Will KPop ever have someone with the determination of IU in the next 50 years?

  • In early 20th century, a bunch of eminent historians and writers (including Winston Churchill, who wrote about Cavalry saving the CSA during the battle of Gettysburg) were asked to write about what would have occurred if history went otherwise. The eminent British historian G. M. Trevelyan, whose grandpa was awarded a Baronet for conducting the 1845 Irish famine, was asked to write an essay on what would have occurred if Napoleon won at Waterloo.


    That is like asking a Korean to write about what would have happened if the Japanese won World War 2 in Pacific.


    Obviously he was not too happy to write about it, so he just listed a bunch of things which would not have happened if Napoleon won at Waterloo , in other words the real history up to the time when Trevelyan wrote the essay, and finished the piece with Napoleon's death in 1836 , 15 years after history, without saying much about what he did in the meantime.


    ===


    Today is 10th anniversary of the revelation of IU's most famous, important and enduring photograph and Lee Jieun, as if nobody is remembering that momentous event which might have saved KPop from its biggest foe, released an announcement about her season's greeting to Uaenas.


    At that time a lot of people were expecting that they saw the end of the last vocalist in Korean Pop, once for all, and KPop finally left the vocalist era behind once for all.


    Rather than recounting the impact of the well known photograph again, which you can search if you feel like, I will instead retell the story of Lee Jieun's impact against KPop.


    No one had the iron determination to destroy KPop and make things go back to the early 1990s, when vocals were strong and groups were non-entities, as strong as IU in history.


    She had the backup of Loen (later Kakao) and was backed by the Melon digital music seller, so she could fight as long as she felt like.


    However, no one thought her determination to see Kpop die was so strong. They did not expect her to fight for 12 years; but that happened.


    And each year, her determination to bring KPop to its knees and restore it to its old, isolationist and backward self, only grew in a very virulent way.


    At 2021, with BTS having conquered the world, her dream of subjugating KPop and making it return to its old way as if nothing happened at all was farther than ever.


    But, events from Jun to Oct 2022 occurred, and IU is now the last one standing, along with a bunch of 4th Generation acts which are still green between the ears.


    She is the only remaining active singer who has had a full scale concert in Korea's biggest venue , giving her a strength over everyone else which is going to be extremely hard to overcome. Name an act who might sell 2,000,000 copies or have concerts in stadiums other than K-O-R-E-A, but the K-O-R-E-A-N-S will continue to say that they have to beat Lee Jieun's record in K-O-R-E-A and won't be impressed.


    In other words, her very presence now presents an enormous burden over any new acts coming up.


    It didn't have to be that way - the whole thing could have ended in a day exactly 10 years before today.


    Her presence in Korea led every act originating from there a need to watch their backs, and now every act has submitted to her presence, gives her an unparalleled power not seen since Cho Yongpil about 30 years ago; she is basically the only 2nd Gen singer still influential enough, which makes all other acts having to listen to her.


    The wisdom of all the KPop companies to tolerate someone who is determined to destroy KPop over all these years has to be questioned. Because there were no serious attempt to check her, her influence only grew, big enough now to turn all gains of KPop go nought.

  • If she had been caught in that photograph with a top visual who had a cold, haughty personality it would've been different, but she was caught with a cute guy with a nice personality. It gave male fans hope and won the admiration of people who put personality on a pedestal.

    BUz1JbI.jpg

    "And they escorted her to a prison cell..."



    J7m1itJm.jpg

  • Happy anniversary WhyKnock


    This is the anniversary of the day when Whyknock an ELF who loved anchovy, was angered into becoming an orc. Or maybe an orc into a Elf, it is all a matter of perspective.


    But anyway more than birthdays, relationship milestones, professional milestones - this is the anniversary which has had the most impact on Whyknock's life.


    And I personally think is a major reason for IU never falling from her immense superstardom.


    Every time a new group debuts with great fanfare or achieves international fame, YK hopes for the demise of IU's career, but probably because of that IU achieves even more fame.

    From Bigbang to Enhyphen

    From SNSD to IVE

    All have come, many have gone - but Whyknock has little satisfaction in this cause, few crumbs here and there - Laboum?


    To paraphrase Spock - "Hate Long and Despair", for another 1343 years of Senior Singer ruling the charts.

  • If she had been caught in that photograph with a top visual who had a cold, haughty personality it would've been different, but she was caught with a cute guy with a nice personality. It gave male fans hope and won the admiration of people who put personality on a pedestal.

    poor eunhyuk gained nothing from that

  • poor eunhyuk gained nothing from that

    Hmmm... that depends on 'gain' - but let's leave personal stuff apart.


    SuJu was already on downhill by 2012, and he was not the most popular member of SuJu either. So apart from fans going crazy for some time (Which anyway happens every few months over something or other), it did not have any longstanding impact on him.


    I subscribe to the theory that it was a planned stunt.


    For IU,

    In an TV show just a week or so before, the Senior Singer was talking about watching porn and relationships etc., (the show also had Ga In and Suzy)

    She had been repeatedly talked about her dislike of being cast into the pure, innocent younger sister image.


    With the photo upload, she perfectly destroyed that image and then her creative control on her career grew by bounds and leaps. She took a massive risk, but it paid off.


    For Eunhyuk,

    Maybe he wanted some controversy to boost his flagging career, and took the same risk. But that did not happen for him. So no gain, but no particular loss either.


    Of course segments of ELFs believe that he was innocent and the slyfox outfoxed him. But I doubt that, because IU remains on good terms with other SuJu members, like Heechul and has a generally a good reputation.


    So either it was truly an accident or it was a calculated move, which worked for IU very well, but meh for Eunhyuk.

  • Pls don't drag Eunhyuk into this. He loves being in Super Junior and loves performing. He said this was the hardest thing that ever happened to him and because of the immense hate he got from this, he, for the first time in his life, thought about ending his career. Luckily he got over this.

    A masterpiece.

    External Content youtu.be
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.

  • I don't celebrate any personal days, for reasons I prefer not to disclose in a public forum like this.


    What happened on 11/10/2012 did have a big impact on my posting history since if Lee Jieun had faded away I would have faded away from KPop forums long ago .


    Given that KPop could have advanced significantly more than what it actually ended up, and given Lee Jieun had played a very significant role on stopping its success, I have to say that although my struggle would probably end futile, I can say that there was at least one person who did tell the world about the enormous damages she caused to the advancement of KPop to the rest of the world.

  • Pls don't drag Eunhyuk into this. He loves being in Super Junior and loves performing. He said this was the hardest thing that ever happened to him and because of the immense hate he got from this, he, for the first time in his life, thought about ending his career. Luckily he got over this.

    It is speculation and the immense hate is typical net-lynch mob mentality - whatever be the truth of it, such hate is undeserved.


    But fine and good that he got over it.

  • I don't celebrate any personal days, for reasons I prefer not to disclose in a public forum like this.


    What happened on 11/10/2012 did have a big impact on my posting history since if Lee Jieun had faded away I would have faded away from KPop forums long ago .


    Given that KPop could have advanced significantly more than what it actually ended up, and given Lee Jieun had played a very significant role on stopping its success, I have to say that although my struggle would probably end futile, I can say that there was at least one person who did tell the world about the enormous damages she caused to the advancement of KPop to the rest of the world.

    If IU retarded Kpop from its full potential success, then you can claim that you retarded the retardation by IU.

    That is like claiming "installed brakes on a flying pig"

  • IU TV has posted the BTScenes of Day 2 of the concert.

    And there were a bunch of Elementary Schoolers in the audience, seems "Drama" is a hit with them.


    And IU is calling them "Her future" and inviting them to her concerts in another 10 years.


    I also hope that Nov 2032, WhyKnock still will be writing about how Kpop needs to be saved from IU.


    pasted-from-clipboard.png

  • Her concert is the culmination of her efforts to undermine kpop. I wrote this piece yesterday so I will wait till tomorrow to discuss the significance of the concert's events, virtually all of them negative as usual.

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!