The recent decade saw the exploding popularity and expanding influence of East Asian pop idols, such as BTS and BLACKPINK, worldwide, accompanied by a curiosity about the idol culture from its musical authenticity and beauty standard to its attitude toward dating. This research project seeks to investigate Japanese idol culture, frequently characterized as weird or misogynistic with images of obsessive male otaku fans making excessive purchases and unreasonable limitations on idols’ love lives, from both its native context and a transcultural perspective. Defining Japanese pop idols as multimedia personalities with affective relationships with their fans, this project seeks to review the existing literature on the subject as well as related topics on other types of Japanese performing arts, cultural products’ transnational spread in Asia, etc., and complement our understandings through directly examining idol songs, music videos, documentaries, and film and literature dealing with them. Furthermore, we want to take a specific perspective on how the idols’ gender, sexuality, and images of the body are commodified in the mediascape.
Having been interested in Japanese idol groups and various anime and games that constitute the media mix since my childhood, I am curious about idols’ potential to be points of contention in issues like gender and sexuality after I listened to Professor Tarcov’s talk on entrepreneurial masculinity understood through the breakup of Japan’s national idol group, SMAP. I have become even more fascinated when their media omnipresence is evident, even in a classroom setting in a Japanese postwar mass culture class I’ve taken with the same professor.
The project’s main learning objective is to produce an annotated bibliography with entries of academic monographs, articles, and primary sources available online. By doing so, several sub-objectives are hoped to be achieved: 1). Contextualizing Japan’s idol culture through familiarizing its significant historical developments; 2). Summarizing the information and making the knowledge more easily transferable to academic and general public contexts; 3). Practicing and applying methods and ideas observed in the existing scholarship when examining primary sources, including music videos, song lyrics, idols’ visual presentation, and fan commentaries; 4). Synthesis of the materials, making connections and organizing them thematically. Participating in this research project advances essential skills like time management, efficient communication, and presentation of discoveries.
The highlight of my experiences working on this project is the meetings with my supervisor, Professor Tarcov. While working independently on reading and evaluating the sources increases my ability of time and task management and thinking critically about the future direction of the research, I find being able to discuss the materials learned and brainstorm ideas seemingly not related but share similar nature an enriching and inspiring part of the research. I remember attending a professional wrestling match in Montreal, which invited an idol-turned-pro-wrestler from Japan after we had discussed the similarity between the unexpectedly overlapped two careers that both involve the performance of certain elements (innocence and vitality in idols and aggression and pain in professional wrestling) in the previous class I have taken with the professor and in earlier meetings. In the next meeting after the match, we were able to exchange our first impressions of the match, which are different in the identifiable artificiality of the performances, perhaps due to the difference in American and Japanese professional wrestling culture, and discuss the particular points that have drawn my attention during the show. The experience of attending events in person brings out another highlight of the summer, which is to physically go to shops with idol CDs and merchandise and participate in events of relevant themes in Montreal, but with a critical eye and field notes created immediately after the participation. Besides the professional wrestling match that mesh elements of idol culture while also sharing essential concepts, I also visit shops like Sarah & Tom and LightUpK Montreal and observe the merchandise sold as well as fans using the store as space to reinforce their experiences, providing a primary account for East Asian idol culture taking root in a foreign context.
An initial challenge I encountered in my research process was navigating the library system and sharpening my research question to identify relevant scholarship better. While the internship office provided a useful workshop at the beginning of the summer, some difficulties were more specific, such as lack of access to certain journals with relevant issues, which encouraged me to seek assistance from our librarians, use the interlibrary loan system, etc.
I benefit greatly from my experiences in the research project, as it not only serves as a foundation part of my future exploration of idol culture but also strengthens my skills in reviewing and synthesizing the literature, communicating my ideas, navigating the university’s support system, and managing a project in an independent work style.
I want to thank my donor, Mr. Gallop, again for making this unique summer that will undoubtedly have an effect on me lasting much longer happen.
