Posts by dizzcity

NiziU too. Step and a Step was great as a debut music video. Meaningful to the group's journey so far, timely message for the circumstances, pretty catchy song, and achievement-wise it hit #1 on the Japanese charts.

Since when did Kpop companies EVER have more girl groups than boy groups? Throughout the generations, the number of boy groups has always exceeded the number of girl groups. In all the larger companies, with the exception of one-group companies.

In fact, it's only in this generation that JYP Entertainment (who has built a reputation around its' girl groups) finally had equal numbers of active girl groups and boy groups (for brief moment between VCHA and NEXZ). But the other companies still remain boy-group heavy.

Current active JYP groups:

- Males: 2PM, Day6, Stray Kids, Boy Story (China), Xdinary Heroes, NEXZ (Japan)

- Females: TWICE, ITZY, NiziU (Japan), NMIXX, VCHA (USA).

Quote from citron-icy

I'm just pointing out the logic of this thread. If you are not able to understand that this show is used to promote artists and not to show any vocal ability since no one sings live that's not my problem.

Like i said ITZY got 3/5 members in the show so with this logic they're vocal group, any member of MMM came on this show so they probably don't know how to sing according to this same logic.

I mean, yes, it's obvously a show that is meant to promote artists. Having said that, the format in which they choose to promote artists is to ask the artists to demonstrate their vocal ability by singing a variety of songs, including a duet with the host. That's a legitimate way of showcasing the vocal ability of the artist, so I'm not sure what your argument is. It's even somewhat similar to IU's Palette in format, except of course, IUs's Palette is distributed on IU's official channel, while this is on KBS. The exposure level is different.

And for reference, Kim Feel, Heize, Jung Seunghwan, and even relative-unknowns like Ha Hyunsang have featured on the show, all of whom come from smaller agencies. Heck, Sohyang herself sang the Korean National Anthem on the show.

Or are you just salty that Mamamoo hasn't appeared on the show yet, so somehow this is taken as indication that they are not considered as good vocalists? It's not like it's necessary to appear on this show to be validated as a good vocalist... there are plenty of other considerations for media exposure, and plenty of other shows (Immortal Songs 2 being another one) where singers can showcase their vocal ability. I'm just saying that this show is another channel which is doing for NMIXX (and Seventeen) what Immortal Songs 2 did for Mamamoo. And just like Immortal Songs 2, there are plenty of artists that go on there to perform without necessarily having the best vocal talent to back it up. But it's definitely a way to showcase those that do have that talent. And the confidence that companies have in their artists to send them to shows like these. (EDIT: Just because ITZY is famed as a dance group doesn't mean their vocal skills are as poor as you may think they are. Similarly to how just because Mamamoo are famous as a vocal group doesn't mean their dance skills are poor.)

The difference between this and Immortal Songs 2 is that IS2 performs in front of a live audience, while this is a performance in a closed studio and is not structured as a competition. But that means that artists are free to choose songs which are not necessarily "competitive" (i.e. crowd-pleasers) and can genuinely choose to cover a wider variety of softer songs (quiet ballads), less popular songs, and songs which are personally-meaningful even if no one in the audience knows them.

As of today, NMIXX stands as the group who has sent the most members to LeeMujin Service, the KBS-run variety show that focuses on featuring solo vocalist prowess. The elder 4 members have all gone, one with each comeback, and the younger two members are preparing for their turn as well, in future comebacks.

Lily singing DICE (NMIXX), Psycho (Red Velvet), snippet of Hello (Adele), Butter (BTS), and How can I love the heartbreak (AKMU):

Haewon singing Love Me Like This (NMIXX), I Got Lucky (Kwon Jin-ah), snippet of Demons (Imagine Dragons), snippet of MIROH (Stray Kids), 0310 (Baek Yerin), Medley challenge of Lee Mujin / IVE / NewJeans / Baek Yerin / BTS / Adam Levine / ENHYPEN / George / Beyonce, and Dream (Baekhyun & Suzy):

Sullyoon singing Roller Coaster (NMIXX), Waiting (YOUNHA), high-note challenge with Let's Say Goodbye (Parc Jaejung), Joke's on You (Charlotte Lawrence), snippet of Singing Got Better (AILEE), and Perhaps Love [Goong OST] (HowL & J):

Bae singing DASH (NMIXX), I'm a Mess (Bebe Rexha), snippet of Only Want to Give it to You (Elle Varner), Wi Ing Wi Ing (HYUKOH), Intro Medley challenge with SIA / La La Land / Adele, and I Love You (2NE1):

Honestly, just like MAMAMOO in the 3rd gen went to Immortal Songs 2 as the vocally-challenging variety show to kickstart promotions for their songs, it feels like LeeMujin Service and It's Live play the same role for NMIXX in the 4th gen.

I preferred his Elvis performance at the awards shows last year.

50's music rock & roll, swing, etc. suit him much better.

80's alt-rock, weird hair metal, campy-eyeliner glam rock... I don't think many of the younger audience understand those cultural references in his performance, so they were disgusted. At most, I see comments referring to Lady Gaga. I, on the other hand, thought that JYP was making a serious attempt to go for the-artist-formerly-known-as-Prince.

But he didn't go far enough to make it obvious. And he didn't do enough of the Western songs to connect people to them... I mean, A-Ha's "Take on Me"... it was just the riff used as a transition, and he didn't even sing. He should have either gone further, or not been as crazy in trying to mimic 80's extravaganza.

The MV was great! I liked the music, but the lyrics and the MV just made me reflect - JYP has been in the business for nearly 30 years now. In that time, how many artists' relationships did he see break up because of fans and media harassment?

Starting from g.o.d.'s Park Joon Hyung girlfriend controversy that nearly caused the disbandment of the first Nation's Boy Group, to SNSD's Tiffany and 2PM's Nichkhun, Kang Daniel and TWICE's Jihyo, to today's generation of netizen stalking and social media cyberbullying... how many budding relationships were destroyed for the sake of the audience's applause at the end of the MV when they walked off the stage and separated?

Wonder Girls' Sunye leaving at the height of the group's popularity to get married was an anomaly of a successful relationship in the midst of celebrity culture... but even until today, there are still anti-fans who blame her for "being a traitor".

The MV isn't very strong social satire, but it contains enough themes to make you think.

I'm not sure how massive their gay fanbase is, but MAMAMOO is known for being one of the most supportive groups for LGBTQ+ individuals. Presumably that translates into more people from the rainbow coalition supporting them.

Quote from FoReveries

Lol, SM is holding a survival show? Heh, who would have guessed.

I haven't watched a single episode of the show, so I'm making assumptions based on what's described in the OP:

SM are and always have been the worst of all the big K-pop companies in hype promotion and making publicity work for them, so it makes sense that hardly anybody knows they were doing a survival show.

SM are always 1 of the tardiest and last to pick up popular trends - whether that's adding subs to their MV's, using ads with their MV's, seriously investing in rappers in their groups etc - so it fits them like a glove that they're only now doing a survival shows years after survival shows have had their peak and been done to death.

SM being more focused on vocals, serious, constructive jurying and less on evil editing also make sense: I've always thought SM's trainee coaching was more comprehensive and thorough and when they still were part of survival show jury's like Boa with K-pop Star, their criticisms were always the most helpful and useful.

Also SM being more no nonsense and less focused on 'drama editing' (evil editing) than for example Mnet, also makes sense. The downside of this is that it can make watching a show more boring when there are fewer audience popcorn grabbing moments to enjoy.

This is the first time I read about this. Not sure why this show: didn't SM debut a group recently. So this is for a group for after 3-4 years?

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Huh, okay, so it wasn't just me that noticed that SM was always slow to pick up on trends. JYP was pioneering survival shows in Korea since 2001 with the Park Jin Young 99% Challenge where he found the kids who became the future leaders of the Wonder Girls and 2AM, YG started with the process to debut BIGBANG in 2006, K-Pop Star started in 2011, Produce series started in 2016, and finally SM is joining the party in 2023.

Wonder if it's due to the change in upper management? SM and JYP always struck me as essentially on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of their focus on "the human factor" vs. "the tech factor" in the idol production and fan-engagement process. But now that Lee Soo Man is out of the company, maybe the company values are changing? Less focus on tech perfection (Kwangya SMCU), more on human struggle and growth?

To be fair, I think "evil editing" mostly applies to MNET-produced shows, or shows where MNET was a partner. Shows that are not done by MNET tend to not be edited so dramatically.

Providing some factual information to help facilitate the discussion:

• Number of JYPE employees as of 12 Aug 2022: 301 (source: JYP Investor Relations Report, FY22 Q2, slide 14)
• Number of JYPE employees as of 8 Aug 2023: 337 (source: JYP Investor Relations Report, FY23 Q2, slide 15)
• Net increase in employees YoY from 2022-23 = 337-301 = 36 employees (10.8% increase in employee count from Q2 2022)

As of 2023, JYP Entertainment ranks second among the biggest Kpop agencies in terms of employee satisfaction and average annual salary (only losing to HYBE). (source: this article, which in turn refers to the Korean portal JobPlanet). The highest-rated facet of JYP Entertainment, according to the staff ratings, were the promotion opportunities. 54% of the JYPE staff report approval of the company CEO Jung Wook (which is actually slightly higher than the 53% of HYBE employees who approve of their CEO Park Ji Won).

I still remember when the ONLY way to get English subtitles for variety show episodes involving idols, or even MV lyrics, was for fan translations to subtitle them. The fandoms of the 2nd generation groups worked hard to allow people in other countries to understand the MVs and what their idols were saying on the variety shows. If that's not spreading K-pop, I'm not sure what else can be.

Something that 3rd-generation and 4th-generation fans take for granted nowadays (subtitles in English and even multiple other languages for idol videos) had to be worked on for weeks at a time by 2nd generation fandoms to spread awareness.

I liked it a lot. Great bassline and groove. Surprised there were no English subtitles for the MV.

Quote from keyboardwarrior7

Yeah, I still don't know wtf happened with Melissa.

She's best raw vocalist on there. She must be a terrible dancer, but I still don't see her being so bad she didn't even make it to Korea just with her vocal talent.

A lot of people on Twitter are surprised about that.

Might be character evaluation, to be honest. I don't see her interacting very much with the other girls - they seem to largely leave her alone, or she has some awkward moments with them. Like when they were all clustered around Yuna after the dance evaluations, she was the last one to go to the group. Could be a loner mentality. Even Kendall, who is rather shy, can be seen hugging and bonding with some of the others. We'll see how well Melissa does in the group performance.

Alternatively, given what she has shared so far about her relationship with her father, maybe it was a parent-stop thing. Like how Suzu from Nizi Project Season 1 eventually turned down the offer to go to Korea, even though she had been selected as one of the participants.

Congratulations! They did a good job. That chair freeze especially was spectacular.

There's plenty of content.... it's just not free.

Because, you know, Japanese fans take their fandom seriously enough to pay for behind-the-scenes content and making-of-MVs. (Also because the fandom culture there is still more oriented towards collectables like CDs and DVDs rather than free online social media.)

I am constantly amused at how people think social media content is a free public good that artists and fans have a right to demand, rather than a commercial good that costs money to create and can be sold.

Also, please note that the album release is on 26 July. Japanese promotions are timed more for album release dates, rather than title track release dates. The title track music video is a vehicle to promote sales of the *album*, not an independent product in and of itself.

?? It's just their bi-annual recruitment for songwriters. JYP Publishing has been having regular auditions for producers and songwriters since 2018...

JYP have released b-side MVs for their groups since Wonder Girls' 14 years ago in 2008... it's not exactly a new tactic for the company.

• Wonder Girls - "This Time" MV (2008)
• Wonder Girls - "Take It" MV (2008)

Who the hell was the lyricist for this song?! These are some of the most... suggestive lyrics I've ever heard in a TWICE song.

"Oh yeah, baby I don't need to rush

but imma really need your touch

if imma make it thru the night"

"come take a shot at me, I gotcha"... overlaid on the imagery of a hotel

"I don't even know how to talk right now

it's I need you o'clock right now" ...sings Tzuyu making a phone call

"moonlight sunrise

baby let's do it all night"

"loving undefeated, on your knees pleading

baby you can hit up my line when you need it

said that you tried? baby you succeeded

got a craving baby, can you feed it?"... raps Chaeyoung, also on the phone

"everyday every night

ayy, come with me don't think twice"... says Sana while holding up keys to a hotel room

"cards out on the table what u say?

i need u, u need me, you're mine"

It's nice to see a friendship that started as college roommates last this long. Close to 40 years now, through failures, scandals and success. None of those managed to destroy their relationship. From their 20s all the way to their late 50s.

Well, there was the collaboration performance between Lia (ITZY) and Han (Stray Kids) and Juyeon (The Boyz) at the 2020 MBC end of year festival:

Then there was the collab performance between Bang Chan, Felix (Stray Kids) and Lia (ITZY) at the 2021 MBC end of year festival:

And this year there was a ton of interactions that happened when all the Korean groups (SKZ, ITZY, XD, NMIXX, and MC Dahyun) went together to ISAC:

As for NiziU's interactions with the Korean groups, they've been doing some fun dances over on Tiktok: