Things seem a bit quiet on this forum at the moment, so just to be nosy I was browsing through the members section and sorted it by "age." Clicking at random on some of the profiles with a lot of posts I was struck by the fact that some hadn't posted or visited in quite a long time. I think I saw one where the person said something about making a change, but mostly their last post was something ordinary like "oh, I really like that song ..." then, nothing. It's like your friend said they were running out to the store but then never came back. I realize there's no big mystery to this, things change, people get busy, they move on. Still, it seemed a little "bitter chocolate." The ones with thousands of posts were the ones I noticed, since presumably the band meant a lot to them at least for a time. The nature of the internet I guess.

Just a small thought. .deli.

@mbowie4321

Yes I have been here a long time and I miss some of those old faces, but I still have many of them on facebook.
Like you say, people's tastes change and other people move on, many I know did not have time for SH any more once they started college or University, but that does not mean they stopped liking SCANDAL as well.

I will probably be here until they throw me out

I am involved with several AKB48 fangroups and it is just the same there.

Well, Since the Guilty Eyes which I have seen from searching a lot of Scandal lyrics on the internet is an actual member, a pioneer in here maybe is the more appropriate word. I would like to know if the name Astoria is also a member? I can use the search function but I'd like to ask the same.

tonymiller wrote:Like you say, people's tastes change and other people move on, many I know did not have time for SH any more once they started college or University, but that does not mean they stopped liking SCANDAL as well.

Yes, I'm sure they still like SCANDAL, and many of them probably intended to come back at some point. I think in life people rarely know their "last ever" is going to be their last ever. Maybe when you move you look around your apartment or house and think "this is the last time I'll see this" but often you don't.

I stumbled on a fun blog called Nia's Wonderland mostly about idol groups but she'd written reviews of SCANDAL, too. She stopped writing abruptly in 2015, and I see from comments that people in 2017 wondered where she went. Here's an interesting quote from an article about blogs that go silent, "The Japanese have a word for blogs that have fallen into neglect or are altogether abandoned: ishikoro, or pebbles. We live in a world of pebbles now. They litter the internet, each one a marker of writing dreams and energies that have dissipated or moved elsewhere." At their best, I think forums are a bit like blogs in that people write, respond, share an interest and make (maybe) some virtual friends. Although "goodbye" can be a sad word, it has a closure I think we all long for.

Anyway, glad you are still making your voice heard.

Interaction on SNS is some times easier especially during work
Its end of the year, so people are probably busy winding down with work/study etc.

Whenever I do meet non Japanese at Feedback! etc. I do try and ask if they are from SH, so I have meet quiet a few of you now, holler me if you guys want :D
I've meet up with loads of Fans in Hong Kong a couple of months ago, I will be in Blightly in Feb wink wink.

Also of course there are several SCANDAL fangroups on facebook these days, but you can belong to both of course.

You're at the Feedback Shop Mr. Wildthing?

I joined back in 2012, gosh it seems like a lifetime ago. A lot of the people who used to be on here aren't here anymore. There's several members I remember, Golden Arms (how we used to argue about our Kojiharu fandom), Ceej! are just to name a few. 

There's also a lot of unfinished SCANDAL stories on here too. I remember how we all used to look forward to everyone's new updates of stories every week. Wonderful times. Now i think most people have moved to Wattpad as there is more readers. I myself have stopped writing Fanfiction and moved onto TV Show scripts as I currently have a station who is interested in my work.

I'm guessing they joined Facebook or other social networks and forgot about their accounts on here. It happens.

tonymiller wrote:Like you say, people's tastes change and other people move on, many I know did not have time for SH any more once they started college or University, but that does not mean they stopped liking SCANDAL as well.

I just met someone who was an ardent Scandal fan back in the early 2010s (ardent to the point she'd buy all editions of their merch and bring placards to their concerts) and took the opportunity to ask her where she disappeared to.

She explained that when she and her circle of friends were teens they were very attracted by Scandal's "idol" image, but as Scandal grew out of that image they lost interest and moved on to other idol groups instead.

So... it actually IS possible for fans to stop liking Scandal altogether, and for very simple reasons too. It's sad but also inevitable that as Scandal evolves they will gain/lose fans accordingly. Just hope they'll always gain more than they lose  

@Steadystate

But remember SCANDAL say they are not idols, but they have dressed in a very similar way to idols at times

All groups have to grow older and evolve but I think SCANDAL will be fine as they are not just pretty girls but also excellent musicians, I am a huge Japanese idol fan but I have never stopped liking SCANDAL and I am always curious to see what they will do next.

The Rolling Stones are in their 70's now and they are still playing and in Japan Shonen Knife are still going even though the founder Naoko Yamano is 59 now, so SCANDAL have years to go.

This is an interesting topic. Why do people become fans? Music obviously plays a big part, but it's evident there are other things involved, like looks and image. The image of spunky high school girls playing rock surely attracted lots of teenagers, all thinking "oh that's so cool, I want to do that."  I think a lot of those people end up changing their minds, and get day jobs or whatever, with their Fender copies gathering dust in the corner. And teens in love with a particular member end up dating or marrying someone "real", someone they relate to as a peer. 
And musical tastes can change as well. I had terrible taste in music, no really. I thought Grand Funk Railroad was cool. So having people drop off is kinda disappointing, but I guess it shouldn't be surprising. The good news is that people keep signing up to be Scandal Heaven members, like I did. Sure I weep bitter tears that I wasn't here from the beginning to witness firsthand the astonishing progress they made, but I'm happy those years are so well documented here and on YouTube, etc. Looking at the Queens are Trumps album cover, you'd never guess what happened next.

Well I am old and I bought my first record in 1959 "Smoke gets in your eyes" by the The Platters so I have experienced a huge range of music and it is still very important to me.

Then in 1980 I loved that TV Series "Shogun" and it made me want to know all about Japan and their many kinds of music.
Way back at the beginning I saw a tiny advert for SCANDAL in my daughter's Aime News and I thought they were a live action version of K-On

It was just sheer luck I saw the advert, I was also lucky enough to spot my beloved AKB48 way back in 2005

ppl come and go also its hard to keep track of band in japan.. tho i still come and check casually to see if they released new material here and there but i pretty much become casual listener of them now.. every now and then will be new band, group, or idol and keep me distracted XD

strawhatcrew wrote:every now and then will be new band, group, or idol and keep me distracted XD

Yes I think this happens to all of us lol. 

Realistically every person only has that much time and effort to dedicate to their "fandoms". Over the last 15 years it has become so easy to discover new artistes and gain access to their entire discography that it's much harder for your favourite artistes, to, well, stay your favourite. 

Scandal may be my favourite band but there are also times I lose touch with them because I'm distracted by other artistes, especially during the periods they are not putting out any new material. 

But one thing I know for sure, I'll always come back to them.
.chesttap.

I may be wrong, just a guess from my own experience. When you are young, you clearly have more time, more passionate about everything and therefore dedicate a lot of time to the fanclub and other activities. With time you happen to be loaded up with work, family activities and there is just no time and power left...

The same happened to me when I was very active in some other bands' fan groups in social media. I just somehow became less interested in social media interaction with years, but I never stopped listening to these bands actually.

i really love the old school forum format though. I may not post a lot, but really enjoy to read a forum from time to time. I am glad the admins still have the passion to keep the place going!

@streame

There I agree with you 100%

I'm someone who used to post here a couple times a day and have fallen off to maybe once a month recently (if that). But the funny thing is, look at the date of the first post in this thread. It was 3 years ago, someone resurrected the thread, and now people are still talking about others dropping off. It's something that just happens. At the same time, I have seen a lot of new people here, or at least people I don't remember seeing before, when I used to read and post a lot. So it's mostly just the cycle of life.

For me the lack of visits and posts has been a combination of things. The biggest is honestly probably COVID, because Scandal, like everyone else and despite obviously trying really hard, just haven't been doing as much as they were doing in years past. To be honest, their slowing down even before COVID - and most of this was just business stuff before that - has made it a little harder for me to maintain the level of excitement about them that I used to have basically all the time. In those earlier years, there was almost never a time when *something* new hadn't just come out and something else wasn't already announced as coming out within the next few weeks or months. And there'd be TV appearances, tours, and all sorts of other stuff happening in between. I mean, they were prolific, and they got a lot of marketing push for a while.

There's just less tangible stuff to talk about now. Yeah, there have been a few things, and of course I'm still buying everything they put out and I'm sure I've made a comment on all their recent releases here. I know they have little videos they make for YouTube or whatever too. But the momentum they used to have hasn't really been there lately - though again, this is not under their control. I've had a hard time maintaining excitement about *any* band lately. It's not as if I replaced Scandal with someone else.

And to be *totally* honest, I did like the image they had better when they were younger. The contrast between how they looked and how they played was one of the coolest things about them to me; that was very unique. And let's face it, a lot of what they did wasn't unpleasant watch. I feel like they've gone a little deep into mom jeans territory lately. Their music is still great, and they'll always be a great live band, but there's not really any more "I can't wait to see what they look like in their next video!" or whatever, for me. It's really just about the music now, which is probably intentional on their part, but they were really a lot more of a visual band for a while and my *favorite* bands are those that mix both. (Though I certainly *like* plenty of bands that have basically no image at all.)

Lastly, I used to go to Japan a lot (hopefully will start again at some point), and I managed to see them on those trips something like 4 years in a row. That goes a long way to maintaining excitement. But it's been a couple years now since I last saw them (in NYC) and combined with not having been to Japan in a few years either, I don't feel that immediate connection to them that I used to feel.

Anyway, so this is probably my one post for this month. I'll keep checking back in, though, to see what's going on. Sometimes I do see stuff here that I didn't even know was happening. But I do admit to being not quite as obsessed with them as I once was.

After reading the last few comments, I have the opposite opinion about loss of interest. In the past, I wasn't interested them so much.  I listened albums, but just like many other rock band, nothing more. It took me some time to listened all their stuff and become interested. The last 3 or 4 years, I started to follow them more closely. Mostly because of the music, when they starting to write almost all of their songs themselves. They always come up with something new and creative. The last albums and songs very good for me.

I've been a member of SH Forums since the summer of 2014. I've observed my fellas from SH Philippines come and go for various reasons such as raising a family, concentrating on their careers or studies, managing their respective FB Groups full-time (which I'm no longer interested in joining), loss of interest, and sometimes the worst-case scenario: Leaving because of envy of not having enough SCANDAL merchandise.

Anyway, I'm still active and sometimes lurking around because I'm more comfortable with the people here.

Well, I've been gone for a little over a year, but it wasn't intentional. I had a couple of bad things happen real close together that nearly took me out for good.

I fell off a ladder at work and got pretty banged up. Thought that was bad, but about ten days later, my doc called and said I had very high blood pressure and to get in ASAP. The next day, I was getting ready for the Dr's appointment and started feeling bad. Decided to go to the E.R. instead. 

About halfway there, I had a stroke. Made it to the hospital and passed out in the parking lot. Woke up two weeks later in another hospital, and my whole right side was paralyzed. I've got double vision and still no feeling on the right side from my chest up. A few other issues, but maybe it'll resolve itself eventually. God only knows.

Anyway, it seems I'll have to take a medical retirement. Also looks like the Dallas show is off my schedule, which hurts immensely.

@USAadoresU

Damn, I am sorry to hear that, I am 71 now but lucky enough to have good health and still a big SCANDAL fan.