Japan that has sidestepped the "People were tired of seeing the same idols week after week, and these shows stopped getting enough ratings to keep them competitive with all the other shows out there." issue at home, as the new groups have been allowed to grow and flourish because the big names aren't stealing their thunder all of the time. Yet the influx of new artists is still mostly idol groups, to where I'm sure some people are now weary of the weekly music shows. But they already have a variety circuit, and idol groups are already also trained for variety prowess, so where do they go from here? Previously, after the HOT/GOD/SES/Finkl/Shinhwa era died, soloists became the main focus in music, as was also the case in Japan as MM declined. (although for Jpop, it's waves of girlgroups, as JE keeps the boyband side forever going strong) But now we have the internet and international fanbases that could prevent the idol fad from dying out long after the fervor goes away in the homeland. Hah, looks like Kpop will be doomed to stagnate in the way that they criticize Jpop for doing.
Or does Pon Pon Pon prove that Japan IS putting music first? XD Come to think of it, a lot of my defense of Jpop consists of "It comes in a pretty questionable package, but damn that song is good." Oh yeah, "music" and "talent" are not synonymous.