Economics - Research Publications

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http://hdl.handle.net/11343/417

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Buying intimacy: proximity and exchange at a Japanese rock concert

Stevens, Carolyn S. (State University of New York Press, 2004)

This chapter is concerned with consumer behaviors and emotional experiences of fans of the Japanese rock group, the Alfee. The consumption of goods, information and experiences (through the live concert) is examined, and I found that a strong sense of "gift" in the anthropological sense underlies their experience of fandom. Receiving this gift prompts some fans to return the favor by sending objects or letters to the stars, creating a circular movement of capital, objects and afect between fans and stars. These transactions reveal the dynamics of a perceived personal relationship between fan and star. Fans can gain proximity through the accumulation of objects, as a kind of emotional capital.
'Love Never Dies': romance and Christian symbolism in a Japanese rock video

Stevens, Carolyn S. (RoutledgeCurzon, 2004)

This chapter examines the use of Christian symbolism in a Japanese rock music video by the group The Alfee. Christian icons are used to convey a perceived modern version of romance. Modernity is set in an indeterminate past, conflating the traditional and the modern into one visual concept that exists. The present and future encased in the past questions the notion of modernity (and postmodernity) in Japan as something necessarily sequential. It also argues that Christianity's secular presence in Japan allows its symbols to be freely manipulated and adapted in contemporary popular culture.