This month in Wota Wonderings, I ask:
Hoping we’re not all shallow wotas, imagine your favourite idol (or musical personality) switched bodies with someone you don’t find “visually pleasing”, would it affect your love for that idol in any way/shape/form?
but I’ll be taking the “talent over looks” argument in a slightly different angle.
I think it’s safe to say that most people hear people’s music before seeing them, or is it really that safe considering every band on the planet has a myspace and their music videos up on youtube? There was a time where you’d have a chance to sit down and LISTEN to music before the visual judgments get tossed around. Or maybe that’s just me? Everything’s all about having “the look” or whatever it is. Many musical acts have been shrugged off by producers because of their lack of “the look”. I guess it makes sense for them to do it because everything’s about first impressions these days. Also, sight processes faster than sound so if you can’t capture a potential customer’s attention within that timeframe it takes them to surf to a new page or change the channel, you’ve lost a battle.
Perfume
Angela Aki
Morning Musume
(circa Summer 2001)
The Pipettes (circa 2007)
Being a Japanese music fan living in Canada, media exposure of my favourite musical acts is limited to what I actively search for online and through my RSS feed subscriptions. In comparison to MuchMusic, local radio, and just walking around malls and anywhere that plays music, you’d think that I have more exposure to North American music – it’s actually quite the contrary. That or the music here is just so easy to ignore since it doesn’t tickle my fancy at all. Or at least the pop genre here doesn’t. In the case of non-visual media, people might come across a song that they haven’t “seen” yet, but with music videos playing practically everywhere (movie theatres, music stores, mall food courts, etc.) it’s practically impossible in the pop world. It’s funny how much longer a song’s lifespan becomes when it isn’t constantly force-fed into your system.
Given that I’m not on youtube looking for new music nearly as much as I’m exposed to the local stuff, most of the new music I come across is heard instead of seen. This helps me in a few ways: firstly, I don’t fall victim to the visual marketing ploy and listen to just the music first, and secondly, I toss judgments purely on musical ability and not on unimportant things like looks. By the time I become unlazy and actively search for what this new act looks like, I’m already enough of a fan (or antifan) that it doesn’t matter what they look like for it to make much of an impact on what I already think.
This was the case for me with Perfume, Angela Aki, and even Morning Musume. For Perfume, I heard them before seeing them and was pleasantly surprised that the extremely cute voices behind Sweet Donuts were accompanied with extremely cute girls. For Ms. Aki, I heard a lot of her stuff bleed into my room from my sister’s room and she’d always have her playing in the car and now that she has her piano books, there’s some serious Angela fever in the house. I must admit, though, I didn’t expect her look to be so casual and I’m not usually a fan of the “poof” hairstyle. The weird thing with me is that I’m such a positive scanner when the vibes around me are good that Angela’s style is growing on me. Morning Musume went the other way around though. I first heard Love Machine without any knowledge of who they were and wasn’t quite turned on to it. Then I found out who they were (while in their 4th generation) and listened to a bunch of their other songs before it clicked that they were the same group, plus or minus a few members.
Sadly, to answer my question, I can say that I am a bit shallow in that if I see a cute girl in the music biz, I check her out to see if she’s good. Is that really such a bad thing though? It happened with me and The Pipettes and look what happened there. But recently, The Pipettes went through some member changes. They haven’t released anything since but will I be as entertained as I was with the old line up? I don’t know for sure but I loved Rosay’s sass. Something I do know is that with Morning Musume, there’s no contest between a Love Machine with the original line up compared to today’s line up.
Wota Wonderings 4 – Are You a Shallow Wota (Solo Space)
WW04 – Are Looks Everything? (Tsuyoki de Yukoze!)
Wota Wonderings: On looks versus abilities… (boylikesmusic)
Wota Wonderings 004:Looks Or Talent? you decide (take off is now!)
[Wota Wonderings 04] It’s what’s outside that counts. (Renai Revolution 21)
Wota Wonderings 004 – Are You In The Shallow End Of The Pool? (Selective Hearing)
Wota Wonderings 04 – Case of the Body Snatchers (fields of maiZe and berryZ)
Wota Wonderings 004 (H!P Fangirling like Nobody’s Business)
[WW] Would I love Airi if she weren’t adorable? (Tsuugaku Vector ☂)
