Cover image: https://www.pixiv.net/artworks/83202734
Why the barbecue stopped
Of course, there are reasons like being busy and having no time for barbecuing, but the main reason is that I have lost my passion for this group.
I previously told cyana to take over the group (but in the end, I realized that we had different understandings of this matter), and I have become somewhat averse to barbecuing for these people. The audience seems to not care much about how well these people write songs. In the past two years, not many of these members have shown interest in serious doujin activities. Those hardworking individuals from before could release forty to fifty songs a year, but now...
If I say too much, it will lead to criticizing tanoc, so let's leave it at that.
Why return to barbecuing
On one hand, this group has almost come to a standstill without me. Leaving the barbecue group I created gives me a sense of irresponsibility.
On the other hand, in the past few days, through the Abstract Music Awards, I have had in-depth exchanges with many different fans and discovered that not everyone is indifferent; rather, there are more serious issues.
The rift in the enthusiast community
I don't know how each of you got into doujin music, but for me, around 2012, I started listening to doujin music through Touhou, which gradually led me to tanoc and then to doujin music. Counting from then until today, it's been nearly ten years. Ten years ago, were there relevant discussion circles in the country? Yes, but they mostly only discussed Touhou doujin music. It wasn't until around 2014-2015 that people began to organize enthusiast exchanges for original Japanese doujin music. Back then, the main way for everyone to learn about this music was through their own exploration. The situation at that time was actually quite similar to now, where audiences generally came from secondary creation doujin music or music games from the 573 series. However, at that time, the spontaneous enthusiasm among these two groups was very high, so everyone was willing to learn about these things on their own. In recent years, people have become less enthusiastic about spontaneously understanding these matters.
On one hand, those who were once active on the front lines have gradually settled down and started families, leading their own lives. On the other hand, new enthusiasts generally do not have the habit of exploring historical and background information. For previous enthusiasts, they could investigate and browse various corners of the internet, whether active or inactive websites. Now, for many people, even downloading an additional streaming app is a significant challenge. This is normal; most entertainment methods on the internet have a low threshold, and time is relatively more precious than a few years ago. Listening to a song doesn't require spending so much time understanding the story behind the music. Thus, for those who have been exposed to doujin music culture at different times, there is a lot of information that is unequal, and even the appreciation of this matter can be completely different.
For example, regarding members like tanoc, my impression of them is still based on their music, such as t+pazolite, who has been highly praised by Jason Forrest, and kobaryo, seen as the future voice of speedcore.
However, for many current enthusiasts, tpz might be seen as a crazy, powerful sound game composer, while kobaryo might be viewed as a talented artist and songwriter with many aliases.
Even for the same individuals, our perceptions of them can be completely different. Furthermore, many people indeed view these individuals as idols rather than music creators.
This leads to a situation in abstract music appreciation where many believe that our evaluations of the music reflect our evaluations of the individuals, which ultimately boils down to the difference between considering oneself an enthusiast or a fan.
However, through these days of communication, I found that new enthusiasts are not unwilling to understand; they simply lack a way and means to delve deeper. It is also difficult to feel the "doujin" value of this activity. Most people can only watch Bilibili for popular science (some of which are grossly incorrect, or just reciting a few songs and reading from Wikipedia), check out playlists on NetEase Cloud (which are even more erroneous, with many having fundamental issues), and occasionally browse Twitter. Only a small portion of people can achieve this. Therefore, the lack of channels to understand has become the biggest obstacle for most new enthusiasts joining doujin music.
What to do in the future
I want to do more popular science on doujin music culture to help more people understand this aspect. This period has also made me reflect on why I have done so much, from writing articles, translating barbecues, to engaging in discussions, etc. I gradually realized that spreading doujin music culture might truly be something I can strive for.
Having been in the doujin scene for nearly ten years, I only started communicating with enthusiasts in recent years and truly experienced what real doujin culture is. Now, I want to spread the warmth and joy I have felt to more people, allowing everyone to accept this concept and experience what it means to do what they truly want to do and communicate with others who share the same interests.
Most of the people I have interacted with in the past few days have shown that as long as you approach them with a friendly attitude, they will reciprocate with the same mindset. This has convinced me that as long as there is a good way to communicate and obtain information, everyone can understand each other well, and building our own doujin music scene is not an impossible task.