Tokyo Reborn: Dark Superstar

Chapter 96 Underground Idol

With the quality of the song of the 47th NHK Red and White Song Festival, "Jealous" by the Hyakusho Rock Band should be able to have a certain range of influence and gain a certain degree of national popularity.

Of course, it is inferior compared to the 12th single "Hey Hey おおきに毎多あり" (Hey Hey, thank you for coming) by the SMAP group led by Kimura Takuya.

But "ヤキモチ" can definitely be regarded as one of the popular songs at this year's NHK Red and White Song Festival.

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However, due to the influence of the NHK Kohaku Utakai, all members of the Beasts Rock Band, including manager Keiko Kanda, are conservative in their estimates.

With the blessing of NHK Kohaku Utakai, the influence of "ヤキモチ" is far beyond everyone's imagination.

The huge influence of the NHK Red and White Song Festival made "ヤキモチ" quickly become popular, sung all over Kanto and Kansai, and even spread to South Korea, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong...

Takakura Bunta, who had been quite popular before, was so popular after the NHK Kohaku Uta Club, and he has accumulated a lot of experience and has completely entered the public eye.

Takakura Bunta's fame has skyrocketed, and so has his CM advertising remuneration.

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CM commercial advertising income is the main source of income for Japanese artists, and is determined by the income of a single CM and the number of CMs.

Among them, the income of a single CM is closely related to the artist's status. The higher the artist's status, the higher the income.

When attending the NHK Kohaku Uta Festival, Kanda Keiko expected that Bunta Takakura's CM advertising fee would rise to about 4000 million yen.

Of course, this is just a unilateral quotation. After negotiation, the price of the CM commercial can be locked at 3500 million yen.

As a result, by the time the NHK Kohaku Uta Festival ended, the price quoted for the CM commercial had risen to 8000 million yen.

Some big investors are even willing to raise the price to 1 million yen.

In the end, even Takakura Bunta was restrained.

This is the first time that his income from the Japanese entertainment industry has exceeded his rebate as a charity volunteer.

However, considering that the situation is special and will return to normal after this peak period, Kanda Keiko expects the average price to stabilize at 8000 million yen.

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During the Chinese New Year, the lipstick business was sold to Shiseido, and the VIP private customization business and the charity reservation customers of the Night Tokyo Charity Welfare Institute were integrated.

There are currently 14 VIP charity donors identified, and the minimum threshold for charity fundraising in the new year has also been raised from 1000 million yen to 3000 million yen.

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Beginning on January 1997, 1, Bunta Takakura began non-stop charity business activities in Shinjuku, Tokyo, and Nishinari-ku, Osaka.

Under the threshold of 3000 million charity donations, the number of donations from VIP philanthropists was still doubled to 28.

It’s hard to say about other places. In terms of charity during the New Year this year, Bunta Takakura is definitely the undoubted king of Asian New Year charity.

In particular, the three-day and three-night charity event in Osaka's Nishinari Ward received donations from seven major charity donors, including Nobuko Myaki, the female president of Daikin Air Conditioning in Japan.

It has received a total of 3 million yen in charitable donations, which shocked the industry.

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By the end of January, the popularity brought by NHK's Kohaku Uta Club gradually disappeared, and the market gradually returned to calm, but Takakura Bunta's appearance fee was still overbearing.

In the Beast Rock Band, Takakura Bunta's CM commercial advertising income is basically the same as Nakamori Akina's, crushing first-line singers such as Amuro Namie, Kudo Shizuka, Nagano Hiroshi...

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In January 1997, Takakura Bunta was extremely fulfilled and satisfied. He attended the NHK Red and White Song Festival and frantically developed charity.

In addition, with the promotion of Mizuno Tangyue, the Yuliu Yuanverse project has made breakthrough progress.

Mizuno Doyue saw Takakura Bunta successfully signing a contract with Sayuri Ishikawa backstage at the NHK Red and White Song Festival as inspiration for promotion.

She targeted underground idols, the cornerstone of the Japanese entertainment industry.

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In Japan, where idol culture is developed, in addition to the mainstream idols that people are familiar with, there is also a special group called "underground idols", which can also be called "live idols".

Underground idols are a cultural phenomenon unique to Japan. They usually refer to artists or groups that are centered on local performances, generally do not appear in mainstream media, and have not debuted through a brokerage company.

Hashimoto Kanna, who was super popular in later generations, was a member of Fukuoka's underground idols in the early days. Later, thanks to a captured photo of the "Millennium Girl", she quickly became famous all over the Internet and successfully debuted. In the dark star plane, the otakus who early purchased Hashimoto Kanna’s handshake coupons, sticker coupons, kiss coupons, and the legendary “Mysterious Ancient Rice Reserve Coupon” and other special welfare coupons are the biggest winners.

It can be said to be great value for money, buy early and enjoy early...

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Due to their inherently non-mainstream nature, underground idols have never been able to compete with the power of mainstream idols.

Those who develop well can make their official debut and become stars, while those who develop only averagely will either quit the group early or change careers after graduation.

In Japan in the dark star plane, hundreds of thousands of girls try to enter the underground idol industry every year, and 99.9% of them are destined to fail.

Yuliu·Yuan Universe is a good direction for these girls to change careers after graduation.

This is just like the technical female workers in Dongcheng in the 21st century who changed jobs and became anchors on Douyin and Kuaishou...

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In the 1990s, the development of Japanese idols entered the "Idol Ice Age".

This is also an important reason why Nakamori Akina, Matsuda Seiko, and Koizumi Kyoko, the three major singers in the last Showa era, began to decline after entering the 90s.

Kudo Shizuka has never been able to break through the front line and enter the quasi-king level, also because of the impact of the market environment of the "Idol Ice Age".

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The form of idols that were once active in mass media has changed from being centered around singer activities to being dominated by actresses, advertisements, and photo idols.

In this situation, some idols still follow the development model of the golden age of idols in the 1980s and insist on focusing on singing.

As a result, they missed out on the leading position in the field of J-pop (Japanese pop songs), and it became increasingly difficult to perform on TV.

Therefore, the focus of their activities gradually shifted to local live performances.

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In order to collect this part of the sinking high-quality idol resources, Mizuno Tangyue submitted a proposal, and the Steel Balloon Union Committee passed the resolution.

Totland Company invested in a livehouse in Yotsuya-3-chome, Shinjuku District, Tokyo - Miss Yotsuya Coffee Bar.

Livehouse Miss Yotsuya Coffee Bar, after the capital injection of Totland Company, began to regularly host underground idol performances, so its reputation continued to rise.

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These underground idols look glamorous on the outside, but their real situation is actually not very optimistic.

The first is low income. According to the book "Underground Idols as a Career", the average monthly income of underground idols is about 5.7 yen. If they are particularly popular, they may earn 10 yen.

Working part-time at a Lawson convenience store in Japan, the monthly income is 12 yen, while the salary of an ordinary office worker is 31 yen.

This low income makes most underground idols work part-time jobs to supplement their expenses.

Two-thirds of underground idols cannot balance studies and performances at the same time, so once they choose this path, it is equivalent to automatically giving up their studies.

In order to gain more fans' attention, underground idols need to take to the streets to hand out flyers to attract customers.

Some people even work multiple jobs. In addition to performing, they also have to make time for rehearsals. Therefore, the schedule is tight throughout the day and there is no time to rest at all.

A part-time job at Yuliu·Yuanverse Planning, the working hours are flexible, the mind is fighting in the Yuanverse, and the body can still be in a state of rest...

If you sign up and complete a fixed number of battles every month, you can get generous rewards.

For underground idol artists, this is simply a dream part-time job.

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Livehouse Miss Yotsuya Coffee Bar signed 1997 underground idols to join the promotion of the Metaverse in the first quarter of 500, and the signing fee was only one-half of Sayuri Ishikawa's.

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In 1997, the Yuliu Yuanverse project was advancing continuously.

After the NHK Red and White Song Contest, Takakura Bunta began to work on the production of his new album again...

(End of this chapter)