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!

This month’s topic is a hard one.

Hoping we’re not all shallow wotas, imagine your favorite 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?

Wow.  I’m not sure how to answer that without making myself sound like a self-centered, superficial jerk  but I’m going to try.  So here goes…

I’m still relatively new to the whole idol world.  Before I discovered anything J-Pop related I was very much a hardcore (90’s) Hip-Hop/R&B type of dude.  Image didn’t matter to me so much with that music.  I was more concerned with whether the tracks were good & if I could mix them into a DJ set.

But somehow I ended up getting addicted to J-Pop & the culture that comes along with it.  It’s quite the trip going from listening to stuff like Ice-T & N.W.A. to something somewhat more tame (in comparison) like Morning Musume.   I find it fascinating just how much image counts in Japanese music.  Well not just Japanese music, I guess the Asian pop music scene in general.  It’s quite different from I’m used to here in North America where people are still want some sort of  “musical integrity” to go along with their pop.

Yet I hardly listen to a lot of North American music these days.  I tune into the video stations and radio and suddenly feel out of touch.  I watch the award shows & I’m constantly asking (out loud) “Who the hell is this and why are they so popular?”  Of course no one’s around to answer me, but yeah…  Whatever scraps of North American music I listen to are usually just results of being faithful to an artist or label or some unknown force compels me to care.

Anyway… To actually answer the question… Uh… Well… As much as I hate to admit it,  my love for any particular idol would be affected based on their “visual appeal”.  I wouldn’t go as far as to say I would stop liking an artist just because I think they look like they need to be wearing a paper bag on their head on stage or anything like that.  It would just take me a bit longer to warm up to them outside of whatever musical talents that person or persons would have.

For example, one of my favorite members of the current Morning Musume lineup (& I don’t say this much) happens to be Kusumi Koharu.  I know her vocal abilities are limited (something I tend to always point out) but her constant sugar high personality combined with her looks (I’ll sound like a perv for saying this, but she’s fucking hot yo!) actually got me on her team so to speak.

I’ll be honest & say if that she wasn’t so attractive I would think that she’s extremely annoying.

I guess what really counts in the end is whether the music someone puts out  (either solo or part of a group) is worth listening to or not .  If it’s some good stuff I’m willing to forgo the whole image thing  as long as their output continues to be consistent.  But it doesn’t hurt to be nice to look at.

Does that make me shallow? Yes, but I’m not blind. =)

Other Wota Wonderings Articles

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 04] It’s what’s outside that counts. (Renai Revolution 21)
Wota Wonderings 04 – Case of the Body Snatchers (fields of maiZe and berryZ)
Wota Wonderings 004 (H!P Fangirling like Nobody’s Business)
[WW] Would I love Airi if she weren’t adorable? (Tsuugaku Vector ☂)