Lee Jieun does not tend to do great on featuring in others' songs.
It's You (Ft. IU) - Sung Si Kyung Gaon #1
Love Story (Feat. IU) - Epik High Gaon #1
Soulmate (Ft. IU) - Zico Gaon #1
Sogyeokdong - Seo Taiji (he said that its success was due to IU)
Not Spring, Love, or Cherry Blossoms is High4 ft. IU
were major hits.
So it depends on the song and that is no different from she singing by herself.
In 2016, Lee Jieun did not promote because she was busy getting her clock cleaned by Park Bogum.'
Hah.. I think you are a big Lee Joon-gi fan, that you place the Bo-gum, a professional actor male lead against a singer female lead, instead of the seasoned male lead. or Kang Ha-neul.
It even had Baekhyun.
That apart, the data is interesting. I entertain the speculation that IU does control EDAM through her proxies and further has strong influence on other Kakao M acts.
Good for her. If Kakao M has 40% of EDAM, wonder what % of KakaoM does IU have?
No wonder industry surveys rank her among the top 5-6 most powerful people - the Big 4 CEOs, BTS and her.
I differ that her acting career would impact that position. All she needs is an occasional OST, make a Flower Bookmark 3 EP or a single - to keep the presence. She need not even be the lyricist/composer/producer for any.
But we won't know until she makes the moves, maybe she is not out to rule Kpop, despite all your warnings? And looking to ramp down activities -she has said so much in her recent interviews.
Would that be disappointing.
Apart in what - charting, awards?
Yes, extreme dominance of any one player in any one field can be counterproductive to the field. But the way to handle it, is not by barring the player, but rather redefining the parameters.
Few for examples can be,
1. Kpop awards, will be only on songs where the composing, production and performance is by predominantly Korean - 80% or some measures can be added.
2. Songs should be predominantly korean in lyrics.
3. Only Korean market will be considered for sales and other factors.
4. Winners of one year, are not candidates in the next, but be in the judges panel.
etc.
In any case, taking a historical view, all dominance is transient, BTS will also pass.
Today at a convergence of social media, WWW, globalization they ride an unusual combination - of course with their fantastic talent as the basis.
But the same things make dominance relatively shorter than previous decades.
There are also huge benefits to their popularity, many foreigners might discover other Kpop, Korean culture while checking out BTS and thus benefit Kpop.
So I would vote for letting them be. Good while it lasts.
Congrats to them .
Even otherwise, globalization will make region-only entities lose market, unless they scale well.
There are not many Kpop acts with international following and even that is subject to faster changes, than regional following and loyalties.
On the other hand popular regional specific specialists, even if are limited in their ability to scale the market, still are impossible to replace within their domain.
You mentioned IU will have trouble managing both a movie and music career, but that is far simpler than managing both international and regional fame, when the tastes are divergent and languages different.
Pros and cons.
That live performance of 'Hold my Hand' and also 'Blueming' in the same concert (Love Poem 2019?), had something magical happening.
Even the same songs in other contexts don't reach that level of connection.
Totally deserves the reverse running hit and still 10th in top 10 of Gaon mid-year 2021.
IU's earliest released compositions or is it the first?
It is quite different from her later hits like TTN or Love Poem. Robust singing with many high notes, pacier music etc.
So that version of HMH is my choice.
In the Lilac album, I actually like Hi-Spring-Bye, Ah-puh, Troll, Epilogue than the three title/MV tracks.
And a 2011 song at that - Hold my hand, Is it the oldest song in the list?
BTS, OMG, BG .. seems to be a good year. SOTY will be a tightly fought.
Even if Melon truly goes international, still majority of its user base will be Korean,
Even if Melon achieves significant traction in other markets and keeps its content mostly Korean,
Only if Melon achieves both a large non-korean content and non-korean content,,,
In that case, it won't be just IU who will be impacted, but entire Kpop. If that is the cause for retirement, then there would be many more.
HanguKpop (Kpop singing Korean ) will rarely make it to the top - an occasional viral song might
EnguKpop (Kpop singing English) will have to compete with the rest of the world's Eng-pop and take its chances.
Anyway premature speculation.
More probable is Melon losing its market and audience considerably in Korea itself.
where her clock was cleaned by Park Bogum.
Interesting choice of words.
Why would a successful series featuring a full time actor as male lead, be seen directly impacting a singer-female lead of less successful series broadcast at the same time?
If at all, it should reflect on Lee Joon-gi.
And it did not prevent her from being increasingly successful in My Mister or making a super-hit of Hotel Del Luna.
But as a strategy, they are kind of the same, Moon lovers = Broker. The rest of the cast are powerhouses, that failure would be more to their account than IU's, whereas she would share well in success.
Thanks for your input, we are Indians and aware of the music industry too. This chart is relevant internationally as it is supported by IFPI and the big music labels.
P.S. BTS were the most popular Kpop act in India even before singing English songs.
I don't think you are saying anything different from what I did.
I do think BTS would be the most popular Kpop act in the last couple of years.
But to make statements like 'India loves BTS' is hilarious, even NaMo got only 40% or so of the entire nation to love him..
All we can say is that among a tiny percentage who follow non-Indian music, BTS would be the most popular.
I referenced IU fanclub, to highlight that if we consider such tiny percentages, anyone can make exaggerated claims. That is all.
As usual some ARMYs here live up to the reputation of cultist fanaticism, the burden all popular people have to bear. They can't bear to hear any context, but totally praise of BTS. Unfortunate.
Because increasingly idols are Popctors (pop actors), their fame is due to their performance like with actors and not the content.
Nowadays the whole process is entirely assembly-line.
Composer - does the beat/music, there would be even a top-liner for the melody, then someone supplies the lyrics, someone else the choreo etc. basically like a movie.
But unlike movies, kpop still has an undeserved reputation of 'authenticity' that the idols are expressing their own experiences via art.
It used to be the case and there are still many who have that authenticity factor - who compose, write etc., G-Dragon, IU, Suga to name a few. But most others are only for the 'performance'. Popcting.
Sure they have singing, dancing skills, but that is rather peripheral to the presence.
But this is not limited only to Kpop, most commercial music industries have gone to this model. Even in the West it was the case of long until broken by Bob Dylan and the Beatles.
So now industries have a mix of Performers-idols and Artist-Performers, there are even people who only create and never ever perform.
Beethoven supposedly could not play any instrument. So a pure creator and not at all a performer. is the opposite of the idols.
Most of the audience do not care about the 'authenticity', so the model works, like with movies. The actors are not expected to write the story, script, screenplay, direct or manage the cameras. they just represent all the work done behind the scenes. But in that representation they can add value and humanity falls for the representation, than the substance.
Kpop is also like that.
To kpop stans,
Your portraying the achievements of BTS's as easy peasy things makes your fav nonexistent in music world as your favs couldn't even reach the feet level of BTS's achievement though they debuted before BTS though they debuted from establish company having privilege. So sit down. Don't make further clowning.
And India loves BTS. No matter how many Fansites thingy your fav has in India, they don't have any song charting in India. And predicting Stadium tour in India, tell them to sell 300K online concert tickets 1st.
India does not 'love' BTS, 99.99% of India won't even know that Kpop exists, leave alone BTS. - India has a billion plus people, so that is rather an exaggerated statement.
But the percent that does know Kpop, yes among then BTS is probably the most recognized brand and that .01% concentrated in the metro, will surely fill a stadium or two, if BTS performs in India. Other kpop groups not so much.
Otherwise hyperbole is hilarious distortion. But then lot of i-fans think Kpop dominates SK, whereas the reality is that K-pop in korean is primarily consumed by the teenagers and drops off drastically when they hit college.
I do not need the akorns but it is said she won't show up as much as it is advertised
Well sports movies generally don't have much space for the 'love interest/female parts' (unless the movie is about sports-women). So I am not expecting any long screen time for her.
I think she is being carefully incremental. Cameos to Supporting role in not-so-commercial 'Shades of the heart', to lead-yet-not-prominent role in 'Dream', to sharing lead with heavy hitters like Bae Doona, Song Kang Ho in 'Broker'.
It is a good strategy when entering a new field, insulates her against any possible failures/responsibility for failures.
If someone makes a long drama of the history of KPop from 2007 to say 2022, IU would probably be the person to be chosen since only she encompasses all of these periods.
After Lilac it is likely that she will probably do music which suits herself more than her fans, and adding Shin Sekyung (and probably others later) means IU is no longer responsible for 100% of Edam's revenues and she can do what she feels like while other actors in her company make money for her.
Mature singer tend to release music with greater interval, and it is likely that she will promote maybe once in 2 or 3 years from now on and concentrate on acting and other activities .
The story could be even from 1992, she was after all born within a year of 'Nan Arayo', the starting point of Kpop and then 20 years later, 'Sogyeokdong' with Seo Taiji, they would be perfect brackets for the first 2 generations of K-pop, and then the BTS era..
That is a good point about EDAM.
Yoo Jae Suk is also shopping around, and Antenna is mentioned. Your theory about she being 60% owner of EDAM, I think she has some stake in Antenna as well :) , given the level of interactions and mentions.
So if YJS does join Antenna, then that adds huge clout to her 'Rebel alliance' :)
Music-wise, we will have to see. Depends on how well her movies do and what prospects she has.
ARMYS can celebrate.
But India's music market is highly diverse and unorganized, for this chart to be any big deal. But yes, probably international songs are easier to track and rank.
As to BTS filling stadiums, maybe one or two concerts in metros, more for the catchet value than anything, the rich will line up to attend.
Still they probably have the best name recognition among all the kpop acts.
Good for them.
Funny thing is even IU has a Uaena branch in India. At least BTS sings English songs..
The whole fandom thing is increasingly like cults. It is for the sake of 'belonging', than any substance.
Pop for korea is like Cricket for India.
Western genre mastered by non-West, so much that the non-Western is now the dominant player.
Leaving out subjective variations, both are filled with the worst clichés which have been around for thousands of years.
Needing a high degree of suspension of disbelief.
Classic examples on how utterly boring/empty of substance content can be sold with fantastically great packaging, name-fame actors etc.
The weird thing with such content is that they can suck a person into watching it through the sheer facade of it, hoping for something substantial.
And only after it is all done, some might realize the utter vapidity of it, but for most, it is sunk cost, so they will convince themselves and others, that they actually enjoyed it.
CLOY is not just an abbreviation, but a good description - CLOYing indeed.
But worst is, if they make a second season now that the leads are dating, it will be a hit again and I would as well watch it .. ugh.
Still the one nice thing about k-dramas are that they are mostly only 16 episodes and not the interminable episodes of seasons of Chinese, India, Latin or American soaps. People get involved in the characters based on the first story arc, which typically is good and then have to suffer the utter nonsense from subsequent development and stuck due to the habit.
Why should she, WhyKnock may have his theories and speculations about IU's impact on globalization of Kpop, but I have never seen anything abusive or deprecating.
In fact, the opinion that she can significantly control the direction of the industry, is actually a compliment.
If I were IU, I would recognize WhyKnock as the 'Senior Uaena' :)
OSTs are not eligible for awards . Which is why Ailee's OST lost to IU's "Through the Night".
I wrote 'Charts', not awards.
In any case, I agree with your speculation that she would focus more on acting/mc-ing etc., she has indicated as much few times. However I don't think she will entirely leave her base in music.
Frequency of releases might reduce, but it is production and promotion that takes time, not composing.
And then there is always concerts, if she stops doing concerts, even after WHO-Han virus abate, then it can be a serious possibility of retiring from music.
In any case 10 years at the top of her field, is more than the average for most entertainment careers. That she held her own despite overlapping with SNSD, BTS and others for 6+ years, well if a history of Kpop is made, then she is the ideal narrative vehicle for the first 3 decades.
