Text | Lin Buzi
On December 15, SNH48 operator Siba Media announced that Ju Jingyi was promoted to a star artist under his company, becoming the first member of the SNH48 GROUP Star Hall, and Ju Jingyi's personal studio was also officially announced.
This news also shows that Chinese idol groups have finally taken the next step. However, the development of this unique market in China is the beginning of the real test of the personal ability of Siba Media and Ju Jingyi.
The "Graduation" of The Group Idol
After the news of Ju Jingyi's establishment of a personal studio came out, people who did not know SNH48 thought that this was a "betrayal" of the most famous member of the group, but in fact, Ju Jingyi was still an artist of Siba Media, and her studio was also hung under the banner of Siba. According to network information, the establishment of a personal studio this time is an incentive for the champion after this year's final election.
Indeed, as the champion of the two-term re-election finals, Ju Jingyi's popularity and popularity already have an absolute position in the SNH48 GROUP, and this time ju Jingyi flew alone, which was also for two reasons.
SNH48 GROUP is essentially about creating idols, while the multiplayer format provides audiences with multiple types of idols and is also a mechanism for producing high-quality idols through internal competition. Ju Jingyi won the 4th place when she participated in the first final election, rose to the 2nd place in the second session, and won the championship for three or four consecutive times, which shows that she has enough loyal basic fans.
Through several final elections, Ju Jingyi also obtained the best quality resources in the group, first of all, she participated in the Hunan Satellite TV variety show "Full Acceleration", and then starred in the fantasy drama "Kyushu Sky City", "The Cloud of the Sword of Xuanyuan", "Hero of the World", etc. On the TV series and variety shows of satellite TV, she also had her figure, which increased the opportunity to be recognized by a wider audience.
On the other hand, for the multi-person idol group that needs to constantly introduce new people, ace has been fixed among several people, and it is not conducive to the rise of newcomers, so Ju Jingyi has always been in the group, which definitely reduces the opportunity for newcomers to break through. In addition, if several fixed aces compete for a long time, it is also a consumption of fans and a group. So for these two considerations, there is now Ju Jingyi's solo flight.
In the past, the dissolution or solo flight of idol groups was often either the group's visibility was not enough, the company lost the need to continue to invest in training, or the benefits generated by group activities were far greater than the individual development of members. The solo flight of members of the SNH48 GROUP is an inevitable result.
SNH48 was originally a continuation of the Japanese AKB48 group in China, and later due to some differences in concepts between The Chinese and Japanese operating companies, SNH48 GROUP has now been a completely Chinese idol, but its short-term development direction can still be used as a reference for the Japanese situation.
AKB48 GROUP has been established for 12 years now, and the group of hundreds of people has also graduated and retired many people, including the reasons for the development of a certain level, disputes between members and the company, and the dismissal of the company. Previously, SNH48 related people said that large-scale team idols are more difficult to incubate than ordinary idol groups, and artists are easy to disengage from the idea of disengagement because of dissatisfaction with resource allocation, or artists do not listen to the company's arrangements, making it difficult to do a good job of collective activities. In AKB48, there are cases where Kikuchi Saika was expelled for online scolding, and Masuda Yuka was exposed for falling in love and broke away.
Therefore, for SNH48, which has only developed for 5 years, the phenomenon of member changes in the future may be more and more, and it is best to be able to "graduate" normally. Therefore, for ju Jingyi's solo flight, it is still necessary to give blessings and observe the next development.
The difficulty of ju jingyi's development
In fact, in the view of Yu Jun, instead of focusing on Ju Jingyi's solo flight, it is better to think about its next development, after all, there are predictable difficulties in this, as well as the future of the idol group.
Ju Jingyi's current Weibo followers are 6.15 million, which is already a good achievement for ordinary artists, but how many of her fan composition comes from non-SNH48 fans is a question. Because for Ju Jingyi, after leaving the SNH48 group, the primary development goal is to enter the mass entertainment circle and gain more recognition from ordinary people.
Although Ju Jingyi has had a high exposure since her debut, that is, in October 2014, the media reported that she was "the first beautiful woman in China's four thousand years", making her name appear in the public eye for the first time, but from the Baidu index, after the public saw her photos and the media corrected it as a translation error, its search degree returned to its daily value.
Baidu index chart of "Ju Jingyi" and "SNH48" keywords in 2014-2017
Of course, this label is conducive to her development for a period of time, as long as the "4000 years of beauty" is mentioned, many people can say Ju Jingyi's name, which has also become her first fan accumulation, which was reflected in the popularity finals in July 2015. Ju Jingyi's next search peaked in January 2016, this time due to her appearance in the "Run Bar Brothers" fixed guest list, which even exceeded the later value of "SNH48".
But both explosions of attention can be attributed to "hype". Because whether it is a beautiful woman or a variety show, it is ultimately determined to be misinformation, so whether its operating company actively participates in it needs to draw a question mark. Especially about the running man, its attention is mainly because the running man attracted attention because of the participation of Lu Han and others.
After that, neither the other variety shows she participated in or the TV series she starred in did not make her personal attention surge in the public. Therefore, how to maintain healthy continuous exposure and be recognized by the public is the key.
Among the Japanese AKB idols, there are also members such as Yuko Oshima and Atsuko Maeda who still have a good development after graduation, and their advantage is that they are all early members of AKB, have been debuting for a long time, whether in the circle or the entire entertainment industry, they have enough popularity. Comparatively speaking, Ju Jingyi is not sufficient in this regard.
Moreover, if you want to have better development after graduation, mainly through artists frequently appearing in variety shows and film and television dramas, this requires members to have the ability to participate in the competition of artists in the entire entertainment industry.
In terms of variety shows, the members of the SNH48 department have a good foundation, because the performance form of the small theater and the frequency of performance have made these girls exercise a good stage performance and reaction, so Ju Jingyi's ability in variety shows can still be expected. However, her acting skills in the TV series can only be said to be in a very early stage, and even fans will rationally analyze that she is temporarily more suitable for roles close to her personality, which is also what Ju Jingyi needs to work hard and challenge next.
The biggest advantage of artists from idol groups is that they have loyal fans, but for Ju Jingyi, who has entered the larger market, these fans can play a very small role, and the only people who can really keep them are themselves and the company.
Siba Media and Idol Creation
Only from the perspective of idol creation, even if the individual has enough ability, the company must also provide resources that can promote the development of artists, so starting from Ju Jingyi, we also have to talk about The company of Siba Media.
Siba Media, founded by Wang Zijie, is a newcomer in the cultural industry, and its current achievements were mentioned earlier, and even the most well-known artists are not sure that they can compete with popular artists. Although SNH48 is not lowly well-known, it comes from the two labels of "China's first" and "inherited Japan".
Yasushi Akimoto, who created AKB48, was a practitioner of the cultural industry in the early days, who could write lyrics and films and scripts, and was a person with the experience and resources of the entire entertainment industry, so he was able to create a face-to-face idol based on theater and close to the otaku group, and recruited a team to support the subsequent development of idols.
And Siba Media founder Wang Zijie, more professional experience lies in making games, although the Jiuyou network he founded has the scenery of operating "Audition", but for the real in-depth entertainment and culture industry, he does not have an advantage. The reason he founded SNH48 is that he worked in Japan and came into contact with Japanese and Korean idol culture.
This is also what the reader wants to say, Siba Media as a company in the cultural entertainment industry, its genes are not professional, and the current Chinese cultural industry has begun to content is king, boutique development, insufficient resources, not rich experience, Siba Media only rely on business acumen, whether it can provide a broad future for these girls with dreams, it is not easy to draw conclusions.
Only to Ju Jingyi as an example, she should be the group to get the best resources of the artist, but her participation in the TV series, variety shows, have not yet involved in the explosive products, although this year there is a TV series playing the heroine of the TV series "Yun Xi Chuan", but the TV series is produced by Siba Media, and whether the subsequent publicity can get better channels and attention for the TV series is still a question mark.
At present, although there are already many companies involved in China's idol group industry, it has not yet formed a mature system. Originally, when I wanted to cooperate and learn from The Korean industry, I encountered the "Korean Restriction Order" and had to be suspended, and the Japanese cultural and entertainment industry environment is very different from China, so so far there are only two better idol groups, SNH48 and TFBOYS.
And the next to build these two groups of companies, Siba Media and Times Junfeng are facing the challenge of how to form an incubation system, and push a single artist to a larger market and maintain vitality, so at present, our idol industry is still in the early stages of development, if we can not guarantee the continuous production of artists, and have the ability to truly operate idols, then today's efforts will be in vain, at most it is a case of latecomers learning how to circumvent.
Of course, Reading Entertainment Jun is not pessimistic about China's idol creation, but in this important period of development of the industry, I hope that practitioners will not be blinded by short-term interests, explore a more lasting and feasible path of idol incubation, and also provide channels and opportunities for more ordinary people with dreams to realize their dreams.
*Original article, please indicate the source when reprinting