Would aespa be where it is now if it attended the Melon Awards 2021?

In the Korean Kingdom of Shilla, around 800 CE, the reigning king died without a heir and two nobles began to fight for the throne.

Kim Joowon was descended from the previous dynasty, and the competition, Kim Kyungshin, was only very distantly related so Joowon had a higher claim.

However, KS lived near the Palace, which was south of a river, while Joowon lived north of the river.

And there was a big flood, and Joowon could not cross the river, so the nobles, waiting for a few days, put KS to the throne.

KS's descendants ruled Shilla till the dynasty ended, while Joowon's descendants, after a bunch of turns and twists, had to hide behind a bunch of mountains, and called themselves the Kangnung Kim clan.

A famous son of the Kangnung Kim clan is a Kim Namjoon, better known as RM, but most Kims claim descent from KS Kim, or the Kimhae Kim clan from an unrelated branch.

Moral: If you want to become the King, live closer to the Palace.

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aespa attended the 2021 Thanksgiving parade in New York , when it was known to very few Americans.

aespa has no member with ties to USA or other English speaking countries, and I don't know why SM decided to showcase aespa in NYC at that point of their career.

At that time the covid thing was still going around, and they had to quarantine for 2 weeks.

As a result, they were UNABLE to attend the Melon Music Awards since Thanksgiving 2021 was on Nov 25, 2021, which means aespa members returned to Korea after that while the award took place on Dec 04, less than 2 weeks of mandatory quarantine.

With BTS in USA doing the concert in Los Angeles, both candidates for Grand Prizes were going to miss the Melon Music Awards.

Normally MMA tries to avoid giving Grand Prizes to IU, who was NOT even part of KakaoM at that time (she owned her own company back then).

However, with both candidates not showing up at MMA, it called the owner of Edam Entertainment who decided to show up.

She showed up, grabbed the Album Award, and also grabbed the Artist of year Award which would have been aespa's if they could show up.

If aesoa were there it would have received it. MMA gave IU nothing back in 2019 and 2020 so it would have given the owner of Edam Entertainment nothing , especially when she was now the owner of another company.

So aespa was not able to show themselves receiving a Grand Prize, and lord over all the newer acts (IVE already debuted by that point of time), and show itself to the entire global fans who had to endure the sight of the 1,342 years old with 14 years in the industry.

A lot of things would have changed if aespa received the Grand Prize.

As the first to receive a Grand Prize among the 4th gen, its status as a pioneer would have been secure.

Also it would have been seen as a primary competition against BTS, unlike the 1,342 years old who was not really important outside of Korea.

Instead aespa lost its chance to shine in front of the entire world and is at a spot I don't have to remind you again.

Quote from ellenote

IU stole Aespa's award confirmed.

Yes, she did. Without impunity.

Quote from Kreatin

Hate to correct an entertaining thread but..

Aespa were not anywhere close to IUs digitals (award is 60% digital sales on melon), the only one that had a chance at beating her was BTS depending on the outcome of the jury votes

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As for 2019 and 2020, melon for some reason didnt think november 2019 existed as the month was not eligble for 2019 nor the 2020 mma award show, meaning any song released in november 2019 could not even be nominated, so love poem album was simply excluded.

She did not win multiple Grand Prizes from Melon in 2011, 2014 and 2017 since it would be like eating the seed corn. She would have won at least 2 awards from all of them, but MMA chose not to do that.

Also, there was an unwritten rule that the Artist Award cannot be won non-consecutively. Consecutive wins were allowed but no non consecutive wins.

MMA bent several rules to allow Lee Jieun to win a non-consecutive Artist of Year Award and also the album of year award. If aespa could show up, they would just not publish the numbers and allow aespa to win the Artist and Record of the year award, and Lee Jieun would have stayed home.

The numbers were released to placate angry BTS fans, since this was the first real Grand Prize lost from them since 2019, but if aespa showed up they would have given a different number.

They allowed Lim Youngwoong to win in 2022 because since the big names would be in MAMA they would just appeal to the trot fans. But probably not in 2023.

Quote from randkpopstan

Whyknock is spot on, aespa should have lived closer to the palace for at least 2 years instead of seeking the american market while still being a rookie without a dominion of the local market yet, twice put enough attention to the korean market during their first years to the point that despite other girl groups hitting big each of those years they continued a complete dominance of korean market until jyp straight up gave up promoting on that market. One of the few correct things jyp did was the progression of twice from korea > japan > america, and that's what lot of kpop acts lack nowadays.

Ive huge 3 first singles, Gidle ascension to the top girl groups, le sserafim convoluted but appealing debut to international fans and newjeans shocking mega debut took SM by storm while they had aespa focused appealing to the US market, all of them affected aespa position on the long run. Kpop's american dream is a dream too attractive but is also very risky.

While Next Level was a huge hit. in Korea it was overshadowed b y Rollin of Brave Girls, and also Lee Jieun's repeated assaults.

And aespa's follow up song, Savage, was a bit weaker than Next Level and it was defeated by Lee Jieun's Strawberry Moon.

With newer acts coming up. I think aespa should at least have made a comeback in the first half of 2022 to show its power to the newer acts but it did nothing.

I understand that SM was in a turmoil back then, but aespa not doing anything at the crucial months led others to sail past them.

It is a repeat of Wonder Girls vs SNSD. And , given that it was SM which was able to strike back, I am amazed SM allowed this to happen to one of its acts, but then Mr; Sooman Lee was always for the boy groups only.