Why You (Yes, you!) Should Become an Idol Blogger!

Recently, I've heard one thing over and over about the online idol community, that honestly makes me a bit sad and disappointed.

That one thing is that there were more idol blogs a few years ago, but now it's somewhat died out.

I love reading idol blogs. I think that the best of idol blogs can make you think about something a different way, or make you think "oh, I never realized that!" There are all sorts of different ones: Review based blogs, news based blogs, and then there's commentary type blogs (like mine!). All of them have worth and have their place, and I think that if you have enough time you should start doing idol blogs!

Here are some reasons to do them.

1. Your blog is your own space to say WHATEVER you want. Granted, you can get negative feedback, if that's what you dislike. I know that recently a Momoko fan lashed out because I called her my least favorite idol. However, if you have a thick skin, it's really great to have this one place where you can get out all your thoughts about idols.

2. It makes you think about what you watch/do more. I know it's easy to just go "I love idols, yayayayay" or "I hate almost everything about idols!" and view what you do that way. However, I think it's more fun to think more critically about things. I don't mean critically in a negative sense, I mean using analysis and just thinking things through. Maybe it's my academic background (I study film/media at my university, so analyzing media comes naturally to me), but I have kind of a switch where I can enjoy things mindlessly, but I can also think through what I'm viewing, ask why I like some things and why I dislike other things, and come to conclusions. This, I think, ends up giving me a deeper experience in the idol fandom. Which leads to my biggest point..

3. It makes me feel more connected to my idol fandom and idols in general. I love idols. Love love love idols. As critical as I can be on Happy Disco, just ask my friend Dani how much I've been rambling and raving about how much I love NMB48 on Skype. However, I am not the biggest spender of the fandom. I have spent my fair share of money on idol merchandise, believe me. However, I am a college student with a limited budget, so I really can't afford to spend $20 to get every single that every group releases. I regret not spending the $30-$40 it would cost to get Everyday Kachuusha here on time so I could support Oota Aika, but that really wasn't in my budget at all. Despite not being able to purchase everything idol related that I'd like to, the fact that I put effort into this blog of mine makes me personally feel further invested in being an idol fan.

4. The community's amazing. I love the idol fan community. Even though I definitely don't agree with everything that idol fans do and there are some fan communities I try to avoid, in general I really like the people a lot.

5. Idols are amazing!! This is just a given. Who doesn't want to spend time writing about Morning Musume, AKB48, Momoiro Clover and the like?

As much as I love blogging, it has its bad points, too, that really should be considered before you make a blog or decide about doing one.

1. You will not become famous and/or make money. I watch a lot of various YouTube channels that feature one person making silly videos and making their living off of YouTube money. I think a lot of people go into blogging and video making because they think "Oh, I can make money off of this." Even if you were making a generic blog or a movie blog, your chances of becoming famous and making any kind of money is slim at best. These chances worsen if you're an idol blogger, because honestly the community's really small. I'm very lucky to get some good praise from IntlWota as well as some OK traffic. I do get some readership, and I greatly appreciate it, but this will never pay any bills.

2. It takes time. I spend a good... hour or so a day writing posts for Happy Disco. This varies a lot, obviously, and I definitely take a break from blogging when I have to focus on school work. My writing time is also not everyone else's; sometimes I see people's reviews for concerts with one sentence per performance and I feel envious, because I know that I have to take paragraphs to get out my opinions.

3. You can't write about EVERYTHING. I know that I personally have way more ideas for posts than ever get written about. There are posts I wish I had the time to do; I know that I have a few really long posts in the works but that I just have not found the time to write.

Essentially, I have one thing to say about this. Do idol blogging if that's what you love to do, not for any ulterior reason. If you do it because you want comments, you'll be disappointed. If you do it because you want money, fame or any kind of recognition, you'll be disappointed. However, if you have a lot of thoughts about idols and want to share them, I'd encourage anyone to give idol blogging a shot.

I'm so sorry you guys

Just typing this in between studying to say I've missed Happy Disco.

Tbqh my idol fandom isn't the same when I'm not writing this; I can watch a PV and be like "Oh that's nice" without analyzing it deeply. But where's the fun in that?

My idol fandom is in a weird place right now. I'm going to compare it to a marriage and say that we've just gotten past the giddy honeymoon phase. It's at the point where if I'm not super interested in idols I'd quit; it's way past the "ooh, this is new and shiny!" phase. I still love idols, don't worry. It's just less new and sparkly.

The real reason I haven't posted in fff two months is because school is evil. I'm aiming to work in TV production in my future and my school doesn't offer that as an option for classes. So I'm trying to figure out my future. In the meantime I was planning on studying abroad in Tokyo... and now there's an abundance of natural disasters. At this point I'm 99% that those plans are cancelled so I'm trying to figure out some new plans so that I can see the world like I want to.

I'm planning on trying and posting more here, but it can't be all the time until summer. Even then I'm hoping to have a job and an internship.

MAN REAL LIFE. It always screws up my internet fandoms.