Cute/innocent concept isn't sustainable

If u love a girl group with cute or innocent concept u will see changes in music and imagery eventually. Evolution is gradual.

Quote from SooYoung

they need to grow up at a moment

and i know some people would love to see their favs singing cute and innocent concept

but their fans needs to understand that at one point their idols grow and for their mental health it's the best that their Agency isn't infantalizing them when they are 30s

I think even some idols hate singing those cute songs and wouldn't want to do anything related to it when they r mid twenties. Also they have to behave a certain way.

Quote from crystalblues

Even the queens of innocence SES fought to grow up and have an more mature concept before leaving SM because they cannot pretend to be young girls their entire career

Did they have mature releases?

Quote from onlyfacts

No concept is sustainable. If you're doing any concept over and over again, you'll see the groups will tend to have repetitive music. And no one likes repetitive music I think (atleast from the same group).

Not true. U can try many sounds and aesthetics for some concepts.Cute/innocent concept limits that to a large extent.

Quote from onlyfacts

Aesthetics : Probably Yes.

Sound : No

There is no concept which won't lead to similar melodies or production or even structure. It will happen eventually if the same artist does the same concept again and again.

It can sound good even if it's repetitive though.

I agree to an extent. But I was talking about how cute or innocent concept isn't really done as the group grows older. Most go through sound and image change.

Quote from emanresu

I think people think of cute too restrictively. Cute doesn't have to be out there jumping around in a schoolgirl outfit going "oppa!" All the time.

I see it more as a looser concept that entails perhaps brightness or positivity and a lack of that overt stereotypical edge of hardness or cynicism. Everything from the stereotypical "aegyo" to more subtle soft imagery, or action.

So in that sense I disagree that it is not sustainable and disagree that it's inherently something to grow out of. As I don't see it as being so restrictive in definition.

Western audiences have been conditioned largely to associate cuteness exclusively with childhood and overt childishness. They see this as a one track progression in which cuteness is something to grow out of.

Japan would like a word with this idea. They've incorporated cuteness at various levels of their day to day life and culture.

Anyone can be cute. Yoona and IU have showcased alternatives to this line of thinking within the Korean sphere. Both provide direct real life examples of independent mature and successful women that have not abandoned elements of cute imagery and ethos simply because they have aged.

See IU's Blueming and Yoona's manner.

In that sense I think groups could retain elements of cute imagery as they grow. Even as they augment it to be less stereotypical "childish".

P.S. My own mother who's in her sixties puts her hair up in small pigtails because it's cute and keeps her hair out of her face. She likes it. And she's also an executive.

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I get your point but when u think about cute on kpop what do u think? For me the first thing that comes to mind is gee and cheer up. Kpop cute is very specific. A sound and image. That type of cute is something both the company and the group grows out of.

If I am not wrong apink got fame because of their cute songs but eventually with I am so sick they had a complete image and even sound change. It's a gradual growth. Twice is doing that too.