Thing is, I checked the numbers sold on ktown4u - its just over 10k, so even if they aren't being counted, either another big site isn't being counted or their fandom dropped in size.
If its true that Hanteo wanted "Detailed address" info however...
They can chew on a jumbo size pack of Deez
I wonder if its in response to those rumors about BG stans over the years. You know, that to reach big sales targets they bulk order (including some c-bars), and don't give full addresses so they end up returned but the return isn't counted, or in warehouses or on ships in random countries.
If it is, it makes sense.
Wasn't it because of politics? They already had the flag issue with Tyuzu, Sana got hate for welcoming in the new emperor in Japan, increasing issues in China with the ban meant groups like EXO couldn't even have some members active so promotions abroad were limited, then you had the reactions from international fans from people like Jackson siding with China etc. It was an endless mess.
Twice had foreign members to target foreign markets and it worked. Itzy was aimed at the US market so the focus was on their english skills (and why they wanted Somi) and them looking more western. By the time Nmixx came around it and was aimed at the US and Korea it became pretty clear you didn't 'need' foreign members in a group to succeed in the US, it just helped with communication but was a major drawback as fans had higher expectations when it came to western issues. Not worth the risk. Instead they made groups specifically for that with VCHA and we all know how thats going.
No need to get snappy, its not about knowing their personal agenda's its just basic general knowledge.Twice is well known for working as far in advance as possible and plan out their releases for the year at the beginning of each year, so right before their CB they are normally prepping for the one after the next one and are on bubble saying how bored they are. Just take scientist, it dropped November 2021 but they were prepping for that before Alcohol free dropped in June 2021. Other groups may leave everything to the month or weeks before the announced date but Twice hasn't worked like that since 2018 and its well known.
Tyuzu is free now because everything about her CB was completed likely before the encores started in April-June.
Fanbases pre-order and those are mostly counted first day. Most groups sell the most first day (including LSF). When groups sell more for the rest of the week people get suspicious that the company is faking sales unless its a select few groups. Especially considering what we've heard about companies making deals to run extra fansign's to meet pre-agreed sales targets with fansign companies to bulk first week sales.
what happened to her? I only heard that she promoted her film like a romance story and it ended up being about DV. Not sure if that's true or not, i read it in a random tweet
No idea about the promotion side but I read the book years ago and it is about DV and the story is a bit...weird to say the least, so I can see how it can be hard to promote tonally if the focus is just the romance when the main crutch is DV and whether she should leave considering they both love each other and he 'doesn't want to hurt her but can't help it'.
SPOILER
If memory serves, main character falls for a surgeon, gets married and pregnant but he went through something as a kid and ends up having violent blackouts where her hurts her, she leaves and considering going back to him because they love EO and everyone sings his praises. After giving birth she decides to divorce him because she knew it wouldn't stop, she saw how much he loved their kid and didn't want the kid to ever see that side of him or live with it. Ends with them co-parenting and her getting remarried. Great that she left him but the way it painted DV is horrible and why people drag the book.
The fact that Taeil was one of the least popular members of NCT in Korea (and everywhere else) may be a reason why most fans wouldn't give too much clout to "rumors" involving him and there wouldn't be too many fans fighting to debunk them in the first place. Had it been a more popular member then I think it would have leaked. Taeil was almost never talked about in general, not even by fans (I know, because I used to complain all the time about him being slept on by fans -
)
Was on twitter and found this -
Its unconfirmed this is the person but looks like stuff was out there, people just weren't looking or engaging like you said.
NGL it's not that unbelievable to me, but 100% agree with the burn them all.
5 of 6 r*pes committed against women are by men they know. 'According to RAINN, 34% of sexual abuse cases reported to law enforcement involve a family member as the perpetrator. 59% of juvenile victims know their perpetrator, with 2.59% being acquaintances and 7% being strangers.'
Display More[Exclusive] Police: “NCT Taeil Sexual Crime Investigation Underway, Not Targeting Homosexual Minors”
The Bangbae Police Station in Seoul announced on the 28th that it is investigating the sexual crime charges against Taeil (30, real name Moon Taeil), a member of the idol group NCT. A police official stated, however, that “this is not an investigation into sexual crimes against minors of the same sex.”
In a phone call with our newspaper, Bangbae Police Station Chief Choi Young-gi said, “I only received a report that NCT Taeil is being investigated at Bangbae Police Station, but I do not know the timing of the charges or the exact charges.” Bangbae Police Station Women and Youth Division Chief Lee In-chun said, “(He is currently at home after work) so the exact details uploaded to the computer can be confirmed tomorrow.”
In a statement released that day, his agency SM Entertainment stated, “We recently confirmed that Taeil was accused of a sexual crime,” and “While investigating the facts, we realized that the matter was very serious and decided that he could no longer continue team activities. After discussing it with Taeil, we decided to withdraw from the team.”
Hold up did they just say its not against minors of the same sex....so there's a possibility its against minors of the opposite sex? 
The fact that Taeil was one of the least popular members of NCT in Korea (and everywhere else) may be a reason why most fans wouldn't give too much clout to "rumors" involving him and there wouldn't be too many fans fighting to debunk them in the first place. Had it been a more popular member then I think it would have leaked. Taeil was almost never talked about in general, not even by fans (I know, because I used to complain all the time about him being slept on by fans -
Yikes, hope your doing well with this news.
Sucks to say this but I wonder if SM would have fought harder for him like they did Lucas if it was Taeyong....
I read on twitter that apparently SM knew since June. Is it true?
This instagram post is apparently from staff, they shared all the members teasers but his. Fans made the twitter post bashing him in July and the CB was in June, so SM staff deffo knew from at least July.
Like he told them he had protection but didn't?
She was on her period and didn't want to have sex but he kept pushing her until she gave in. Same thing happened with using protection.
I'm more shocked that SM managed to keep it a secret. On twitter people are sharing links where staff reposted teasers for all the members but Taeil, and the post was from mid July for their June CB...so how long has SM known and how did they keep it a secret considering C-fans knew Jessica was leaving long before it was announced and k-fans and sasaengs always know things like this long before it becomes public.
Yes no SM act has ever been involved in something this big but, surely that makes keeping it a secret harder, yet they sat on this for over a month with sasaengs literally in the rafters without one leak?
That's not insider trading,lol, since they are only staff selling their own stock, and prediction of BTS enlistment it's always been there (everyone knew it). And unless you have ridiculous amount of share in Hybe (like maybe more than 10%), it's unlikely the act of 3 staff (not even key person in cpy) can make stock drop 25% ...
Yeah it is insider trading, what your talking about is a sell-off which is completely different. If you know material non-published information about a company and use it to your advantage when you have stocks of that company, such as selling before you know something is going to be announce to make the value decline or buying before news that will massively increase the value of shares or sharing this information for someone to do the same, its insider trading. Doesn't matter that everyone knew they'd have to do service sometime. They took advantage of their insider knowledge as employees to sell their shares when they knew it was about to drop due because they knew the exact time the enlistment news was going to be announced. They weren't the cause of the drop, the enlistment news was.
Agreed but I'm actually not disappointed. Yeah they don't pump money into promo but...overall they seem to be far better than most of the industry, especially right now.
Realistically, they are on their third contract now, still the main source of idol income for the company which means the renewal terms will be great for them, each is currently on tour, have released music as they like, control their own content, youtube channels and tv show appearances. We haven't heard anything about mistreatment, money issues, or them wanting to do something the company won't let them do, cancelling CB's or overworking them. RBW is literally their playground. In contrast, we've seen how hard it is for idol run companies (Hyolyn using all her money to pay employees, Ravi (nuff said), Beakhyun's became a subsidiary of a BPM, same with Zico's, who knows what happened to Henry's and Kang Daniel is currently in court about his company). Think the only ones that went well are JYP, Jay Park etc, all of whom severely limited their solo work to build a company and retreated to focus on pushing other idols.
I think we've also seen from what happened with Chungha's first company and what's currently going on with Hwasa how much other companies can delay, cancel or push stuff back. Seeing moonsun being able to do as they like, even if they aren't getting as much promotion to the GP as before, I get why they are happy enough to stay. I'd have never thought RBW would have them touring at the same time, but here we are and they are both doing really well.
Can't remember how long Hwasa's contract is, but I don't think she'll stay at P Nation, I don't think anyone's ever renewed with them, so yeah just waiting to hear news on Wheein.
Okay I'm not going to stand for this Apink slander! They were mega popular, but why are we really conflating different career choices/circumstances to doing better in general in Korea?
Can we really compare idols going into acting at their peak of solo fame to Hyo deciding to become a DJ that barely releases music or does shows? 2ne1 is an even harder case. CL was blocked from doing anything for years, Bom was in hiding and Minzy was trapped with a bad company. Even the most active member Dara was mostly doing variety shows every now and again and enjoying her money. Fame doesn't last forever, even group fame. Not to mention Arin and Sejeong haven't been active nearly as long as either group have been in the industry with sustained (if more sparse) careers. Thats also not taking into account their desire to slow down and enjoy their money
Display MoreIOI fame got her a couple acting roles early in her career but it certainly didn't keep her relevant in the long run. I wouldn't put 2017-2019 Sejeong over any RV/MMM member but rn it's def Sejeong > every 3rd gen female idol that's not a BP/Twice member. It was Busted that kept Sejeong from falling off the face of the earth when both her acting career and music career wasn't doing well. And later she had Uncanny Counter and Business Proposal which established her as one of the top idol actresses.
Don't know much about Mamamoo so I will take your word for it.
Why are you acting like OMG is some nugu group lmao. They had three huge hits during Covid cuz of which they are still invited to festivals and are known amongst Kpop fans. Arin was in one of the biggest dramas of 2022 and her buzz hasn't gone down. Currently she is def more popular than Wendy/Yeri and Moonbyul. All the opportunities that RV members have is largely due to the fact they are SM idols not because they are a part of some mega popular group.
If we are talking about money only yeah MMM and RV members have made more but if the question is who is more popular currently and will do better in long run? Arin and Sejeong win easily. If the scandal didn't happen, Naeun would have done better too. Well she is making her comeback soon so we will see how that goes.
With the Sejeong thing TBH I'm surprised. I always give her credit because I've heard how hard it is for a idol turned actress to get positive reviews and she always seemed consistently very popular with the GP in Korea to me, but apparently not!
I honestly didn't mean to treat them as nugu, I think of them kind of like brave girls and momoland, big peaks in quick succession but unable to sustain it music wise. But in that regard, is Arin really a good example of any of this? You mentioned April which is why I included them alongside OMG but if her drama was really that huge and in 2022 which was after dun dun dance, she really isn't relevant as an example. I def agree she is more popular than those you mentioned but when your from a lesser known group with little to no huge hits the followup work you do really builds your brand and name in a way idols from well known groups don't need to do. There are plenty of examples of this. Look at Tsuki, she went viral in Korea, but the company didn't manage to fully take advantage with follow up works.
I'd also say being part of a mega popular group and being an SM idol carries the same amount of pull. The SM privilege means you have a certain level of fame and popularity even before debut.
As for the long run, honestly IDK. When it comes to fame amongst the GP, yeah but that heavily dependent on choosing good follow up scripts and maintaining popularity with the GP which is notoriously hard as they love the new.
I honestly think this convo just shows our risk attitude, I'm more risk averse. I prefer guaranteed earnings and safety nets over a higher income peak that could pop at anytime. Few are going to have an April level scandal, but I'd prefer to have stacks in the bank if it does and a loyal fandom that'd still keep supporting me.
Honestly using Sejeong is a cop out, she was one of the most popular members in a hugely successful group before she was in gugudan and its the IOI fame that got her the acting gigs and kept her relevant whilst gugudan flopped. From the get go people said she was being made to hard carry the group and if her company hadn't allowed her to take on work outside the group I don't think she'd have found as much success as she has. OMG and April are far more realistic and representative.
I'd also say Moonbyul is not the least popular in Mamamoo, maybe amoungst the general public but she has the biggest solo fanbase, a better example would be Solar or Wheein.
But even going with your example for the public recognition thing, looking at the success of Arin and whoever from April (is it Naeun??), have they made more money and gotten better opportunities than Wendy/Yeri and Moonbyul? I'd argue no. Least popular in popular groups means they got paid out for major joint ad deals, major concerts and tv show appearances that may help them secure other roles. Even the group name brings them extra opportunities and buzz. Moonbyul and Wendy both have had very successful radio shows, solo's that sold well, and get invited to TV shows based on the power of the group brand name. Wendy got cast in a musical and moonbyul has done multiple solo tours, all of this is due to the group brand name power giving them a leg up when starting their solo careers. As for Arin and Naeun(?), they may get opportunities, but its hard to sustain that buzz without impressive works behind you, your literally building a career from scratch and as we've seen, plenty of less idols from less famous groups go viral for some reason or another, but very few manage to make a career of it or have a company who is able to jump on it. Arin is the most popular in OMG but her buzz has gone down alot since WM(?) don't know how to sustain it and all she seems to have done is ad deals and dip into acting without much success(?). Thinking of the most popular/viral members of smaller groups, I can't really think of any who managed to make a big career with that background.
