The debuting of an act usually takes up to years of planning and a whopping amount of
investment but surprisingly enough, entertainment agencies could easily dungeon their old group
to focus on new ones.
What’s even more surprising is that, even when the dungeoned acts are still doing well
profit-wise and some have just debuted for a short while, they are still heartlessly
pushed back just because the management board thinks more money will flow into their pocket
by introducing something new.
SM Entertainment dungeoning aespa and Red Velvet to debut a new girlgroup
When SM Entertainment announced that they were debuting a new eight-member girlgroup,
the company quickly posted the silhouettes of these trainees a short while after that,
consolidating the rumor about a new act soon being introduced to spice up the oversaturated
Kpop game.
The company seemingly has laid a huge bet on this new act as they will debut up to eight
trainees, synonymous with a crazy amount of investment.
Plus, considering how it’s rarely the company’s habit to debut such a crowded girlgroup as
in the company’s history, three out of four girlgroups had fewer than five members, this
also shows their confidence in the act’s potential.
Fast forward to 2023, netizens were even closer to knowing what to expect from the company’s
newest girlgroup as on March 14, the same Instagram account posted that the group was
going to be taking part in a showcase for all of the trainees and here, when netizens
increased the exposure of the image, parts of the girls’ identity were revealed.
While many people are super excited about this news as they expect SM will do something
to prove their position as one of the top management agencies that have brought the
Kpop industry to where it is today, especially in the oversaturated scene of Kpop where girlgroups
from small-to-medium companies could still take over the chart with good music, many
SM stans, especially fans of Red Velvet and aespa, are extremely upset and annoyed by
how the company has literally been dungeoning these acts while already moved onto debuting
another.
First, talking aespa’ fans, MYs, most said that they were triggered by this move as aespa,
who hasn’t even been in the industry for three years and is still relatively new to
the gen4 Kpop scene, was already turned into a senior group under SM and got the investment
split for a younger act already.
That was not to mention how aespa has already gradually been pushed to the basement as ever
since their debut in November 2020, the act had just had three comebacks.
The investment in each comeback is also said to ironically show a backward revolution as
if the problem didn’t lie at the title track then there would still be concerns with the
MV, the visual, the complimentary promotional factors and the performing schedule at weekly
music shows.
According to netizens, aespa’s title track quality is going downhill and the most easily
seen evidence is how their latest song, GIRLS, was believed to not only be a flop but also
the floppiest song of the group.
Even the lyrics of the song irked people off as many found it too cringy and goofy, and
had SM let them promote with a more mature and sensible track like ILLUSION, things could
have been way better for the girls.
The company also failed hard at promoting aespa on streaming platforms like Youtube
and Spotify and as noticed by one netizen, GIRLS could only have 1.3 million likes after
a week while SAVAGE managed to have a similar amount of support within 24 hours only.
Even such important teasers for aespa’s very first concerts were still done in the
most questionable and ridiculous ways.
After seeing the members’ individual videos, people found it both sad and funny how SM
had announced literally the most ambitious concept for aespa just to end up executing
the plan with the technologies of the 2000s.
Even the members’ top-notch visual couldn’t save the embarrassing preparation of SM under
Karina’s teaser, some joked that they were really eager to try the weeds smoked by the
company’s film editor during the editing process as there was no way they, professionals
hired by one of the most influential agencies of Kpop, could create such kindergarten-quality
products.
Specifically for Giselle’s teaser, fans even joked that SM must have let her edit
the whole video herself because it looked so funny and crappy.
Winter was even worse as the stylist not only chose the most questionable hairstyle ever
but also put on the cheapest-looking outfits on Earth.
Besides crappy promotional execution for aespa, scantily little fan content to keep the act
relevant post-comeback is also said to be another sign of the act’s being dungeoned
by their own company.
Compared to the way SM kept the public on their toes about the upcoming girlgroup with
calculated teasers, many were upset to see aespa being pushed back too fast by SM after
the not-so-positive reactions of the public toward the act.
Besides MYs, Red Velvet’s fans, or Redveluvs, were also triggered by news about SM’s debuting
a new girlgroup as many believed their idols were being neglected and mismanaged.
The group’s promotional schedule was so scanty that more and more fans have started
to buy into the rumors that the girls would soon be disbanded, especially under the questionable
financial situation of SM recently.
Plus, as the act has been active for about eight years, generating less profit for the
company compared to other groups, gradually losing their heat on all fronts and also seemingly
losing the key factor making up the name of Red Velvet – Irene’s iconic beauty as
she has shown clear signs of aging, many Redveluvs believed the group would be dungeoned even
worse when SM debut their upcoming act.
JYP Entertainment dungeoning TWICE and ITZY to focus on NMIXX
While seeing NMIXX bring something refreshing to the table, though it might be questionable
and confusing to a certain extent, excites the public, fans of TWICE and ITZY aren’t
happy with this move at all as in exchange for such a whopping investment into NMIXX,
TWICE and ITZY are being neglected severely.
Especially considering how TWICE, aka the group generating so much money for JYP Entertainment
that they could afford moving into a flamboyant building and debut more groups with budget-exhaustive
concepts, the way JYP has been treating TWICE is nothing but a blatant insult to them.
Most recently, some have noticed JYP even let TWICE reuse old stage costumes of MOONLIGHT
SUNRISE onto the red carpet of 2023 Billboard Women In Music.
While this occasion should have been a special day where TWICE’s members were invested
to look at their finest, especially in the scenario where the group has been trying to
increase coverage in the West, it only turned out to be a downgrading moment in the girls’
red carpets’ appearances.
Later, fans found out that TWICE was even made to wear the same set of outfits when
taking concept photos for MOONLIGHT SUNRISE and the more they looked into the way JYP
took care their best-selling girlgroup, the more annoyed they became as the agency was
so ungrateful.
Besides the visuals, the song quality, choreography production, lyrics and even the concept graphics
were also said to be boring and one netizen said the whole promotion was so bad that she
had to google “TWICE is terrible” to see if others felt the same.
According to this person, JYP should have picked another title track for the girls’
comeback because MOONLIGHT SUNRISE was nothing but a track to torture prisoners of war.
Everything about TWICE’s live performances was also believed to be underwhelming as the
dance moves were just them walking around, which was ironically out of place with such
a suggestive song, the lyrics were borderline retarded, and most importantly, the extremely
sudden shift of TWICE’s concept from “candy sweet” to songs about “s*x and drinking”
was too abrupt to handle, especially for fans who have been supporting TWICE for their core
bubbly image.
Talking beyond the promotion of MOONLIGHT SUNRISE, fans said this wasn’t the first
time TWICE was questionably dressed by the company as in one dance practice video, Sana
was seen wearing the same pink top previously worn by Chaeryeong, raising the suspicion
that the stylists had made Sana reuse the outfit of her junior.
What if they were simply having a wardrobe clash?
– Some may think like that.
However, according to fans, there were legit reasons for them to believe so and considering
how the furry pink dress Sana wore in TWICE’s 2021 promotion was literally the same one
Chaeryeong had worn during ITZY’s earlier Loco promotion, it’s more likely that JYP
was simply dungeoning TWICE because they had newer acts to focus on.
In fact, not only the outfits of Sana but TWICE’s in general have made fans raise
eyebrows countless times since throughout the girls’ career, their image has been
attached to costumes made out of non-glossy fabric, a material said to be rather cheap,
outdated and often downgrade the value of wearers.
HYBE disbanded G-FRIEND to debut LE SSERAFIM
Being one of the most contentious girlgroups of Kpop right after debut, there are various
reasons for people to constantly check up on LE SSERAFIM but do you know that even before
the bullying scandal of Kim Garam broke out, what drew the act so much public attention?
It was the fact that LE SSERAFIM was introduced as the “first girlgroup of HYBE” and how
this company completely ignored and eventually unilaterally disbanded (G)-FRIEND, the act
that brought Source Music from a company on the verge of bankruptcy to become a name promising
enough for HYBE to acquire and invest further.
While no insiders have confirmed this cruel move of HYBE, (G)-FRIEND’s members have
several times implicitly addressed the concern, saying things like they had no idea “MAGO”
would be the very last promotion and everyone still found it hard to accept that they were
no longer a group.
The way Source Music handled Kim Garam’s scandal with dignity also triggered (G)-FRIEND’s
fans, BUDDIEs, as while Kim Garam was constantly shielded by the company, all that (G)-FRIEND
had ever gotten for their abrupt disbandment was a brief announcement on social media.
According to many BUDDIEs, the unfair mistreatment toward (G)-FRIEND was also seen through Source
Music never defending the girls’ issues in such a fast and tactful manner like what
they did in Kim Garam’s scandal and it was utterly ridiculous that “The women who built
you from the ground up did not get the bare minimum protection from you for six years,”
- said a BUDDIE when reacting to Source Music’s management.
Even until now, people still couldn’t wrap their heads around (G)-FRIEND’s disbandment
since not only the group was still making lots of profits but their shift toward a more
mature was also widely embraced by the public, which was rather rare in Kpop as you can already
see TWICE immediately lost the heat when switching up images.
Still, it was possible that things happened just because HYBE has been using all their
resources to focus on the Western market but as both the old and new concepts of (G)-FRIEND
weren’t widely favored there, they decided to get rid of the group.
So, do you think these acts are actually dungeoned by the company or it’s just a natural elimination
process of Kpop where the new come to replace
the old?