Jun 25 2010
Rrrrr
My new pet peeve:
People who can’t tell the difference between criticism and bashing.
I say that I don’t like many of C-ute’s recent singles, and I get comments like, “You and your blog both suck, you C-ute hater!!” . Noooo. When did I ever say “I hate C-ute”? Never, because I don’t!
I criticize AKB’s constant lipsyncing, and I get comments like, “Since you clearly hate AKB so much, you obviously are lying about living in Japan and seeing their shows, and you don’t know what you’re talking about.” I’ve just got to roll my eyes at that one, but it makes me angry because no one likes being called a liar. Suddenly the conversation went from discussion of AKB to a personal attack. Now, I could prove my point. I have ample evidence that I live in Japan and have attended idol concerts. I also have plenty of evidence that Morning Musume always sings live at their concerts(microphone recordings, mistakes like getting the lyrics wrong or forgetting a line, the fact that you can hear their voices cracking when they’re crying while singing, plus plain old “it’s really not that hard to tell”) But I won’t fight back at the forum anymore, because I know that the person in question is only prepared to face reasoned debate with sarcasm and insults, and there’s just no arguing with someone like that.
Turns out it’s possible to be a fan of a group and still not like every single aspect of every thing they do. There’s a difference between saying, “That group sucks!” and “I don’t like this about that group”.
But the internet is full of angry people who would much rather sling poo than talk things out, and so is the whole world for that matter. The more emotionally attached to something people get, be it political ideals or an idol fandom, the more difficult intelligent debate becomes. Giant squids of anger! Blaaarg!!! If you don’t get the reference, just ignore this part
Meh. Anyway, it’s my blog and I felt the need to rant a bit. Hope you don’t mind. Part 2 of the Live top 100 project won’t be out for a few weeks, because I need a performance that can only be found in the 10myme concert DVD, and that hasn’t been released yet.
DFTBA,
~Celestia~
I’ve read the things that have been said in the topic you’re talking about and it has been totally ridiculous. I understand that people like certain things and may not like the same things I like and I don’t mind the debate, it’s the rabid “idiots” (yes, I called them idiots) that ruin everything. Sometimes, I feel I can’t even contribute to what is being discussed because I know it’ll either be glossed over because it is something intelligent or it’ll be taken apart and clearly taken out of context, even when explained.
Rant all you want!!
“Since you clearly hate AKB so much, you obviously are lying about living in Japan and seeing their shows, and you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
WHAT.
I just facepalmed at that. are they serious. What is the line of logic for this statement? It just doesn’t follow. In the thread you weren’t even remotely like “I hate AKB48.” It was just “hm they lipsync an awful lot which I find strange… even if they perform a lot they rarely, if ever, sing live.”
I feel for you… I never end up in internet debates myself because I always happen to be a fan of both sides but in this case I have to say some of the AKB fans on that thread were ridiculous. But then again some of the MM fans were too :/ so it goes both ways. IDK. internet debates are never something fun to be involved in.
and you have every right to rant on your blog ^^
I felt for you in that thread, the guy sounded like someone who wasn’t worth the time to make a serious reply to.
Whenever people feel the need to emphasise that ‘a forum is for discussions’, I just have to laugh. It’s like if you say something remotely positive or try to cool down tense discussions, you become treated as a blind fan who can see no wrong who need to be wakened up via these ‘discussions’. Lol. I just don’t bother anymore. Plus, I don’t get that mod who came in and said AKB was completely relevant in discussing MM singles, or just to show what a failure they have become. What a failure of a mod.
I’ve wanted to scream and throw things a few times in the past week because of that thread. I am really disappointed that anymore it feels like it isn’t okay to like the group or like the single on an ostensibly H!P centric discussion board.
I understand that this single has its ups and downs, but all singles do. Honestly, at this point I feel like MM could have released the best song in the world with an amazing PV and people would still have found a reason to hate on it. I think sometimes I’ve overcorrected with positivity but I don’t really regret it. It’s not their greatest release by any means, but if no one looks at the bright points (there have been some really cute promotional appearances, for example, and they got some pretty awesome cover art this time) then the group just faces a steeper uphill battle with their next single.
I have to agree that single thread has been way over the top in negativity. The strange part is, a lot of the negative people are going to watch Momusu in Paris…..weird.
Sad thing is that it has been happening since 2006 at least.
Or at least since the Pandas join Momusu.
Only in 2009 has it toned a little then but now here we go again.
My advice is to stay back and sadly watch things progressed.
No matter what people say, idol music is fringe music outside of Japan. So you have a very specific fans who can only get attention through flamewars and trolling. And they can’t really go anywhere else as idol music has a small presence online with the same people visiting the same forums. Its not like video games forums where you can find so many massive forums to replace a forum that you dislike. Same goes for anime forums.
So even you create a new forum for H!P, the same people will gravitate to it once it becomes famous and the cycle starts again. I mean S48 and Nihongo has the same people visiting both sites. I mean was the split even necessary since a fair amount of users visit both sites?
If you want to do criticism or be positive about something, best you create your own blog and link in the forums.
Like you did here.
I understand what you mean
about being a fan about something but not liking everything
My view is that makes you a true fan because you are able to justify and accept the bad things while still supporting the group
Keep on supporting
There are some idiots out there and honestly their blatant idiocracy means they have a lot they wont accept and they are just behaving immaturely
I think, this is to be expected every time both groups’ names come up. Sure, most people try to stay polite, but hardcore fans are very intense in their opinions. So the best to do is just speak your opinion, argue, and stop replying when things get too wanky, or too messy. I personally don’t even want to comment at that thread because most of the points, even the non-trolly ones, have been said over and over and over, in early discussions. And when I do try to make an intelligent discussion I realize we don’t really know anything of the way idol groups are managed, so there isn’t an actual conclusion to make, so the wank repeats itself again.
What makes me sad is how people on both sides are attacking you on some way or another. I really really liked your post, not only because I like to do the same, comparing lines, different performances, etc, but because it’s a very interesting theme and the discussion shouldn’t end up this way. And I really don’t like how criticizing any aspect of AKB makes anyone a hater. It happened already during the elections drama and it’s getting on my nerves. I actually applaud your effort in trying to know the group and watching their performances. Hell, 90% of their newer fans don’t even know the theater and you already have been there twice. So the best thing to do is just ignore them.
Celestia, your rock. Don’t let the haters get you down. I love your blog and your writing. Even if I don’t agree with you, which is very rarely (you C-ute hater!) you write in such an intelligent and passionate manner it always gives food for thought.
I am so grateful you have a forum for your thoughts that I go to every day in the hopes that you have written something new for an interest I have a deep passion for also and have extremely few friends to talk about with.
Really. Forget the people who make it personal. Those are mainly the AKB fans anyway.
AKB fan here! I have to say that I agree, AKB lipsyncs all the time. When I went to watch them perform a year ago, I’m kinda sure they were singing some songs live because there was an absent member but I don’t know for sure. Lipsynching in AKb didn’t use to be the rule either way back in 2006 when I became a fan, the girls performed live, but right now, it’s almost impossible to run into a live vocal performance (I almost cried when I watched Yuko’s live version of Nakinagara Hohoende)
I answered this in the H!O thread and got insulted too xD But I really think having to perform 2 or 3 times a day every day at the theater could wear the girls down a lot if they were actually performing live every day, sure, it still doesn’t explain why concerts get lip synched too, although according to some people I’ve heard who have attended a lot of concerts, the girls sing the units live, but on the DVD release there’s always a re recorded version of the song. I don’t know if this is true or not, but it’s what I’ve heard xD
And about the eternal idol wars, I really don’t understand why is it so difficult for people on both sides to be tolerant some times. So you don’t want to like MM anymore? Fine, whatever. So you dislike AKB? Fine too, let’s all take pop music as the happy go lucky genre we love instead of making it a war, I think.
Anyway, long comment is long. Just wanted to raise my hand and say that not all AKB fans are blind defenders, I know they ALWAYS lip synch and there’s no denying that for one or another reason xD
Oh, and I have something to say xD Here’s a Live on Demand that is completely sung live. It’s SKE48’s team KII, but still, I thought you might want to hear it
http://www.hello-online.org/index.php?act=tracker&CODE=details&torrent=28340
peace out