You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May 2009.
Welcome to Wota Wonderings! We are a group of english-speaking Japanese music bloggers brought together once a month to answer questions posed by johpan. We strive to be creative and entertaining, and we may even shed a bit of new light on interesting musical and cultural topics. Any questions about how we work should be directed to johpan. Don’t forget to check out the other posts from this month at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!
The topic this time around is:
Hoping we’re not all shallow wotas, imagine your favourite idol (or musical personality) switched bodies with someone you don’t find “visually pleasing”, would it affect your love for that idol in any way/shape/form?
Okay.
Uh.
I’m already fumbling with my words here.
The question (without thinking about your favourite) has two answers, generally speaking.
If you’re talking about an idol, your love for them would probably be affected atleast a little bit. Idols are usually all about looks. Even if they’re the sweetest person on the planet with a lovely voice and a great personality (among other good qualities), you’d probably still react with an “…ew”. (lolkorenagamiki)
If it’s another kind of musical performer, it’s usually all about the talent. So what if they aren’t that good looking? They’re amazing in other ways. (This varies a lot though, depending on the artist…)
However,
This is me. Wendy the idol-loving wota. So I’ll be talking about my favourite idol, Sugaya Risako.
I used to hate Risako.
She can’t sing, can’t dance, and has a weak personality. (I argue against these things now that I’ve watched her more closely, though.)
But then one day I really looked at her and thought,
“WOW. THAT GIRL IS HOT.”
That’s when I started noticing her more, and liking her voice because I was noticing her more.
Now, I love her as a whole. She’s adorable, I love her voice, her dancing is cute, and her shy behavior is slightly generic but great too.
HOWEVER.
Most of my “I LOVE RISAKO” moments come when I see a cute picture and say “AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW SHE IS SO PRETTY” or “WOW I’D TAP THAT”
Er… <_<;;
Anyways.
AWWWWWWWWW.
SHE’S SO PRETTY.
I LOVE RISAKO.
And that’s pretty much how my wota-ing goes.
If she wasn’t as attractive to me (APPARENTLY SOME PEOPLE DON’T FIND HER ATTRACTIVE. I KNOW, I DON’T UNDERSTAND EITHER) I’d probably still love her.
That is, as long as she wasn’t ugly.
That may sound shallow, but she’s an idol after all. Here’s an example: I think Kiyoe from Ikimono Gakari is gorgeous but if she wasn’t, I’d still love their music.
Idol music, not so much.
Let’s take an ugly idol as a comparison.
How about Yasuda Kei? Don’t get me wrong, I love Kei. She’s hilarious and I LOVE her voice.
But…
Well… She’s not ugly.
She’s an ugly idol. Not as cute as some other idols, though not ugly as a person…
But if Risako looked like Kei I’d probably be like “…uhhhhhhhhhhh… hi Risako. :l Your voice is kind of good sounding I guess.”
Perhaps if I had chosen a different favourite (…Who am I kidding, who CHOOSES their favourites? :/), somebody whose career and popularity didn’t rely so much on their good looks, I wouldn’t be trying so desperately to defend my shallow thoughts regarding this topic.
Risako’s voice would still appeal to me, and I’d still love her, but it’d probably be more like “O HAI AIRI” or, in the group itself, “O HAI MIYA/CHINAMI”.
I don’t really think it’s about being shallow while referring to idols.
Or atleast, not as much. They’re there to dance around provocatively, be generically cutesy and look pretty. If they’re pretty, they’re bound to gain more fans. If they aren’t, there’s always plastic surgery. (Or staying in the background… <_<)
Everybody’s a little bit shallow. Don’t pretend like you don’t secretly cringe a bit when you see somebody hard on the eyes, or that you hesitate to support an ugly singer on American Idol. We all do it, it’s human nature.
It’s not my fault that Risako happens to be beautiful, and that her beauty is a main reason I’m drawn to her. That’s just the way it goes.
More posts:
Wota Wonderings 4 – Are You a Shallow Wota (Solo Space)
WW04 – Are Looks Everything? (Tsuyoki de Yukoze!)
Wota Wonderings: On looks versus abilities… (boylikesmusic)
Wota Wonderings 004:Looks Or Talent? you decide (take off is now!)
Wota Wonderings 004 – Are You In The Shallow End Of The Pool? (Selective Hearing)
Wota Wonderings 04 – Case of the Body Snatchers (fields of maiZe and berryZ)
…Well, sort of. (I’m blogging about it because I find that when I do write like this, I discover things about myself that I hadn’t known prior to writing the post. It’s nice. :3)
If you’ve read my surveys, you’ll notice that suddenly, I’m really liking electronic music.
Kind of weird, really. A long time ago, I couldn’t listen to most of Perfume’s music because… I don’t know, I just couldn’t.
So, I was just informed that Midori has also made a survey! I like surveys. 
Gender- M/F/no answer (>o.o)>
Female.
Approximate age- 12 & under, 13-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61+, no answer (>o.o)>
13-20. (15)
1. What was the first pop song you remember liking?
Uhhhhhhhh… Probably something by the Spice Girls, I guess. @_@
2. What bands/music groups/singers did you grow up listening to? (>o.o)>
The Spice Girls, Aqua, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera… I think you get the picture. XD;;
3. What bands/music groups/singers were popular when you grew up? (ie. Were on the radio a lot) (>o.o)>
Those. ^ Along with the boy bands I didn’t care about.
4. When (What year) did you first hear Jpop that you liked? What groups were popular?
Ummm… Let’s see… about 2003, I guess. I’m not sure, considering I was just into what played on the anime I watched.
5. What kind of Jpop/Jrock did you initially like? (>o.o)>
Pop stuff. I mainly just liked standard pop anime songs, but then I got into J-rock for a bit… o_o; (I don’t know what I was thinking~ Haha~) I remember that when Max and I were into Tommy, he preferred February6 and I preferred Heavenly6… That was quite a while ago.
6. Do you still like said kind of Jmusic? (>o.o)>
Well, I still kind of like standard anime songs… but rock isn’t my thing. D: I have almost all of Tommy’s music and I tend to skip every heavenly song. And my friend used to try to make me listen to j-rock and I’d be like NOOOOOO.
7. Do you still listen to the music in your native language (or some other language) as often as Jpop? (>o.o)>
I watch Much Music (It’s like MTV but with a lot more music… we have MTV in Canada too, fyi.) a lot, so I listen to English music like that. I also have a little bit of English music on my iPod.
8. If so, what other kind of music to you enjoy listening to? (>o.o)>
I have a thing for mainstream music. Like, the Pussycat Dolls, Lady Gaga (sometimes. LOVEGAME SUCKS.), Rihanna, that kind of stuff. The music on my iPod though… I have uh.
Lights, Stars, Owl City and Swimming With Dolphins.
However.
The reason why I don’t have mainstream English music on my iPod is because I always end up skipping it.
and the song I DO have on my iPod I usually skip. XD
9. Do you go to concerts/performances of your favorite groups from your country? Do you go to ones for J-pop groups?
No. The only concerts I’ve been to in my life have been Avril Lavigne concerts. And that’s because my friend (the one who tried to make me listen to jrock) has an uncle who frequently does like… lighting and stuff for Avril concerts. So the day before, she’d call me and be like “Hey Wendy, wanna go to an avril concert tomorrow?” and I say “Yeah sure got nothing better to do.”
The last one I went to, I was in the VIP front row. FOR FREEEEE.
But yeah, no concerts for me. I’d go to jpop concerts if I could… but I can’t. 
10. What do you think about the Jpop industry’s future? Do you think that you’ll continue to like it for another 5 years? (>o.o)>
I’m… not sure. About the first thing, anyways. I like what a lot of people are putting out right now, so… :3 I hope it keeps appealing to me!
As for the second part, I can see myself sticking with it. It’s already been over 5 years, right?
11. What’s your favorite group? (>o.o)>
Morning Musume, Perfume and Ikimono Gakari.
12. Is your favorite song/single/album a Jpop one? (>o.o)> Is it from your favorite artist?
Well, I never really know what my favourite songs are. According to my response to Misa’s survey, my favourite songs are Kousui, Dream Fighter, edge, Kaeritakunatta yo and PRECIOUS.
So yes, and partially yes.
13. Do you like pop from outside of Japan, such as Hannah Montana? (>o.o)>
…LOL
YOU GET THE BEEEEEEEEST OF BOTH WOOOOOOOORLDS
No.
Unless you consider the music I mentioned earlier to be pop.
But no. No Hannah Montana.
14. Do you like musicals? If so, what’s your favorite, and one you really want to see? (This one is just to humor Midori)
Do I look like Indigo?
(That’s a nooooooo.)
I just can’t seem to get into musicals. D: But I liked the MM Cinderella. :3
—-
So.
In the process of filling this out, I’ve come to realize something about my music tastes.
Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve always favored all girl groups.
I mean, even over solo singers… but I still liked girl singers.
And I could never get into boy bands. They didn’t attract my interest very well.
DON’T GET ME WRONG.
I LIKED BOYS.
But like… I don’t know. I never cared. o_o; Boy + girl bands were okay in my book, but I generally went toward all girls.
So… just looking at my music tastes now…
Suddenly everything is starting to make more sense.
Misa knows probably better than anybody that I’ve tried liking boy bands and I just do not care. Yes, half of NEWS is really really hot, and yes, I’ll look at the pictures she sends me.
But I can’t be a fan. This goes for the Korean boy bands too.
And just… why I’m so drawn to like.
MM and Perfume and stuff.
ALSO.
I only listen to female English mainstream music. I like hearing girls rap and stuff, but male rappers totally turn me off. XD
I don’t have an explanation for this.
I mean, when I was younger, I wasn’t drawn (…THAT kind of drawn) to girls, so it had nothing to do with sexuality. I liked boys. I don’t understand why I didn’t like boy bands…
But just looking at all of this…
It’s interesting, to say the least.
Interesting.
