Lead, Follow, Or Get The Fuck Out Of The Way
Highly recommended reading. Our own CJ has a very strong reaction to the 180 that Rad made on the issue of Morning Musume performing in America. He takes particular umbrage at Rad’s argument that H!P is about the fans, not the girls onstage. Definitely worth keeping an eye on to see where this goes from here, as CJ mentions plans to promote the idea of H!P in America.
Comment by Radicalpatriot — 2008/02/02 @ 11:09 pm
You’ll be hearing a lot more about this as I decompress, but the simple reality is this: The more any of us on this side of the Pacific clamor for Morning Musume to perform in America, the less chance it has of actually happening. They, UFA and Sony, are listening, and they are digging their trenches ever deeper in opposition. You see, their market in Asia can be controlled. We can’t. They don’t like unpredictability.
Further, if Morning Musume were to play the Staples Center in L.A. like I have advocated, it would piss off UFA’s core fan base back home. Hell, I was first-hand witness to that. Two of us European types were on the floor for the thrid and final show Jan. 27, and I could feel the tension. That I had Kagome tattooed on my left shoulder was apparently another affront; tattoos are apparently not cool with the Otaku.
Now don’t get me wrong. The fans didn’t openly disdain us being down there. they were just amazed that it happened. They know full well how many hoops outsiders have to jump through just to get into one of these events.
I was an interloper and felt like one.
The Japanese music business is a massive and precise machine that works surgically on niche markets. For example, Morning Musume has a hold of the otaku community and has milked that fan base and will continue to do so — adding only the new fans that fit a certain profile; i.e., the Hello Project Fan Club.
It works only from that fan base. Just ask anyone who wants to attend a Hello Project concert what a staggering undertaking that is. Now, I am absolutely overjoyed that I went, and it was without question one of the high points of my life, but the company made every attempt to stop me or slow me down. But dammit I was hell-bent on going, and the tougher they made it for me, the madder I got.
So that’s what we all really have to do. Get madder and madder about this, and I’m glad I’m drawing this fire because if we all get pissed off bad enough, solmething will crack. I sure as hell made my points loud and clear, both to UFA and Sony, while I was in Tokyo, in person, when it counts the most.
So for all those who think I have done a 180, fine. But it’s not a reversal, it’s a capitulation to the firewall UFA and Sony have put up to keep their own domestic fans in line and slavishly paying up each year — and keeping free-wheeling and unpredictable Americans out of the picture.
Comment by Ray — 2008/02/03 @ 7:04 am
I’m not going to get into the specifics of your statement right now, only the general position you’ve taken in this comment. There’s something wacky about the finer points, but I’m not going to let myself get sucked in just yet.
As a reminder: I argued that, at best, H!P acts in the States can work the anime convention route, and that the economics of anything larger is something the corporate purse strings would neither find feasible nor would wish to support. So it’s not like I’m angry about your apparent change of heart (I do question your chain of reasoning, though) or have ever believed a full-scale H!P invasion of the U.S. is do-able. However, it looks like you’re trying to take back what you wrote from your time in Japan. Specifically:
The “should never” repeated twice and that final “should always stay that way” does indeed indicate a 180 degree turn in your previous thinking. It’s not a case of stating the difficulties of a situation and asserting we have to get mad and fight back. It’s offering a view of what you think is right in the world.
Claiming now that you didn’t commit a “reversal” but instead a “capitulation” strikes me as disingenuous semantics. It’s not like you were Paul McCartney busted for pot, you were completely free to state your opinions as you see fit. To say otherwise would strike me as paranoid, perhaps even delusional: a shadow network of H!P wota hanging on your every word and ready to do you damage if you don’t toe the party line. That’s straight out of Welcome to the NHK and I hope you don’t claim that to back your latest zig-zag.
Comment by Radicalpatriot — 2008/02/03 @ 10:08 am
Keep in mind that the “should never” and “should always stay that way” comments were right after the show, made in the heat of the moment. I have yet to nake some sense out of what I saw and heard (I also saw a half-dozen other J-pop groups and comparisons are on the way).
As for zigging and zagging, that is the very nature of the blogosphere. Everyone has a right to change his or her mind upon reflection.
I have to agree with your assessment. Paranoia might be a little strong a term, but 10 days wrestling with the Japanese train system can do that to you.