What happens when you take model level visuals, plenty of vocal talent, and pre existing fame and mix them all together? A kpop girl group!
Now what would you get if you made sure to add in midlevel music production and lowtier management?
I believe this was a fluke we can not forget about because this group had a LOT more working against it than most, and all of those issues lay dormant in HYBE entertainment (and somewhat active if you pay attention to Fromis_9 promos)
Predebut, PLEDIS GIRLZ
off the bat they have strong vocals, visuals, dance skills and rap skills. They have an individualized look as a group that is cohesive and very clearly inspired by western media. Theyre being promoted to be using strong concepts already. Their other covers thus far are of Adore U by Seventeen (male choreo for a girl group always comes off strong) and BANG by Afterschool.
We’re also given an official predebut in WE
You can see the school concept and the outfits they are going to wear in their debut even. Even this softer concept is marked by its stronger rap and its clean instrumental that keeps a pretty tight flow throughout without much beat switch other than the end post bridge.
Nayoung and Kyulkyung/Jieqiong both place in IOI and become superstars pretty much overnight, with Xiyeon placing JUST out of the group, lending her some recognizability immediately as well.
IOI becomes THE girl group
This Gee-esque beat is infectious no matter shat era, but this song was massive. Like insanely well received and singlehandedly made IOI the most popular girl group at the time of release, giving all of the follow up girl groups a strong jumping off point.
Unfortunately, this also signaled to Pledis that the world wants cute and noisey from a girl group because they chose this for the girls:
Debut
JO WA HE, NAN CHOAHE.
Weewooweewoo wee
Its jarring that the song is so cute throughout, then the prechorus is like making a girl crush statement with strange lyrics, and then the chorus is just essentially onomatopoeia. We Like as a follow up is essentially exactly the same
“We like Dududududu
You like dududududu”
And my question is… why? Why test the waters so heavily for Pristin pre debut and then just throw it away in the moment to recreate IOI?? They didnt even need to do that because they literally already had this waiting to be released, and luckily it was, for their much more successful sub unit
This subunit was created as more of a distraction for fans because EVERYBODY hated pledis by now. Behind the scenes from music and front facing was Kyla, a 16 year old american-korean girl who was being constantly eviscerated for being fat by knetz online, and at the same time Pledis was pretty disliked universally for their handling of Kyla being hated AND of her being able to gain weight.
How did they handle it? Put Kyla and by extension PRISTIN on hold. And hold.
And hold
And hold
And now here we are.
