Posts by pchromo4

  • Is Aespa currently the #1 4th gen GG replacing New Jeans?

    Quote from YamaChwan

    NewJeans have a Billboard #1 album, broke the record for most cumulative sales in Circle history in 2023, and they are now the fastest foreign act in the history of the Tokyo Dome to sell out the venue, and they sold out 2 days before the general sale opened.


    People who think I only rely on digital metrics are literally just ignoramuses who intentionally ignore the plethora of facts and stats I've posted countless times that weren't just digitals.

    The Billboard #1 is def impressive - I assume the reason why people overlook it is because Twice and BP have already done it before (along with boy groups), and it doesn't seem far-fetched for another 4th gen girl group to achieve it as well in the future. People have already pointed out to you why cumulative sales get discounted - it's bc it's partially based on past success, and people have recency bias so they always judge on the most recent comeback. And I acknowledged NJ's promising touring numbers, but - again - Tokyo Dome is a venue that other 4th gen girl groups are already selling out so NJ needs to do something more impressive (like selling out a stadium in SK, which even BP has never done before) to stand out in that metric.


    I think, due to Get Up's Billboard #1, people expected the U.S. to be for New Jeans what Japan had been for Twice in early 3rd gen, so their underperformance in U.S. Spotify and Billboard for the most recent comeback was a downer.

  • Is Aespa currently the #1 4th gen GG replacing New Jeans?

    Quote from YamaChwan

    It is funny to me though. Two years of NewJeans destroying old records, creating new records, becoming a global force in record time, and showcasing a level of dominance we've never seen from a group not even 2 years old, and certain fandoms (Blinks and Onces) refuse to acknowledge their impact and obvious ascension to power.

    For the record, I agree that New Jeans is still the gen leader even right now. But the main reason why people don't accept they're lapping the pack is that the metric where (thus far) they've overly dominated in digital streaming, both in SK and on Spotify. While they have strong album sales and promising touring support (eg Tokyo Dome fancon), there are several other girl groups with similar metrics (Aespa, Ive, Gidle all have strong album sales and promising touring numbers).


    NJ's has achieved digitally what none of them have before - namely, charting entire albums, putting multiple songs in top 10s, crazy longevity. It reminds me a lot of IU's digital performance, so I feel qualified to speak on this because I feel like the comparison is similar. Kpop fans are very fickle with digital charting - they won't consider a top group as relevant if they DON'T have the digital charting (see Stray Kids) but as soon as an artist slightly digitally underperforms, kpop fans smell blood in the water and proclaim they're on the decline. Unlike album sales and tours, digital charting is the ONLY metric that cannot be fandom-driven, and it's genuinely impossible for an artist to digitally smash on every single release. IU got plenty of shady comments just earlier this year when her most recent mini-album underperformed (by IU standards) despite the pre-release remaining at 1 for 30 days.


    It happened in 2013 when she underperformed with "Red Shoes", then in 2015 when she underperformed with "Twenty-Three", then in 2018 with "Bbibbi" etc etc. Record-setting first 24H ULs but songs didn't remain at 1 for very long and also didn't have the longevity. Every few years there was talk about "IU challengers" - Bol4, Taeyeon's debut, the BP girlies, etc. If an artist is digitally dominant (but not overwhelmingly dominant in fandom-metrics), there will still be eras where they underperform and, yes, people will question their dominance. The only way to convince those people is through consistent performance throughout multiple years, because that's the true rarity in kpop - most artist's peaks last only 2-3 years (Bol4 is a great example - complete digital dominance for 2 years, now toeing irrelevance).


    I get it's hard for you because you need people to accept NJ's dominance at all times but this is the problem when your main dominance metric is digital charting.


    edit: honestly I'll just say that the biggest boost for kpoppies in proving IU's dominance was actually her sold out seoul stadium concerts in 2022 (and not her thousands of PAKs, 20+ number 1 singles, entire albums that charted, 10+ year career etc) because that is something that no other female artist can do or has done, even if others get viral smash hits the same time as an IU comeback.

  • I'm tired of all the fake 3rd gen "stans" who engage in revisionist history about the most popular groups back then

    What gave Twice the edge in being the leader of the pack (even while Gfriend was keeping toe-to-toe with them in digitals with "Rough") was their fandom and album sales, which at the time was completely unrivaled among girl groups. They were selling +300k albums while all the other girl groups (even popular ones like Red Velvet) were struggling to sell 100k. The reason Twice weren't seen at the time as dominant of their gen vs SNSD was that Twice still couldn't compete with 3rd gen boy group sales, whereas peak SNSD could compete with 2nd gen boy group sales in addition to their digital popularity.


    Blackpink weren't seen as challenger for gen leader until 2018 with DDDD. I know this because 2017 Twice and Red Velvet were at each others throats on which song was more worthy of SOTY - "Knock Knock" (PAK'd but fell off fast) vs "Red Flavor" (great longevity but ppl questioned whether it was a 'summer hit'). Nobody considered "AIIYL" even though truthfully it wasn't that far behind digitally either of those songs in 2017. Post DDDD is when the Twice vs Blackpink wars rly heated up.


    Gfriend had their cute moment with "Rough" but nobody ever considered them contender for leader of the pack bc they weren't strong enough in every other metric (fandom, album sales, yt views, etc). Mamamoo is an interesting case where they had some genuine hits and surprising individual popularity with Hwasa even touching it girl status for a moment. Mamamoo to me was the KARA of 3rd gen. Top tier group, but for a variety of factors was never seen as gen leader (part of this is simply kpop fan subjectivity of expecting gen leaders to only come from Big3 groups - BTS weren't seen as gen leaders until they had FAR exceeded Exo in multiple metrics).

  • Do you have any big regrets since becoming a K-Pop fan?

    Not seeing Big Bang during their MADE tour in 2015. I wasn't in the right place financially at the time to fly to another city for their concert, and I thought for sure they would go on a 10-year anniversary tour to the U.S. the next year. Now there will probably never be a complete Big Bang concert ever again and, even if there were, idk if I can in good conscious support them in concert either. ;( I saw G-dragon in concert a couple years later but it really wasn't the same. Sad that I missed my window.

  • IU Dominance will last forever!

    Quote from Polarize

    Huge mistake? As in IU is going to have serious regrets about a decision not to include a song on a tour?


    Artists with large catalogs sometimes don't play all of their "hits" on a tour. That's just the way it goes. I can think of several concerts by international artists that I've attended where there were multiple songs by my favs that weren't played, but it was still an awesome experience.

    Sorry, I don't mean that it'll have actual consequences on her career or is anything serious. I just think it's a mistake to not include Lilac because I want to hear the song live :drinktears:


    Also, I think it's unfair that since Lilac was released during pandemic, only Korean fans have seen it in concert.... but I still have hope that it'll be added back in future tours (and that she comes back to the U.S. and hopefully this time with either more dates or larger venues).

  • Kim Garam's friends spilling the tea on Hybe. It's been a cruel summer for Hybe stans

    Quote from YamaChwan

    I bet everything I own that if you asked Garam and her friends if Hybe acted in good faith towards her, they would not agree with you.


    We know Hybe will say one thing and then do the exact opposite. It's their MO at this point. Just ask NewJeans' parents.

    Well, I understand their anger because Hybe fumbled Garam's bag, and that's no one fault but Hybe. I'm sure they did promise they would do everything they could to protect her so then cutting her loose was a huge betrayal.


    What I'm addressing is the allegation in the tweet that Hybe only used Garam and the bullying case as noise marketing. If that's true, then LSF are not the favored child in Hybe.

  • Kim Garam's friends spilling the tea on Hybe. It's been a cruel summer for Hybe stans

    Quote from YamaChwan

    You see people giving a timeline. I see people trying to derail the thread and change the conversation from whether or not Hybe acted in good faith to another dialogue about how "Hybe did everything they could!!!"


    Not once have I seen the main offenders just plainly admit Hybe was wrong. There is always an excuse or over the top over explanation.

    I mean, yes, Hybe was horrifically incompetent with Garam's case. Their PR sucked. But they clearly did act in good faith? You cannot say LSF were the favored child and BSH would've moved mountains for their success and then in the same breath think they wouldn't fight tooth and nail to minimize a career-ending bullying scandal.


    Hybe acting stupidly != Hybe acting in bad faith.

  • Kim Garam's friends spilling the tea on Hybe. It's been a cruel summer for Hybe stans

    Quote from YamaChwan

    I...How did this become about narrative hopping and revisionist historian K-Pop stans again?


    This is a statement from her FRIEND.

    I'm genuinely confused what the point of this thread is. And I do find it weird that people simply pointing out what happened 2 years ago (as in, an actual timeline of press releases, knet reactions, document reveals) is somehow defending Hybe? Who is defending Hybe here? Even people saying Hybe fought hard to keep Garam aren't saying it out of praise; they're saying they just wanted to protect their investment or, more negatively, they tried to hide the bullying allegations.

  • What was organic about BLACKPINK's initial success and rise in popularity in the states? ***PLEASE VOTE***

    Quote from YamaChwan

    I've never disputed the fact NewJeans benefitted from being under the Hybe umbrella; it would be naive and borderline delusional to pretend otherwise.


    I push back on that being the sole and/or biggest reason for their success. Because if that was true, LSF would be the biggest girl group in the world, not NewJeans.

    tbh I think the biggest reason for NJ's success is MHJ, for better or worse. And not just for her creative vision, but I also think her long-standing industry reputation and previous role as CBO gave her certain connections that also benefited NJ's (easy example is the creative team that followed her, possibly also some collabs). It looks now that MHJ and NJ are even more irreparably tied together compared to before so for the group's sake, I do hope they get to stay with MHJ even tho I have my own conflicted feelings about her.

  • Kim Garam's friends spilling the tea on Hybe. It's been a cruel summer for Hybe stans

    Tbh what happened to Garam was partly Hybe's fault but imo not due to malice - it's because Hybe's PR dept is truly just trash. Why would they first stay that "no school violence report exists" knowing full well that the report does exist? The contents of the report weren't even that bad - if they had mediaplayed smarter, they could've reframed the case, but their press releases always sound like teenage interns writing them.


    I remember fighting in the trenches saying Garam's dismissal was ultimately on Hybe's head but the main narrative at the time was "it's all evil Kakao's sabotage". Funny how revisionist history works lol.

  • What was organic about BLACKPINK's initial success and rise in popularity in the states? ***PLEASE VOTE***

    Sure, I believe BSH has a personal vendetta against NJs. But based even on MHJ's claims (of offering to album push for Get Up), and initial playlisting from debut, it's clear NJ's was not ignored by Hybe. MHJ also didn't refute the claims that the Lolla and Dick Clark's schedule were booked via Hybe, not via Ador. Do I think Hybe payola explains all of NJ's success? Of course not. But I'm side-eyeing the growing narrative (not explicitly by you but you feed into it sometimes) that "since BSH hated MHJ and NJ's by extension, that's proof that no company push for NJ occurred".

  • What was organic about BLACKPINK's initial success and rise in popularity in the states? ***PLEASE VOTE***

    Quote from YamaChwan

    Where was the company privilege for LSF at debut if that can be used to explain, and really discredit, NewJeans? We already know BSH was playing favorites and wanted his girl group to be the best, and literally hated and ignored NewJeans, so make that make sense for me.


    Also, I'm not toxic. I'm just honest.

    Tbh I am a bit confused about this narrative because if BSH hated and ignored New Jeans, why did he also (by MHJ's words) offer to "push" albums for NJ's (to beat Aespa's first week records)? I'm not trying to be snarky, I'm genuinely curious. The two claims seem to go at odds with each other. To me Hybe seemed pretty invested in NJ's success if for no other reason than industry optics.

  • is kdrama more popular than kpop?

    Judging by your rec list you should check out When I Fly Towards You, it was my fav youth romance drama of last year and imo the writing and directing is even better than Hidden Love (I watched them back to back). The OST is also fire.

  • I think this is the beginning of the end of Hybe

    Quote from LCJK

    Lol he can sell more albums than most soloists and even famous western artists. I’m sure he has “some place to go”.

    Any of them could chose where to go.

    Of course they are not legend IU.


    I have a serious question though if you know. Where did IU get all her money? Because she doesn’t sell that many albums? Is it touring or merchandising or investment?

    IU has been consistently touring for over a decade now but the main 2 avenues for her income are music royalties and cfs. IU probably clears close to 10 million every year on cfs since she always has 10-15 brands at any given time.


    I wouldn't trust whyknock that she earns more than BTS members, I just know they're all in the 0.01% elite celebrity tier in Korea.

  • ADOR - HYBE Mega Thread - 4 || Summary on page 1

    Quote from thebadguy

    Not just that, Dhanworld is using bts jungkooks name to promote their cosmetics, pillows etc and hybe took absolutely zero action against them.


    Screenshot_2024-05-30-22-46-43-41_0311c9f6806a66343c45622522faa000.jpg

    Screenshot_2024-05-30-22-47-15-07_0311c9f6806a66343c45622522faa000.jpg

    Screenshot_2024-05-30-22-47-27-00_0311c9f6806a66343c45622522faa000.jpg

    I don't really know much about a lot of the Dahnworld-Hybe connection stuff and won't comment on some of the other allegations but for this specific example, those cosmetics aren't actually by Dahnworld - some cult member was just shilling them to other cult members in the forums. But a lot of "natural" remedy products are thinly veiled pyramid schemes here in the U.S. too (essential oils, etc).