JKT48: FANS AND FANTASY
WAHYUDIN, Jawa Pos daily

The bond between fans and their idols may give an answer related to the question posed by the music industry. Over the last two decades, the industry has to face a hard time: a widespread piracy. Many people prefer to illegally download songs through the internet. They do not care with album releases, let alone the official merchandise of any singers.

However, in a period between the last 5 to 10 years, a change has happened. Some singers, especially from Korea and Japan, have been able to establish a special bond with their fans. The fans are willing to spend their money on their idols’ albums, concert ticket, official photographs, merchandise, and even tickets to shake hands with the idols.

Gradually, this change also affects Indonesia. JKT48 girl band shows this phenomenon. Dozens, if not hundreds, of articles have discussed about how fanatics the members of Wota, the fans of the JKT48, are. Everything released by the girl band is almost sold out. It is not something rare to see fans competing to buy the ‘official stuffs’ of the group.

Wota is the most militant fan base. They will never buy any pirated albums of their idol band. They compete between one another to see their idols in any live concerts held in JKT48 Theater. It is magical to see how the fans always do what JKT48 and its management ask them to do, for instance, on things related to the rule in attending every concert. Neither are Wota members allowed to take pictures of their idols during live performances, nor to touch JKT48 members. They all obey the rules! If they break the rules, they have to face social sanctions given by other fans, plus other sanctions by JKT48 itself. Wota members are so scared of this consequence.

JKT48 management makes an arrangement for the fans wishing to shake hands or personally converse with their idols. This ‘ritual’ is called a handshake. Surely, this can happen with a condition, that is, either such fans have to pay in advance or to buy several albums in order to shake hands with their idols in a relatively short time.

All of these fans’ insanities show that they totally accept their idols no matter what happens. Why do they trust the idols so much?

This emotional feeling sparks as most of them consider their idols as their models. However, some of them have gone overboard, fantasizing on their idols in a negative way.