Another Strike of Teen Girl Spirits (Part 2)

(continued from part 1)

The group consisted of girls from various ages. Most of them were born in 90s era. There are some of them who were still in school, while some others had become university students. However, this age differences did not lose the group solidarity. The practice and performance showed their compactness and familiarity. However, their popularity was payback for what they had been doing since the day they were approved on the group. Following their story, their hard work worth their popularity.

Even the name was JKT48, were JKT stands for Jakarta, some of the members were not originally from Jakarta. They came from Bandung, joined the audition, and got approved in JKT48. For their performance, the members must go through the practice everyday. Because all of them were still students, the practice time was at the evening. Some members may also come late because of their school / university activities. For the Jakarta people, it wouldn't be a big deal to get into the practice location. However, reading the story, the Bandung girls must go to Jakarta right after their school time is over by the travel transportation. They would have to go in a hurry so they would not came late / too late to the practice. The practice was usually over around midnight and, can you imagine that these Bandung girls must insist to come home to Bandung at midnight by herself, using the last scheduled travel transportation, and go to school again in the next morning ? These activities were repeated almost everyday especially when approaching their theatrical performance period. I put high appreciation for the girls for their hard work. Also, don't forget that beside theatrical performances, JKT48 was also sometimes perform on special events and got involved in TV commercials. These girls must set their schedule smartly.

Additionally, the fact is, it was not so seldom that their hard practice was colored by tears, especially when approaching theater performance. It was because they were required to give their best performance to their spectators (and don't forget, there might be "Japanese standard of hard work", because there performance quality might affect the AKB family group in large scale).

However, there were rumors about some of their parents were still disagree / in doubt for letting their girls doing these JKT48 activities. Somehow, i would kinda feel the same if i were the parent. Having your daughter went out from evening to midnight (especially the Bandung girls who went across the city) and would be having the academic activity again on the next morning. Wouldn't you be worried when your daughter went across the city every night and return to home again at midnight, using public transportation by themselves ? So the girls must also make efforts in convincing their parents for their presence in the group.

I haven't got a chance to watch their theatrical performance but i really want to. Even though I haven't watched their performances directly, from the videos uploaded and people comments, I could conclude that their performance was amazing. The fans rushed in getting their theater tickets. Long queue appeared on the theater gate before their performance started. On the pictures and videos uploaded, the crowd was highly excited with the performance - coupled with many interactions between the idols and spectators. The interesting fact i found was that JKT48 could transform the "cute" image of AKB48 girls shown on the performances into "powerful and spirited girls" image. You can compare the "Wasshoi B" sung by B team of AKB48 with "Wasshoi J" performed by JKT48.

Everyone who loved AKB48 family usually has their own favorite member or oshi, sometimes they have more than one. So does in JKT48 where their fans must have their own oshi. Well, honestly, my oshi in JKT48 is this one : Melody Nurramdhani Laksani.

This Bandung girl's position and role within the group is kinda similar with Atsuko Maeda in AKB48, so far in my observation.

Well, coincidentally as i write this blog today, there is an event in JKT48 Theater. The event was the last day of JKT48 performance on Pajama Drive show series that had been held for days. Unfortunately, the show was also a graduation for one first generation member, Neneng Rosdiana or Ochi. Many fans were sad and deploring her quitting. However, we may just hope for the best, for both Ochi and the JKT48 group.

 

Another Strike of Teen Girl Spirits (Part 1)

At this post, let's move a while from classical music and orchestra theme. This time i want to go Pop, posting in Pop music theme.

Pop musics in Indonesia currently is having a great influence with boyband / girlband outbreaks. There are countless such music groups, from the very famous one to the unfamiliar ones. The groups was also ranged from kids to adult ones. Different with boy/girl band outbreaks in 90s era, which mostly influenced by western pop music, this time, it was great influence from eastern (mostly and especially Korean) pop music that combined singing with high intensity of dancing. You can also see that there are great acceptance for this outbreak in Indonesia, even in the world.

But there is one group, teen girl group, that brought out new concept to this group singing. Some people that do not really know, still recognize them as a girlband, but actually they are not really into it. Rather than a girlband, they are more to be called an idol grup. While girlband was busy with stage performances in many musical events or television, an idol group was more focused their stage performances in their own theatre. This idol group was named JKT48.

The term "idol group" means idol you can meet everyday, so every time you want to see them, you just come to the theater to see them. The concept came originally from Japan. There was a group named AKB48 that had their own theater and  perform in daily basis in Akihabara area.The group consisted of 48 girls doing singing and dancing performance to entertain the spectators. The team was divided into three groups which are team A, K, and B, where each of them had their own captains. Later, the founder, Yasushi Akimoto, expanded the business by developing another idol groups with similar concept, such as NMB48 (in Namba, Osaka), SKE48 (in Sakae, Nagoya), HKT48 (in Hakata, Fukuoka), and SDN48 (idol group with more mature content). AKB48 was also starting to have sister groups overseas like in Indonesia and China. However, the development and training of the overseas groups were still under supervision of Japanese producer. They were also occasionally involved in particular special events in Japan, so was JKT48. The original debut and the recruitment of JKT48 was the two examples.

Even the name was JKT48, the group were still consisted of 24 young girls. The producer recently was doing the second generation of JKT48 recruitment and we wish for the number 48 to be fulfilled (even unfortunately one of the first generation members was reported quits the group).

JKT48 was recently celebrating their one year anniversary. During the one year journey, who could have thought that they could gather a huge number of fans with full support and excitement ? If you ever witness JKT48 performance (in theater or other music events), you can see the euforia and powerful spirit of the fans. They yelled the chanting mix* and screaming their Oshi* names. Every time they do theatrical performances, the enthusiasm is always high. Many people often don't get the tickets because the tickets were sold out. while many other people still haven't got a chance to see their performance because of the distance or any other obstacles. Additionally, even the fans' euforia with the performance is high, what makes the fans more excited is the opportunity to interact with their idols after the show or in any other events. Usually after the show, the fans could shake hand or high five with all the members, photo session is also often allowed if possible. There are also other events were fans could interact with them (and the enthusiasm is always high), such as JKT48 guidebook signing and bowling together with JKT48 members. So many fans that get along with the song and mix, some ridiculous non-fans said that they were paid audiences. Well, which production team would bother hiring that many audiences, then train and pay them just for the group popularity ? Morevoer, the fans' enthusiasim did not reflect that they were paid audiences.

*Chanting Mix : Yell shouted along by the audience in some song parts. The regular mix for AKB48 family (including JKT48) are :
Tiger ! Fire ! Cyber ! Fiber ! Diver ! Viber ! Jya jya !

If the mix part is longer, usually the mix continued with Japanese and Ainu languages.

*Oshi : Consisted of two words, "oshi" and "men". "oshi" means push / support, while "men" came from "menba" ("member" in Japanese pronounciation). So "oshi" means the group member whom you most giving support or the most favorite member.

Even now they had so many loving fans, they journey did not begun easily. There is not a few people who were mocking and underestimating them on their introduction. Some people underestimated them, said that they did not have marketable look and talent and it will be difficult to get public attention, considering that Indonesian music had been flooded by boyband / girlband music groups. Some people said that they were just another group who copied Asian girlband concept.While other people said they were just another girlband with young members - just another kind of kid / teen exploitations.

However, the road for success is never easy. There will be obstacles, there will be some party who were mocking. But the JKT48 members kept training hard since their initial introduction. I think the recruitment process was still on-going during that time (after the introduction), because comparing with their debut now, i recognized there were some missing members from their first introduction (or maybe the missing members were just quitting by themselves). Before their first performance to public, there were videos that showed their practicing activity. I think the viewers were only those who had great expectation with this group and who were curious. Me myself was just knowing them in a cursory.

I cannot really remember which came first : their first stage performance or their first Pocari Sweat commercial, but i recognized them again since the Pocari Sweat commercial that showed young girls in a beach. Because I had listened to many Japanese music, i recognized the music featured in the commercial. Then the first time I saw their performance was at a music show on Global TV. At that time, I had not really known about them and did not really curious also.
But then I learned about AKB48 and their idol group concept, also how great the enthusiasm of Japanese public of this group. Additionally, the more often JKT48 performances in many TV shows and events (with the far more enthusiasm of the fans compared to the first time i saw their performance) had triggered my curiosity. I was interested of how powerful AKB48 and JKT48 fans' spirits at every time they watch their idol's performances.

Well, you know what even they have had a great success and public acceptance, their struggle for the group was commendable. Even their parents may still become one of the obstacles they have to face. I will continue the story of this girl power on later post......

(continued)