As Japan Ages, Pop 'Idols' Aren't as Spry as They Used to Be
THE NEW YORK TIMES
By DAN GRUNEBAUM
Published: October 7, 2010
TOKYO — Japanese culture is renowned for its obsession with the impermanence
of beauty, and many a poem has honored the brief but perfect life of the
cherry blossom.
In human terms, the Japanese “Christmas cake” maxim celebrates feminine
beauty, but dictates that a woman is past her prime at 25, when she should
avoid turning into leftover Christmas cake. In show business this has long
meant that female pop “idols” should marry and retire by their early 20s.
But with the number of Japanese older than 65 rising from 7.1 percent of the
population in 1970 to a world record 22.7 percent in 2009, the Christmas cake
dictum is showing signs of age. The Christmas cake example is the singer
Momoe Yamaguchi, whom Japan swooned over in the 1970s. After stealing the
nation’s heart, she married in 1980 and disappeared forever into domestic
bliss.
When “the Japanese Madonna,” Seiko Matsuda, declined to retire after
marrying in her early 20s in 1985, she caused a minor cultural earthquake.
But even now, at 48, as she celebrates 30 years in show business with a hits
collection, she continues to sell records, leading some to re-dub her the “
eternal idol.”
Today’s pop idols, Ayumi Hamasaki and Namie Amuro, are in their 30s, while
the members of Japan’s most famous “boy band” SMAP are approaching 40.
On the small screen, Tokyo Broadcasting System’s “Around 40” drama series
became a hit in 2008 with its examination of the issues confronting aging
women, mainly through the character of a 39-year-old psychiatrist, Satoko
Ogata, and her “arafo” (around 40) friends. The “Sex in the City”
-inspired series spawned a cottage industry of commentary and arafo and even
“arafaifu” (around 50) Web sites.
The question is: Does the increased presence of older music and screen stars
in Japan indicate changing attitudes toward aging? The evidence is murky.
“For commercial purposes, it certainly is handy to have older ‘idols’ or ‘
charisma’ figures,” said Keith Cahoon, a music industry veteran and the man
who brought Tower Records to Japan. After decades of economic stagnation and
limited job opportunities for the young, older Japanese consumers tend to
possess more disposable income.
The phenomenon of the “Long Tail” retailing concept in marketing also
allows entertainment companies to continue to promote aging artists at low
cost. “It gives them perfectly targeted marketing at a fraction of what it
used to,” said Mike Rogers, an entertainment blogger in Tokyo. “This allows
‘older’ artists to have much longer careers — if their management is smart
enough to capitalize on this change in the marketplace.”
Others said that the Japanese entertainment world remained extremely ageist.
They pointed to the disposable nature of young singers in such bands as the
wildly popular AKB48, and the many deathbed scenes involving Alzheimer’s
disease and cancer in Japanese films that feature aging stars.
If anything, SMAP’s ability to stay atop the heap may be due to changes in
lifestyle rather than attitudes toward aging.
Mark Schilling, a film critic for Japan Times, said: “My feeling is that
Takuya Kimura,” of SMAP, “and his generation of idols is better at hiding
aging’s effects. The guy may be in his mid-30s, but he’s still got that
lineless, beardless, pretty boy look. It’s nature’s gift, but impossible to
maintain past a certain age minus the sort of care that an older generation,
downing their nightly bottle of Suntory Old and smoking their daily two packs
of Mild Sevens, would have considered unmanly.”
Still, while there has long been a market for older actresses playing
long-suffering wives and feisty grandmas, film and television franchises like
“Around 40” are now presenting over-35 actresses playing sexually active
women.
Robert Schwartz, a correspondent here for the music magazine Billboard, said
the pop scene was witnessing a similar acceptance of older talents. “It’s
very clear,” he said, “that both the music industry and popular tastes are
changing in Japan to accept pop stars who are over 30 and even middle-aged.”
He cited the resurgence of the singer Hideaki Tokunaga, who, at 49, this
spring became the first male artist to have at least one album to top the
weekly charts in each of the last four decades.
Kohtaroh Asoh, a reporter for Nikkei Entertainment and the author of “Shinka
Suru Aidoru” (The Evolving Idol), noted the overwhelming dominance of women
in shaping popular entertainment tastes. “When women became financially
independent, they no longer had to marry in their 20s,” he said. “They now
put off marriage till their 30s and their pop idols reflect this.
Nontraditional single mothers like Namie Amuro are even viewed as
trendsetters.”
But Mr. Asoh said he believed there was another reason for the way in which
female identification with older idols is influencing the entertainment world
— the abandonment of the field by men. “Idols used to have an equal number
of male and female fans,” he said. “But when adult video exploded in the ’
80s, men no longer needed idols as the objects of their sexual fantasies.”
Nostalgia also may play a role in the current prominence of aging talents in
Japan’s entertainment industry. Roland Kelts, media commentator and author
of the book “Japanamerica,” said Japanese baby boomers were seeking
reassurance from aging stars in the way Western fans have for years. “There’
s a point at which rock and pop stop being celebrations of youth, rebellion
and forward-thinking,” he said, “and start becoming celebrations of
themselves — a way of confirming that they the entertainers, and we the fans,
” are still relevant.
Whether a softening of ageism is occurring or not is ultimately unanswerable
without conducting an opinion poll. But as older Japanese increasingly shape
the media, the transformation of the entertainment industry may point the way
for other rapidly aging Asian nations with close cultural norms.
“The population might be getting older,” said Alan Swartz, a vice president
of MTV Japan, “but there are probably more people than ever who are young in
spirit.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/arts/08iht-Idols.html?pagewanted=1&_r=4
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 202.132.87.94