Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Pushing members forward (QWC #1)


Hello readers of Pure Idol heart!
As Gaki has already said, I'm Candy, one of the new writers for PIH. I'm finally making my introduction!
I like H!P a lot, and am interested in other idol groups and foreign music. I have been reading Pure Idol Heart for about a year now.

I want to start a new segment on here. It's called Questions with Candy or QWC for short! Meika suggested the name for me and I agree that it's cute. OWQ is basically me questioning and discussing idol culture. There are so many things in idol culture that we dislike sometimes, but their aren't that many occasions to talk about these things freely. I write out my opinion on the situation, and then I encourage everybody to comment and add their opinion!
_________________________________________________

Today, in my first QWC, I'm going to be talking about being in the spotlight, or pushing forward.



Do you follow a group where there's always this one girl who get's all of the lines, all of the screen time, all of the attention? And you think to yourself: Why is she being shown the most, it's annoying!

Pushing somebody forward is when a member in a group receives extra lines, extra screen time, and extra attention, more so than the other members. The reasons for it could be endless. They may be a tad bit more talented than the rest of the members. They may be prettier or cuter, or they might be the most popular in the group.
____________________________________________________________

Examples of being pushed forward
  •  Tamura Meimi from the recent S/mileage audition is being pushed forward immensely. She revived a duet with Dawa and several more lines and screen time than the other new members in Please Mini skirt Postwoman!
  • Sayashi Riho from the recent Morning Musume auditions has been pushed forward too much. She received several lines in Momosu's Only You single while the other new members received none. On the 12 smart album, she receives a duet with Reina and in Kono Chikyuu and Kare to Issho, (I shortened the titles) she receives twice as much attention than the other 9th gen members.
___________________________________________________

It's different than being a front girl. A front girl or front girls is when a select few members or even just one member get's all of the lines and attention. Front girls are usually selected from the very start where as being pushed forward happens almost randomly and at any time.

Examples of front girls
  • Matsui Rena and Matsui Jurina from SKE are front girls. Right from their debut single Tsuyoki Monoyo, and in every SKE48 single up until now, the Matsui's have been dominating the lead spots in SKE and sometimes even in the AKB senbatsu.
  • Maeda Atsuko from AKB has been AKB's front girl right from the beginning. Maeda has her own solo career and continues to be the most popular AKB member.
  • Suzuki Airi from C-ute has always dominated C-ute, mainly with Maimi. And when Erika and Kanna left, Airi fully took over (even though she's not captain) she is considered the face of C-ute.

Almost all idol groups do this! Even in groups like S/mileage (4 nin), Idolong!!!, and BRIGHT, where all of the girls eccentrically get the same number of lines and screen time, there's still some unfairness, even if it's only by a small amount.

As you can tell from my tone, I absolutely hate when girls are pushed forward because of these reasons. I want everybody to be equal, to have equal screen time and lines. Like in the SKE48 picture above. It's unfair that Jurina and Rena are at the front, where everybody can see them while the other members are in the back and look small. I don't see how it benefits anyone either. The most popular girl isn't everybody's favorite member.


So here's my question for you!
Do you guys like when management pushes a girl forward?



Please comment!


11 comments:

  1. Please run a spell checker to clear so many typos...
    Also even the names for the idol groups/members are spelled wrongly :/

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ^Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, this is my first post. I fixed all of the typos that the typo caught and the members names and group names.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Haha, I don't mind it so much. I voted for "If It's my favorite member, I don't mind."

    It's just natural in idol groups. I don't think you can really avoid pushing someone forward, unless the group is just a duo or something. Once you have three or more, someone is going to get more attention. If one member is the favorite with fans, it makes sense that they'd be pushed forward. Riho & Meimi were my favorites right from the beginning, so the fact that they are being pushed forward now makes me happy : ) But then again, if they chose different members to push, I might be mad xD So I see your point. I guess I've just been into idols too long (7 or 8 years) so I'm used to it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @ Omus –Candy uses nicknames and common used short versions of group’s names , in her writing style

    ReplyDelete
  6. i guess it would depend who's ur fav in the group... if ur favourite is always the one getting getting push u prolly wont have a problem with it, if ur Oshi is the one that never gets push and is never is the A-side of a single even tho she more or as popular as the ppl who are on the Aside then i would get very mad (this is my case for Akb)... thx for the good first post i look forward to reading more of ur segments =)

    ReplyDelete
  7. still wonder who are the front girls in afilia saga... maybe kohime but no problem since i like it this way.

    what i hate is when they focus in one girl way so much that the other girls are almost decorative... lso i don't like it because they give the girl too much responsability that should be shared by the whole group and not only one person.

    ReplyDelete
  8. @ Shura One can never get enough of the tiny princess ,lol .Also your other points I agree with as well .


    @ Anon –I know what you mean ,many members actually contribute more to their programs then others ,yet on singles you hardly notice them.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I don't mind one girl being pushed forward for one or two singles, but I'd love it if it were circulated, so everyone got a turn. I know this is just my wishful thinking, but it can't hurt to hope :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I don't mind if it's done in moderation, mainly because I understand that the members that DO get pushed forward, or the front girl/face of the member, are placed into that position for a reason. They'll help the sale of the single or album in general. They are pushed or the front/face because they are popular - and a fanbase that is pretty solid already. The reasons could be endless, it could be their looks, their talent, or both.

    Like you said, Riho just joined MM but she's already got the center position, duets and lines in their singles, it may seem unfair to the other 9th gen members who joined with her - but she was the most popular during the 9th gen auditions, she's also pretty talented so I wasn't too surprised to see H!P pushing her forward once she joined.

    But the case for me is that I always happen to like the members that are usually underappreciated, or in the background, usually don't get a lot of lines, etc. so I get where you are coming from in this post.

    I understand Airi being the face and front girl of C-ute, but their "Shock!" single really did shock me... because I wasn't expecting the other members of C-ute to be decorative, as someone said in an earlier comment. So I won't mind having a member pushed forward more compared to the others, but only when other members still had their time to shine - after all, they are STILL a group, not one singer with backup vocals/dancers.

    But having a member that is the face/front girl is natural in idol groups, like for me when I was getting into it at first I disliked the idea, but I can understand now that it's how idol groups work.

    ReplyDelete
  11. ^Thank you Anonymous, and everybody for your discussions on this topic~

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.