Posts by MakotoNijima

(+ NewJeans)

This really puts on perspective how extraordinary this year has been when it comes to girlgroups debuting.

It could be argued that the only relevant group debuted last year for the current K-Pop's landscape was IVE (and they debuted pretty late, on December). We can also see 2 boygroups with decent physicals on the top 3 that seem to barely have a name outside their fandom and 2 girlgroups (Purple Kiss and Billlie) you may have heard of, but are not mid-tier yet on the big girlgroup sphere.

On the other side, we have seen this year already the debut of Kep1er (from Mnet show), NMiXX (JYP), LE SSERAFIM and NewJeans (HYBE). All of them groups with a very solid fandom since the start, and the ones from Hybe with also great performance on korean charts.

To put this on perspective, everyone's talking about who'll get the rookie awards this year because of these debuts + IVE is also on the talk because they debuted late 2021. Aespa debuted on late 2020 and they got them on 2021. Do you guys know what girlgroup would have got them last year if Aespa didn't exist? StayC. And what girlgroup got it on MAMA on 2020? Weeekly. This shows how important timing is and how it can affect the way a group is looked at success-wise.

Quote from T_O_M_O_M_I

they got good vocalists but for they titletracks they rely on the SMP style the most - I won't say their most famous songs are vocally driven

You'll find heavy vocals on any NCT title track. In fact, 127 who often gets associated with this style the most has far more vocalists than rappers. And if you listen to an album from them, most of their b-sides are heavy on R&B.

This narrative only really applies to ggs, and with the exception of BP. RV and Twice still do very good on charts too.

B-but... NCT is also vocal oriented.

Yes SM is about to disband them now

Quote from laleria

everything exept wakey wakey in their japanese discography are LIT!

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Wakey-Wakey. The beat is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the production will go over a typical viewer's head. There's also Mark's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation - his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these things, to realize that they're not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Wakey-Wakey truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the deepness in Jungwoo's existencial catchphrase "Nananananananana nanananananana" which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev's Russian epic Fathers and Sons. I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as SM's genius unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools... how I pity them. 😂 And yes by the way, I DO have a Wakey-Wakey tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- And even they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand.

Reminder Chain gave us this bridge... So underrated

Quote from laleria

if wakey wakey did not kill nct127, nothing will

127's japanese discography is underrated Chain is a masterpiece and Gimme Gimme is very good, and I will die on the hill that Wakey Wakey is actually good despite the weird choreo and Johnny's wig

Quote from chounim

A few years ago, SM used to ideally announce comebacks 2 weeks beforehand. In fact this new practice of announcing them a month or longer early is quite new, relatively speaking.

I'd rather them get all these tiktok challenges and old song remixes out of the way in the early days of the rollout and save the later days for things that are more pertinent to the album itself than do it the other way around (like what happened with Aespa where they released 2 bsides days/weeks before the album and effectively killed all the hype of the comeback)

I'm pretty sure hype will be renewed once they drop the album details and more teasers related to the new album.

2 weeks was fine for the promo of a mini album, for a full album tho...

Quote from the101

One more thing I'd add on Sticker...for as maligned as the song was when it came out, I've been surprised at its longevity and movement from a streaming perspective. I expected a big bump as people first checked it out, but it's continued to keep pace in its movement amongst NCT 127 songs. It moves slower and is less popular than Favorite, but overall has really showed continued stamina. Some of this is of course the growth of the fandom - all the 2020 tt and later songs are performing well (not counting stuff like Save or Freeze.)

Honestly, Sticker was never going to be a streaming powerhouse even within NCT and I'm fine with that. People love it or hate it. The streams of Lemonade do make me question how it would have done as a title track, but yes, Sticker no doubt is more title track material.

Simon Says for me.

My taste is pretty unique so I'll just say a title track and an album I love. Dreamy yet industrial as only 127 can do.

Quote from NEO

It's not just that, I believe. It's because those two are their most commercially successful songs. SME may not care about digital charts whatsoever, but the guys do.

I mean, both made them grow in all fronts: digitals, physicals, fandom, popularity, korea, internationally... Obviously a group love to see when they do great digitally and get some high positions on Melon, it gives them prestige, but Cherry Bomb really didn't do that well on say korean charts when compared to other title tracks they did later, it's just that both songs are their most popular overall. They are unique yet digestible enough for a bigger audience than they are usually for.

Quote from NEO

My opinion might be a little controversial, but I personally think Sticker (the song) has done nothing for NCT 127 in the past year, though I also believe that's more about you perceive things. But there's a reason why they keep bringing up Kick It or Cherry Bomb when they mention this comeback.

As I said, these "challenges" they have been posting on YT Shorts are killing the initial hype and that's clear when you look at their view count, but I think things will get back on track once we get regular teaser images again in a few days.

Well Kick It and Cherry Bomb are pretty much 127's peak when it comes to pushing their sound and getting some good recognition about it so I understand the comparisons, it's some of 127's favorite songs for the general k-pop fandom, NCTzens and even myself

Quote from NEO

Sticker failed at bringing in more fans and that's a fact when you look across their charting everywhere. NCT is all about taking risks, and NCT 127 blew up after two underwhelming comebacks (Regular and Superhuman), we'll have to wait and see how things will play out for them in this upcoming comeback. The guys are excited, so there's that.

I mean, I feel like it's 50/50. You could argue Sticker stopped 127's momentum after Kick It (which let's be real, it's a pretty difficult song to match hype wise because it's both very NCT 127 yet very trendy and catchy), but I also think for how divisive it was, it actually brought more people into the 127 fandom than you would think. The problem of hype I'm talking about is more about the own fandom's response to this incoming comeback than about the group itself. I actually saw a lot of fans that were very hyped for their next comeback and were constantly asking for 127.

Quote from SunnySun

I'm sure that i saw some teaser pics somewhere where i don't remember, i think on reddit so they released some teaser pics

Yes, I wonder why they don't just release them on Twitter for example.

Quote from quarkie

• there's no hype for this comeback

This is just a flat out lie. Fans on twitter are hyped as fuck. Most of the NCTzens on this forum are gone, but myself, the101 , @laleria , or butterbutterfly have been making threads about their comeback and activities every single day. People are hyped and motivated. American NCTzens are hosting spaces on Twitter to learn how to stream for Billboard. If you actually look within the fandom - AKA THE ONLY PLACE THAT MATTERS - the hype is crazy. People are ready for this album to drop now.

• ktown4u preorders are low

Korean fans have repeatedly said that a lot of them have stopped using it because they've had issues with shipping in the past. The album has been trending high on multiple other shops, but ktown is the only one who actually tracks preorder numbers. The preorder hashtag for K-NCTzens trended #2 in Korea at one point. International fans have also been posting their preorders on twitter. Chinabars are just starting to roll out their preorder perks. Doyoung's Chinabar for instance just opened their preorders. US NCTzens are focusing on buying albums that will count for Billboard. Remember that right now there are only two ways to buy it... random photobook and the US Target version. We still haven't even gotten to digipaks. Hand wringing about preorders based on ONE SITE is ridiculous.

----

Literally the only actual complaint that can be had about the comeback right now is the rollout of the YouTube shorts, but that's a contract thing. We've seen it for Butter. We've seen it for Pink Venom. Yeah... YouTube Shorts suck and no one actually cares about them, but OH WELL. We still have a whole more week before the actual teaser period starts. This is just fun random shit to have in the mean time.

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Maybe it's just my perception but it's like people were hyped for the next 127 comeback, but once it was announced, and this whole promo thing they are doing so far + the tour mess killed a lot of hype within the fandom, like I barely see NCTzens hyping it up on the main RRSS, I'm not refering to this forum.

About KTown4u, it's concerning for me because it's a website that always represented a big part of their sales (like 1/4th of them). I know korean fans are not using it for this comeback but koreans fans always had other websites where they could purchase them, so I doubt the difference with say Sticker being this big is just about the korean fans when kt4u always was a more Chinese/SEA fans website imo. I really hope chinese bars come through.

Quote from killthisfenty

Does they usually drop digipak versions days later.

Also selling less Is expected, they did have a world tour? At least in Asia, so it will most likely affect their sales.

Calling it a world tour is a little generous, more like japanese tour ft SM trying to find any venue that is not booked already. People just don't know what to do with their money because the tour is constantly unpredictable.

Quote from the101

But people have been talking about not purchasing from ktown4u due to shipping issues. Plus, having tracked the Glitch Mode and Beatbox sales, Czennies really wait to the last minute to purchase. I think as we get more music, we'll see more movement.

I agree the YT reels are poorly thought out. I think the concept is a fun idea but some of the execution is weird, particularly in the awkward challenges they chose.

I always thought the vast majority of sales from ktown4u was from Chinese and SEA fans, I have seen korean nctzens saying they aren't purchasing from there which I guess justifies a part from it but the gap is so huge compared to their other albums it's worrying.

Quote from chounim

Isn't the album coming out in like 3 weeks? I think it's too early to be worrying about this.

This style of promo is being like this until the 4th of September which is 11 days before the MV, so I'm pretty worried.

Quote from SooYoung

i saw some thing going around about NCT 127 but i thought it was once again another content they were doing on youtube because i saw nobody post any thread about their teasers pics unless they didn't start to post the teaser picture yet and it might explain why people didn't start to preorder much yet and why there's not so much hype

Releasing teaser images is such a simple thing to start to hype a comeback and get talked about everywhere, I genuinely can't think what's the point of what they are doing, if you only use Twitter you probably haven't seen anything about the promo, and it's not like on TikTok is being very hyped up either.

Quote from Roger-Kevin

So flopping badly is now anything that isn't a triple million seller, has ten music wins ectera?

Sticker sold 2.5M, music show wins depend on timing so they aren't an indicative of flopping or not, and SM chose to comeback at the same time as BP after 2 years so I've assumed they aren't getting wins, but anyways atp I'm doubting they are reaching the 2M figure, and a decrease of +500k albums from a full album to another one is indeed pretty bad.