I get that Yuna was selected for Itzy as Somi's replacement, but I really think the question shouldn't be who was the better pick between them, but why Yuna wasn't an original pick to begin with. Honestly, I get why there are so many survival shows, because sometimes, who the producers have in mind and who catches the attention of the general public can be two separate things entirely.
Rather than one or the other, I think having both Yuna and Somi in the group would have benefit Itzy the most. If there are members who should have been replace it's Lia or Chaeryong, depending on which you value more (visuals or talent).
This is the lyrics to a top 10 billboard song right now -
Finally, I find way to talk to the girl but she no wan follow
Who you come dey form for? Woah (mhmm)
Why you no wan' conform? Woah (mhmm)
Then I start to feel her bum-bum (mhmm)
But she dey gimme small, small, woah
I know say she sabi pass that one, one (mhmm)
Another -
I'm washin' these bitches, I'm rubbin' the stain out
Like I'm ready to bend (grrah)
There's a song about 30 that's completely in Spanish.
Make something catchy, make something fun, making something that'll hook people in. That's far more important then ensuring you're not dangling a modifier or not splitting the infinitive.
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I don't recognize the lyrics but this song sounds ethnic like AAVE, african, or caribbean, which tells me the lyrics aren't non-sense or made up English phrases like what I am referring to, but a whole other dialect of spoken english made for a specific audience that also managed to reach a wide demographic.
And mentioning Spanish songs... You've missed the point of my thread, friend.
It's not 1992 anymore. The bigger Kpop labels that arent run by 4 dudes in some basement somewhere CANNOT KEEP SCREWING UP BASIC ENGLISH anymore. JYP, Hybe, YG, SM, Starshit, Cube, and RBW. There is no excuse for any of these top tier labels to not clean up their English from this moment on.
I can accept poor idols who struggle with strong Korean accents trying to pronounce English.
I can understand minor flubs here and there in terms of diction/syntax/slang/hipness, even English speakers in Korea may not be hip to the very latest in English trends here in the US.
But there are no more excuses now when it comes to basic English. And tbh, it's an EFFING SIMPLE ASS THING to get someone to review your English lyrics. There are a probably a MILLION people in Korea that can help you. There are dozens of idols that grew up in the US, Canada, or in Australia or UK that could help you.
Hell, ive advertised my services many times on here, i'm offering free reviews from someone who finished in the top 2 percent on his SATs for English . And who grew up at a time when English was spoken properly .
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This is what I've always thought too. There really is not excuse. Hiring someone who speaks and understands English is a simple matter. Plus, there are many foreigners in Korea who'd probably love the employment opportunity. I only hope that this partnership with Columbia isn't only in name and that Columbia actually sends their producers over to help them pick out good songs actually fit for the market and to do a quality check on the final result.
Would it have been better to release an "explicit" and a "clean" version like with Jungkook's latest song?
But yes, I agree in general, and still don't quite know what "nineteen's kitsch" is supposed to mean.
I guess for a Kpop group, especially with lots of fans "bitch" is pretty explicit, so maybe releasing two versions would have been best. Though, that would likely mean splitting streaming numbers, it would have probably helped bring in more listeners in the long run. Or maybe the solution would have just been to release the Korean version and an English version with the explicit lyrics. That way both domestic and international audiences get what they want.
I mean what I said, I mean you have WY, who doing some random Tiktok video and has like 5M likes and they don't know how use that power to promo theirs song
This too. I've never seen such a fumble in my life. If pushed properly, Wonyoung would literally be an ace for Western promotions. It may have be for health reasons, but I've noticed since Wonyoung has been side-lined, internationally IVE seems to have slowed down a bit.
IVE's biggest mistake was SSE's incompetent promotion ability.
IVE is your biggest money maker, treat them like one.
the girls will be way bigger if they have some of the way ADOR promo right now.
I can't say I really disagree. If fact, this pretty much supports my point. All of New Jean's English lyrics or phrases make sense in their songs, and they are catchy. You could say it's because most of the members speak and understand English, but that has never stopped a K-pop company before. If anything, it shows Min Hee-Jin's attention to detail and diligence in promoting her group to the West. I seriously doubt had Kitsch been given to New Jeans we would have ended up with a phrase like "19s Kitsch".
But yeah, Starship sucks at their job which is why I am making a thread like this. Though the chances are slim to none, I hope to raise more discussion about this topic in hopes by some miracle it might spread and eventually make it's way to Starship's front door so we don't end up with something that will not connect with Western audiences. News Jeans and Cupid are good examples of why it's important to put out music that is actually palatable to the listeners.
So, if you haven't heard (which I'm sure you have, Starship hasn't shut up about this for months), IVE will be starting their U.S promotions for the second part of the year. Kakao has a partnership in the U.S with Columbia Records (some of their artists include Miley Cyrus, Lil Nas X, Beyonce, Mariah Carey, 1D, etc.), and together, Kakao and Columbia will be working together to promote IVE and Aespa (other artists too, but these two are the starters).
However, there are two HUGE mistakes that IVE should not make when starting U.S promotions. Hey Starship, I hope you have staff that frequent international forums because this one is for you.
#1 Do not - and I mean DO NOT- put out a track with unfamiliar or made English terms or phrases.
You would think this one would be common sense, but after Kitsch, I think this really needs to be emphasized. I know censorship was the reason the lyrics to Kitsch were changed, but replacing "90s Bitch" with "19s Kitch" was one of the silliest uses of censorship IVE seen next to shit 4kidz TV used to do with anime localizations. And while it cannot be said that this was 100% the reason Kitsch failed to do as well as I AM did internationally, the general populace will always be more likely to enjoy a song with lyrics in their native language that actually makes sense to them.
When Kitsch first came out, most of the reactions I saw were people trying to figure out what "19 Kitsch" even meant. This is understandable, considering "nineteen's Kitsch" doesn't even sound grammatically correct, and "Kitsch" is a German word seldom used in English. Even though Kitsch as a song does have an addicting beat and melody - of course the phrase "19's Kitsch" would have been hard to be catchy to native English speakers. "90's Bitch" at least would have had a chance to become a trendy sound byte on TikTok among locals whereas "90s Kitch" just didn't make sense.
Kitsch isn't even the first time Starship has done this sort of thing. With Eleven, there was a similar issue, albeit not as bad as with Kitsch. The phrase "1.2.3.4.5.6.7 you make me feel like 11" was kind of confusing for many. Even though my immediate thought was they meant on a scale of 1 out of 10, it's kind of hard to picture that because the lyrics aren't very clear. At some point, there was even some explanation brought up that meaning had something to do with baseball.
If you listen to the demo, however, you will see how much better Eleven would have sounded with the original English lyrics.
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And while I'm on the topic, I'd just like to use SuperM's Jopping as another example. While this song did ok-ish among Kpop fans, Jopping was never a song that would have garnered any interest among the general populace in the U.S. While they did explain the meaning in the song ("Jumping and popping = jopping), the whole thing sounded very corny. Let's just admit this as a collective, guys. People who usually come up with new cool phases "i.e YOLO, Munch, etc." Are usually people who already have a lot of clout and are native speakers of the language so their attempts to invent new lingo don't feel so cringe. It also doesn't help that SuperM was Kpop (and a boy band at that) so they were already stigmatized as cheesy without having done that to themselves.
lastly, there are the racist stereotypes about Asian people speaking broken or improper English, so throwing in made-up phrases or terms that have no natural meaning to native speakers is just another reason to avoid having that impression.
Of course, there will always be exceptions to nonsense language in music (I want it that Way by the backstreet boys, yeah ik), but whyrisk it? If you're going to do something, they you want to put your best foot forward and ensure you do everything possible to make it happen well.
If I'm being completely honest, I think the best thing they can do is to make as few changes as possible to the demos. Why? Because most of these demos are already made with the Western market in mind, so why go touching stuff unnecessarily?
#2 Good distribution.
The first part of this is already so long, so I will cut to the chase. Kakao had a shitty distribution deal for IVE. Instead of stocking the albums on shelves in actual stores like Walmart, Target, or Barnes and Noble, all they gave IVE was some obscure link on some make-shift-looking website to order albums on. Unless you were a hardcore fan, most people wouldn't have even known or bothered to use that link. When it comes to distribution, this time around, I hope Kakao is actually serious.
What did she do to the K-armys to make them hate her like that?
It seems like they just want to brag about their faves. But apparently, they can't do so unless they got something to compare to feel even better about it.
Is it written in her contract anywhere that her personal phone isn't allowed to be an Iphone? No? Because if Samsung cared about that sort of thing, I'm sure they would have included it. People need to learn that idols are allowed to be their own people outside of work.
Instead of handling this professionally and privately, this man went on a smear campaign to paint them as horribly as possible and manipulate his past to make him the Patron Saint of Mainstnagers.
It already came out that 5050 was right about him withholding documents from them
My own personal observation after seeing so many situations play out, there's no such thing as a perfect victim. He would not immediately go through such lengths to ruin them beyond repair if he thought the lawsuit was groundless and they weren't going to win. Personal trust between the 2 inside, youdon't bury an artist you plan on keeping. There's more than likely a lot more to come out, it's just that one side is using the media and the other is using actual court
I just can't look at a man with 2 decades of history of incompetence and abuse and suddenly see him as the guy unfairly being screwed
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"Instead of handling this professionally and privately..."
I will literally never understand the people who think that just because a situation is not handled privately that means it lacks professionalism. As someone pointed out already, this isn't the first time The Giver's CEO has done something like this (Sechs Kies case), but this is the first time the issue has ballooned to this degree, outing him as a full-blown scam artist, which never would have happened if Attrakt CEO did not bring this issue public. Thanks to that, Attrakt CEO has probably saved the future of other artists from being ruined by this guy.
Furthermore, Attrackt CEO did not go on a "smear campaign" (word choice is important). Attrackt CEO first and foremost attempted to protect the girls by placing the fault solely on the Giver's CEO by saying that they were being manipulated. It's the Girl's side that chose to throw that olive branch out the window by putting out a statement that they were not being influenced and making their own choice in the matter. Everything else was the Attackt CEO sharing his side of events and clarifying some of the claims brought against him.
The only people who find fault and like to criticize victims for speaking out are the perpetrators because only they stand to benefit from the silence. If things were the other way around, and it was the girls who brought things public, you probably would have had no issue.
The only one who has gone out of their way to ruin Fifty-Fifty beyond repair (other than the Giver's CEO) is Fifty-Fifty themselves. But this is a hard pill that Fifty-Fifty defenders can't seem to swallow so they'll point fingers at literally anyone else.
Youdon't even have to mention Gfriend when Twice is right there. Twice is the poster child for overworked girl groups, but you wouldn't be able to tell when they are on stage. And let's not forget Lisa, her very own groupmate, whose schedule is almost the same as hers, but she still managed to eat up every performance. And yes, it's true that everyone is different and has their limits, but unless she has some chronic condition she's neglecting to mention, it's hard for me to take her seriously. So I do think it's a work ethic thing. That, or she's just over being a K-pop idol, which is completely fair. Fortunately for her, her contract is just about over and she can be free to pursue things that she is actually passionate about.
The craziest part to me is not that they can't enter charts while selling 1M albums but it's that their latest release peaked #4 on Melon TOP100 and this one can't even enter TOP100. The success of the previous release generally guarantees people tuning in for the next one but this one was just ignored.
I keep reading that 'JYP can't do sajaegi because they are a listed company' but that just doesn't make sense to me. Something just does not add up if they have 250k streams on Spotify, 220k likes on Youtube in the first day and they are nowhere to be seen in K-charts. Who is buying the 1M albums? Are these JYP company stans buying 10 albums each and then not bothering to watch the MV or stream the song? Just seems like a crazy explanation.
Why can't JYP just pay for a good song instead of YT ads. I still think this group has not had a truly good title track and their potential is just being wasted. LMLT was a step in the right direction but now we're backtracking.
people who use the listed company excuses are seriously naive. That has literally never stopped any company ever from dealing in corruption. Besides, third parties exist as well as private funding. Also, they are very blinded by JYPs "clean" image, forgetting that JYP is literally a cult member.
FF won't wait till the suit is settled. As long as they have an injunction they will board a plane out of Korea asap, and if they don't get it they will force Attrakt to show how much they earned, and although Attrakt might try to play some games on this matter, there seems to be no proof so they will win, paying maybe 100k-150k per person which they will recoup quite quickly.
Aran's dreamy voice is what made the song its power. If Aran was just like an average singer the whole issue would not even have arisen since it would not have made it to the Hot 100. And Sio also has some value too. The other members could be compensated somehow.
I do not listen to any Korean propaganda, all done by people who do have connections with the shady operators. FF will lose some, Siahn would lose little since he bought the copyrights for the song with his own money and only gave Jeon what J had paid for, and we won't hear about Jeon and Attrakt again after this is over.
The amount of delusion in this should be studied.
"they will force Attrakt to show how much they earned" What earnings? Fifty-Fifty had oneviral song. Do you know how much streaming actually pays? Apple Music pays $0.008. Spotify: $0.0038. YouTube Music $0.002. They make virtually nothingfrom streaming, and whatever they do make, the writers and other producers and staff still have to get their cut first. But none of this matters anyway because, as the CEO said, he does not have the rights to Cupid so he's not getting any money from them either way. So exactly what is he supposed to pay them with??? The only thing the CEO is left with is the burden of the debt he invested in fifty-fifty, a debt that is common for all small companies, debt that fifty-fifty knew they would incur when they signed their contracts (because again, it's a small company).
Brand deals is where the money is really at. If Fifty-Fifty cared about being paid, they would have focused more on promoting, not conspiring to break the contract right as they were in the middle of blowing up.
Four young, decently attractive Asian women singing about love, or one old obese Korean man who sings about random tropes. Who is most likely to get interest in the West?
5050 has by far more marketability.
Do you know who was also young and decently attractive and had by far more marketabilty?
Carley Ray Jepson
Jojo
Gayle
Icona Pop
And what else do they all have in common? They are one-hit wonders. And all their songs were far bigger than Cupid on top of it.
Even now, there are women like Chloe Bailey or ex-Fifth Harmony member Normani who are actually well-known and have some decent hits but a still struggling to make it.
You must think the international market is so easy, especially for Asians who have always been treated as outsiders and limited because of racism.
Definitely do not have a K-pop fan base, but to think they have no fans anywhere doesn't make sense, otherwise, who's listening to their songs on Spotify?
Gangnam style was 10x more viral than Cupid and yet still Psy still could not sell out any concerts in the West.
. And who grew up at a time when English was spoken properly 
