With the whopping amount of investment ranging from two billion Won to five billion Won for
producing one girl group, and just a little less for one boy group, it is often thought
that entertainment companies would push the most famous member to quickly make profits.
However, as unexpected as the nature of the Kpop industry, reality has recently proven
that when entertainment companies pick out their most favorite idol and believe no other
members in the act could outshine them, the whole game would revolve around that single
person regardless of their reputation ranking in netizens’ eyes.
NewJeans - Hanni and Friends
Debuting as the very first girl group of Min Heejin - aka the mastermind behind literally
all iconic acts of SM Entertainment, NewJeans quickly garner attention and public love for
their refreshing concept.
However, with the recent comeback OMG, negative reactions have started to mushroom and according
to some, it all came down to how ADOR has biased Hanni too much in everything and treated
the rest of the acts as filler members with no worthy talents to showcase.
On a famous Kpop forum on Facebook, one netizen has shared that while she was content with
pretty much everything NewJeans has done for the OMG promotion, the only one thing that
ticked her off was the way Hanni was pushed too much and too obviously.
As of the time this video was being made, the post has received up to about 350 likes
and many agreed with her point that never once have they seen such a foreign idol being
promoted that much.
The OP also shared that while she knew fans have been extremely vocal about their theory
going as ADOR would push each member with each different comeback and for OMG, it was
determined to be Hanni’s era, the fact that she received too much treatment from the company
still made no sense.
Considering how Hanni has taken over everything from screentime, singing lines, to the hooking
chorus and solo dance break, yet at the end of the day, she is only a piece of NewJeans
and there are four other members who have trained just as hard as her to debut, the
OP said it wasn’t fair at all.
She also questioned why Hanni was let to remain in the center although Danniel was singing
and because such a thing has never happened in Kpop, the OP said it was still a clear
attempt of ADOR in turning NewJeans into the “Hanni and Friends” group.
That was not to mention how the OMG MV was literally a short movie for Hanni to showcase
her acting capabilities and regarding how Apple was one of the biggest sponsor for NewJeans
and for some reasons, Hanni was also specifically chosen to introduce Apple products in their
MV, picturing a funny version of Steve Jobs and even embodying Siri, ADOR’s bias toward
Hanni triggered even more people than just the OP.
However, there were also lots of people finding this opinion ridiculous and though the OP
said she held no grudge against Hanni, many believed it was just a hypocritical move to
disguise her war-triggering act that aimed at splitting up the fandom.
As explained, ADOR’s strategy has proven that they would push each member according
to each comeback’s concept.
Proof is that when NewJeans first debuted, Hyein was pushed the strongest and Haerin
was also put in the center all the time.
Even the accusation that Hanni stole the center position of others made no sense as from the
very beginning, NewJeans had already been created as a group with no sense of “center.”
Hype Boy was the most noticeable proof of this strategy chosen by ADOR and while it
was only one click away, somehow netizens still acted like it was a new blessing granted
to Hanni just recently.
NMIXX- Kyujin and Friends
Debuting with the title “ace maknae” of NMIXX, Kyujin has gained an undeniable amount
of recognition for her talents regardless of whether she is people’s bias or not.
Yet, going hand in hand with such an overwhelming amount of love is also a big wave of hate
as according to netizens, the way she has been heavily pushed by JYP Entertainment while
all members in the act are equally talented made her a big thorn in the eyes.
It was also this considerable exposure compared that made eagle-eyed netizens put Kyujin under
stricter scrutiny, which ended up leading to the birth of several long threads only
dedicated to accusing her of deliberately stealing attention and how both she and JYP
has dragged NMIXX’s dynamics down just for the sake of making her more outstanding.
Here, the OP said she felt uncomfortable looking at the way NMIXX revolved around Kyujin only
while objectively speaking, each member should have been given their own room to shine during
this get-go phase so that the public can know about what NMIXX really is.
However, throughout the past two promotions, while Lily and Bae have been arranged on the
most outer positions of the line-up, Kyujin is always there in the center.
This is extremely sad for Lily’s fans because when NMIXX is still yet to have a solid fanbase,
it was Lily’s reputation from her appearance on KpopStar that helped the act gain much
support despite the questionable debut.
One netizen even said that it wasn’t until Lily appeared in DICE’s bridge that she
remembered Lily was actually a piece of NMIXX.
That is not to mention how all the most vocally straining parts are carried by her, which
implicitly confirm her best singing capability in NMIXX yet eventually, she is often the
member with least screentime and lines in the group.
The situation of Bae is even worse since her role is mainly the vocal harmonizer rather
than holding a fixed position and when talking to NMIXX, her existence was literally invisible
to the public.
In the part where she was singing, JYP even let Jinni on the screen rather than showing
her.
On big Kpop forums for international fans, many also agreed that NMIXX is quickly becoming
a group of Kyujin and Friends.
Of course her talents are undeniable but rather than strategically pushing her, JYP is giving
the impression that they were pushing Kyujin down everyone’s throat.
The most noticeable proof was how Haewon’s fancams always have eight times more views
than Kyujin’s, implicitly confirming her as the most influential member, yet Kyujin
is still the one with most line distribution, screentime, and even killing parts.
Even the signature transitional part in NMIXX’s songs is alway given to her and the fact that
she got up to 30 seconds long worth of solo shooting in DICE while other members got two
to three time fewer (and it was even six times fewer in the case of Jiwoo), made absolutely
no sense.
Even to nonfans, all that they could remember was how the red-haired girl appeared way too
much in the MV and it seemed like this was her solo comeback.
However, some said that it wasn’t Kyujin’s fault at all and JYP’s move actually made
lots of sense because rather than Kyujin, no members actually carry the group’s vibe
that well.
Looking at her, it’s easy to see both the cuteness and the empowerment of a typical
new generation “it” girl.
Plus, it was just NMIXX’s second promotion so netizens should have waited a little more
before jumping to the conclusion that Kyujin was the center of everything.
NCT - Taeyong and Friends
After the comeback with Two Baddies One Porsche, which was said to be a failure of NCT127 when
it came to the public reactions, the group has attempted to go on another promotion yet
unfortunately, they just ended up in another mess: having fans constantly complain about
SM Entertainment’s bias for Taeyong and how they are making NCT127 a group of Taeyong
and Friends.
On Pann, there was a long thread dedicated only to proving that SM no longer bothered
to hide their unjustified bias for Taeyong, turning the rest of the act into background
dancers in the latest album cover.
While all eight members were dressed mainly in black and most of their hair color was
dark, Taeyong was there, allowed to stand separately in the front as the only redhead
wearing the only white top in the shoot.
When looking carefully, some even noticed that his complexion and face details were
even edited to be clearer and brighter, and those standing in the back like Johnny, Jungwoo
and Doyoung even got their faces blurred out.
One non-fan even ironically asked if Johnny's fans bought least albums because it totally
made no sense for one member to be treated like a black sheep in such a decently performed
act.
Others also mocked the group, saying the remaining eight members must have been saints because
there was no way an ordinary person could put up with being a filler member highlighting
the existence of one member despite spending years in the practice room.
What irked fans even more was how this was the very last comeback before the group’s
oldest member, Taeil, enlist and instead of giving him credit for his contribution, which
included dropping out of Hanyang University despite passing as the valedictorian, they
presented him as an abundant talentless member in this comeback.
Not ony that, while he was the main vocalist, most of the lines still belonged to Taeyong
and poor Taeil could only sing 20 seconds out of an over-four-minute track
Actually, the fact that Taeyong is overly biased by SM is no longer a strange thing
for fans because looking back at previous promotions, the male idol is always the one
who is best portrayed and made the most outstanding.
Everyone knows Taeyong is really talented and his aura is no joke, but while SM is able
to distribute the spotlight equally among all the members and give Taeyong a little
more, they instead blatantly favor only him while treating the other members as nothing.
So, do you think these groups are revolving around only one member or netizens are just
blowing things out of proportion?