Posts by oldschool29

Quote from Whi

if you actually understood what i was talking about, the “feminism” part in my comment didn’t refer to what companies set out to produce, it referred to the attitude of the very consumers you’re talking about lol. There’s a prominent trend, which you yourself stated, about what’s perceived as confidence and power hence empowering by fans, and what’s looked down upon as too feminine hence inferior, that’s why companies set out to get capitalise on that very narrow perception and why top ggs now have a very specific image. THAT was my point. Nobody said that companies had to care about feminism lol

I don't think the fans are consciously thinking about feminism when they're enjoying a music video for the most part either. It's just what they like, it's escapism, it's imagining yourself as this almost super hero like version of a woman.

My point was the main reason why some concepts are more popular in SK compared to the west is the makeup of the fan base. Straight men make up a big part of the girl group fan base there, but not in the west. They have different tastes because they're not imagining themselves as the girls on screen, they're imagining those girls on screen as their girlfriends. Thus the completely different style.

Quote from Whi

my comment did NOT have the young school girls concept in mind at all when i was talking about femininity. That’s a very narrow-minded viewpoint of what femininity encompasses lol, which is precisely why ggs nowadays can’t really reach the top unless they go for a very hammy in-your-face approach to what “confidence” is supposed to mean, and that’s exactly my gripe. There are many facets to women but only one of them is heralded as true “confidence” and “power”, while anything feminine is immediately dismissed as male fetish material or weak and helpless and inferior, which is ironically the opposite of what feminism is supposed to be. Subtlety is a dead art these says and that’s just sad

Who said anything about feminism? These companies aren't setting out to make a political statement, they're setting out to make money. If fans in different countries prefer different concepts, that's just the way it is. If you prefer something different than the majority of consumers, they're not going to cater to you the majority of the time. All you can do is support whatever groups you do like and try to increase their fanbase.

Quote from Whi

It’s about the concept

*cue “always has been” meme*

Girl groups that show too much femininity will never beat out those that go for that “strong” or “tough” image nowadays with the international crowd bc god forbid women embrace their femininity and vulnerability since it’s perceived to mean they’re weak and helpless lol, which is a load of bull but i digress

I think the reason for this is that in SK, traditionally men are the major fanbase for girl groups while women/girls are the main fanbase for boy groups. For whatever reason, these Asian male fans like sweet, innocent concepts. In the west, it's mainly women/girls and gay men who follow pop acts, so that's the audience that they cater to. The majority of women don't aspire to be like young school girls daydreaming about their first kiss, they aspire to be more confident and powerful, so they look up to artists with concepts like that. I don't think it has anything to do with men because men aren't the target audience, it's how these fans want to see themselves.

If you personally like the sweeter concepts, that's great, good thing kpop exists.

Ummm, I mean, I say this as an SM stan, but in order for blackpink to have to overthrow aespa, wouldn't aespa already have had to beat out blackpink? By what metric are you claiming aespa is #1?

Aespa had an incredible year with several big hits, and blackpink released zero group music during that time, so I guess in that sense aespa "won", but only by default. Lisa still came out on top with streaming and international interest. Idk, call me when aespa does Coachella. You can make an argument for aespa being the top 4th gen gg at the moment, but twice and blackpink still have more accomplishments and recognition overall, especially internationally.

Great job, I'm impressed! All of you are so much braver than I am

I feel like an "IT girl" has the most attention, like brand endorsements, articles written about them. They're typically considered fashion icons. Some of that attention could be negative tabloid stuff though.

This often correlates with the "most popular" celebrity, but not always. Popularity could be measured in other ways like chart success, talent, career longevity, and likability.

For example I would consider IU to be in the "most popular" category, but not an "IT girl". Jennie is an "IT girl" with all her endorsements and social media followers, but her career doesn't have that much going on and she isn't universally liked with all her scandals.

It doesn't matter if you're in kpop or any other pop market, being talented is only one piece of the puzzle. You also need a big company behind you to promote you properly and chose good concepts. Sometimes singers can get lucky and make it big from a small label if they have an excellent hit song, but Ailee's songs for the most part weren't hit material.

Disagree

Quote from SooYoung

the 16 persons who voted for Hyoyeon have absolutely no taste and deserve all the bad things who will happen to them in the futur

and the 8 people who voted for Sooyoung it's worst, i nicely hope that you all end up in hell for doing this

I mean, no one is saying that these girls are ugly compared to us mere mortals. Someone has to stand out in the group relative to the others though. I'm just shocked that Taeyeon and Yuri are in the bottom half right now

Hmm, most idols are bad rappers, so I guess it wouldn't be too bad to get dragged for that assuming I have other skills in this scenario!

I wanna learn how to sing. Being able to really belt would feel so powerful. Therefore I pick SM, their vocal training seems like the best.

I definitely think Red Velvet didn't live up to their full potential. I get that they're supposed to flip back and forth between concepts, but they could have gotten into a nice groove with more songs in a row like bad boy and psycho. SM let them stumble by giving them what should have been b-sides as singles when they could have been at their most popular. Then Wendy's accident and Irene's scandal were the final nails in the coffin. Poor Wendy, I hope she can have some success as a soloist in the future.

I think this is pretty accurate, but wasn't TT a bigger hit for Twice in 2016 than Cheer Up? I thought that was the hit that really cemented their place as ngg. Unless you're calculating it based on streams or something and TT had fewer in 2016 because it was at the end of the year?

The "black pearl"

I know you were just asking about visuals, but I voted for Xiaoting because she's just a little more interesting/charismatic to me.

Surprisingly I think this is the best izone solo debut so far. She's quite versatile.

I mean, did you really expect one single company to have a monopoly on popular kpop acts? That would be insane if only one company ever debuted successful groups while all the others floundered and never had a single good idea or song for decades, haha. Not to mention, Exo was the most popular 3rd gen boy group for a few years (both domestically and internationally), it's not like sm tanked in the 3rd gen.

Of course there's going to be a mix of where the successful groups come from. Creative teams always try to put together groups and concepts that will make it big, but it's hard to predict what the public will like. Sometimes a group's popularity has more to do with things the company can't really control, like an idol's sense of humor on variety shows.

Also, not having the highest sales doesn't mean a group "failed". There are a lot of groups like SHINee, Red Velvet, GFriend, Kara, T-ara, etc, who are very popular and talented, and put out great songs. They're allowed to be proud of their legacy even if they weren't technically the number one group all the time.

I agree with this, but I think another key part of bp's success is their visuals. YG said explicitly that bp was the "pretty" version of 2NE1. I think the visuals are a key part of why you view them as more feminine.

Quote from btsworlddom

If they can't say shit about the pics then JYP is doing a bad job. Who should care for the image of the group, Maybelline or JYP? I see other good pics of Maybelline, where they look more natural, so this is not the image Maybelline have in mind . My guess is Maybelline dont give a fuck about Itzy, so they dont care if they look weird. And JYP dont do shit.

I mean, companies want creative control over their own ad campaigns. If JYP demanded creative control and the right to demand additional photoshoots in every contract, then no companies would want to work with them, they'd just go elsewhere and Itzy wouldn't get any cfs.

Quote from keyboardwarrior7

Honestly, if a Chinese idol debuts, 80% of the time she is the visual.

Tzuyu

Chengxiao

Pinky

Yuqi

Yiren

Elkie

She's continuing a long and fruitful tradition.

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Yeah, I'm not sure why that is. You'd think that if kpop was a big enough draw to snag some of China's best looking people they could snag some of their best singers as well. I guess Ningning is an exception.