Is Idol Business A Manipulation of Love? The Power of Love-Ban Rule

Note: JKT48 Fans that I meant here wasn’t the whole fandom but just some certain group of fans. But there is always chance that it would be experienced by the majority of fans to a certain degree

I’ve planned to write this article for a long time actually, but due to busy schedule and other stuff, I could only write this as of now. Idol business actually is not a relatively new business in Indonesia. Idol in a sense of media-personality which is implied by the presence of admiration at the figures that have been known in the community has long been a part of entertainment industry. These popular figures are often associated with physically handsome or pretty face, beautiful voice, source of inspiration or other things. Agnes Monica, Afgan, Raisa, Ariel can be regarded as an idol.

JKT48 as the sister group of AKB48 came with a new definition about the meaning of an idol. The idol concept in Japan was so popular in the ’60s. at that time, the definition of idol in Japan are just like what I mentioned above. But the progress of Japanese entertainment culture towards “kawaii” (article about the phenomenon of kawaii can be seen here) creates a new definition to the word “Idol” as we know it today. In Japanese culture, idols are media personalities in their teens or early twenties who are considered attractive or cute who had activity in various form of media, for example, singing, dancing, acting, magazines modeling, commercials, and so forth. Beside being attractive, they also have to show a “pure” image, in a sense of never ever having a romantic relationship or even sexual. The violation of the “golden rule” could threaten the career of an Idol in Japan in the blink of an eye.

You could say, as observer of Japanese culture since childhood, I do not really understand the benefit of that rule and consider it only as a custom that appears in Japanese entertainment world. That was until I saw with my own eyes the effects of that rule in Indonesia through JKT48. The strength of the rule is to create a mass limerence.

Limerence is a term that is quite foreign and unknown to common people but it started to become a serious study material in clinical psychology and psychiatry. Limerence is a condition of veneration and attachment to an object which is marked by the emergence of uncontrolled fantasies, feelings, and changes in behavior ranging from euphoria to despair depending on the perception of responded emotion from limerence object. Limerence are in the same category with psychological obsessive-compulsive condition.

Limerence are different from love, though it’s a type of love. Limerence is an unstable condition in which the feeling are very hard to define because of too much uncertainty and wishful thinking that led to the emotional roller coaster and addictive behaviors. Limerence evolved from intense passion and admiration to someone. While love, on the other hand, is a more stable emotional bond, mutual, satisfy both parties.

Ring a bell?

The signs that you are in a state of limerence as noted by Dorothy Tennov are:

• Uncontrolled state of mind and fantasy. You kept thinking about your oshimen no matter of the time, thinking about what she was doing, even dreaming about it. Fantasy is an inherent part of limerence. A limerent will often imagine his idol face and create scenarios that might happen when he has a romantic relationship with his idol. Just a bit of negative feedback from the idols, such as not addressed in high-touch or never got an eye-lock in theater performance can lead to depression and unpleasant fantasies. But said depression will then overcame by adjusting the fantasy or by an irresistible impulse to continuously give something that are expected to make the idol happy.
• Fear of rejection. Limerence was born from an emphasis on the positive qualities of the Idol. This has an impact on a person’s fear of rejection from his idol. This is could be seen when you feel you’re nobody and so embarrassed when in contact with your idol. You did not dare to look into his eyes and even felt nervous when talking for fear that you might not be able to become an ideal for her. On the other hand, a limerent would feel very upset when the idol was reported against the perception that he/she thinks she has. Although, if this phase without reciprocity and inferiority occurs in quite a long time, such as the difficulty to meet with the idol, limerence can slowly disappear.
• Hope. Limerence thrive and survive in a balance between hope and uncertainty. the basis of this expectation is not necessarily objective. Little things, such as a little different smile compared to the other fans will be analyzed in a relentless cycle: “I was treated special” – “ah, it’s just my feeling” – “but, it means I am one step closer” – “ah, nope, who am I actually” – and so on.
• Due to the fear of rejection, as a result, the limerent can be very, very sensitive, the physical symptoms that appear when an experiencing limerence are heart palpation, trembling body, pale face, erratic feelings, dilated pupils, and helpless feeling. In terms of behavior, this case are visible in form of, rigidity, stuttering, shyness, and confusion. Even in a limited case, you could see the loss of appetites, dizziness, nosebleeds, and even fainting. Familiar? Obeerve it when the National Delusion Day took place,
• Physical attraction plays an important tole in limerence but not enough to satisfy the desires of limerent. The purpose of a limerent are not sexual intercourse but marriage or other forms of commitment to relieve insecurity of uncertainty. In this case, who wouldn’t want to marry your idol?

Next question, what is really causing Limerence to occur in massive stage like this? I identified several reasons:

1. First, JKT48 is a type of entertainment that requires the active participation from the fans. Most performance-based entertainment only give a package to enjoy it passively. But, by placing the girls who do not have adequate skills in the entertainment industry, people who are interested in the girls inevitably have the same insecure feeling. Are they going to survive? Would they be able to compete with other artists? By giving a chance to fans to watch their progress and provide continuous support both through television, social media, daily performances, as well as events held by management, each fan can provide support and feel how it feels to be one of the foundations for the development of his idol. Admit it, it gives you some sort of hero complex feeling. You will definitely be crazily happy when they are able to give something that make you proud and feel that you are a part of that success.
2. Second, admiration can easily turn into affection, this part does not happen immediately but after a certain phase (read it below). Basically, there is no support that does not require a response. For most of the support that the fans provide, it may be reasonably enough to be rewarded with maximum performance in high spirit, but some fans do not realize that they create a wrong foundation in Idoling: making the idols as an objects of limerence. Originally it’s just a simple affection, and then you decide to sacrifice more for the idol, buy all the merchandise, spend many handshake tickets so that the idol looks popular, mention the idol accounts in twitter every day to provide support, all without realizing you already have sacrificed too much . As sincere as it is done, such a huge sacrifice would grow some self-centered sense to get recognized. Adversity is a fuel to fanaticism. The more difficult your efforts to prove your love to oshimen, the more difficult you feel that you are a nobody to your idol. This is the feeling that prone to develop into limerence. And limerence will get stronger with the conflict between hope and uncertainty.
3. Third, it is a common occurrence when idol gives fans service either in the form of a sweet smile, saying your name, or joking with you. This is inherently present in the idol business. Fans are allowed to imagine that the idol in front of them is an ideal girl who genuinely care to them.
4. Fourth, the most significant cause, is the anti-love rules. The JKT48 members are not allowed to have a boyfriend, even imaged as such that they had never had a romantic relationship with the opposite sex before. Fans believe that the love from the idol is not in one special person and it is not possible for them while still holds the status as a member of JKT48. It seems impossible to imagine anyone would crazily support somebody of the opposite sex while knowing that the source of happiness of that said member of opposite sex lay in others. Every fan wants to feel special and with the support they give, they expect to have a significant contribution to the happiness of the idol. Therefore, most fans will soon withdraw their support when there is a rumor that a member has a boyfriend or even if just rumored to have a former boyfriend. In the deeper case of limerence, the feeling of being let down will be present such as when in a breakup or knowing their partner was having an affair. Anti-Love rules provide (bogus) certainty that the love you give will be returned to you in one piece despite the idol-fan relationship. From this situation that massive limerence are formed and nurtured. Admiration that has been reinforced with fan service and many support channels creates some sort of mass hypnosis of an idol who can you love and love you back, whatever your perception of the latter.

In the idol business strategy, massive limerence are actually expected to occur and indeed all elements in the idol business are intended to provoke fantasies towards idol. Personally I was not happy with this model. The question is, all of this come back to what are the reason you became fans of JKT48?

—-ooo000ooo—-

The Dynamics of JKT48 Fandom (So Far…)

Looks like we shouldn’t doubt it anymore that the idol business concept in Japan that are adopted by JKT48 are actually successful enough in Indonesia. Until this articles were written, the number of people who’re giving “Likes” in Official JKT48 Facebook Page have reached 970.000 peoples. Even thought there aren’t any official reports yet, the sales of Heavy Rotation CDs are estimated to be sold over 70.000 copies in one month around Greater Jakarta Area, while the total sales in the whole country are estimated around 200.000 copies. Quite fantastic numbers for a newcomer in the middle of CD selling hardship in Indonesia. Not counting the sales of merchandise, theater tickets, and concerts that are always crowded.

At first, I understand that this concept of idol group are so popular in Indonesia because of the participation of fans in the process of creating and pushing the growth of the members they’re supporting are a new things in Indonesia’s entertainment world setting. The atmosphere in JKT48 fandom are almost identical with the atmosphere of football club supporters and creating they’re own kind of sub-culture with every positive and negative consequences. This marked the first phase of this fandom which is the emergence of the group cohesiveness.

This phase are marked with characteristics:

• The appearance of many fanbases
• The emergence of the exclusive feeling as JKT48 fans
• The strengthening of the urge to be in community and share anything related to JKT48
• The emergence of unwritten rules to define “good and bad fans”
• The appearance of what fans calls as “zombie”, which are actually the inappropriate manifestation of the “willingness to do anything”, in order to get recognition of other to his/her total support towards JKT48

In this phase, the joy of being fans are obtained through the joint effort between fans, idols, and management to spread the names of JKT48 in Indonesia. Challenge and conflicts came from efforts to show that JKT48 aren’t like any other girlbands in Indonesia and also not a parody of other 48 sister groups. The numbers of fans grow rapidly, JKT48 are starting to gain popularity and started to be considered as an unique phenomenon. Along with the increase of activity of JKT48, the presence of a new generation is a must. This thing will later trigger the next phase of this fandom

The changes begin since the opening of the second generation audition. The second generation members came when JKT48 started to establish where the first generation member already had strong fanbase. The old fans who are started to felt that their support aren’t significant anymore try to change it by starting to support the second generation members, marking the change into the next phase. Second generation came with many controversies, there are many people that couldn’t accept the presence of new generation. Their first show were showered with criticism for failing to give a performance with enough quality. Their interaction in social media are too careless and outspoken. Theater are a “battlefield”, the only place where they could catch the attention from the fans. This is the hardest time, since the regular theater visitors are the fans who already had oshimen in Team J while the new fans are more likely to choose to watch Team J’s than their performances. The only thing they could do are “snatch” those fans. A very difficult task and certainly attract a few scorns. The second generation needs for recognition from fans creates an internal competition climate where each members tries her hardest to show her charm. The more loose fan-service rules also let them to give more impact to the audience. Luckily, the change of setlist from Pajama Drive to Boku no Taiyou help them to be free from the shadow of the first generation. They successfully change the new setlist into a “killer setlist”. The support for them are pouring from everywhere.

How does this things change this fandom? Basically, there is no unconditional support. After faced with the fact that the support they give to the first generation member that made them more successful are actually made them increasingly harder to met, even to give support through twitter mention the fans have to deal with hundreds of different mention from other fans, the feeling of being alienated can not be denied. In this phase, the presence of second generation member with more fan service, and far less number of fans than Team J is a breath of fresh air. Due to the thirst for more attention from the members, fans started to want to be more recognized and began to remove the identification of his/her groups whether by oshihen reason or to show personal characteristics. Coupled with the presence of handshake events, fans are faced with new situation: the emergence for the chance to be known personally by the member, this sentiment then began to spread to the rest of the fandom. This marked the beginning of the second phase which is individuation

This phase are marked with characteristics:

• The lessening of the significance of fanbase and the shift to friendship circles. Information obtained and circulated in those fans circles and passed in chain-link sequences
• The emergence of the desire to be known by oshimen
• Fans creativity are increased, from the way they give support, the gift they gave, and even the way they interact with members
• The discussions about the issues of relationship between members and fans arise
• The emergence of what is called among fans as “Fans Waro (with negative connotations”, The fans who are trying to draw the attention of his/her oshimen with all sorts of ways and strategies (often disturbing said members and other fans)
• The emergence of the sense of envy and jealousy towards the who “seems” have more interaction with members

[TN: Waro came from Sundanese which loosely means “to respond unto one” or “to pay attention unto one”]

The beginning of this phase practically create frictions within JKT48 fandom. A lot of discussion, a lot differences in opinion, and a lot of conflicts related to many things: the second generation, the professionalism of JOT, the presence of concurrent members, the behavior of fans and the idol, and so forth. Not that these issues did not present in the previous phase, but in this phase, each problem aren’t tightening, but instead led to a sentiments that divide fans into separate groups. However, on the other hand, this fandom produces more varied color, many new ideas, creativity, self-criticism, and competition to produce something that can help members grow even more. A documentation that are very useful for learning and under understanding about the other side of idol’s world that had been avoided in the previous phase.

But this phase is just one stage of any further possibilities that may occur in the fandom. There is a sense of dissatisfaction and disappointment at the end of each phase that will surely initiate the next phase. Hence, it could be said that the growth of JKT48 fans have very organismic behavior. The feeling of weariness, disappointment, anger, and resentment along with the feeling of joy, satisfaction, love, and happiness comes after another. This is because the source of the vitality of this is not peace and stability, but the challenges and conflicts. This fandom are dynamic, growing, and always experiencing the process of continual redefinition through action-correction mechanism. The question is, what kind of form that would be the future shape of this fandom? Will JKT48 fandom still become a comfortable place for the idol and its fans? Time will tell

Credits: @reksoadi