Melon Music Awards sends IU to the retirement home - the final end of the 2nd Generation

Aespa was given 3 Grand Prizes, and Gidle was thrown a bone.

MMA was the only Grand Prize (it was not considered to be a major award until 2017) to Beast, the only Cube act which won some kind of Grand Prize, now called Highlight (no longer Hi5hli5ht because of Yong Junhyung's antics).

That led to Cube winning its first real Grand Prize and also led Jeon Soyeon to remain in there for the time being.

Anyways, if Melon and Kakao had respected IU an iota it would have given her the Album of the Year Grand Prize, but it didn't giving all three major awards to aespa, lifting it at the level of BTS, the only other act which had done so.

Which basically means Melon and Kakao telling IU that her time is up, time for her to pack up her belongings from Korean pop and head to the retirement home.

The 2nd Generation was born in 2006 with the debut of Big Bang, had its final moment of glory in 2021

when IU managed to wrest the Artist of the Year award from BTS and leading it to an inexorable course of collapse,

but the defeat of IU, the last standing of the 2nd Generation, by the hands of Bibi, who showed up at the award to commemorate that despite of the fact that she is filming some drama, finished it off.

The last challenge is the gallup polls, which aespa traditionally did not do well in there. New Jeans was all over in the news, and IU always had a 'core' voting bloc, so there is a chance that aespa will be beaten there, but if aespa wins that one the 2nd Generation finally ends.

Melon Awards did not award IU any Grand Prize, cementing her status as a has been.

Quote from wsoet

It looks like it's time to bring out the chart again:

The general consensus is that t‍he S‍econd Generation began in 2004 with the debut of TVXQ.

TVXQ did not open the KPop era and the Greatest Generation usually includes those who debuted 2006-09

And TVXQ basically stopped being a force after its breakup only remaining powerful in Japan from then

Quote from bbgc

I like it whenever WhyKnock predicts IU's end/retirement etc., because that always gets disproved in the immediate future, by IU pushing the envelope in some way or other.

That happened in the past so often

But it is unlikely that she will rebound from this disaster since there are no more allies

IU and Younha now seem to realize that their heydays are in the past.

IU realized aespa would be the star of today so she chose to not show up, not willing to play second fiddle which led MMA to give all the Grand Prize to aespa, raising it to the level of BTS.

Quote from bbgc

Keep it on, more you do it, more impactful her next move.

Maybe my long term wish of IU & LYW Collab will come true

Actually it is now possible, since LYW more and more gravitates toward ballads, so the Senior Singer could write lyrics for his new album.

Quote from bbgc

Mere lyrics won't be enough.

Both IU & LYW need to sing, act in MV and of course promote..

A single is enough, no need for an album.

Another option she should explore is getting foreign artists in Palette, translation tools are good that it can be seamless.

Starting with Japanese - Aimyon, Yoasobi

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www.allkpop.com

Actually that is not their first encounter, since Byun Wooseok appeared briefly as Lee Jieun's ex boyfriend in Scarlet Heart

So Lee Jieun will probably sit out of KPop in 2025.

Quote from bbgc

Yes, I am aware of the previous encounter.

Sit out Kpop? Maybe.

But there are always OSTs.

For whatever reason she does not sing OSTs of her own drama because I think she wants to be identified as just an actress when she is in a drama. The only OST she sang in her own drama after 2014 was Our Happy Ending in Hotel Del Luna which is not released to this day.