Japanese idol

An idol (アイドル, aidoru, from the English word "idol") in the Japanese pop culture is a young media personality (a singer, an actor, a model, etc.). This is usually a teenager, who has a cute and innocent public image.^[1] Idols are a separate category of Japanese artists.^[2]

The term is commercialized by Japanese talent agents. The talent agencies hold auditions for cute boys and girls and make them stars. Idols are intended to be an ideal object of love of frenzied fans. There is also a view that the Japanese people see idols as sisters or girls next door.^[3]

Japanese idol singers work across genres of the Japanese pop music. This is usually whatever is most popular at the moment. Their songs do not require great singing skills, but the artist must be beautiful, sweet and nice to sing them. In their everyday life, idols must also match the songs they sing. They must have a perfect public image and be good examples to young people.

1. ↑ "Pop 'idol' phenomenon fades into dispersion". The Japan Times Online. Archived from the original on 2011-08-13. Retrieved 2014-05-05.
2. ↑ Fanning the Flames: Fans and Consumer Culture in Contemporary Japan, ed. William W. Kelly (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2004), p. 65
3. ↑ William D. Hoover, Historical Dictionary of Postwar Japan (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2011), p. 202