The name of AKB48 must have been heard by everyone. Whether in Japan or in other countries around the world, there are many famous idol groups.
In the spotlight, AKB48, with its infinite scenery, is the object of longing and yearning for thousands of young girls in Japan.
I don't know how many girls dream of becoming idols like them, and one day they can also be on the vast stage, bathed in the eyes of thousands of fans, and enjoy the sweat of youth.
And these girls have also put their dreams into practice and become "underground idols".
The so-called "underground idols" refer to those idols who rarely appear in the mainstream media and are mainly centered on performances. These underground idols are often young women in their teens and twenties, affiliated with small agencies, and some don't even have agencies.
They usually operate in groups of several people. The biggest advantage of underground idols compared with ordinary idols is that they can be closely contacted, and they do not feel like ordinary idols.
But, as everyone knows, the world is not so simple. It's not that if you want to be an idol, you can become an idol.
Underground idols are like this, they generally do not have the conditions to sign with mainstream record labels. Due to various reasons such as money and popularity, they were unable to carry out large-scale publicity, which led to limited sales channels and sales of records.
The main source of income for underground idols is the tickets for concerts and the "contact" activities with fans after the performance.
There are many forms of "contact" activities, but the most common is that fans who have bought CDs or T-shirts can shake hands with idols. In addition, there are also photos taken together, signed photos, and even activities to go to flower viewing and travel together.
To have a concert, of course, you need a venue. Underground idols would pay to rent a live house as a venue. The one-time rent for such a venue ranges from 50,000 to 80,000 yen. But if you rely on ticket revenue alone, you can't even earn back the venue money...
And it also costs money to make CDs, clothing, training, salaries for the staff, all of which require money. So they have to make money by "contacting" with fans.
You can charge about 1,000 yen for a group photo, and after the shooting, you can chat with your idol for about 1 minute. Some of the more famous underground idols can even receive 3,000 yen.
In addition to these seemingly normal activities, some underground idols will even provide services such as taking "sleeping with" photos, touching calves, hugging and other services that cannot be looked at directly in order to make money, and even more excessively, there are also those who directly sell their flesh...
But these are not all voluntary. Some brokerage companies will force them to do this, which can also be regarded as an "unspoken rule".
Even so, the funds of underground idols are still tight. An underground idol of an 8-person group gave an example if the monthly sales were 1 million yen. Half of this is used as funding, and half of the remaining money is paid to the operator. The last remaining 250,000 yen can be distributed to each member.
Then you can only get 30,000 yen per person. In Japan, everyone knows what it means to earn 30,000 yen a month. When this group first started its activities, because the sales were too low, it was only rated 138 yen per person... This little money is not even enough to pay the transfer fee, so the broker said to keep it for the next month...
If it is a member who lives in his own home, it is not bad, but the other members are not so good. It is certainly impossible to live on the income of idol activities every month, and they can only squeeze a few people together in a room of less than 20 square meters.
In addition to idol activities, you have to work part-time to make ends meet. Some idols are forced by life to even go to custom shops to work...
In addition, their work intensity is also very large. This is true even after breaking away from underground idols and becoming ordinary idols.
The news shocked people by the sudden death of Rina Matsuno, an 18-year-old member of the well-known idol group Private Ebisu Junior High School, on February 8 this year. It is said that she can only sleep an average of 3 hours a day...
Although the income is low, the work is hard, and life is difficult, they still want to stick to it because that's what they like, it's their dream.
No success happens overnight, and if you want to achieve your dreams, you have to pay something. Even AKB48, when the first and second performances were performed, the audience was only a few people.
People chasing dreams are always so dazzling. No matter how difficult life is and how many obstacles lie ahead, in order to one day shine on the stage of great attention, they will continue to run towards their dreams.
Although in the end there will always be people who succeed, there will be people who will be left behind.
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