Author| Sugar-fried hawthorn
Edit| Mia
The variety show market of "female users win the world" is frequently staged with the famous scene of "male fans go out to fight without giving birth". And this May, Mei Yi Liya (hereinafter referred to as "Xiao Mei") and her two-dimensional otaku fans must have names.
Some people ridiculed a song "Pure Land of Bliss", which woke up a group of "old two-dimensional elements". This is not an exaggeration, on station B, Douyin, Kuaishou, a large number of videos of men dancing "Pure Land of Bliss" are emerging, all in camouflage, suits and shoes, uniforms, bachelor's uniforms... Only you can't think of it, no Xiaomei can't conquer. It is not inferior to the popularity of Wang Xinling's "Love You" last year.
(Image from the Internet)
Entertainment unicorns are also feeling the "blood awakening" of the people around them. Old P is a senior B station user, game and animation enthusiast, who has just encountered the turmoil of being resigned, he originally had no intention of variety shows, but it is still difficult to resist the memories engraved in the genes of "Pure Land of Bliss", "When I first joined the work, I still skipped "Pure Land of Bliss" at the company's annual meeting, full of memories. And this is also one of the few times he exposes the two-dimensional attribute.
Little M, a public institution, an older leftover man, likes anime, and occasionally makes a little krypton gold for the virtual character he likes. He brushed Xiaomeichu's stage slice on station B, and then he quickly opened Weibo to vote for Xiaomei, Amway stage, archaeology, and timely follow up Xiaomei's dynamics on major social platforms. ——Before that, Weibo was an APP for him, and now it has really been given the function of a social platform.
Of course, they are only a very small group of people. On social platforms, we can see too many people who say that they have opened Mango TV membership for Xiaomei and learned how to vote, and there are also "fanatics" who use their connections and requisition the mobile phones of people around them in order to vote. The group attributes of two-dimensional otaku are focused on the core in this carnival.
And the topic we want to explore is: Why two-dimensional otaku? From Wang Xinling boy to Xiaomei otaku fans, and even earlier Yang Transcendence, why can male fans burst out with such great power? In the variety show market, which is dominated by female users, are men becoming a new market increment, or are they "mythologized" by public opinion?
Why are the famous scenes of female variety shows shaped by male audiences?
In the process of communicating with the people around us, we found that the proportion of women, non-two-dimensional, and non-otaku attributes in Xiaomei's fan group is not a few. So why have two-dimensional otaku become the "spiritual leaders" in this popular movement, and why are their voices infinitely amplified?
On the one hand, "Pure Land of Bliss" is originally a god-level existence that "washes" B station and must be brushed inbound, but at the same time, it has entered the public eye because of the performances of stars such as Xiao Zhan, Zhou Shen, Tan Songyun, etc., which itself has the dual characteristics of "circle" and "breaking the circle", and Xiaomei's first stage is tantamount to the most powerful clarion call played by a banner idol. Behind the slogan of "giving internal entertainment a little two-dimensional shock" is the group mood that two-dimensional houses hope to enter the mainstream vision and be recognized and accepted.
Although the scale of pan-quadratic users in mainland China has been growing in recent years, reaching 460 million in 2021, and more data predict that the scale of the two-dimensional content industry will reach 120 billion yuan in 2026, in fact, the road to breaking the circle as a subculture is still obstacles. Just like in the emotional card of the original bet of "Sister Lang 4", there was no shadow of Xiaomei.
All kinds of contrasting realities made Xiaomei and "Pure Land of Bliss" an outlet for that group's voice, bursting out with huge energy. It can also be regarded as the right time and place, and the public psychology has been taken to the extreme, and this is similar to the template He Zeng of Wang Xinling and her "middle-aged man", Yang Chao and her "straight male fan". From straight men, middle-aged men to two-dimensional otaku, how can the groups that are "marginalized" by variety shows burst out with sweeping energy?
Sociologists, men are naturally collectivists. Studies have shown that men's language and social styles are more inclined to social groups than the "individuality" of women's culture, where they can create greater energy and influence on a wider range of interpersonal situations.
Whether it is Yang Chao, Wang Xinling or Xiaomei, what they are prying is a certain type of male group with common emotions and preferences. Straight men, middle-aged men, two-dimensional otaku, these people who are simply summarized by us in real life as labels, have also become the most turbulent force hidden under the iceberg of public opinion, and once there is an exit, it will usher in a big outbreak. Stronger cohesion, greater influence.
The middle-aged men who enthusiastically danced "Love You" last year, almost few liked Wang Xinling when they were young, but the sweet first love temperament on her body awakened too many people's youth memories, how can people not remember their youth in middle age? For old P and little M, the enthusiastic vote is more for the love of their hearts. Compared with more "pure" two-dimensional variety shows, such as "Cross-dimensional Nova" and "I Love Two-dimensional", this is more of a "heart moved".
Of course, it is more intuitive, and "the end of the universe is a sweet girl", and appearance is justice. Old P likes Xiaomei's sweet appearance, Xiao M likes Xiaomei's vitality, and "Little Sun" frequently appears in their conversations; When the media searched for Yang Beyond Circle Fan keywords, courage, koi, appearance, etc. ranked first. The public needs some positive, positive emotional values, and if it is brought by sweet girls, it is even more irresistible.
Male fan power: "myth" by public opinion, or new increase in the market?
The group and commonality of men from physiological to emotional determines that their voice in the variety show market is more powerful every time. But what we need to rationally explore is: is the "truth" of female users invalid? Are male fans becoming a new increment in the market, or are they mythologized by public opinion?
Let's start with a few sets of data. On the Baidu index, male users of "Xiaomei", "Pure Land of Elysium" and "Meiyiliya" are higher than female users, especially the TGI of "Pure Land of Elysium" reached 119.91. Not to mention the B-station base camp with a more obvious tendency. During the period when Wang Xinling became popular, some media also said that the proportion of men among her fans on all platforms once reached 67.4%.
Gu Yu and Zhiwei Data once extracted Yang Chao's Weibo fan portraits, and the data obtained was 54.39% male and 45.61% female. The Weibo platform itself is dominated by female users, which means that the actual proportion of male fans is higher. At the same time, data shows that Yang Chao's adult fans account for more than 80%, and in the age group of 19~34 years old, men are 1.5 times more likely than women.
In these three typical cases, male fans do play a crucial role. It is worth noting that the market's super high attention to them is also because they play the role of "public opinion amplifier", pushing the whole incident to the mass traffic channel in a more dramatic way.
In recent years, the fan economy has prevailed, and the public has long been familiar with the means of star chasing, and male fans go out to attract not only gender, but also unique "support means". At the same time that Xiaomei's vote number is ahead, Chen Bing's "delay" in the number of votes is also jointly played with memes, making the image of the two-dimensional otaku a little more straightforward and cute; On platforms such as Station B, various pitching strategies, "Pure Land of Bliss" teaching videos, etc. have also gone straight out of the circle, doubling their influence.
Wang Xinling and Yang Chao were the same at the time. Even after a long time, there must still be people who remember the "Yang Beyond Men's Fan Military Training Assistance" that was searched on the screen, and the "Beyond Cup" programming competition that attracted brands such as Clinique, Master Kong, Tencent Classroom, and Tencent Sports. Wang Xinling's boy's way out of the circle, how come there are few middle-aged men dancing the "beautiful dance" of "Love You" in the living room and other places?
Breaking routines, being willing to create memes and daring to play terriers, and even singing and dancing in person, coupled with the competition of short video platforms, men's group social interaction, etc., often make the support of male fans evolve into a social communication event. Although it has a bit of a "Internet farce" feeling, it is undeniable that the fan circle operation, which is more specialized than female fans, naturally has a larger user base and attention.
However, at this time, the variety show strength of "mythical" male fans may be too early. On the one hand, variety shows like Yang Chao, Wang Xinling, and Xiaomei that can accurately pry male fans are still "encounterable but unwanted", which is also the next topic we explore: how to pry the enthusiasm of male users in variety shows; On the other hand, the fan economy in the current market is still dominated by female fans, and the proportion of men in it is still small.
Male audiences are difficult to please, how can variety shows reproduce the next "male fan myth"?
Old P bluntly said that Pingsu is not much interested in domestic entertainment variety shows, he prefers games and movies (overseas blockbusters), but in the process of talking, we also accidentally discovered his other variety show experience: he was also a loyal fan of the "Tron Series" girl group draft. Draft male fans and two-dimensional otaku attributes strangely overlap on him. And there is no lack of ridicule about Xiaomei: how many are last year's "Wang Xinling boys"?
We can't tell the overlap of these groups, but what is certain is that the male fan base is a group with "treasures", fast flowing, and no clear "sensitive points", and there are many ways and channels to detonate their enthusiasm, but they need to be patiently searched.
On the other hand, whether it is a middle-aged man or a two-dimensional otaku, their attention is often on the star itself, and the drainage effect on the show remains to be seen. For example, Old P will still pay attention to Xiaomei's every move and every stage, but it does not mean that he will pay attention to the "Sister Lang 4" program itself. Just like "Sister Lang 3" also broke out after the Wang Xinling effect, it once pulled the proportion of male audiences in the first episode to more than 40%, but later it also dropped to about 37%.
However, Baidu Index shows that the proportion of male users searching in the past two seasons has jumped compared with the previous two quarters, and the male audience is expanding. Also typical is the "Supernova Games", which has gathered many idol artists, and has also attracted a group of male users because of the addition of idol girl groups and tiger puff goddesses, and its popularity on the tiger puff platform has not decreased.
Compared with the short-term capture of male users by variety shows such as comedy variety shows, sports competitions, and science and technology themes, female themes seem to have found opportunities in the phenomenal outering circle again and again. However, specific to these shows, they are all stories of "unintentional insertion of willows and willows". The explosion of Wang Xinling and Xiaomei has made the public ridicule "Sister Lang" more than once for failing to bet on "Bao", and the aesthetics and preferences of male fans are still a mystery.
When we tried to ask Old P what kind of internal entertainment variety show he liked or what kind of variety show surprise he expected, he didn't have a clear answer because he had no concept. Men do not have strong emotional colors like women, and their emotions and preferences are often generated in the group, which also requires creators to be more patient to dig out their emotional commonalities, and finally connect into a group consciousness with content hooks.
At least for now, no one knows where the next point to detonate them will be? Just like Old P, in addition to the universal principle of justice, the point that attracts him can be cultivation or youth memories, which is unclear and unclear. And who can be the first to find this point in the future and reasonably develop and use it in variety shows, or will become the next round of topic detonators, and we wait for good news.