For this presentation, my group picks AKB48 as the topic because lately they have extremely succeeded and you can see their ads everywhere anytime.
AKB48 is a female idol group which is produced by Yasuo Akimoto.
They are well known about their songs Ai Ta Katta（会いたかった) and Heavy Lotation（ヘビーローテーション).
You can watch their performance at AKB theatre in Akihabara, the top of the building of Don Quixote .
They seem to be very popular, yet they also seem to have some troubles with their own fans.
It probably because of their system of the position; AKB members have to get popularity to get higher position. Only high position members can show up on the TV, the music video, commersials and so on.
Some girls who could not be very popular were already fired by the producer.
So, some evil fans spread negative rumors of the members for getting down the popularity of high position members and raise their favorite members' position.
For example, one of the most well known members, Tomomi Itano(板野友美）has an awful rumor.
On the Internet, people often talk about she has had cosmetic surgery a lot.
This picture is often used when people talk about her face.
Another bad story is here; AKB48's fans buy tons of the same CDs which seems to creat fake popularity.
Some people upload pictures on the Internet that they bought too many same CDs.Those websites introduce that kind of cases (sorry they are all in Japanese)
http://news4vip.livedoor.biz/archives/51792371.html
http://news4vip.livedoor.biz/archives/51792492.html
The reason wy they buy so many same CDs is, the CDs have a ticket to vote the favorite member.
AKB48 often counts the popularity of each members, and one of the ways to count the popularity is giving a ticket to vote each CD and fans vote for the favorite member.
Because the fans want to raise their favorite members' position, they buy CDs a lot and vote many times.
The fans often share those pictures on the Internet and show how they love their favorite member.Conclusion;
Personally I am not a fan of AKB48. In fact I know only few names of the members.
Because they're lately extremely popular, and the fans often do something too much or too bad, I think it's a kind of big issue.
AKB members are not doing something bad, but since they are very popular they get more attentions and troubles from people.
Thanks for sharing the results of your group's research into Fans and Pop Culture. The case of AKB48 is quite interesting. I would like hearing these fans who spend so much time, money and energy trying to help promote their band or favorite member explain themselves.
返信削除Have you come across such statements from these types of fans in your research?
One thing I fail to see is how a rumor of plastic surgery is an awful rumor. It seems to me that there could be far worse rumors. How does it damage Tomomi for people to say they think she has had plastic surgery in Dubai or where ever she supposedly went? It seems that it gives her more publicity.
And isn't publicity one of the driving commercial forces of pop culture?
I would have liked to have seen some of these questions raised in your post.