When an idol becomes a FMCG fan, it becomes a cut “leek”
2021-08-11 11:04:20Source: China Youth Daily
In the past two years, the cultural chaos of idol fans has increasingly become a hot topic of public opinion: the organized list of fans, control reviews, scolding wars, and malicious reports have seriously affected the ecology of the online community; Comparing trends viciously lead minors to over-consumption; a large number of fans chasing trips and picking up planes affect public order and traffic safety; large-scale online fundraising and online violence may even violate the bottom line of the law.
What is the cause of the chaos in idol fan culture? We have to look back at history to find the reason. Looking back at the development of idol fan culture in mainland China, it can be roughly divided into three stages. The first stage is from the beginning of reform and opening up to 2004. This stage belongs to the budding period of fan culture. Idol stars such as Teresa Teng, who mainly come from Hong Kong and Taiwan, are loved by young people. Fans at that time tend to have a strong spontaneity, and their fellow organizations are not well-developed. Compared with the stars themselves, Excellent works have attracted more attention.
The broadcast of “Super Girl” in 2004 opened the second stage of the fan economy. The form of mobile voting and the ascendant social network are calling for the identity and cohesion of the fan community. The vigorous star-making movement of “Super Girl” gave fans the right to choose, vote for their favorite players, and accompany them to realize their dreams. “Empowering fans” has thus become an important aspect of Chinese idol fan culture. No matter how true this “empowerment” is, it effectively mobilizes fans’ enthusiasm for participation and purchasing power.
Since 2018, the “101 Series” audition variety show represented by “Idol Trainees” has marked the third stage of development of the fan economy. Following the “fan empowerment”, the concept of “idol development” from Japan and South Korea began to spread in China’s idol industry and fan culture. While making stars, the Japanese and Korean idol industry provides such an imagination: fans will spend money to vote, which will determine the fate of idols, and every growth and success of idols is achieved with the help of fans. Fans accompany their idols, from twelve or thirteen-year-old trainees to mature idols in their twenties and thirties. They formed a support club to demonstrate their purchasing power in an efficient way of organization and action, thereby striving for better development resources for idols, and fans became idols’ “providers”.
From “star chaser” to “provider”, the change of fan status has caused two key changes: First, the core object of fan love has completely shifted from work to individual idols; second, because idols need to “support” “Success”, so fans have a higher acceptance of immature and imperfect idols. As a result, the absolute emotional connection between fans and idols is no longer based on idols’ professional standards or the quality of their works. This kind of erotic projection that lacks objective standards presents irrational characteristics.
The fan cultural community should be a subcultural group with certain cultural productivity and literary creativity, but in China, the actual leader of idol fan culture is no longer the fan group, but the Internet capital. Under the close control of the support clubs and professional fans, the fan community has actually lost its independence from the community and has completely become a capital tool for creating traffic and contributing to consumption power.
The overall quality of idol artists in my country needs to be improved. Most of the traffic stars have a short shelf life. All companies that engage in activities around the idol industry are holding the impetuous mentality of “make a quick money and run” and unscrupulously squeeze the spending power of fans. At the same time quickly consume their enthusiasm for idols. As a result, idols have become fast-moving consumer goods and wealth codes, and fans have become “leeks” waiting to be cut. At the same time, the absence of Internet social ethics has made many netizens increasingly socially hostile, and idol fan culture, under the coercion of the “traffic is king” capital, has become an extreme manifestation of the deterioration of the Internet environment. The mechanism design of some Internet social platforms and music platforms is designed to encourage consumers to repeat consumption, compare consumption, and control rankings. For example, the function of repeat purchase of a digital album is meaningless to the general audience. It basically serves to stimulate fans to repeat purchases and increase sales. As long as this feature still exists, it will be difficult for fans to give up the game rules of competing for sales.
As far as capital is concerned, “traffic” has no distinction between good and evil. Whether it is verbal abuse or scandal, whether it is a flash in the pan or out of the circle, what attracts attention is “good traffic”. This is the “business” of idol fan culture. The underlying logic. Unreasonable control of the use of capital and implementation of corporate social responsibilities will not be able to eliminate many problems in the fan economy.
(The author is an assistant researcher at the China Academy of Art)
Wang Yuxie Source: China Youth Daily
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