What does "idol" refer to?

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Idol (Aidoru) has been a term used in America to refer to the stars of the American pop industry, but its usage has waned greatly, however, in Japan, the term is very commonplace, used to describe various musical artists, adult video (AV) starlets, bikini models (gravure idols), and actresses (many who are referred to as idols are also in the music industry). It is difficult sorting all the categories out, however, as crossovers are extremely commonplace. For the sake of simplicity, idols in this category will only include those not in the music industry or those who were once gravure or AV idols and later crossed over.

from wiki.theppn.org