[Feature 134] Chasing stars, crazy "little things"
Cancellation of the recording of the finals-Lin Meng ushered in the "bad" news on the last day of the "May 1st" holiday.
Affected by the incident that fans dumped a large amount of milk in order to obtain the voting QR code in the bottle, a trainee audition program stepped on a sudden brake 3 days before the closing date.
"Quickly tell me this is fake." Lin Meng wrote in the circle of friends with a trace of remnant thoughts.
She is the "station sister" of trainee S. Cheering for S at the finals is something she has been preparing for recently.
"Sister Zhan" is the operation manager of the artist "Zhanzi"; "Zhanzi" is nowadays called the support group of artists; and those who regard a certain artist as an idol (the transliteration of idol in English, meaning idol) Fans are classified into a circle, rice circle.
Under each new vocabulary, there is a quiet change in the form and method of star chasing.
By 2021, star chasing is no longer as simple as buying 10 albums and posting a wall poster.
It has become an industrial chain and an economic model.
What’s more interesting is that in the era of traffic is king and mobile internet, the dimensional wall that once hovered between artists and fans is being broken. How far an idol can go depends to a certain extent on the money that fans madly put down. How long to pave the road.
always be ready
"You blocked me, get up!" Suddenly someone in front of him got up and entered Lin Meng's lens, and she shouted angrily.
Lin Meng is taking videos and photos of S from the dormitory to the recording room.
Lin Meng waited all morning for a journey of less than two minutes.
It was noon on a weekend in mid-April. In a park in Dachang Hui Autonomous County, Langfang, Hebei, the draft competition started in January became increasingly fierce.
Since trainees have to live in a closed life in the park until they select 9 people to make a team debut, most of the time, "station sisters" like Lin Meng can only squat outside the fence, taking advantage of the trainees' outdoor activities or shuttles between different buildings. Capture the material from time to time and upload it to the "station" operated by yourself.
"Zhanzi" is mostly an account registered on a social platform. The content is all information, photos or videos about an artist. The artist's fans will interact on the account page.
As the operator of "Zhanzi", an important task of "Zhanzi" is to find a way to obtain as much material about artists as possible.
"It's very tiring to chase stars." As soon as S disappeared inside the door of a building, Lin Meng immediately put down the camera and sat on the small folding bench she brought with her. This is one of the artifacts she has to bring every time she comes to a large factory. .
Lin Meng is a junior at a college in Qingdao.
Since April, every other week, she has carried a large backpack equipped with a SLR camera and a tripod to take the high-speed train to Beijing, and then take a taxi to Dachang. She stays for a week.
In order to ask for leave from school teachers, she used the reasons for visiting relatives, illness, club activities, etc., "except for those related to graduation, all the classes that could be skipped were escaped."
In order to be a "station sister", Lin Meng asked her family for money to buy a SLR camera on the grounds that she "likes photography", and the standard of living expenses has been raised again and again.
However, when Lin Meng is a "Sister Station", his parents have not been aware of it.
In fact, most student fans will find ways to hide their star-chasing from their family members.
Even parents who have heard of it are often helpless to their children's fanatical behavior.
More than 10 minutes later, all the trainees entered the recording room. The "station sisters" who had a decibel burst outside the park calmed down collectively. They must quickly deal with the "results" of this round of harvest-picking photos and looking for them. People edit pictures and add watermarks.
In less than half an hour, the newly released refined pictures and short videos were hung on the "station".
After the task was completed, the "station sisters" who had been excited for the whole morning were somewhat exhausted.
After the trainees "go to work" at noon, they will not come out again until 7 or 8 in the evening at the earliest.
The time in the middle is very tedious, "This place is very remote, and meals can only be ordered for takeaway. If you want to drink milk tea to renew your life, you can only choose small shops with no brand." Lin Meng complained more than once.
But for my idol, all the inconveniences can be tolerated.
In addition to holding a mobile phone connected to a power bank at any time to "kill" time, chatting with each other is another major pastime of "Sister Station".
Han Lili, who was born in 1994, and Lin Meng chatted very speculatively.
She works in an Internet company in Beijing. No matter how intense the work is from Monday to Friday, she will definitely appear outside the recording base on two days on weekends to cheer for the popular trainee Y.
The friendship outside the fence can also bring convenience to "work."
At eight o'clock in the evening, S returned to the dormitory "off work". Lin Meng picked up the megaphone and stood on the stool, and shouted a phrase she had prepared: "S, sister is here! Today is the temperature of early summer, I promise You did it, and accompany you through the four seasons from winter to summer..."
On the side, Han Lili has helped Lin Meng take another batch of photos of S.
After a few minutes, when Y enters the field of vision, the roles of the two will switch.
As the trainees appeared one after another, the affectionate shouts of the "station sisters" from all walks of life continued for a while in the night sky of Dachang.
"More than you think"
While waiting for the trainees, Li Jing turned around from time to time to look at Amin, who was not far away.
Amin looks in his 30s, wearing a black jacket, a black hat and a black mask, and a black backpack.
This ordinary dress looks very special among fans who generally dye their hair, wear big tops and ripped jeans, and clink when walking.
"At first glance at him, I knew it was a full-time shooter." Han Lili, with bright yellow hair, said confidently.
When idols had activities and "Sister Zhan" was unable to show up for various reasons, the proxy auction business occurred.
“Throw the relevant information into the WeChat group of proxy shooters. Naturally, someone will take the order, and sometimes other'zhan sisters' will also easily make pocket money.” Due to lack of skills in working days, Han Lili kept the “Zhanzi” updated from time to time. You have to deal with pats.
According to the quality, the price of a photo taken on behalf of the company fluctuates between 80 yuan and 200 yuan.
A Ming’s films are well-known in the fan circle. Because he uses a Canon R6 camera, the circle uses "Big Brother R6" to refer to him.
Brother R6 always stood quietly on the side, and no one took the initiative to talk to him.
In the words of "Sister Zhan": "People don't chase stars but only make money. They don't have a common language."
Li Jing pays attention to Big Brother R6 frequently because he is considering taking up the single-agent auction business.
Li Jing, who was in his freshman year, is one of the few male fans of Dachang. Everyone joked that he is the future "brother station".
For student fans who do not yet have financial resources, if they can’t make extra money, the cost of star chasing has to be provided by the family.
Li Jing, who is not from a wealthy family, saves living expenses and buys milk collection cards to help trainees he likes.
But even so, the transportation and lodging fees to and from the factory made him a little bit more than he could make ends meet.
"I have classmates who have made a lot of money by proxy shooting." Realizing that power generation for idols is inseparable from the economic foundation, Li Jing made a preliminary idea. He must first practice shooting skills, and then learn PS. This saves money on finding someone to edit the picture.
As long as the picture is recognized by someone and a word of mouth is formed, "no need to worry about no orders."
However, due to frequent skipping of classes, Li Jing is now the teacher's focus, which makes him "worried."
Big Brother R6 obviously didn't expect that he was becoming the object of being "learned".
As soon as there was movement in the park, he immediately returned to the seat he had occupied earlier, stood on a chair and buried his head in the viewfinder frame.
When he gets to work, Big Brother R6 can work harder than "Sister Zhan" in order to get pictures at a good price.
Of course, compared with the excited "Sister Standing", Amin has an unparalleled advantage: he does not have the slightest personal feelings, the camera is stable and the shutter is pressed correctly, and the photos will not be blurred.
"More than you think." Speaking of income, the prudent R6 big brother's mouth became tighter. He turned to the "Sister Zhan" beside him, "They have more channels to make money than I do." .
Apart from selecting some of the idol photos collected by "Zhanzi" to post on "Zhanzi", the rest can be sold one-to-one to fanatic fans who want more photos in the station, or they can be sorted and printed into a photo album. It is sold on the trading platform around the star at prices ranging from tens to hundreds of yuan.
Han Lili's "Zhanzi" has gathered more than 20,000 fans.
At this level, "Sister Zhan" can call on fans to raise funds to buy "milk tickets" for idols—that is, buy a large amount of milk to get a booster card.
However, the lack of supervision and encouragement of fund-raising behavior is very risky.
Some "station sisters" will make a price difference between fans and "milk ticket" agents, and some may embezzle the money or even run away directly.
"Not every'zhanzi' will announce the details of the fund-raising use. In the fanatic state of star chasing, fans are indeed easy to be deceived." Watching a series of news involving the "milk pouring incident", Li Xinrong remembered 3 years ago Of yourself.
The whole person is stunned
The idol N team pursued by Li Xinrong is the first men's team to debut after the rise of the 2018 trainee draft model in mainland China.
At the end of that year, Li Xinrong, who was still a second-year graduate student, won a scholarship of more than 10,000 yuan for her outstanding grades.
At that time, both the "Zhanzi" of the N group and the "Zhanzi" with a single member were releasing Idol New Year peripheral products, and Li Xinrong thus started the "buy, buy, buy" model.
"It was really crazy at that time." Li Xinrong described it like this.
She squats on the celebrity's peripheral trading platform every day, and places orders immediately as long as there are new products on the shelves, "Albums, albums, endorsement products...no matter what it is, what quality is it." She is a "group fan" of the N group, " That is, 9 members like it", so many things are bought as "9+1" copies.
Li Xinrong later counted. Just the 2019 desk calendar related to the N group, she has more than 100 copies in her hand.
The scholarship was quickly squandered, but Li Xinrong couldn't stop at all.
She opened up online credit services such as Bibai and Huabai, and then borrowed money from people around her for various reasons.
In less than two years, Li Xinrong spent six figures for the N group.
Until now, she has not completely filled the "pit" of online loans.
Li Xinrong said that because there were too many orders, some "Sisters" received the money and didn't ship them at all. She didn't find out until a long time later.
When he graduated from graduate school, the friends who came to help Li Xinrong move were stunned: There were nearly 20 boxes containing the peripheral products of the N group, "They all think I am stunned."
To spend money on idols, Li Xinrong is by no means the most stunned one.
According to statistics, in another audition show that ended earlier this year, the top 11 players received a total of more than 100 million yuan in fundraising.
The more funds raised, the more votes there will be, and the greater the chance for trainees to make their debut. Under the guidance of this program selection mechanism, which is clearly a “money trap”, a large number of “talking skills” have emerged in the fan circle to induce fans to make money: "If you don't vote, I won't vote. When will my brother come out?" "Are you not willing to spend a lipstick?" "Only one or two votes, what is the difference between you and passers-by?"
Surrounded by such rather PUA words every day, it is difficult for fans not to be coerced and consume impulsively.
A female artist’s support group once posted an overdraft of nearly 230,000 yuan in support accounts; some students owed more than 200,000 yuan in debts on various online loan platforms within two years due to various support activities.
"Debt chasing stars" has also become another exclusive vocabulary in the rice circle.
Statistics show that 85% of the 18-28 year old fan base are college students, and many of them are graduate students like Li Xinrong.
But it is clear that high education has not made these young people more rational.
As Gustave Le Pen, the author of "The Crowd", said, once an individual enters a certain group, the individuality will be annihilated, and the group's thoughts dominate; while the group's behavior is manifested as non-objection, emotional and low IQ.
The loss of rationality is manifested in all aspects.
26-year-old Coco is already out of the rice circle, but in the period of fanatical pursuit of stars, she spends a lot of time every day searching for all information related to idols on various platforms.
Seeing critical remarks, Coco would use a trumpet to refute it in the comment area.
Once when he saw a sentence "XX has been confused (pointing out)", Coco and the other party scolded for a whole day on the Internet.
In the end, she had to log off her account to end this mess.
Mutual tearing and verbal abuse can be regarded as routine operations in the rice circle.
At the beginning of last year, fans of popular artist X launched a scolding war across the Internet, which made many passers-by who did not care about the rice circle feel the power of online violence for the first time. This incident even alarmed relevant departments and held interviews with artist studios. .
Violence will also extend from online to offline.
Brother Wang, who lives in a big factory, has been providing chartered bus services for "Sister Zhan". He has personally seen bullying among fans.
"On the way to send them back to Beijing, there was a'Sister Zhan' who thought that another girl had interfered with her when she called Mai. She scolded them first, and then started her hands."
Brother Wang, who was nearly 50 years old, stopped the conflict like educating his own children.
No one cares about fans' money
The starry night of the group has become a constant flood of notices, apologies, statements and public condemnation; at the same time, the trainee Y, who had been repeatedly exposed to negative information before, announced his retirement due to physical reasons.
Han Lili, who always thought she was calm, was about to collapse. "Everything was fine when I saw him a few days ago."
Han Lili's "meet" was a fan meeting arranged by the show team on May 1.
In order to create momentum, the official gave out 10 tickets to fans for free, of which 3 were directly given to the "Zhanjie" who participated in the topic interaction and the top 3 likes, and the remaining 7 were given out through a lottery.
"3 is too few!" Many "Zhanjie sisters" expressed dissatisfaction with this. In their opinion, their usual squatting and painstaking operation deserve more priority.
In fact, compared to ordinary fans, "Zhanjie" does have more benefits.
At the moment when the fan community has become the main force of "star-making", the "Zhan Sister" of the big "Zhanzi" will have inextricably linked with the artist agency.
From knowing idol activity information in advance to "team building" fundraising under the company's instructions or competing with other "stations" for fundraising, the long distance between artists and fans in the past has long ceased to exist.
For some "Zhan Sisters", once the "Zhanzi" built by love has a scale, it will become a sideline and even a career.
In Han Lili's words: "Such a'Zhanzi' is also a kind of'net celebrity', and it is natural to want to continue to expand the'Zhanzi' and continue to benefit from it."
Although she didn't get the free ticket directly, Han Lili was still drawn into the venue-it turns out that even if it is a lottery, the "Sister Station" with more fans has a higher probability of winning.
"It hasn't been 100% since I just opened a'station' like me," Lin Meng said mockingly.
Lin Meng also knows that no matter how hard the fans are, the idols may not be able to form a group.
She even expected early that even if the game ended smoothly, S would have difficulty making his debut. "He doesn't have strong capital support behind him." At Dachang, almost all "Sisters" agreed that trainee T would inevitably occupy a group quota. , Not because of how good T is, but because he is backed by the top domestic brokerage company.
In Wang Ge's view, since the start of the draft game, the GDP of the entire Dachang has been driven by Sister Zhan.
Book hotels, rent houses, order takeaways, and call chartered cars.
After dealing with a group of little girls for several months, his deepest feeling, who has never paid attention to the entertainment industry in the past, is that no one cares about the money of fans.
But this fact does not seem to affect fans' enthusiasm for spending money to vote.
"This is similar to the mentality of playing video games," compares Coco, who has repeatedly replayed the process of chasing stars, like this: knowing that everything is virtual, but can't help but constantly spend money and time to break through levels, watching his own choices The role of is getting stronger day by day.
"Chasing stars and playing games is to decompress and be happy in moderation. Once it is overdone, fans and players will be swallowed."
In June 2018, I saw the N group for the first time in a sports variety show. Li Xinrong was hit by "their full sense of youth" and was out of control since then.
"It's a kind of strong emotional sustenance." Coco was not surprised to hear of Li Xinrong's experience. She also accurately speculated that Li Xinrong was chasing stars for the first time and had no love experience. "This is the easiest way to have the illusion of first love." Coco Said half jokingly.
"Star chasing is understandable,
No bottom line is the problem"
Dachang returned to quiet again.
Brother R6 had a short break, and Brother Wang's business was not as good as before.
He said that the tickets for the final night were fetched for 15,000 yuan, but the sudden change caused the scalpers to lose their money.
The incident is still fermenting.
On May 8th, relevant departments deployed a series of special actions for the "Clearness" in 2021, and included the rectification of online entertainment and hotspot chaos as the focus of governance.
The relevant person in charge said at the press conference: "Star chasing is understandable, there is no bottom line is the problem."
In the following days, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Radio and Television issued a notice calling for the scientific design of the program selection mechanism and resolutely combating irrational support behaviors; the China Performance Industry Association issued a notice stating that entertainers will be subject to industry self-discipline for raising funds for fans.
Whether it is a waste of resources and money, milk pouring behavior or a lot of risky fund-raising behavior, it is not the first time in this year's talent show.
It is foreseeable that in the future, there will be new stars and new ways to chase stars.
After several years of barbaric growth of the fan circle culture, fan support groups, brokerage companies, artists, program platforms, etc. involve each of them, and they need to experience a long period of "muscles" under the effect of increased supervision over the years. Only with the transformation of the "movable bone" can it enter the orbit of standard operation.
How to make the large-scale fan group in this fan circle have a correct mentality and rationally chase stars is a question that needs to be answered by the whole society.
Not long ago, under the guidance of her parents, Li Xinrong, who had "gradually sobered", cleaned up most of the peripheral products of the N group-those boxes have hardly been opened since she moved.
(Some interviewees in the text are pseudonyms)
Reporter: Qiao Ran