I never understood why it are mostly woman who help visual kei bands selling their merchandise.
Who are actually those “Staff” people?
Why are those woman actually accepted to sell merchandise?
And is there actually never jealousy against those woman?
Sometimes it feels as some of those woman are actually the girlfriend of one of the bandman.
But as Rena said, they can be anyone. But who are they usually?
And I actually never saw a “Guy” selling merchandise (for exception the bandman themselves or known label owner/manager, roadie or so.)
And yes I do know that 95% of visual kei fans are woman.
But since it’s understood completely wrong:
For example at closet child (CD-shop) they had female and male staff to sell.
I know that at least one of the female staff members also helped out Calmando Qual to sell their merch.
Which well is the reason for no jealousy right?
So what about other bands? Who are those woman who sell the Merch?
My friend worked for a tiny vk band back in 2008ish. There 100% was jealousy and it was even worse because she was a foreigner. Tanuki wouldn’t shut up that she must be banging the band because no way would they work with her otherwise. And it definitely wasn’t just her.
I don’t understand why you ask this. Why wouldn’t someone you hire to work for you not be trusted? That’s kinda their job and all.
Because of “fan jealousy”.
They can do their job, but as you wrote above, a band fans could think that they bang with the bandman? So why do bandman choose woman to sell their merch?
Sure woman can do things too.
I do know bands where their fans have zero jealousy against the woman who sells the band merchandise.
So, what kind of relationship do usually those woman have with the band, which doesn’t make fans jealous?
Oh trust me, fans are jealous and not only in the VK scene. They even can get pissed at their bandomen for the female staff.
I would just guess now that these girls dont show their jealousness that open and rather go later on tanuki to talk shit about them.
For the bands I followed closely, I never felt jealousy against their female staff also nothing on Tanuki as well. Always only shit against other girls, but not the staff.
Sure woman can do their job good and there are more woman who might apply for the job. But I never really saw an independent band looking for “staff”, usually those woman already had a connection with one of the guys somehow?
My own guess is that it are usually, good friends or family, co-workers or staff from a vkei-CD store.
I can only talk about Alice Nine since I went to their gigs the most often. The main merch manager has been with them for at least over a decade. She left PSC with them. She’s also their unofficial photographer during tours. Everyone knows her. But yes, she’s also someone who’s clearly not a ‘threat’ due to her age. As for their bigger shows, temp/agency staff are hired and they can be a mix of men and women, most of them looked like uni students. It is somewhat different when the band itself is older and by extension, the fans.
I am actually interested in the “independent” bands without a (big) label management.
When a band signs up to a big enough label, I doubt people would see merch woman as a “threat”? Or are there even bigger bands where people are jealous on Merch staff and see them as a “threat”? I doubt even that Merch people are close to bands if a band is well known enough.
Well-known woman in the scene, graphic designer that worked on quite a few classics. Currently does designs for Marvelous Cruelty, for instance. She helped with merch at that event. Seems like it just makes sense to have someone that you know and in other cases - probably just because the scene is women-oriented in general so it’s easier to stumble upon one, be it in the crowd, or as a staff member.
Thanks, for pointing out this band
Seems to be also an older woman, so yes no threat to their fans.
But I also know that a bunch of bands have younger woman as their Merch sellers.
I only know who did sell for Calmando Qual, she worked at Closet Child in Harajuku.
I still do wonder who the woman is who sold Merch for The Nostradamz (I believe she graduated from it) and who sold for Tokami / Sarrmath (might she sells for GERTENA now) . Also The woman who sells for E.T. I never felt Jealousy from fans against them, everyone seemed to get along well.
Dumb answer based on what I know of jpop idol culture and show biz in general rather than vk but, isn’t that just because they have the “staff pass” ? Like staff everywhere often get closer to artists because they’re… staff. They have to, they’re hired to do that! Fans should be thankful that there’s staff because they wouldn’t have merch or lives otherwise! Lol! And hiring a “date” sounds like a hassle. I imagine there’d be breakups and scandals day in and day out even more than now so yeah basically I guess staff must be a trustworthy person - maybe friends from school, relatives, renowned professionals in the field, whatever, but a date doesn’t seem like … a wise choice, unless they’re going very steady and even then that doesn’t sound very smart. So I guess this is why staff have “staff pass” . Say, like fans are more likely to ship bandomen together than be jealous of them being close? Yeah.
But if they were to just hire any fan without any qualifications, pretty sure that other fans would be jealous and it wouldn’t be good for business. Since fans are all in the same “hierarchy level” at least theoretically in terms of how close they should be to bandomen (or idols in general) I guess this is where the bitchy rivalry and the whole “let’s not have the same oshi” thing comes from. Because then there would be the whole “why did he look at her and not at me?” etc. While for staff… well of course he would look at staff, it’s staff after all
Sometimes yall overseas make things all difficult but it is really simple this one too.
So basically you are looking for people interested enough in VK and having enough knowledge to be able to sell goods to the fans while understanding the system/culture:
your option is mainly going to be women.
To think they are girlfriends/mitsuge etc is a bit of a jump, if a bandman has a girlfriend 9 times out of 10 he won’t want them anywhere near fans or gigs. You basically want someone knowledgeable but not some menhera type, so kind of a nerdy fan type: those the kind of otaku lookin serious staff girls being a norm.
Have there been instances of staff getting close to bandmen that way? yah. look at Kozi’s wife being former mana staff. but that is a rarity.
But doing stuff with staff or having weird connections with staff is basically asking for trouble, don’t sh** where you eat, or however it is said.
Anyone who acts weird about women being staff is just top tier menhera sh*t and not worth the energy to even think about: go to some freakin’ session event to live out your host crap level stuffz : P
funnily enough a story I know of a band getting in trouble with management over doing too many things with staff was Alice Nine.
apparently in the early days back when our support drummer Tossy was doing the same events with them he saw how they were man whores with staff and was shocked.
But this is super rare, thus his shock, and upper management eventually getting super angry and setting it straight.
LOL that actually brought a smile to my face. As in, getting it on with staff member backstage?
I def don’t think of them as saints. It’s because I’m personally not attracted to them so every time I hear something along these lines my first reactions is always, really? Them? Girl do better. Even though Tanuki has shown us Tora’s, package and all.
yah we are not monks but just gotta be smart about things.
yeah def, some girls are def in it for those stonks. Had a girl who does stuff for some famous bands grab me in a headlock and tell me to lick her feet when she was drunk and was like “oh lord, yes, but no no no, we are not doing this. not worth it.” @__@;
just best to not have a girlfriend tbh , or just totally have it separate from vk: get a partner that hates vk haha
But is it any different for men … ? In other words: Pretty sure that some bandomen are in it for the pseudoidol/host life fun & bangin girls rather than the music particularly when it comes to vk and of course some girls probably become staff to get close to band members … this isn’t really different from the indie bands scenario elsewhere, is it?
But as a general rule, yeah that does seem like a hassle. And I was also thinking that when it comes to indie bands, sometimes staff are “ascended fans” who did a lot of work for free (like taking pictures or whatever) and knew a lot (and maybe even knew a lot of fans, are trusted by them etc) before they eventually got hired. Not sure how often this happens in vk specifically.
But of course I assume most band members would want to deal with professionals rather than troublesome girls to babysit … and all of this is why staff have ‘staff pass’ as I see it huh I would have thought of A9 as a rather professional band though so it comes to me as a surprise lol.
so yeah basically I guess staff must be a trustworthy person - maybe friends from school, relatives, renowned professionals in the field, whatever, but a date doesn’t seem like … a wise choice, unless they’re going very steady and even then that doesn’t sound very smart. So I guess this is why staff have “staff pass” . Say, like fans are more likely to ship bandomen together than be jealous of them being close? Yeah.
this one too.
I would have thought of A9 as a rather professional band though so it comes to me as a surprise lol.