Anti-Idol

SEGMENT NAME: Anti-Idol	NOTES:
SCRIPT / AUDIO	VISUALS
You’ve spent enough time on the internet to see at least two or three Babymetal videos. And maybe you shared that one Ladybaby video once. But have you gone far enough down the Japanese anti-idol rabbit hole that you’re losing sleep wondering who exactly thought that there should an all-female j-pop group in Jason-style hockey masks making pro-Trump mosh-metal?	7
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	INTRO
In another life, I was a music journalist, and there’s an old, bad joke about how journalists count - one, two, trend. It’s how you end up with think pieces on cloud rap and videos about cat bands, baseball bands, and all female metal tribute bands.	IMAGE: 1 1 IMAGE: 2, 3, 4
So I will be honest, because if you can’t be honest on the internet, where can you be. I first heard Babymetal years ago and was definitely like “this is the sickest shit and most assuredly exists in a cultural vacuum.”	2
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Then someone showed me this Necronomidol video, which is basically a j-pop black metal crossover. And I was like “this is impossible and absolutely alone in the world.”	2
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And then one night after a few medicinal toots I probably googled something like “horror j-pop” just to see if I could count all the way to trend and make this video. And I got so much more than I ever could have hoped for.	1
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Babymetal was many a western heshers’ first window into Japanese idol culture. But idol groups trace their lineage well past me reading an article about a sick new band on Metal Injection, all the way to the mid-80s.	3
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Onyanko Club are frequently credited at the first idol group. And Babymetal, even with all that double-kick action, is an idol group. So it seems like the structure of these videos indicates that it’s time for some extremely cursory Idol 101	3
Japanese idols are like highly-evolved pop stars, manufactured from an early age by talent agencies and as adept at selling soap as singles. Male or female, they are squeaky clean role models who are trained as media personalities as much as they are singers. But before Onyanko Club, they mostly rolled solo, like pioneering ‘70s idol Momoe Yamaguchi.	7
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The problem with solo idols is that they can only represent one type of personality, so they can only appeal to one type of fan. Imagine how many more fans you could have with more than one idol. With four or five idols. With 52 idols.	2
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Onyanko Club pioneered the idol group model and philosophy that has enjoyed peaks and valleys of popularity in Japan, but has truly dominated its pop scene over the last ten years. Which took us from this:	3
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To this.	1
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That’s AKB48, the defining idol group of modern Japan. They’re a genuine phenomena, with over 130 members spread over five teams, or subgroups, another Onyanko Club-born idea that allows new idols to move up internal ranks like an athlete, from rookie groups to more popular subgroups within the larger unit. With this constant churn, idol groups need not be defined by individual members. In fact, members “graduate” when they age out of the group, or are kicked out for violating the strict rules of idol behaviour.	IMAGE: 5 5 3
The “idol” language here is serious business - it’s informative that Onyanko Club’s Wikipedia page has an entire section dedicated to the “Shūkan Bunshun Smoking Scandal,” a scandal in which six members were photographed… smoking. Each member of an idol group undergoes rigorous training and endures constant oversight from the talent agencies that orchestrate their every move, on stage and off, punishing them with Wikipedia “controversy” tabs for every minor indiscretion. Which is why it’s so beautifully bonkers that in an environment where AKB48 is king and Morning Musume is the longest-running group. Pause for some Morning Musume...	4 1
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Which is why in that environment, it is so beautifully bonkers that this exists.	1
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