March 12, 2008

At what cost, Stardom?

Alvinology said:

by2.jpg

This pair of twin sisters by the way, are the latest artistes to be rolled out by Ocean Butterflies International (ob-i), founded by famous local musician, Billy Koh (许环良). ob-i is also the recording company that successfully made JJ Lin (林俊杰) the big star he is now, in case you don’t know.

The twins were talent-spotted by ob-i from its music school when they were 13 years-old. Marked for stardom, they were sent to Taipei, Tokyo and Beijing for grooming for 6 months since June 2007, last year.

After taking time to read through their older blog entries today, I finally realised what was wrong - ob-i made the girls dropped out of secondary school to pursue a music career with them.

You can read what the girls have to say about this in their own words on their blog:

"We need to hand in our application to drop out of school to our form teacher today. However, ob-i requested us to keep the reason for dropping out a secret. Hence we were very frightened. We were worried our teacher will ask too many questions. We went to approach our teacher after school with a group of friends. We lied that we were dropping out in order to purse our studies overseas. With the help of our friends, our teacher did not discover we were lying."

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Recording company can like that one meh? Make 15 years-old girls quit school, lie to their teacher to pursue a singing career?"

Link

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on March 11//1:06am and published by mb, shianux :: 5499 reads | trackback (3)
Comments 19

Go for it!

Formal education can be pursued at a later stage. Formal education is only for corporate rats. Most impt thing for success is DRIVE and OPPORTUNITY.

They had been given a chance to PIA! Cheong Sua! GO GO GO.

Posted by Anonymous Coward* on 13 March, 2008 - 8:10am

Trackback from by2:

their original blog....

Wow~ You no know how much their 'lies' worth!
In music industry... in China, it is multimillions in a few years~!

Study so hard, jobless for many years can lah, where got better than singing? ^.^

Scope.

i TOTALI agree with Coward Actor!! these pple who still think that degree is everything~~ WAKE UP!! i hope "BY2" prove them wrong soon. and i mean real soon~~

Education today is overrated. I have a degree, but so what? As someone pointed out earlier, if you have drive and determination, and have what it takes to stand on your own two feet, a degree can be pursued later on in life.

Degrees are only sought after by corporations. Opportunities are harder to come by than degrees, and honestly, I cannot see how Maths Syllabus D, Physics/Chem/Bio are going to give them the financial opportunity to set themselves up for more important things in life, like further education, family, etc -- how they move forward after they have established themselves financially will depend on how mature they are in handling their acquired wealth and experience by then.

Trackback from Suzie Wong's Professional World:

As an (old) artiste myself, I applaud the parents for it. I know it does not sound right but really such opporuntities don't come by often or at all (I never had, that's why I'm still only a gig performer at some grand old age)....

Trackback from sky of love:

I've read their blog and they dress like ah lians which I find irritating. But nvm, they will get their makeover soon :D...

Berate the education system but mock those who don't get to complete their education.

Berate the lack of opportunity to make it big but mock those who get to pursue their dreams.

In Singapore where your childhood dreams turn into dust as you approach adulthood, instead, applaud those who have the courage to chase theirs.

Posted by Anonymous Coward* on 14 March, 2008 - 4:57am

I hope they do appreciate the full cost of stardom.
Coz they do not have anything to fall back on if it didn't work out for them.

and I hope they are pursuing their dreams, and not a misconception.

And for those who have a degree and things aren't working out for you, know that a degree is just an advantage. You still have to work hard to make it in the real world.

But I agree studying "Maths Syllabus D, Physics/Chem/Bio " is a total waste of time. I will just wink it, if the opportunities to become engineer or doctor comes along.
Otherwise I will just accept the opportunities to become a star or a millionaire to present itselves.

Posted by Anonymous Coward* on 14 March, 2008 - 9:42pm

Coz they do not have anything to fall back on if it didn't work out for them.

I'm sure they can become whores. Lots of men will pay big bucks for a threesome with a pair of twins.

Posted by full cost of whoredom* on 15 March, 2008 - 2:33am

Yes. But if you do not have the correct "manager" who have the correct contact
You will end up being just a $150 per session type of whore.

Posted by Anonymous Coward* on 15 March, 2008 - 11:26am

$300. Because there are 2 of them.

Posted by aaronkwok* on 15 March, 2008 - 12:24pm

Alvin Toffler, futurist and author have fundamental remarks about why our current education system is way out of synch with the times; that the current system is designed to bring industrial discipline to farm hands from the agriculture age. So everyone starts their education at the same age, go through same syllabus and the ultimate aim is to reach the same academic intellect of a university professor. Now, not everyone is the professor type nor profess to be one. Besides, not only teachers teach and we don't only learn from teachers.

I, for one, learn most of what I'm doing now on the job, from a mentor, rather than from the school. But without learning the basic (which I got from school), I doubt I would be able to understand my lessons.

Then I guess the argument would be for engineers to learn maths while doctors learn biology. But I became an engineer because maths works for me (not that I am exceptionally good at it or anything).

My point is that formal educations does the following
1) Prepares you for the lessons you may need to learn in the future
2) Expose you to a number of disciplines hoping one of them will stick.

Otherwise what will be an alternative. Help out in the field until we are old enough to go to the cities to meet somebody who can led us to our destiny?

Posted by Anonymous Coward* on 18 March, 2008 - 11:35pm

I can understand if you leave school at 17 and decide that "industrial discipline" is not for you. You can try pursuing something that you think you are good at. I guess at 17, you would have seen met enough people and seen enough things to imagine your life from there on.

But I'm not sure it is wise to close that door at 13, to chase after a chance that is not high to begin with. Do you even know what you are walking away from. Are you even aware of the dropout rate for a career path as this.

I'm not saying BY2 wouldn't be successful. I just think dropping out of school at 13, because you are exceptionally cute (at 13) and not tone deaf is wise. Would you still be exceptionally cute at 18?

Posted by Anonymous Coward* on 18 March, 2008 - 11:54pm

Michael Jackson didn't have school and look at what a happy well adjusted individual he is!

Posted by aaronkwok* on 19 March, 2008 - 11:35am

check out their new single at http://blog.omy.sg/by2/archives/155

it's not bad...

Posted by Anonymous Coward* on 20 March, 2008 - 11:34pm

Ironic that singaporeans have to go overseas to achieve success in the first place. if singapore had enough opportunities for those not academically inclined, they would have been able to pursue both their studies and dreams at home. as it is now both singapore and singaporeans are unable to appreciate local talent in singapore, imagine if they had participated in some stupid local reality dance competiton, would they be where they are now?

Posted by unbelievable* on 6 July, 2008 - 10:20am