Here’s a news item: Minami Minegishi is a member of a musical group in Japan called AKB48, one of those big giant girl troupes that dance and sing pop ballads. She was recently caught having a boyfriend, which is not allowed, according to the contract she signed with the record company. To make up for it, she shaved her head as punishment, and she tearfully apologized in a YouTube video.
I always thought it was strange how Asian media companies manage the personal lives of their employees. Think about it: these are singers. Dancers. Songwriters. Wouldn’t it make sense to liberate these people if you want them to become more creative? Think about what our music would look like if we had similar controls in place. What would the blues and country music people sing about? Their recording studios? Their agents?
This “girl” is 20 years old, which means that she’s more of a woman than a girl, which means that she should be allowed to date however she wants. Certainly one should expect there to be some repercussions to a public figure’s personal life (George Michael,Edison Chen), but simply leaving the apartment of a guy shouldn’t be cause for alarm or outcry, especially in this day and age.
I wonder if more artists just did it and wouldn’t apologize if that would make a difference. It seems like in America the artists break contracts and sue and always find somewat to get what they want. That doesn’t always happen but I’m sure it would make many studios think twice before putting clauses like that into a contract.
Does she represent some kind of moral ground to young girls? Why do they even have those kinds of contracts? From your post it makes it seem like they are trying to get the stars to focus on their talent and less outside things. Sometimes I wonder if more of our American pop stars showed more morals if that would make a difference in the lives of people listening to them.
This condition was part of her contract. She signed it…she’s getting the opportunity at a young 20 yrs old to be famous and make money from singing and dancing… I think she needs to honor the contract from her employer. Whether it was having a boyfriend or doing drugs, or whatever… The record label wants a certain image for the members of the group – b/c they know the formula to make it a success, and they don’t want scandals in the tabloids about their group members – risking all their investment.
So I don’t think it’s too harsh.
In America, too many young “celebrities” think they’re the shit. When they fail to realize all the actual professionals that helped them get to where they are. No one can do anything on their own.
I wouldn’t apply standards of singers to these kinds of idols, where most of their audience are lonely daughterless older men. As Linda said, it’s in their contract to maintain a pure image. They are more like actors and actresses who also happen to sing and dance rather than actual singers. I guess the creativity in such an industry would do more with how cute you can be as opposed to how good you are at singing.