director of the millennium

In the office of Guangying Kuaibo, Wu Yuan was holding a planning proposal for "Dream Chasing Boys" and flipping through it casually.

In fact, there is nothing good to see. The content is similar to "Creation Camp" and "Youth With You". They all look for one hundred idol newcomers, and then after layers of screening, finally select 7 people to form a group.

Of course, this selection process requires real money votes from audience fans to ultimately push the contestant to the debut throne.

After a quick glance, Wu Yuan closed the file and said, "If I had to choose, I wouldn't want to participate in this kind of idol audition."

"Dwei, China actually doesn't have the soil for idols."

Facing Chen Dewei's puzzled expression, Wu Yuan calmly talked about his views on idols.

"Do you know where the word 'idol' was first coined?"

"The word 'idol' is explained in the Cihai dictionary as 'a human statue made of clay or wood for people to worship. It is a metaphor for an object of great worship.' The first meaning has a long history in China, dating back to the Records of the Grand Historian."

"But the concept of 'idol' in the modern sense was first proposed by the Japanese entertainment industry."

"In today's Japan, the word 'idol' represents a specific type of job in the entertainment industry. It coexists with singers, comedians, and actors, but is only at the bottom of the entertainment industry."

"Today's Japanese idols are a group of people who don't have any outstanding talents and rely on their own charm to attract fans."

"Because they have no talent, they need to use all means to win the love of fans, such as being more beautiful? Being more cute? Or working hard to develop new skills - putting a screen protector on the phone? Learning to fish? Or providing more direct services, such as shaking hands, hugging, etc. Idols are becoming more and more curious."

"But Japan's early idol culture was not like this. Japan's early idols were packaged and then launched, relying on their appearance and works to win fans. It was not the current training system."

"Around the 80s, the guardians of the image of Japanese idols were Nakamori Akina, Matsuda Seiko and others. Although they were commercially packaged, they still possessed the basic qualities of a singer."

"The word idol has split over the years. After the idol packaging, idol packaging has become a basic operation in the music industry. Some of the "essential" idols who inherited the legacy of Akina Nakamori and others have lost their idol halo and become singers."

"The word 'idol' has gradually become what we understand as Japanese idols today. Momoiro Clover and AKB48 are representative groups. The evolution of all this is the result of the prosperity of the Japanese entertainment industry and the increasingly diverse needs of fans."

"Japan's original idols reached their peak in the 80s, while neighboring South Korea began to develop in the 21s and reached its peak in the early st century."

"Korean idols are similar to Japanese idols during the Showa period in form. They are both packaged and released by companies. However, Korean idols focus more on group development, with group dance as the main development direction. They are a variation of Japanese idol culture and are currently at their peak, with a wide influence throughout Asia."

"What about us in China?"

"Does China have a mature idol industry?"

"Forget about maturity. Do we in China have the soil for the development of idol culture?"

"The earliest idols in China should be the Super Girls and Super Boys during Li Yuchun's era, but after their debut, they also transformed into singers." "Unlike Japan and South Korea, China does not have the kind of music promotion stages, event stages and variety shows specifically provided for idols. During the Showa period in Japan, every TV station had a very influential music promotion program, and the same is true in South Korea. Even now, all major Korean TV stations have music promotion programs broadcast every week."

"Both countries have a complete idol industry chain and system."

"But we don't have that in China. So if you look at Produce 101 and Idol Producer, although the variety shows are very popular, once the group is formed, there is no follow-up."

"The two limited groups that debuted through these two talent shows have disbanded since their formation. There are no music shows for them to participate in, no group variety shows for them to shoot, and no group announcements to speak of."

"The only thing they can do is hold a few fan concerts, and then they develop on their own and accept their own announcements. There is no concept of a group at all."

"The domestic shows Produce 101 and Idol Producer are almost the opposite of the Korean originals. The Korean originals created a talent show for the limited group, but the domestic shows created a limited group for the talent show. This is putting the cart before the horse."

"Although they can gain temporary popularity and are very popular during the broadcast period, with a large group of young boys and girls who have never experienced the world voting for these idols and spending real money, in the end they cannot bring many new people into the entertainment industry."

"As for the idols who debuted on these two shows, I bet that they may not exist in three years."

"Because there is no soil for idol development in China, Tencent and Taobao only care about killing and not burying them. They are like using them and throwing them away."

"This is just a carnival of capital. It has no driving effect on the industry. In fact, the behavior itself is hurting the industry. Do you think the higher-ups will allow a few platforms to continue doing this?"

"This is a filthy program that is designed solely for the purpose of making money. The higher-ups will not just sit there and do nothing. They haven't reacted yet, but if there are a few more similar programs next year, and if they continue to indulge minors in spending money like crazy and wasting their family's money to help these illusory idols make their debut, the higher-ups will definitely take strong action and rectify the industry."

"Let's not talk about anything else. If your child is obsessed with such a group of idols every day, spends all the family money on buying milk in exchange for votes, and spends tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars on it, can you accept it?"

“How many parents in the world would accept this situation?”

"This will inevitably lead to the introduction of policies to curb or even ban such programs."

For the "Creation Camp" series of programs, the problem has never been the "talent show" model. Talent shows have been held in China for more than ten years. From "Super Girl" to "The Voice of China" to "The Next Generation of Stars", they have been iterated several times and there have been no problems with them.

The reason why programs like "Creation Camp" were banned at the speed of light is because the original intention of this kind of program is not to select outstanding singers, artists, etc. for the public. It is simply an alternative casino. A bunch of minors bet real money on whether the idols they have chosen can make their debut, and even go crazy.

What’s even more outrageous is that gamblers can get rewards if they win, but the dealer still has to lose money to you.

But if you vote for this kind of program, you spend all your real money, and in the end you win the bet and send the idol you support to the debut position, but the platform as the dealer does not have to return any compensation, and takes all the wins and losses. And then you have to thank the platform for giving you this opportunity to spend money!
With this kind of behavior, all the casino owners in Southeast Asia would have to kneel down and cry "big brother" in pain. Even casinos are not so shady!

"I don't dare to make this kind of dirty money." Wu Yuan said with a dark face. (End of this chapter)