"Then," Miwa Yoshida brought the topic back, "please start with Yamaguchi Momoe-san's retirement."
"Okay." Iwahashi Shin nodded and asked her: "In short, Yamaguchi Momoe-san's artistic career is perfect, right?"
"Of course." Miwa Yoshida nodded.
Yamaguchi Momoe's experience as an idol can be regarded as a benchmark in the industry. Since her debut, she has been a high-quality idol and has achieved great success in film, television, drama and music. Not only in her own country, but also in China, it is also in the hearts of a generation.
Idol.
In terms of career, he is impeccable, and in terms of relationship, he is also pure and fresh. He fell in love with Miura Tomokazu through drama, and everything went smoothly from then on until he got married.
And the choice of getting married and retiring completely pushed her to the altar.
Before losing popularity, put an end to your promising career, open a new chapter in your life, freeze your idol career at the most beautiful moment, and bring a fulfilling dream to the public.
The background of the times, the policies of the agency, the characters of Yamaguchi Momoe and Miura Yuka, and the right time, place and people created this most successful female idol in history.
What is an idol? An artist who uses his or her own charm as a selling point.
However, with the retirement of Momoe Yamaguchi and her status as a god, the idol's own charm has reached the level of the public's expectations of idols.
The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment. Shin Iwahashi has understood this since he was a child.
Obviously, it is impossible for the second Yamaguchi Momoe to appear. Since her retirement, all the female idols who appeared under the banner of "Yamaguchi Momoe Second" have disappeared. Not only is her route difficult to copy, her life cannot be copied either.
"...If this happens, it will turn into another situation, that is, expectations will gradually collapse and be dashed." Shinichi Iwahashi said.
Miwa Yoshida listened with interest and nodded from time to time, "That makes sense. So, what happens next?"
"After that..."
Collapse is not only a process, but also requires long-term accumulation and a fuse that finally detonates.
"When Seiko-san and Gohiro Mi-san were in love, there was also a voice that they wanted to copy 'Momo Huiyu and Shinhwa'."
However, Matsuda Seiko chose to break up when Hiromi Go asked her to resign and go home to be a housewife. She quickly got over her emotional pain and married Kanda Masaki in a flash marriage. This approach was contrary to public expectations.
"I really appreciate Seiko-san's approach." Miwa Yoshida said bluntly.
Iwahashi Shinichi also thinks Matsuda Seiko is amazing. He knows what he wants and never compromises on anything he doesn't want to compromise on. He is a character.
However, appreciation is appreciation. As a top idol whose popularity is not inferior to that of Yamaguchi Momoe at her peak, Matsuda Seiko has indeed shattered the public’s dreams.
Although for now, she is happily married to Kanda Masaki, and her 200 million yen wedding is also very dreamy, but it is not "perfect" enough. She breaks out of the public's norms for idols, and invisibly gives the public a
A sense of collapse.
Speaking of which, Shinichi Iwahashi himself feels that these ideas are unreasonable and extreme, but idols are such a profession, and what the public places on idols is completely different from what they place on other celebrities.
In the past, when there was no television, celebrities were mysterious, existing beyond the real society, and were real "people in the clouds." When television appeared, celebrities became an everyday person that you could see when you turned on the TV.
But this does not mean that the idea of the past has disappeared, but it exists in a different way, which is the birth and prosperity of idols, a profession that in a sense transcends the real society.
However, idols are not only for people to look up to, but also for the public to live a dream life that they cannot live. Idols do not appear naturally, but are "commodities" that are artificially created after integrating the public's preferences.
"Does Yoshida-san know about the 'Meow Meow Incident'?" Shinichi Iwahashi asked again.
Yoshida Miwa shook her head, "I don't know. What is that?"
"In 1983, a magazine published a photo of Tomoko Takabe, a member of the female idol group Koko, smoking naked in bed. She was only sixteen years old at the time," explained Iwahashi Shinichi.
I didn't expect that he, a time traveler who had made up for a lot of evil, could educate the indigenous people about their major events.
"So exciting?" Miwa Yoshida's reaction was a little excited, "Can an idol still do that kind of thing?"
"Because it's big news if you can't. Besides, it's illegal for minors to smoke, so it would be embarrassing if you weren't an idol and you were photographed." Shinichi Iwahashi said, "So, after the incident, Takabe was fired."
The original trio has therefore become a duo.
However, because idols have always had a shining image like a character in a manga, the shock to the public when such a scandal was suddenly exposed cannot be overcome by firing Tomoko Takabe.
Tomoko Takabe has given the public the possibility of bad imagination when imagining idols.
A pure and beautiful idol may be a person who smokes, drinks, and swears in private, and is not worthy of admiration. As soon as someone begins to think about this possibility in their mind, the idol profession will cast a shadow and lose its brilliance.
Although it is inappropriate to put scandals and marriages together, Tomoko Takabe's meow incident and Seiko Matsuda's wedding of the century can be said to be the accumulation of a process of collapse, but we don't know when the accumulation will explode.
"Anyway, after all that, it's just 'sooner or later'?" Miwa Yoshida mocked him in good faith.
Iwahashi Shinichi smiled and said, "That's right, 'sooner or later'." He paused, "So, let's wait and see what will happen when the popularity of idols subsides. Maybe we can still find out from it.
Our opportunity."
"I really don't know how long we have to wait." Miwa Yoshida thought he was joking. She put down the magazine and patted her knees, "Rather than that, what is more practical at the moment is to sort out these demo tapes."
Indeed, whether idols are fading or new fashions are rising, they are not as important as the things at hand. Iwahashi Shinichi also stretched his waist and said, "Then just work hard and get them done."
The two of them forgot about their small talk, and like poor students writing exam papers, they finished writing the remaining letters of introduction one stroke at a time. When they put the letters of introduction and the audition tape into the envelope and sealed it, they knew it.
It's almost four o'clock.
When it was done, Miwa Yoshida flopped down on the low table, looking as if her body had been hollowed out.
Iwahashi Shinichi got up and went into the kitchen, opened the box of chocolate chip cookies she brought today, and since there was no tea at home, she took some canned oolong tea drinks and put them on the table.
"Thank you for your hard work. I'll treat you to afternoon tea."
Miwa Yoshida raised her eyes and glanced at the so-called afternoon tea, "This can't be said to be 'please me', right?"
She obviously brought it herself...
"Tea is for you." Iwahashi Shinichi said with a smile.
...You are truly a genius, Iwahashi-san.
Yoshida Miwa complained to him with her eyes, picked up a chocolate chip cookie that she had been craving for since the morning, and put it into her mouth.
