IVE's BIGGEST MISTAKE FOR THE U.S PROMOTIONS.

So, if you haven't heard (which I'm sure you have, Starship hasn't shut up about this for months), IVE will be starting their U.S promotions for the second part of the year. Kakao has a partnership in the U.S with Columbia Records (some of their artists include Miley Cyrus, Lil Nas X, Beyonce, Mariah Carey, 1D, etc.), and together, Kakao and Columbia will be working together to promote IVE and Aespa (other artists too, but these two are the starters).

However, there are two HUGE mistakes that IVE should not make when starting U.S promotions. Hey Starship, I hope you have staff that frequent international forums because this one is for you.

#1 Do not - and I mean DO NOT - put out a track with unfamiliar or made English terms or phrases.

You would think this one would be common sense, but after Kitsch, I think this really needs to be emphasized. I know censorship was the reason the lyrics to Kitsch were changed, but replacing "90s Bitch" with "19s Kitch" was one of the silliest uses of censorship IVE seen next to shit 4kidz TV used to do with anime localizations. And while it cannot be said that this was 100% the reason Kitsch failed to do as well as I AM did internationally, the general populace will always be more likely to enjoy a song with lyrics in their native language that actually makes sense to them.

When Kitsch first came out, most of the reactions I saw were people trying to figure out what "19 Kitsch" even meant. This is understandable, considering "nineteen's Kitsch" doesn't even sound grammatically correct, and "Kitsch" is a German word seldom used in English. Even though Kitsch as a song does have an addicting beat and melody - of course the phrase "19's Kitsch" would have been hard to be catchy to native English speakers. "90's Bitch" at least would have had a chance to become a trendy sound byte on TikTok among locals whereas "90s Kitch" just didn't make sense.

Kitsch isn't even the first time Starship has done this sort of thing. With Eleven, there was a similar issue, albeit not as bad as with Kitsch. The phrase "1.2.3.4.5.6.7 you make me feel like 11" was kind of confusing for many. Even though my immediate thought was they meant on a scale of 1 out of 10, it's kind of hard to picture that because the lyrics aren't very clear. At some point, there was even some explanation brought up that meaning had something to do with baseball.

If you listen to the demo, however, you will see how much better Eleven would have sounded with the original English lyrics.

This is from the actual writer of the song.

And while I'm on the topic, I'd just like to use SuperM's Jopping as another example. While this song did ok-ish among Kpop fans, Jopping was never a song that would have garnered any interest among the general populace in the U.S. While they did explain the meaning in the song ("Jumping and popping = jopping), the whole thing sounded very corny. Let's just admit this as a collective, guys. People who usually come up with new cool phases "i.e YOLO, Munch, etc." Are usually people who already have a lot of clout and are native speakers of the language so their attempts to invent new lingo don't feel so cringe. It also doesn't help that SuperM was Kpop (and a boy band at that) so they were already stigmatized as cheesy without having done that to themselves.

lastly, there are the racist stereotypes about Asian people speaking broken or improper English, so throwing in made-up phrases or terms that have no natural meaning to native speakers is just another reason to avoid having that impression.

Of course, there will always be exceptions to nonsense language in music (I want it that Way by the backstreet boys, yeah ik), but why risk it? If you're going to do something, they you want to put your best foot forward and ensure you do everything possible to make it happen well.

If I'm being completely honest, I think the best thing they can do is to make as few changes as possible to the demos. Why? Because most of these demos are already made with the Western market in mind, so why go touching stuff unnecessarily?

#2 Good distribution.

The first part of this is already so long, so I will cut to the chase. Kakao had a shitty distribution deal for IVE. Instead of stocking the albums on shelves in actual stores like Walmart, Target, or Barnes and Noble, all they gave IVE was some obscure link on some make-shift-looking website to order albums on. Unless you were a hardcore fan, most people wouldn't have even known or bothered to use that link. When it comes to distribution, this time around, I hope Kakao is actually serious.

Okay, that's just about it.

End of rant.

Quote from hieuken

IVE's biggest mistake was SSE's incompetent promotion ability.

IVE is your biggest money maker, treat them like one.

the girls will be way bigger if they have some of the way ADOR promo right now.

I can't say I really disagree. If fact, this pretty much supports my point. All of New Jean's English lyrics or phrases make sense in their songs, and they are catchy. You could say it's because most of the members speak and understand English, but that has never stopped a K-pop company before. If anything, it shows Min Hee-Jin's attention to detail and diligence in promoting her group to the West. I seriously doubt had Kitsch been given to New Jeans we would have ended up with a phrase like "19s Kitsch".

But yeah, Starship sucks at their job which is why I am making a thread like this. Though the chances are slim to none, I hope to raise more discussion about this topic in hopes by some miracle it might spread and eventually make it's way to Starship's front door so we don't end up with something that will not connect with Western audiences. News Jeans and Cupid are good examples of why it's important to put out music that is actually palatable to the listeners.

Quote from hieuken

I mean what I said, I mean you have WY, who doing some random Tiktok video and has like 5M likes and they don't know how use that power to promo theirs song

This too. I've never seen such a fumble in my life. If pushed properly, Wonyoung would literally be an ace for Western promotions. It may have be for health reasons, but I've noticed since Wonyoung has been side-lined, internationally IVE seems to have slowed down a bit.

Quote from wsoet

Would it have been better to release an "explicit" and a "clean" version like with Jungkook's latest song?

But yes, I agree in general, and still don't quite know what "nineteen's kitsch" is supposed to mean.

I guess for a Kpop group, especially with lots of fans "bitch" is pretty explicit, so maybe releasing two versions would have been best. Though, that would likely mean splitting streaming numbers, it would have probably helped bring in more listeners in the long run. Or maybe the solution would have just been to release the Korean version and an English version with the explicit lyrics. That way both domestic and international audiences get what they want.

Quote from BlackpinkHouse

Although i honestly never even noticed the difference between 19s and 90s, (i always sang it 90s), i do agree w your general point.

I've been ranting about it for years now.

It's not 1992 anymore. The bigger Kpop labels that arent run by 4 dudes in some basement somewhere CANNOT KEEP SCREWING UP BASIC ENGLISH anymore. JYP, Hybe, YG, SM, Starshit, Cube, and RBW. There is no excuse for any of these top tier labels to not clean up their English from this moment on.

I can accept poor idols who struggle with strong Korean accents trying to pronounce English.

I can understand minor flubs here and there in terms of diction/syntax/slang/hipness, even English speakers in Korea may not be hip to the very latest in English trends here in the US.

But there are no more excuses now when it comes to basic English. And tbh, it's an EFFING SIMPLE ASS THING to get someone to review your English lyrics. There are a probably a MILLION people in Korea that can help you. There are dozens of idols that grew up in the US, Canada, or in Australia or UK that could help you.

Hell, ive advertised my services many times on here, i'm offering free reviews from someone who finished in the top 2 percent on his SATs for English . And who grew up at a time when English was spoken properly .

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This is what I've always thought too. There really is not excuse. Hiring someone who speaks and understands English is a simple matter. Plus, there are many foreigners in Korea who'd probably love the employment opportunity. I only hope that this partnership with Columbia isn't only in name and that Columbia actually sends their producers over to help them pick out good songs actually fit for the market and to do a quality check on the final result.

Also, your SAT score placent is amazing.