I hope not. My problem is that the companies could invest too much into the storytelling and not enough in the music production side of things. I do think it's fine if groups have them, but if Golden Child or Oh My Girl do something like Kwangya I'll be a tad dissapointed.
Hopefully Aespa's will with Black Mamba.
I hope not. My problem is that the companies could invest too much into the storytelling and not enough in the music production side of things. I do think it's fine if groups have them, but if Golden Child or Oh My Girl do something like Kwangya I'll be a tad dissapointed.
I agree about paying attention to the music quality. If the music isn't any good, then it's just a muted video with no kind of value add...right now, I'm indifferent about this trend.
my faves have both the best music quality and most interesting lore so they'll be fine but if companies start badly executing this then it will not earn them success
HYYH aged like fine wine
I think only hardcore fans care about lore. I bet 95% of listeners do not care about lore at all.
That's not a big deal, it makes groups more interesting. 
the fact that it has a storyline makes the bands more interesting.
Yes, it's fine. There are lots of artists in the history of pop music who have maintained a lore although most sort of move on eventually or minimize it to become a throwaway fandom reference. This is not specific to kpop - what is Ziggy Stardust but lore? Similarly, Bowie continued to reference Major Tom through the course of his career until his death, which was a specific reference to a song and its lore.
And often groups continue their lore in a smaller way through a series of interconnected videos, but may leave it behind in other pursuits (Lady Gaga and currently Doja Cat come to mind).
I think EXO, the forerunner in kpop around lore, has certainly shown how it can evolve and change. They started very explicitly explaining their lore, and now almost 10 years in, they can simply show us a few references and I can nod my head and get it. For example, during Kai's Mmmh video, he teleports (which is his power in EXO). Most people are focused on the song or his dancing or his fine self - this is the integration of the EXO lore for us EXO-Ls but doesn't interfere with the song.
Here's Kai teleporting at the start of Jopping
NCT's lore around dreams is pretty consistent across all the units, but if you don't know about it, you're not even aware it's happening. (There's a whole back story here, but fundamentally, the members connect and resonate through dreams, etc etc, with shots that call back to specific lore references). But you can just watch the video and enjoy a great song and NCT vampires without knowing any of that stuff.
This video has lore references too but again you'd kinda have to know to know.
There's also a lot of these references in lyrics (syncing dreams, resonating, etc)..
Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!
