Posts by MakotoNijima

SM isn't under Hybe 💀

Hybe now is their biggest shareholder, so their most important investor. But they don't even have most of the power yet.

Honestly I understand people will meme this because it makes SM look weak or whatever but as long as it's that amount of stocks it's fine. The "tender" offer however... if Hybe actually ups it to own 40% of the company, that actually worries me.

Quote from desdesdes

So, what do you think about their latest comeback? MakotoNijima

Musically I liked it, not sure if it impacted them well fandom-wise though, we'll have to wait for their next comeback to know.

Quote from Help1

Well I've never heard that perspective before, usually I just assumed all groups were making comebacks as frequently as was plausible, and fans also wanted comebacks as frequently as possible, and thought it was best for the group's growth so no one will forget about them

50/50. You want a group to make frequent comebacks at first to gain a name within the industry, but oversaturation of contents is also a thing. If you aren't a established group yet and you focus way too much on milking your non-huge fandom, they can get tired and just become more casuals.

Every time a group announces a comeback you want many people to anticipate it and sometimes a 10 month rest can generate more hype than a comeback every 3 months.

I wasn't sure of 2 Baddies b-sides at first but there's actually some bangers, I LOVE Time Lapse and Vitamin too.

Idk about Woollim being a "strong mid company", nowadays Golden Child has to be the only group making some money in that company and it's not like they move crazy numbers either, Drippin' doesn't seem promising and Rocket Punch is pretty much on the fence since debut (selling around 20k). Their groups are doing what they can to survive with limited resources tbh.

Quote from zylan

Sounds accurate but please say Big 4...no such thing as Big 3 anymore. HYBE is one of the big boys now

I do sometimes use Big 4 but for my second take I wanted to specify the Big 3 because imo Hybe is on it's own league money-wise. BTS alone makes HUGE money not comparable to any other group on the world and the company is already far richer than any of the big 3, the only thing they lack is more groups but they already are expanding on such a short time.

I don't know about their revenue but I'd say it's not accurate to put them in that bracket yet. Sure IVE is inmensenly successfull so far and are leading the 4th gen gg race with aespa, but for Starship to become a huge name in the industry and have comparable money to any of the Big 3 or Hybe they would probably need more than IVE (unless IVE becomes a revenue monster like BTS to the point they hard-carry the company to the top, which is highly unlikely although we don't know about their touring potential yet). What's more likely is that they would need another hugely successfull group to start comparing with the Big 3 at least, and seeing how their last bg debuted more than 2 years ago move around 150k, I highly doubt this company is becoming that big. IVE is bigger than their own company.

What's for sure is that Starship seems to be the biggest out of the mid-tier companies nowadays, with some gap ahead of Cube.

Quote from T_O_M_O_M_I

Big Nay, It seems like SM is trying to be YG, It doesn't sound like SMP (like many other nct titles) It sounds like Teddy. And It's,,, sad to hear SM like that

This sounds nothing like Teddy at all lol, in fact it's the exact opposite for me. Teddy's always go for the grandiose EDM type of drop or a chill vibe, the chorus on this song is a lot more minimalistic and it's neither a heavy EDM drop or a chill one. It's very SMP, the only thing lacking is a more harmonical post-chorus.

So happy for them

Neo Zone, Sticker and now 2 Baddies

NctzenTaglist

Red Velvet, f(x), BigBang (specially their slower songs)...

Quote from Lulu_Key

their full album is really good

alot more of my style

I definitely think their full album was closer to SHINee music style compare to other SM bg sounds

Could be, although I remember a song that was more of Shinee's style for me was '2 fast' from their mini. Very good song that one too. The whole mini was pretty memorable to me. There are some songs I liked from the full album but some b-sides weren't as memorable. Although it's very rare for me to love all songs from a full album anyways so hey at least they gave us some good songs, although the fandoms both involved and not involved with SuperM were insufferable with their mere existence.

SuperM gave us these so they served well at least

Their short discography was actually pretty good although '100' was quetionable. Jopping was dumb but very fun too.

I can't stand the rain, Infinity, Supercar, Dangerous Woman... those were some great b-sides.

Let's goooo!! Aespa's 'Girls' would be third though! I really didn't expect this comeback to do so well but all things considered I'm happy!

I'm sure I'm on the minority here, but I actually knew about Billlie even pre-debut BECAUSE of Mystic Story's being a subsidiary from SM. Although that's surely just because I'm interested on the business side of SM.

It's a fact that SM barely promotes Billlie or any Mystic Story thing aside from mentioning them on their website or videos like these:

Mystic Story and Billllie have their own channels, where they upload their MV's, and Billlie since the start was more marketed as "Mystic Story 1st girl group" than "a new gg from a SM subsidiary". This might have to do with the fact that Yoon Jong Shin (famous singer in Korea, founder and chief producer of Mystic Story) is friends with LSM, Mystic Story probably wants their own recognition but they have some SM funds and advices coming their way since the success of Billlie benefits both.

It's true that Mystic Story has more of an "alternative" and J-pop vibe than SM but you can tell they are very much influenced by them (heavy R&B b-sides that remind me of Red Velvet, quirky and very musically unique sound on their title tracks, their own "strange world" with a lot of terms used only for that storyline...)

Basically, it's not that most SM stans ignore Billlie, it's that I doubt most of them even know of their existence because, from the scratch, they weren't marketed as an SM group, neither they had a comparable investment. Tsuki got viral on GingaMingaYo and they have some hype to them, but it's much more likely to discover that Billlie is under an SM subsidiary because you liked Billlie from the first place than to know about Billlie because you like SM groups.

Also, obligatory: Woollim has not been a SM subsidiary for some time, most of the stocks are from their own CEO and SM has about 27% of stocks, but they are not the ones taking decisions at all, Woollim is more like an affiliate. Mystic Story, however, is indeed a subsidiary because SM is it's biggest shareholder.

Quote from Lulu_Key

thats literally what they want to go for

kpop is like fast fashion of music. Sell well, get tossed to the side fast to empty space for new things.

It would be a shame for SM to go down that route too

I feel like prioritizing is a thing, SM always prioritize their newer groups. However they have proved making a long-term career in K-pop is possible as well, and sometimes they would even make amazing investments for the debut or the comeback of a soloist of them even if they wouldn't make that much money. Why? Because artists like Taemin contribute a lot to the legacy and image of SM as a whole, it's not all about the inmediate profit.

Look at Seulgi's promo video for her solo debut or the promo and quality they used for the Seulrene unit debut a time ago... Red Velvet were never profit monsters for the company, but it's a way to pay off your artists hard work and loyalty for years and it also gives the company a good and serious image. I hope LSM and SM itself know what lines can not be crossed.

I understand both points of view. Shareholders want LSM gone because he takes a significant part of SM's benefits to it's own company, and this hurts the inmediate profit of these investers.

LSM wants SM to keep it's legacy, way of production and family image and I feel like he often prioritize this long-term vision over inmediate profit.

As long as the overall artistic direction of the company keeps being the same and they can keep contacting the same kind of producers they use now AND they keep respecting their own artist long-term career they will be fine.

I think whoever steps up as a new big investor must understand that SM has it's own colour, history and legacy. Striping away any musical identity of their groups will result on bandwagon-stanning of people who won't care or benefit the groups long-term and will instead go for the new shiny thing. K-pop is a very fast-paced industry but SM has to keep prioritizing legacy over hype, with or without LSM. It's what makes them THE textbook K-pop company.

WOW this might be my favorite content for a long time, they killed that...

I'm a man who have no romantic interest on men whatsoever so this narrative of " only horny young girls" is such bullshit. I like NCT, and specially 127 because of their music, their dancing, their choreos, their raps, their vocals... I think the guys deserve a lot not only for how talented but for how hardworking they are, and their music is exactly my type too.

No narrative of "they have 3 streams" is going to change my mind that they have the best AND most unique discography on K-Pop. I thought this at their worst, at their best, and I'll keep saying it and appreciating them even if they disband tomorrow. Their music is not for everyone and it's not supposed to, still with that they are successfull and I'm proud of how far they've come.

Quote from laleria

LSM wrote a lyrics for 2Baddies? I thougnt it's an actual k hip-hop artists who wrote it.

I'm ok with 2Baddies lyrics, it's fine for this type of song.

People just blame that old man for anything it's hilarious